The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has called for specific constitutional roles for deputy governors in order to keep them busy. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ganduje made the call on Tuesday while speaking at the annual conference of the Forum of Former Deputy Governors of Nigeria. The conference with the theme “Partnering …

Chukwuemeka Ezeife, governor of Anambra State during Nigeria’s aborted Third Republic, couldn’t have put it any better. Dissecting the role of deputy governors in the nation’s nascent democracy years back, Ezeife described them as “spare tyres” to their bosses. He was speaking at a 2001 seminar dedicated to the exploration of the role of deputy governors in a presidential system …

Nigeria’s imperial Governors are very powerful; they can do and undo. Almost all of them always go far beyond their constitutional remit in the exercise of their authority because they have made themselves as the untouchables. Many extend this reckless use of power, position, and state funds to muscle their deputies into submissive, subservient, even subhuman deputies. In many cases, …