Governors' Wives (State First Ladies)

*The office of State First Lady has no place in the 1999 Constitution — no section creates it, no law funds it. It is nevertheless the most consistently resourced unelected office in every Government House: a pet foundation, an office in the Governor's Lodge, seconded civil servants, and in most states a recurrent budget line. We record it for the same reason we record the federal office — because the money and the patronage are real even where the office is not.*

*Benue is the constitutional curiosity of this register. Governor Hyacinth Alia, elected in 2023, is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Gboko — the state has no First Lady, and the Government House protocol functions normally discharged by a governor's wife are handled by the office of the Deputy Governor's wife and by state officials.*