Jonathan Canvasses Constitutional Roles for Deputy Governors

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has canvassed the inclusion of the roles of deputy governors in the Constitution to address incessant friction between the deputies and their principals.

Jonathan disclosed this, yesterday, at the public presentation of a book, ‘Deputising and Governance in Nigeria’, authored by Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

He also decried moves by governors to impeach deputies whenever they fail to agree on issues.

While admonishing deputy governors to remain loyal to their principals and not appear as know-it-alls, he stressed that a good working relationship between both, as well as between the country’s president and vice president, is vital to a functional democracy.

He, therefore, suggested that presidential and governorship candidates and their deputies or vice contest primary elections together.

This, he noted, will eliminate controversies that often trail the choice of deputy governors or vice presidents.

“If you look at the Constitution, the general role of a deputy governor is chairman of state boundary committee. The kind of problems we have with deputy governors and governors are not experienced at the National Assembly. Those ones are not pronounced because the deputy has clear responsibilities.

“Everything a deputy governor does depends on instructions from the governor. In some cases, it is so bad that if the governor is out of the state or country, and there are pressing issues to be attended to, the deputy still has to get permission from the governor, who is somewhere enjoying himself, before the issues are addressed.”

Jonathan, however, added: “Luckily for me, when I was a deputy governor, whenever my governor was out of town, I addressed things that should be addressed and represented him in matters of national interest, which is not so in all states.”