The shocking scale of bad governance at state level

This is a federation. Our responsibility is not to enforce the law. It is the responsibility of the federal government. So all that we can do is to alert them; and to be proactive and give them information. That as much I did. Today, we are still calling on them. The killings are still going on and action is not being taken to stop the killings. These herdsmen are known. But for whatever reason, they have immunity against the constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria. Today they are going about with arms and killing and no single person has been arrested with the arms. That is my query with the federal government.”

The Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom, made the statement above during an interview with a foreign pressman during the governor’s visit to one of the IDP camps in Benue state recently.

The video of this interview has gone viral with many sharing it to show the governor, a member of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, and a former staunch supporter of President Buhari, accusing the Buhari administration of not only failing to stop the killings, but actively protecting and siding with the alleged murderous Fulani herdsmen.

True the presidency and the security agencies have displayed shocking lack of competence and inability to act impartially in the matter. Equally true is that the governor, Samuel Ortom, has been most incompetent and should be answering questions about the ongoing killings in his state and not pointing fingers at the federal government.

Despite insinuations to the contrary, state governors are the chief security officers of their states. Although the police is centrally controlled, all state governors draw security votes from the federation account running into hundreds of millions or sometimes, billions of Naira, which are unappropriated, unaudited and unaccounted for. The security votes allocated to states vary based on the level of security required by the individual states and are for providing logistics and funding the operations of security services within such states. The governors dispense the funds purely based on their discretions and are not accountable to anyone on how they use the funds. So, while some state governors use their security votes to empower the police and other security agencies and provide them with all the logistics and equipment needed to adequately protect the state, others simply pocket the money and leave the police to operate on logistics provided by the police and federal authorities.

Clearly, Ortom falls within the group that simply pockets the money and leaves the police and other security agencies to their fate. On this page some weeks ago, I mentioned how some states like Lagos and Anambra go to great length to provide all the logistics, equipment and motivation needed for the police and other security agencies to provide all-round security to their states. Lagos state has even gone further to establish the Lagos State Security Trust Fund – a partnership among the state, the private sector and individuals towards provision of standard security cover for Lagos.

Equally, Anambra’s Willie Obianor went beyond just dealing with security agencies stationed in the state to getting the leadership of those, especially of the Armed forces, not stationed in his state, to deploy troops to the state to join in the providing all-round security. Of course, it goes without saying that he provides virtually everything needed by those agencies to do their job including allowances to the personnel. So motivated, the security agencies have no excuse but to deliver. And the results have been obvious in those states.

But what about Benue and Taraba? The governors can’t even pay salaries not to talk of mobilising security agencies to provide standard security cover for their states. For instance, in Benue state, workers, particularly teachers weren’t paid a dime for over a year. Of course if workers are not paid, pensioners have no hope at all.  They simply collect the security vote and pocket it. At best they give some crumbs to the state police commissioner that is not enough to do anything. Yet, they expect the police to be at their best and ensure absolute security all over the state. There is more than a slight possibility that the animosity between the governor and the police stems from the non-funding of the police by the state government.

It is therefore wrong for the governor to claim that the state government’s only security function is to inform the federal government. He is the Chief Security Officer of the state and is given security vote not only to monitor, but to engage security agencies to provide standard security cover for the state. If the state governor, who swore an oath to defend and protect his people is crying helplessly over the security situation in the state but still goes to collect the states’ security vote, what does that say about him and governance in the state? And of what use would a state police be to a governor who can’t even pay salaries beyond using it to terrorise political opponents?

Apparently, the situation in Benue state is more political than many realise. Haven failed as a governor, Ortom had thought he could rely on the popularity of the president to get a second term. However, with the security situation, which he created anyway, by his inability to pay salaries in a state where most people depend on salaries, and the shift in public opinion and perception, he has quickly changed sides becoming the mourner and complainer-in-chief to buy the sympathy of the people of the state.

We must, as citizens, learn to interrogate our leaders and not take at face value what they tell us or follow popular narratives in the media. Truth is: state governors are the most comfortable set of public officials as we allow them to get away with murder literally while focusing on the centre or federal governments. The level of bad governance going on in the states is mind-boggling. And the states, more than the federal government, impact more directly on the people. Perhaps, it is when we succeed in fixing the leadership problem at the federal level that we will realise the scale of the problem at the state level.

Christopher Akor