Follow Us on Google
What goes around comes around, goes a popular saying. In this space recently, I stated that the seeming imbroglio in Imo State between Senator Rochas Okorocha and Governor Hope Uzodinma must be resolved in favour of Imo people. That article received reactions, many of which stated that the former governor of Imo State was now at the receiving end of the same treatment he meted out to people when he was in the saddle.
They sent me names such as Captain Emmanuel Ihenachor, who had portions of his house demolished in spite of a pending court matter. They found it retributive that Senator Okorocha had his property, or that of his wife, sealed by government in spite of a pending court matter. It was not too long after he left office that he drank from the same cup he served people.
There were political altercations between Senator Hope Uzodimna and Governor Rochas Okorocha, as both men were at the time. They had their eyes on the office of the governor. Rochas wanted his son-in-law to succeed him in 2019, just as Uzodinma wanted the position for himself. Both men fought for the position until the All Progressives Congress (APC) denied Okorocha’s surrogate the ticket. Rochas was relentless such that he moved to another party, and got his man to fly the flag. There was strong political contestation between both men, which might have lingered. The battle is still on.
In Lagos, another scenario has been unfolding between governors who have held sway there. They all emerged under the auspices of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the undisputed godfather of Lagos politics. Since 2007 when he stepped down from the position, on completion of the two-term limit allowed by the Constitution, he has fought hard to ensure that only those he endorsed were elected governor. There have been three governors after him, and he literally put them there. However, the governors have had silent but visible friction between them. The godfather may have overlooked this, or tried to resolve them unsuccessfully. Babatunde Fashola, who was Tinubu’s chief of staff, took over as governor after Tinubu. He acquitted himself creditably. It would seem like he had an axe to grind with his successor, Akinwunmi Ambode. The story was that the godfather wanted Ambode in 2015 but Fashola had his eyes elsewhere. The godfather had his way.
The problem began to manifest in Ambode’s apparent move to obliterate Fashola’s legacies. Stories that tended to indict Fashola began to escape from crevices that could only be known to privileged persons to tarnish the good name Fashola had made through his sterling performance in office. Ambode moved to reverse that image and their godfather did nothing about it, perhaps because he also had issues with Fashola.
President Muhammadu Buhari had high regard for Fashola, which was why he made him a super-minister. In Buhari’s first term, Fashola was Minister of Power, Works and Housing, one of the largest portfolios ever held by one person in the any cabinet in Nigerian history.
In 2016, early in the Buhari administration, the Okota Palaceway-Mile 2-Amuwo Odofin-Festac Link road was inaugurated. In fact, Fashola’s regime did most of the work that made that vital artery a reality. The opening was to be done by the President but it was delegated to the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Apart from being the immediate past governor of Lagos, Fashola was actually there as the Minister of Works, being the active superintendent of all federal roads. Ironically, Governor Ambode never mentioned Fashola in his speech during the event, a clear attempt to deny the immediate past governor his deserved credit.
In due course, people reap what they sow. Reaping time came for Ambode on March 6, 2021, when the Pen Cinema flyover, Agege, and other adjoining roads were inaugurated. Ambode got a full dose of what he had served his predecessor. It is critical to state that he commenced those projects, though there had been criticisms that he literally looked away from projects Fashola started, such as the Orile-Badagry rail line, to commence his own projects. The flyover in question being one of them. He wanted to build his own legacy rather than continue from where the last governor stopped, in spite of their sprouting from the same political party and having one political godfather. Those were some of the political ‘sins’ that made Tinubu declare that Ambode was not a good party man.
But Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu chose, and rightly so, to continue from where Ambode stopped. He said the Pen Cinema flyover was 30 per cent done when he took over. He completed and launched it on the aforementioned date. He never mentioned Ambode’s name at the inauguration. He paid the man back in his own coin in spite of their being in the same party.
That, for me, is one of the definitions of politics with bitterness. Governor Sanwo-Olu ought to have exhibited a large heart, and shown his predecessor how things should be done. He should not have been served the same cup he served others, because Sanwa-Olu would have continued on the bitter template set by Ambode, which his successor may serve him too.
Two wrongs can only be wrong, and nothing more. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to be the preferred party in Lagos, which is why its members must not act in a manner to show that their unity in winning elections is only cosmetic. The tiff between Governor Nyesom Wike and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State has a bearing on their shifting political camps. Both men have differing interests and political bases, which should result in hauling political missiles at themselves for obvious reasons. The matter in Lagos is just bad politics, and, in fact, bad blood.
If Tinubu looks the other way, though he cannot tell full-grown adults how to behave, my inference is that he endorses such bad blood. I recommend that he chastises the current and past governors privately and publicly. That way, Lagosians and Nigerians would know that he is standing apart from such unenviable politics.
