Date: 2014-05-12

After the President, governors are the next set of public officers who live in affluence in Nigeria. In office, they are like demi-gods. Moving in exotic cars with retinue of aides and security personnel, Nigerian governors are indeed powerful.

But now, some of these men seem broke. They have become vulnerable to poverty. They are not pretending that they need help. The poverty of these former governors have become critical to the extent that their forum is planning to set up a pool where funds will be mobilised to provide succour for members who are weighed down by one form of illness or the other and are unable to treat themselves.

Chairman of the former governors forum and a delegate to the 2014 National Conference, Senator Jim Nwobodo said this, following the death of the former governor of old Kwara State, Adamu Attah. The former governor died on May 1, while another former governor, Michael Otedola, who was at the helm of affairs in Lagos, died on Monday.

He said, “In fact, before Attah died, the former governors forum visited him a number of times, and through our secretary, we were sending him stipends from the little we had.”