It really shouldn’t be news that Nigerian politicians aren’t the best group of people in the world. Their public service contributions span from the unbelievable to the wickedly outrageous. Take your pick from the hoarding of COVID-19 palliatives to blaming monkeys for missing funds.
With the 2023 elections looming on the horizon, many elected officials are starting to pack their bags to leave office. But there are some governors already doing suspicious things on their way out. Let’s take a look at three of the weirdest ones on our radar.
Badaru Abubakar — Jigawa State
In October 2022, a governorship candidate, Mustapha Lamido, accused current Jigawa State governor, Badaru Abubakar, of making deceptive appointments.
He said, “I wonder how on earth a government that has only five months to pack off will resort to deceiving its citizens by making appointments that were supposed to have been done seven years ago.”
Wait until Lamido finds out what’s happening in Osun State.
Gboyega Oyetola — Osun State
There were scenes in Osun State when the outgoing governor, Gboyega Oyetola, appointed 30 civil servants as permanent secretaries on November 24, 2022. It’s not just the fact that he did this after losing out on a second term, it’s also the timing. The governor announced the appointments three days before his handover to the new governor, Ademola Adeleke.
Adeleke has warned the appointees to reject the promotion and threatened to throw them out to follow Oyetola.
Nyesom Wike — Rivers State
Earlier in November, the outgoing governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, made a public spectacle out of the appointment 100,000 special assistants on “political unit affairs”. And they were only the first batch, so we should expect another batch before he leaves office in May 2023
Wike’s critics have pointed out that he’s trying to set up a vote-buying team in disguise but he doesn’t care. If the alleged vote-buying scheme fails, we recommend Wike should convert them to backup singers for his live band.
