Your Excellency !

Memo to a new Governor Part I.

Dear Governor Elect,

Accept my congratulations on your election as Governor of our dear state. I can imagine it has taken quiet a toll on your finances, your physical and mental health to reach here. Your friends, your supporters, your god fathers, the party, the polling agents and a whole lot of people have invested their time and wealth to get you to this seat. Your enemies have also invested time and wealth to get you to this point. Most importantly, your electorate have invested their hope of the present and the future of their children to get you to this seat.

So how do you hope to pay everyone back? I have assumed that you are an honourable man and that you will do your best to provide returns for everyone that has invested, from your very self to your financiers, god fathers, party apparatchik and foot soldiers to the electorate. Yes returns on investments of time , money , trust, hope and sometimes lives and blood.

It may be very germane to start with you first. After all , you were the candidate and now you are the Governor elect. Why did you go through such rigour to take a term limited position? When you are alone in your bedroom and away from all our inquisitive eyes, what do you tell yourself is the reason you embarked on this adventure? Why did you really want to become a governor? If you don’t know or you are not willing to introspect and tell your self the truth, then you will never be able to satisfy yourself and definitely you will not satisfy any other part of your constituency. In the end all your actions will only be worth it to you if they advance or align somehow with your personal goals.

Let us speculate on your possible motivations and inner desires. May be it is wealth and riches that are your core driver. You want to become obscenely rich? Richest man in the state or the country? One of the richest in the world? Enough wealth to take care of your fourth generation? Or is it the network of contacts locally and internationally that counts for you? The star power and celebrity status. The chance to stand on the podium with the rich, the powerful and the famous? Or is it the power that is most intoxicating. Having the whole state at your feet. Being the one that determines who get what and when? The emperor of your domain. Or is it just an opportunity to pay back your enemies or the enemies of your father or those who have oppressed you and your people for so long. Revenge is sweet definitely. Perhaps you are driven by a desire to create a long lasting legacy. To be remembered by all for your good deeds. To have statues erected in your honour and to have a sustained impact on the affairs of the world many years after you have become one with the earth. What really drives you, your Excellency.?

The majority of the electorate just want a better life now for them and for their children and their children’s children to the fourth generation also. Of course they will like to be wealthy and for their children and their descendants to live a life of luxury. They want to become richer than the richest man in their neighbourhood, in the state and in the country. They want to enjoy those perks and facilities that are now reserved for only the rich and powerful. They too want to be powerful or to feel powerful and to be recognised wherever they go. Not just for what they have or what they have achieved but for the mere fact that they are from your state. They want to brag about their state. They will want to say to any one, I am a Roman citizen. They want to be left alone to enjoy their riches in peace and to be able to secure these riches from the grasping hands of any one that tries to take it from them. Not just their riches but also their property. They want to have the firm belief that tomorrow will be better than today and that their children will have better opportunities and a better life than themselves. If you can not give them the riches directly, they are happy to eke out their own wealth if you can make the environment conducive to their creating the wealth. They have been deceived over the years though and have no confidence that you will actually make their lives better. Their cynicism means their actual expectations of you is lower than what they have of any regular scam artist. However, they will hold their vote and take their pound of flesh at any given opportunity.

Your god fathers are busy celebrating your ascension to power. First it is a vindication of their god fathering prowess. Second it is their chance to get their own rewards of being a governor without actually being one. Your network will be their network. Your power will be in their hands. And of course their wealth will become bigger than yours. And their legacy will be cemented through you. They will not be docile like the rest of the electorate and will take all possible action to exact their returns. Like preferred share holders, they will get their returns first before ordinary shareholders. Like board members they can hold your feet to the fire if their returns are not coming or engineer your downfall now, later or whenever the opportunity arrives. Worse still, they will want the whole world to know that you are their boy. Some would have made you sign agreements and some would have made you to swear to oaths and ritual bondage.

Your party, the party apparatchiks and foot soldiers desire to be rewarded, compensated for their sacrifices and contributions to your victory. They want a share of the wealth , of the power, of the legacy and the network that accrues to you as a Governor. They want to share it in small things and in big things. They want to share it so they can gloat over the others who are not members. They are also invested in the future because they want their party to continue to stay in power. In a way, not only have you won now, they want you to enable them to continue to win. As much as they desire to share the spoils today, they want the spoils to continue to flow. Without your party behind you, you will find it difficult to govern and to have a chance for future tenure.

So, I ask you again, How do you intend to balance the competing demands of this diverse constituency? You, your party, your god fathers and the electorate. How will you meet each persons desires? Who will you prefer to ignore or offend? And then there will be members of your tribe to contend with, cult members, co-religionists and other special interest groups who you owe some special allegiance or who demand some special return which you know about or may not even be aware.

While you gather your thoughts, I will help you formulate a strategy in the next part part of this memo.