Don’t Select Successors Because They Kneel For You, Akpabio Advises Govs.
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 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, and 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 it is something I must advise our governors, particularly those of them who are in their second term. Do not empower anybody who is not looking for power.
“Don’t 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, and 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.
“Progressive governors, I think you’re all doing well because you’re led by a man with sight and vision.”
In a nation where the culture of godfatherism permeates the political landscape, departing governors frequently attempt to shape the choices of their successors. Critics and commentators have criticised this approach as an attempt by former governors to extend their power control through cronies and loyalists, even after they have served their constitutionally mandated eight-year term limit.
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.