Senate President Godswill Akpabio has advised second-term governors to be circumspect in selecting their successors.
According to the Senate president, governors who settle for successors simply because they kneel before them might be setting themselves up for betrayal when they finally leave office.
The former Akwa Ibom governor stated this on Saturday at the commissioning of the first 30 kilometres of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in the Lekki area of Lagos.
Akpabio stressed the place of vision in leadership, urging second-term governors, especially those in the All Progressives Congress (APC), to prioritise visionary leadership over patronising loyalty.
The event was attended by President Bola Tinubu, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Finance Minister Wale Edun, Works Minister Dave Umahi, as well as second-term governors including Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos).
Akpabio said, “We have a president who has both sight and vision. And this for me is something I must advise our governors, particularly those of them who are in their second term. Do not give power to anybody who is not looking for power.
“Don’t give power to anybody who is not prepared. Don’t go hiding in your heart that this boy is very subservient; he is always kneeling when he is talking to me, his wife is always rolling on the floor, I think I should make this one the governor.
“If you do that, you are giving power to somebody who is not prepared for governance and they will disappoint you. This is where betrayals normally start. I am just trying to give some advice.
“For the progressive governors, I believe that all of you are doing well because you are being led by a man who has both sight and vision.”
In a country where the culture of godfatherism pockmarks the political space, outgoing governors often seek to influence who becomes their successors, a move that critics and commentators have lampooned as extended power control by former governors who try to rule their states by proxy through cronies and loyalists after serving their constitutionally allowed term limit of eight years.
Some former governors have succeeded in planting their loyalists in power, but such political romance doesn’t last long in some cases, as embarrassing fallouts have been recorded between serving governors planted by their predecessors, usually their party men.
