Reports available in the public space give the indication that there is an unhealthy competition by officials of state to rubbish the confidence reposed on them by those who gave them an opportunity to govern.
It must be observed also that this ugly trend did not start with the dispensation that has just left the scene.
Before now, looting spree was, as a matter of routine, perpetrated as government functionaries make their exit at the end of their tenure. The worry is that it took a dangerous and embarrassing turn this time around in a manner that is capable of threatening the very essence of government machinery in most states of the federation.
Across the nation, there were reports that the former governors, with weeks left of their tenure, embarked on frivolous administration intended to create problems for their successors. In some cases, there were hurried monetary withdrawals from government treasuries, unconscionable recruitments, corruption-induced land allocations and outrageous contract awards.
As the 2015/2019 tenure approached its end, some of the incoming governors raised the alarm over what they perceived as a deliberate effort on the part of their predecessors to clean up the place, pejoratively speaking. In Imo State, for instance, where the governor for eight years acted as an emperor and despot, the malfeasance was so pervasive. It was so bad that even the Government House itself was bare and uninhabitable. The Governor has vowed to recover every item including cash, other assets, fixed and liquid, belonging to the state that was expropriated by the outgone administration.
This newspaper will support every and all efforts to bring about justice as regards the bare-faced raid on the sensibilities of the people whose only offence was to trust them with their affairs, not just in Imo State but elsewhere that there has been a betrayal of trust by supposed leaders.
In addressing this unfortunate situation that has become a norm whenever there is about to be a change of personnel in the administrative structure, we are overwhelmingly concerned that the dictum that government is a continuum has been bastardised by those who should know better. In the process, what ought to be a seamless transfer of governance structures and operations has become devilled by acrimony and mistrust with a tinge of criminality. We are also apprehensive that, if not effectively checked, it can invariably, if not ultimately, call to question the raison d’être of democracy as well as its intendments.
It is bad enough, in our view, that these same government officials presided over the resources of the areas under them for years without much to show for it in terms of bringing about any recognisable changes in the life and circumstances of the electorate that put them in office. But to make it obvious that allegations of kleptomania levelled against them while in the same office are true by their conduct at the point of exit offends all that is moral and upright.
However, we are encouraged to believe that those behind these acts, these brigands, will eventually have their date with the long arms of the law at the altar of justice. We are predisposed to this belief because the security and anti-corruption agencies, by their utterances as reports trickle in, give the people hope that the situation will be remedied and those culpable brought to book.
Meanwhile, much as the people of the states concerned nurse their regrets at the turn of affairs, it is our opinion that it must not be an opportunity for the incumbents to indulge in time-wasting blame games. The feeling among the people is that the new chief executives must hit the ground running so as to provide for them the fabled dividends of democracy. With what is on ground as it affects the people’s welfare or lack of it, any predilection for jeremiad lamentations will be counter-productive and undesirable at this time.
We are compelled to suggest that the new governments must occupy themselves with matters that relate to the fulfilment of their electoral promises and leave the security agencies to do their job of rendering justice to the guilty based on extant laws.
(E-NIGERIA)
