Sometimes the campaign season foretells the reign. But not often. Those who seek office must don the charm of a hypocrite, adorn their speeches with chocolatey rhetoric, wear a smile at once grand and cherubic. They wax into an uncle and a child in one body, a confluence of innocence and nobility.
The result is often a choreographing of the chameleon on the hustings. But when they win, they become like the leaf of autumn: the true colour coils, with reptilian feints, out of their skin. To reconcile the wooer and the person in office becomes a leap of faith.
For the BOS of Lagos, we saw a tranquil fight for the office, if ever there was one. If, that is, we discount his beehive routine. For those who followed his trail, he was everywhere and everything, visiting groups, working the crowds, at dinners, at sports fiestas, at parties, at symposiums, at work places. His demeanour was mated to his words. Not controversial, but engaging.
This is sort of a paradox. His candidacy rose out of dust storm. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s predecessor was not only in office but inhabited the same party. Akinwunmi Ambode was even his boss. Never once did the candidate cross swords, not even as much as gloating after he prevailed at the primaries. He maintained his lane, as the Nigerian youth would say. Even when a series of accusations were pelted at him, he did not rise with rage. He did not even speak immediately. He articulated his position through a proxy, and invoked the solemn words of Michelle Obama: when they go low, we go high.
The party roiled with protests and tempers. They called the candidate sanwo eko, inflated his ego, boosted his profile, tempted his vanity, goaded him on the waves of the heir-apparent. His victory was a technicality. They were not looking at Sanwo-Olu the candidate, but the man on the cusp of destiny. Shakespeare said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them.” Candidate Sanwo-Olu did not seem to contemplate any of these options. And never once did the slim, soft-spoken fellow with a sometimes beatific visage utter any suggestion of hubris.
That tiff over, he was all about going about his business. And there were issues to address, urgent as a hippopotamus on the lap. The environment has slid to the 1999 mire, according to a former environment commissioner, Muiz Banire. Many inner roads had become more of craters as though cranes alone motored about the city. The indiscipline of the LASTMA multiplied the cases of traffic logjams. A lot needed to be addressed. Yet, he spoke without contempt for the man who occupied the seat.
The election became, perhaps, if not in turnout but in percentage one of the most emphatic victories. Even perennial challenger and gadfly Jimi Agbaje is always ready to nudge his nemesis to a duel. In that battle, he dropped his gear and found no words but concession for the victory of the BOS of Lagos.
When he was sworn in, some might have expected some of the usual fixtures of the new incumbent. Not like Chime of Enugu State who did not even wait for the inauguration day before yelling about the fetishism of his anointer and benefactor Chimaroke Nnamani, who had done the same to his own godfather. He even said he wanted to spiritually disinfect the state house before using it. The BOS did not want drama. He just took over and did his job.
History always credits such personages. Like Gerald Ford, who calmed the office after the WaterGate turbulence of the Nixon years, or the quiet grace of Conrad Adenauer, who took over the German Republic after the stormy prejudice of the Nazi era. Winston Churchill led the British, and sometimes the world, to beat the Nazi. He was voted out as a warmonger. Clement Attlee succeeded him without sullying perhaps the greatest orator of the modern world. Lyndon Johnson’s era became beautiful because of the genius of John F. Kennedy.
Sanwo-Olu knows that the work is serious. The roads are getting back gradually, as much work beckons. His predecessor focused disproportionately on the big projects while the simple ones suffered. Big flyovers, bad inner roads. It was like dressing a maid with flamboyant lace while the sores advertised themselves on the limbs. Gov Sanwo-Olu soothed the civil servants with transportation. He has started to address with the federal government the Apapa gridlock, though not an overnight case. He has allowed to continue the projects of his predecessor, some of them abandoned in the latter days.
He has not raised the spectre of the EFCC, nor growled over the state of the finances, in spite of stories of latter day profligacies. He has not turned inspection tours into political arena, flailing and flaying the man who was there.
He is just minding his own business. The BOS of Lagos, in his unobtrusive way, has shown how to succeed a person and, perhaps, succeed in a time of challenges. It is by rising above the fray.
His second pledge
In his blue buba and sokoto, he was announced on the stage. This was not a political arena, and his rhetoric abounded with the gratitude of a worshipper. Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun came on stage to tell his story. He gave a testimony that sounded like a page out of Abraham Lincoln’s life. He had been at his political battle for a while, losing is quest for senator, and even his attempt at governor seemed a lost cause. He was not going to contest. Eventually he prevailed. His testimony was at the podium of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles last weekend. He said he was a member.
His testimony drew my mind back to a few days after he won the polls and was visiting the then outgoing governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi. Gov Ajimobi recalled with regret that Abiodun’s son was not around to see his father’s triumph. His son, a beloved entertainer known as DJ Olu, who passed away, was the champion of his father’s ambition. I thought Gov. Abiodun would tell that story to his MFM audience. But on reflection, I understand why he didn’t. When Ajimobi touched that subject in his residence in Ibadan, Abiodun’s face fell into tears and a handkerchief came to his rescue.
The most potent part of his MFM testimony was when he said he would run a transparent government in participatory style in accordance with the rule of law. He said it without prompting and soulfully. He might have said that at inauguration day. That was a political pledge. On the church podium, it was a spiritual pledge. It is his second pledge, but in effect, it was the first and superior pledge. The spiritual is above the natural, as Apostle Paul explains in the Bible. We wait to see this play out as his stewardship unfolds.
Once he was done, he walked back to his seat beside the BOS of Lagos. It was not only the handshake that joined them together, but an iconography of colour and wardrobe symmetry. Both governors were dressed in light blue buba and sokoto, as though they had a chat about it before hitting their wardrobes.
Buhari In Touch
It’s a good thing to note that sometimes you don’t write in vain. I had that feeling when I read the headline that President Buhari has responded to In Touch by deciding to deploy drones over the forests to tackle the problem of bandits. At least, the government has shown that it can bend to a wise nudge from a humble columnist. A clap for the president!!!