A former Publicity Secretary of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Mr Jackson Adebayo, has castigated Nigerian governors for treating their deputies as ‘house boys’, citing the Nigerian constitution as harbinger of what the later were experiencing.
Adebayo who is now a chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ekiti, spoke with Blueprint in an exclusive chat over the weekend, expressing concern that majority of the governors see their deputies as being over-ambitious whenever succession issues comes up.
The SDP stalwart was however quick to add, “There is no straight way or politics in this regard, noting, “There is nowhere in the constitution where it’s mandatory for the deputy governor to succeed the incumbent.”
According to him, most governors believe that such deputy could become uncontrollably difficult to manipulate in their bid to maintain their hold on the party and government.
“In a normal clime, the party is saddled with the responsibility of picking the governor and his deputy but the Nigeria politics so favored the governor to assume an overall boss on the party and the government at the same time, thereby making it difficult for the party to play its legitimate role as enshrined in the constitution.
“The governors always want to be the Lord of the manor as they practice when in office; hence they look for less ‘attractive’ person to succeed them.
“In most cases, the deputy governor are seen as overambitious especially when they declare intention to contest without first of all getting the almighty endorsement from the governors.
“In the other way also in most cases, the deputy governors were treated like house boy in the incumbent regime then psychologically the governors believe that if his deputy becomes the governor they may take revenge,” Adebayo stated further.
