Governor Sanwoolu is less than 100 days in office as the Lagos State chief executive, but he has, to me, chalked up a first in the state’s 52-year-old history, in his appointment of a Lagosian of northern origin into his cabinet.
Architect Kabiru Ahmed is of Katsina State parentage but was born and bred in Agege, one of the first northern settlements in Lagos.
If Sanwoolu gets kudos for this initiative, the recipient, Kabiru certainly merits the appointment. In the politics of Lagos State from the Agege axis in the last 20 years or so, the unassuming and unobtrusive gentleman has been a recurring decimal of sort. He has had two tours of duty as councillor and vice chairman of Agege, his local government of birth and of residence. And in the mobilisation of voters of northern extraction in that area, he has proven to be a diligent worker.
If he continues to keep his head, as he has demonstrated over time, he will be a huge asset to Lagos State.
Just in case someone wants to fault his appointment, let’s all be reminded that it is in sync with reality and common practice. The fact that it is happening in Lagos for the first time since the creation of the state does not make it less remarkable or less sound in good judgement. In the current democratic dispensation, a Yoruba man from Ijebu Ode is a major government functionary in the administration of Governor Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna State, contributing his own quota to the economic development of that state.
The development is a good omen for the state, considering the position of Lagos as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria. Demands on its resources are higher from non-indigenes because they populate it not in a small way; but the state and its indigenes are on the long run the better for it because the physical infrastructures being developed here cannot be uprooted and taken anywhere else. It is the reason why Lagos will continue to prosper.
It is recommended that the Kaduna and Lagos examples should be replicated in the South South and South Eastern parts of Nigeria and any other zone that has not yet bought into this patriotic and progressive idea, so that soon, we will be having Yoruba and Hausa men and women appointed as commissioners and special advisers in those places. It is the best way to forge meaningful national unity and cohesion.
Leave a Reply