The impending impeachment plot hanging on the neck of the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has reechoed the perennial ugly fate of those who occupy Second -in Command positions in various states of the country.

For Philip Shaibu, it has been a long trek to freedom and a long-drawn battle to remain afloat in Edo’s political space.

Ahead of Edo’s governorship poll, he has contended with irreconcilable misunderstanding with his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki.

In the calculation of critical observers, the bone of contention is his ambition to succeed Obaseki and the cause of the Impeachment proceedings against him.

Followers of events in the state also argue that it was an adroit move by Governor Obaseki, to assert his control of the PDP structure in the state and perhaps make his deputy, Shaibu to know his place in the state’s power configuration. For those conversant with political developments in the state, The Edo deputy governor is certainly fighting the fiercest make-or-break battle of his political career.

Expectedly, the impeachment plot, which took a new twist last week, came to the head when hundreds of women, men, and youths loyal to the deputy governor, were mobilised to the streets to protest against the plan.

The protesters, under the auspices of Peace movement and PDP faithful, had converged at Edo North senatorial district in the early hours of Friday, to deprecate the impeachment proceedings by the Edo State House of Assembly.

Displaying placards with various inscriptions like ‘No to impeachment’, ‘We want peace in Edo state’, ‘Return the N500 million bribe to Obaseki’, ‘Shaibu is our next governor, no going back’, among others, the protesters even threatened to mobilise the people and PDP to work against the party if they continue with the planned impeachment.

But as it appears, not even the protest or the threats from them could stop the inevitable impeachment plot against him.

Interestingly, regardless of the dimension of the dramatic intrigues, the impeachment move against the Edo deputy governor has taken; it will definitely not come to many keen political watchers and several Nigerians as any form of surprise.

The protracted feuds between Shaibu and Governor Obaseki, appear to have regrettably deteriorated beyond settlement, culminating in the impeachment proceedings against him last week.

In the build-up to the current deadlock, there have been reported cases of extreme measures in the governor ordering the locking up of the entrance gate to the deputy governor’s office.

There have also been incidents of withholding the financial remunerations of the deputy governor among many other draconian punitive measures Obaseki deployed to confirm that their hitherto bonded relationship which provided the portent arsenal to wade off the incursion and battle from their erstwhile benefactor and godfather, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, almost four years ago.

The major sin against Shaibu was apparently, daring to indicate and boldly declare interest to contest the forthcoming September 2024 Edo State governorship election without first securing the approval of his principal and squaring up against the governor’s anointed aspirant and candidate.

Perhaps, as far as Governor Obaseki is concerned, his deputy, Shaibu, has finished his duty as a ‘spare tyre’. Shaibu, in the calculation of Governor Obaseki, does not possess the requisite credentials and potential to substitute him and or takeover from where he stopped.

And without minding whether it amounts to killing Shaibu’s political career, his going against the resolution of his principal, Governor Obaseki, means a display of gross insubordination, indiscipline, sabotage and treachery.

But, determined to fight the battle of his life, mindless of whatever might be the consequences or the outcome, Shaibu had deployed every tactical measure and available weapon of warfare he could muster in his armoury to actualise his political ambition of becoming the next Edo State governor.

Apart from throwing caution to the winds, Shaibu did not only organise a parallel party primary but also emerged as the factional governorship candidate, warning PDP to recognise him or kiss the ticket goodbye.

For him, apart from exercising his constitutional fundamental right to vie for political positions, he may be motivated by the fact that the office of a deputy governorship position has no rewarding financial attachment; and has understandably made the fight the last political battle of his life.

He has repeatedly cried out that he felt betrayed by his principal, stressing that he was also hurt that Obaseki supported an outsider instead of him. “Actually, I was persuaded and there was no protest. I didn’t want to be a deputy governor. I was very comfortable in the House of Representatives. It took almost one month to get me to accept to be the deputy governor of Edo State.

“I accepted to add value to the ticket of Obaseki because he was not known and he was not one of the politicians. They needed a young, vibrant politician who had won the election before and who could add political value to the ticket.

“I feel betrayed by the governor. I feel very betrayed. When we go to church, certain biblical verses are beginning to make sense to me. There is this particular verse that has been going through my mind: ‘The heart of man is desperately wicked’. When I see what the governor is doing, the verse now makes sense to me.

“I added value in terms of my political structure, my finances. All the vehicles that were used to campaign in 2016 are mine. I lost about 20 per cent of my political capital in Edo North to support Obaseki, and in supporting him even as deputy governor.

“I supported the second term bid of the governor with my finances. Including how we got the ticket of the PDP, I contributed financially, both in naira and in dollars. If I say betrayal, it is an understatement. I feel very hurt and betrayed,” Shaibu lamented.

However, whether he rightly deserved the treatment he is currently receiving from his principal or not, is, more or less, a moral burden both for him and Governor Obaseki. Did they not say in the political palace that there is no morality in politics? Again, Shaibu seemed to have learnt too late that political contestation is regrettably a race of the survival of the fittest laced with an extremely brutal attack to relationships.

And whether he finally wriggles out of this predicament or not, what may be incontestable is that his political trajectory may have unceremoniously been cut short.

But, regardless of the magnitude of the unfortunate fate that befell the Edo State deputy governor, it is, however, not a novel occurrence in the Nigerian political turf. Across every state of the federation, and in all the democratic republics, incidents of governors conniving with a greater number of state legislators to institute impeachment proceedings against their deputies abound.

Impeachment moves against deputy governors have rather assumed unimaginable disturbing classic proportions and even traditional dimensions in the Nigerian political circle. It now requires miracles for the occupants of the office of deputy governors to serve out their terms without their principal conspiring to impeach them.

