In a democracy where legitimacy should flow from constitutional mandate, Kogi State presents a bewildering paradox—where authority lingers even after power has supposedly changed hands. The state’s political atmosphere remains haunted by the long shadow of its former governor, who, despite leaving office, reportedly still issues directives on official letter-headed papers of government. This disturbing irony underscores a crisis of legitimacy, institutional weakness, and the hollowing out of democratic values within the very heart of Nigeria’s Confluence State.
The persistence of such unauthorized influence reveals the fragility of Kogi’s governance architecture. When a former leader continues to command administrative obedience, it signals the erosion of the sanctity of tenure and the desecration of bureaucratic neutrality. The civil service—supposed to be the steady hand of continuity—has instead become the willing instrument of recycled power. This distortion of authority exposes not just moral decay but a systemic capture of state institutions by personal interest, reducing governance to the theatre of loyalty rather than legality.
In truth, Kogi’s democracy now appears more as a spectacle than a system—where the seat of power is emptied of substance while its symbols are still held hostage by a lingering monarch of influence. The letter-headed paper, ordinarily a mere bureaucratic tool, has metamorphosed into a chilling symbol of invisible control. It mocks the spirit of transition and questions the integrity of every administrative act emanating from the corridors of government. This is not just political mischief—it is the desecration of constitutional order.
The paradox deepens when one considers that the present leadership, constitutionally vested with authority, often appears subdued by the ghost of the past. The lines between the incumbent and the ex-governor blur, producing a dualism of command that breeds confusion, fear, and inefficiency within governance. Civil servants whisper instructions from two centers of power—one legal, the other legendary. This subtle but potent contestation of authority has turned the state into a theater of absurdity, where legality kneels before influence, and truth bends to convenience.
Such institutional subservience is a microcosm of Nigeria’s broader democratic dilemma—where leaders rarely exit the stage and political office becomes an extension of personal empire. The failure to disentangle state institutions from personal control undermines the very essence of democracy. True authority should not survive beyond tenure; otherwise, governance becomes a masquerade of legality performed under the puppetry of yesterday’s rulers. The soul of the state is thus mortgaged to the nostalgia of one man’s power.
What Kogi needs is not another ceremonial leader, but a courageous institutional reformer—one who will reassert the primacy of law over loyalty, process over personality, and governance over godfatherism. The paradox of authority must be resolved by dismantling the invisible power grid that allows private hands to manipulate public instruments. Until that happens, Kogi will remain a democracy in appearance but a feudal estate in operation, where the pen of a former governor still wields more fear than the signature of the incumbent.
In the final analysis, the tragedy of Kogi’s political order lies not merely in who rules, but in how power refuses to let go. A democracy where yesterday still dictates today is one teetering on the edge of decay. The continued use of government letter-headed paper by a former governor is not just administrative misconduct—it is symbolic treason against the soul of democracy. Authority must not only be exercised rightly; it must also be seen to end when the law says it should. Otherwise, power ceases to be service—it becomes sorcery dressed in the garments of governance.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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