Leadership (Abuja)
Goerge Okojie
1 July 2011
analysis
The constitution of a new cabinet to drive Lagos State’s developmental imperatives is generating considerable heat as intrigues by various interest groups pushing their anointed candidates mount. But the most important friction in this exercise, though underplayed, is that between Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) national leader and his protégé and state governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN). In this report GEORGE OKOJIE examines the issues that stalled the constitution of the cabinet.
The battle between political godfathers and their godsons have become a recurring decimal in Nigerian politics. Before the 2011 general elections the feelings that enveloped the nation’s political landscape was that most of the governors who dared their political godfathers in whatever way would not return to their seats in government House. Some of the governors said to be on their way out for sinning against their political benefactors then included Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (Lagos), Theodore Ahmefaelu Orji (Abia), Mammud Aliyu Shinkafi (Zamfara) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu), among others.
But the elections have come and gone and some of the governors who survived the onslaught at that time either by appeasing their godfathers or clinging tenaciously to the electorates to return to their seats have proved that the collective wish of the people supersedes the selfish resolve of some powerful individuals who believe they can dictate the affairs of millions of people from the confines of their bedrooms.
While the cold war that existed between some governors and their predecessors in office resulted in verbal war with both parties becoming sworn enemies, throwing verbal missiles on the pages of the newspapers, the frosty relationship said to have existed between Governor Babatunde Fashola and his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was largely based on speculation because the duo kept sealed lips on the issue.
Thus, when the party leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, finally gave him the go-ahead to run for another four years in office in the 2011 poll, the declaration sent the large crowd that thronged the venue into jubilation. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, two-term governor of Lagos State, founder and leader of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the largest opposition party in the country today, attributed the rumour of his estrangement with the governor to people, who he said simply wanted to divide them.
He said the stories were masterminded by those he termed, “political rodents and enemies, who did not know how I knew him (Fashola).”
After presenting Fashola for re-election in the state under the platform of the ACN, Tinubu went ahead and scored the hard working governor 85 per cent on his performance in office in the past four years. He emphasised that the governor remained the best man for the job.
According to him, “He is my son. Those that were peddling the rumour are those that did not know how I knew him or what endeared him to me. They are the agents of destruction, political rodents, enemies and scavengers in the corridors of power that want to continue to loot state funds without working to deliver dividends of democracy. They said I was jealous of his achievements and said all sort of things. If you have a son that has surpassed your records, you celebrate him. I am the pathfinder, he is the navigator. I am the one that identified the talent.”
Pundits believe that whether there was actually crisis between them or not, the ability of the protagonists of the epic political battles to effectively manage their differences confirmed the wide-spread belief in political circles that politics played in Lagos State is of the robust hue.
On the strength of this political maturity the party was able to sweep the polls in the state. Unlike the situation that played out in Ogun State, where the political godfather Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president and chairman Board of Trustee of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was unable to reconcile with his estranged godson Otunba Gbenga Daniel who was then the governor of the state, thereby losing the state and various positions contested in the polls to the ACN candidates.
As expected, soon after the political victory recorded in Lagos State, the political gladiators returned to their trenches to re-strategise and pitch tent with their caucus in order to get what they wanted and be in control of the state; a situation political observers in the state fingered as largely responsible for the undue delay in the constitution of Lagos State Executive Council led by the governor since his inauguration.
The procrastination in the constitution of Fashola’s cabinet to pilot the affairs of the state by the state governor over a month after his inauguration for a second term in office had since attracted the attention of teeming Lagosians who came out en-masse to vote for him in the last general elections in the state.
They had expected that the governor, given his antecedents, would immediately announce members of his new team and swing into action to fast-track the process of development which he started during his first term. But the issue at stake goes beyond one man’s decision. He has so many interests and intrigues to contend with.
Not even in a state where the political leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu succeeded in reproducing himself in so many of his political apostles who had the feeling that having passed through the tutelage of the man they too have what it takes and qualified to be the number one citizen of the state.
This notion coupled with deft political permutation informed why large number of his commissioners in Lagos State sought to become the state governor in 2007, immediately the man fondly referred to as the good man of Lagos bowed out of office after spending the statutory eight years.
To create a level playing ground for the political sons for the business of governance to be easy in the state , LEADERSHIP learnt that the strong man of Lagos politics haven picked the incumbent state governor as the best man for the Lagos governorship job deployed and gave political licenses and insurance to others like Ogbeni Rauf Aregboesola now the governor of Osun State who was the state’s commissioner for Works and Mr. Dele Alake , the then commissioner of Information and strategy to their state of origin to vie for political positions and hold forth in those areas.
Unfortunately, LEADERSHIP reliably gathered that the political permutation appeared not have achieved its major objective of swaying the attention of the these powerful godsons away from regulating political activities in the state as some of the sons who succeeded and those that did not succeed have returned from their abode to dictate who gets what positions in the state perceived to be their godfather’s empire. This scenario is thereby causing serious emotional difficulties that currently stalled the constitution of the Lagos State executive cabinet.
A credible source who is one of the political foot soldiers of the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bolaji Ahmed Tinubu informed LEADERSHIP that some dramatic changes are likely to occur in the constitution of Fashola’s cabinet as a result of the resolve of certain individuals to stick to their desire to have what they intensely want in the cabinet.
Amid claims and counter-claims in the ACN fold the source said ,” Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains in the state, traditional rulers and eminent personalities “are averse to the move by Aregbesola and the immediate past Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire to determine Fashola’s cabinet members”, reasoning that as the governor whose name is at stake as far as the administration of the state is concerned he has the moral right to censor the names and choose best hands for the jobs.
The source who was also instrumental to the re-election bid of the governor said, “Governor Babatunde Fashola is angry at Aregbesola’s undue influence. He wonders why Aregbesola should leave his state to come to Lagos to nominate people he wants to be in Fashola’s cabinet. Definitely, Asiwaju will have a say. The party will also have a say. But Aregbesola’s interference is unwelcome to the party chieftains and Lagosians.”
“His plan is to prevail upon Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to accept his list of cabinet nominees. He is going to implicate Tinubu and destabilize the party if care is not taken. People will not allow him wield any influence this time. The eminent personalities of that state have started raising eyebrows already about Aregbesola’s undue influence. He cannot be Osun State governor and dictate who becomes members of Fashola’s cabinet.
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