From Ondo to Kogi, Oyo to Imo, Bauchi to Bayelsa, Zamfara to Enugu among other states, Nigerian political history is brimming with boundless cases of sometimes unjustifiable ruthless impeachment of deputy governors after falling out with their principals over irreconcilable differences.

In the current republic, it took divine intervention by nature of the death of Ondo governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, for the deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa to escape impeachment. Curiously, Ondo currently heads the record books as the only state to have initiated impeachment proceedings against at least three deputy governors over frivolous allegations of gross misconduct.

Before Aiyedatiwa’s miraculous escape, the deputy governor of the state, Ali Olanusi was impeached in April 2015, exactly one month after defecting from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

There was also Agboola Ajayi who served as Governor Akeredolu’s deputy and fought a months-long legal and political battle all through the year 2020 to hold on to his seat after also defecting from the political party of his principal. It took legal intervention to stop Ondo lawmakers from impeaching Ajayi.

Only last year, members of the Oyo State House of Assembly impeached the deputy governor of the state, Rauf Olaniyan, after defecting from PDP, the ruling party in the state, to APC over the same allegation of gross misconduct.

Other victims of impeachment plots effectively deployed to settle political scores include Prince Eze Madumere of Imo State in 2018, Garba Gadi of Bauchi in 2009, and Peremobowei Ebebi of Bayelsa impeached in 2010. In February 2022, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau of Zamfara State was impeached by the State Assembly after refusing to defect to the APC with then-Governor Bello Matawalle.

In Kogi, Simon Achuba was also impeached by state lawmakers in October 2019 after falling out with then Governor, Yahaya Bello, and in August 2014, Sunday Onyebuchi was impeached as deputy governor of Enugu state.

The trends have become so disturbing that National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who is one of the insignificant few lucky deputy governors to succeed their principals, quipped that being a deputy governor in Nigeria is most demanding.

He hinged his claim on the tendency and assumption that sycophants, who try to penetrate the governors to curry one form of favour or the other, create confusion and fan the ember of disunity between governors and their deputies to always ensure that they create a gulf for festering discord.

Canvassing a specific, clearly-defined constitutional role for the deputy governors, Ganduje joked that the incessant ugly cold war between governors and their deputies must have been responsible for God not having any deputy.

“There is no doubt that the position of the deputy governor is the most controversial in governance, not only in Nigeria but all over the world. If the deputy stays in front while walking with his principal, they will accuse him of trying to outshine his master or lacking in respect.

“If he walks side by side with the governor, they will accuse him of rubbing shoulders with him, and if he walks behind closely, he will be accused of trying to step into his shoes and if he stays far behind, they will say he does not want to identify with his principal. That perhaps is the reason God doesn’t have a deputy,” the former governor of Kano state joked.

While also lamenting the precarious situation confronting deputy governors in the country, APC National Organising Secretary, and former deputy governor of Kebbi State, Sulaiman Argungu, told Daily Sun that there will never be an end to the rift due to the intolerable disparity in the financial rewards given to the two executive officers.

He said: “Immediately after the governor and his deputy are sworn in and they start working, there are so many acrimonious issues they will contend with. People will criticise the deputy governor for whatever he does. By the executive power they have, especially enshrined in the Constitution as amended, the governors feel as if they are the alpha and omega. They feel that they can enrich and impoverish the deputy governors.

“It is even worse with the kind of budgetary allocations to the two executives. If you look at the disparity in the budget to the office of the governor and the deputy in all the states of the federation, without exception, unless those that want to be a bit fair, you will find out that a governor is getting a budget of over N20 billion per annum while the deputy just has some N100 million to N200 million.

“If you compare the budgetary allocations of the governor and that of his deputy, you will now understand why deputy governors are side-lined. The office of the deputy governors is underfunded because they don’t want them to even have enough funds to give to their constituency.

“They don’t want them to be more popular. They don’t want them to have enough money to spend and service their political structures and the electorate. Daily, they are underfunded that they cannot even travel within the state, let alone outside the state for a function without the consent of their principals even in their absence.

“Some people will give it another meaning and interpretation, levying all manners of accusations against the deputies. My budget for the two terms I served as deputy governor never changed. What I received every month was constant. In all the years I served as deputy, my budget never changed, it remained consistently N2 million per month, then multiplied by 12 months and we have N24 million annually.

“It is from it that the deputy governor is expected to feed his household, pay allowances, maintain the office, his official vehicles, and fuel them. The money is very much inadequate to service their political structure. The governors ensure that their deputies don’t have any structure so that they will continuously be their appendages and ensure that they don’t function very well.”

Also speaking from hindsight of experiences, former deputy governor of Imo State, Prince Madumere, once told Daily Sun that the functions of the deputy governors should urgently be reviewed and properly spelt out because they also contribute in election victories.

Enumerating the panacea to the unending frosty relationship between governors and their deputies, Prince Madumere suggested: “If possible, deputy governorship election should be separated from the joint ticket with the governor. There must be some checks and balances. The deputy governor should be made the head of the legislative arm of government as obtainable in the United States’ system of government.

“The first line charge of the deputy governor must be spelt out and made sacrosanct. Whatever that is due him while serving the people must be inviolable. A situation where the governor chooses not to even pay him his statutory earnings is not acceptable. While the governor remains the head of the government, the deputy governor must be made to be functional by the statute that sets up the office, not at the mercy of the governor.

“Imagine a scenario where you disagree with your governor in principle; I expect that he should be happy he has someone who can call him back when derailing. This doesn’t seem to be so because you are seen as a conquered soul, if not a slave who does not have any opinion,” Prince Madumere, who frowned at the description of an impeached deputy governor, said.

As the clock ticks, only the future in the womb of time will prove if literally, the thunder of intrigues will strike Shaibu, given the uncertainties of his future in the politics of Edo Edo State. (Daily Sun)

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