By Shadrach Okon
The choice of a successor by any sitting governor in Nigerian politics is usually seen as a critical decision that demands the leader to walk on high tightrope lane. The reason is because the best goodwill a leader can enjoy from his people is gotten years after his exit from office. While in office, even the worst leader may be praised to high heavens because of the lenses of sentiment which people use to analyse his leadership acumen. After a leader’s exit from office, the people remove their lenses and judge the leader with objectivity. They can tell him the truth they denied him while in office. Every good politician understands this chess game.
A good leader in a democratic State knows that any uncompleted or abandoned project executed during his tenure in office will stand against him as a stain on his garment of stewardship to his people.
Today, the landscape of Nigeria is dotted with scars of abandoned projects, moribund and uncompleted industries initiated by sitting governors which their successors abandoned when they came into office. Some of these projects are left moribund not for any sound reason; It may simply be to deny their predecessors the glory and goodwill they would have enjoyed from their people if such projects were completed and put to use.
Beyond covering up of atrocities and financial recklessness that some governors committed while in office, every governor at the verge of his exit from power wants a successor who will bring his uncompleted programmes and projects to full crystallization after his exit from office. No governor after leaving office wants his people to drag him around for littering his State with uncompleted projects, moribund industries and haunting monuments in the name of abandoned projects.
For the above highlighted reason, the battle for a successor in Nigerian politics is usually a dirty fight that governors figh with inflamed passion and spend millions of naira from the State’s coffers to install their proteges in power. In some ugly scenarios, the fight leaves stains of blood on the streets of the State in the course of a sitting governor bringing his protege to power.
The above scenario is not different in Akwa Ibom State since the return of democracy in 1999. In 2007, Governor Victor Attah made strong attempts at the twilight of his administration to install his son- in-law Udoma Bob Ekarika as his successor but this move was strongly resisted by the people of the State with strong opposition from his party– PDP.
At last, the will of the people prevailed with the emergence of Chief Godswill Akpabio as the governor of the State. Although Victor Attah did not really support Akpabio’s governorhip ambition, Akpabio despite his Achilles’ Heel polished Obong Victor Attah’s dream for Akwa Ibom State by completing some stragic legacy projects of Obong Attah. Today, Ibom Icon Hotel , Victor Attah international Airport and Ibom Power Plant stand in honour of Obong Attah as his legacy projects though they were completed by successive administrations in the State.
Recently, Victor Attah’s leadership garment shone in Akwa Ibom State when Akwa Ibom State people enjoyed uninterrupted power supply while the national grid failed for several consecutive times.
Today, encomiums has continued to pour on Obong Victor Attah for his foresight and visionary leadership in Akwa Ibom State. Even though Chief Godswill Akpabio and Deacon Udom Emmanuel equally deserve some accolades for helping Attah’s leadership garment to shine. Obong Victor Attah enjoys the largest part of the people’s goodwill for being the brain behind strategic investments of Akwa Ibom State in power, tourism and aviation sector.
Every time a successor completes a project initiated by his predecessor, he is washing his predecessor’s garment clean and renewing the dreams of his predecessor to the people. As the people enjoy those projects, they continue to remember the leader that initiated them as a good leader who wished them well.
To be continued…
Shadrach Okon crafts his thoughts from the agrarian community of Uruk Obong in Abak.
