Cold x-ray of the governor/deputy relationship in “deputy and governance in Nigeria”

In 2016, after the late Prince Abubakar Audu's Deputy Governor candidate James Faleke refused to accept Governor Yahaya Bello's Deputy Governor position, the doom fell on the elder Simon Achuba, shortly after Bello was sworn in as governor.

As a newly contracted "marriage", the romance was robust and the journey, happy. But it wasn't long before the duo's relationship began to hit rock bottom at times in 2017, following Achuba's alleged disloyalty.

For more than a year and a half, Achuba stayed away from public office that was at the behest of the state government or the All Progressives Congress (APC). Many thought he would quit, but he stayed put and suffered the humiliation of his principal and his allies.

As preparations for the 2019 general elections began, Achuba was accused of secretly visiting former Senate President Bukola Saraki, who later served as the director general of the presidential campaign organization of Atiku, at his official residence in Abuja.

Predictably, the tension between the two sides escalated even as their irreconcilable differences escalated. It is therefore not surprising that in August 2018, Governor Bello handed over the baton to the President, Kolawole Matthew, when he traveled outside the country, in place of his deputy.

In a short time, things escalated for Achuba, forcing him to raise the alarm again about his boss's alleged mobilization of gunmen to attack him.

He therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari, then the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to come to his aid.

The embattled Deputy Governor, who threatened to take his principal to court for allegedly denying him legitimate rights since 2017, was however removed from office on October 18, 2019 by members of the Assembly of the United States. Kogi State, following the submission of a report by the committee set up by the State's Chief Justice, Justice Nasir Ajana, to investigate an allegation of gross misconduct against him.

Nigeria's contemporary political history is replete with a cocktail of similar stories of incumbent-deputy clashes, which have occurred at national, sub-national as well as local council levels.

Unfortunately, these icy and acrimonious episodic relations between two senior leaders not only leave heartbreaking scars, they have, on several occasions, posed a serious threat to peace, stability and the development of geopolitical spaces, just as they have done it. resulted in the loss of life and valuable property.

They have also spawned countless litigation, investigations, commissions of inquiry, policy changes and reversals, and policy abandonment.

There have been countless instances of friction between incumbent and incoming leaders within a particular political space.

The federal government, as well as the state governments, have not been spared from this malaise which has become cancerous and is slowly and steadily spreading to all parts of the country.

At the national level, for example, several years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and his then Vice President, and Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar left their duties, Obasanjo still fires volleys into Atiku's path from time to time.

Since the country returned to democracy in 1999, Godswill Obot Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State rank as the top governors who have worked with the most deputy governors (three each) during their eight years. in office (two terms of four years each).

During Akpabio's tenure, he first had a confrontation with his deputy, Obong Chris Ekpenyong, who was impeached and dismissed in 2005. However, he returned to work less than seven days after the House The state assembly overturned the impeachment on Obasanjo's intervention. Ekpenyong, who was later forced to resign, was replaced by Obong Nsima Ekere. As the assembly hammered out plans to impeach Ekere in 2012, after he ran into trouble with his director (over his interest in the gubernatorial race), he resigned from office. Four days later, Lady Valerie Ebe was sworn in as Akpabio's deputy.

In Lagos, after Mrs. Kofo Bucknor-Akerele, who also had problems with her boss, Tinubu, threw in the towel in 2002 amid inquiries for her removal. Femi Pedro, who replaced her, was deposed and deposed with Tinubu only three weeks left to complete her second term. The impeachment came a day after he tendered his resignation on May 9, 2007. Prince Abiodun Ogunleye replaced him as Deputy Governor.

Also at the sub-national level, other governors who have become unstable, intolerable or have caused the removal of their deputies in various forms include Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State; Murtala Nyako from Adamawa State; Ayodele Fayose from Ekiti State; Rashid...