The Forum is on the cusp of a historic trend, writes Dele Olowu
When the Governors’ Forum was founded in 1999, it gave strong notice that it was established on the principles of non-partisanship to promote cooperation amongst executive governors and uphold the general good of the citizenry. Even so, there was cynicism in many quarters, and one unimpressed critic, described the organization as “a trade union for the aristocracy”. This was an error of judgement but at the time it did not sound so unreasonable. This is because eminence and political success attract popular hostility and envy in Nigeria.
There is also an inverted tyranny in Nigerian conversations which customarily presumes, even in the face of terrifying evidence to the contrary, that the big man in government is always wrong and impure. Watching the mighty fall has therefore become an enduring parlour game. Our politics is considered unworthy because rather than provide true service, it has instead served as the springboard of excessive self-help. At no level has criticism been harsher or more relentless than when it concerns our Governors. It is often suggested that even though our politics has been poorly managed, the heresies at the state level amongst our governors have been simply unbearable. But the truth is that this caricature has been frequently overdrawn. There is enough rascality to be passed round. But we however seem to ignore the mounds of idealism and instances of reordering that have been unfurled by these same governors that we regularly rebuke or vilify. Now and again the lopsidedness of the Nigerian Federal experience comes under attack.
What most people hanker after is a radical devolution of powers such as will make the federal union more sustainable. Because our governors have been so routinely slandered, we have been unable to acknowledge the very valuable amount of institutional change that the Governors’ Forum is prosecuting in this direction. But before highlighting the devolution matter, it is important to recognize the outstanding efforts put up by the Governors’ Forum to fight the corona virus pandemic. The pandemic came in the disconcerting company of the oil price crash of 2020. As this was the main source of revenue, several Nigerian states were caught off balance, leaving the Governors’ Forum to provide support and guidance. Budget dislocation and huge price rises pushed the economy into recession. Many state governments under the impetus of the Forum took early response measures, imposing state level lockdowns and in some instances, even closing borders. Other states were forced under this imperative to embrace the preparedness and Response project CoPREP through which the federal government deployed World Bank grants to the states and the federal capital territory. The Governors’ Forum appears to have released new energies, allowing our states to work more optimally even during periods of dire straits.
The Forum is an important institution and proclaims a large vision on behalf of all Nigerians. It is also very complex and beholden to politics. Indeed it is a derivative of politics. And yet surprisingly, only few organizations are better managed in the country today. Its Director General is the mild-mannered and self- effacing Asishana B. Okauru. He has provided proof that politics and astute governance can be stable mates. The Governors’ Forum is perhaps an unpublished example of what a United Nigeria can be. The entity as it stands today has Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal as Chairman and Governor Atiku Bagudu Of Kebbi State as Deputy. Both are from the north west and no hackles have been raised. The entity has had various chairmen over the years but among its most iconic is Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State governor who has just yielded office as the Forum head to Alhaji Tambuwal. Kayode Fayemi carries the reputation of a democracy warrior but his tenure as leader of the Forum may have earned him an added superlative as a promoter of regional integration and development through the deployment of sub-sovereign and sub-national governments. Fayemi’s last function was to host a sub-sovereign conference in collaboration with Afreximbank. Fayemi who is also President of FORAF has continued to push the sub-national agenda with fulsome enthusiasm. The Abuja conference which was personally attended by President Buhari was a huge success. The notion of regional integration through the agency of sub-nationals and sub-sovereigns is not entirely new. It exercised the imagination of some of our pioneer leaders. It also famously haunted the consciousness of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and in a less organized form was part of the political lexicon of late Muammar Gaddafi Of Libya. The transfer of power or devolution of functions has had an uneven reception in Nigeria. Buhari once remarked that those calling for restructuring are naive even though his party the APC set up a committee to examine the issue.
However the favour which the promotion of development through the agency of sub-nationals now enjoys amongst Nigeria’s governors, may perhaps be some indication that restructuring is upon us in a revised edition. The idea of patronizing sub-sovereigns and sub-nationals is an attempt to redirect the traffic of development by avoiding, reducing or breaking the old hegemonies. This is where the Governors’ Forum stands at the present time and Dr Fayemi is doubtless one of the major purveyors of the new policy trend. The theme of the conference hosted by the Forum and the Afreximbank was “African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network- Championing Africa’s Development”. What the Forum has admirably set up is a platform for the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) to encourage trade, investment and industrialization among African sub-sovereigns in order to promote regional integration. The Forum has also sought to remove non-tariff trade barriers in order to promote the free flow of goods and services. The whole idea is to create a new landscape in which trade investment and industrialization can be carried out freely and fluently not only within Nigeria but also at the continental level in Africa. President Buhari gave his imprimatur to the visions described by the Forum. Other states in attendance extolled the leadership provided by Nigeria. This certainly is an iconic project and when the cute magazine of the Governors’ Forum, the Executive Summary talked about “Raising the Game” certainly the magazine was not engaging in idle self-adulation. The organization has had its table full and its subscribers are working full steam. Some say the Forum should also raise its voice. A measure of its success was that the conference was attended by 171 registered Governors, 48 Commissioners as well as Governors from African countries, five from Morocco, three from Cameroon, four from Niger, two from Madagascar, two from Mali, three from Ethiopia, three from the Comoros, two from Egypt, one from Ivory Coast and one from Kenya.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum is on the cusp of a historic trend, a radical reordering of the traffic of development and investment. If the project succeeds, areas long neglected, and centers of authority which may have felt left out, will be brought into the new orbit of patronage and support. A new dawn may be breaking.
Olowu, a veteran journalist, writes from Abuja
