Category: Segun Ayobolu

NOT surprisingly, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has continued to receive torrents of congratulatory and laudatory messages from across the globe as he clocked his eighth decade of existence this side of eternity on Tuesday, March 2. The famous cleric’s story is an amazing tale of uncommon transformation from grass to glory on the wings of grace. Daddy GO, as he is famously and fondly addressed across diverse age, denominational, religious, ethno-regional and racial groups, has told the story of his life thousands of times in his innumerable sermons, addresses and publications. He attributes nothing in his life trajectory to his innate intelligence or any extraordinary gift of his but rather ceaselessly gives glory to God for all he has achieved so far in his epochal journey.

Reckoned as perhaps the largest Pentecostal church in the world with millions of members in over 196 countries, the status of being the leader of this extraordinary assemblage of churches that continues to grow in leaps and bounds, is no insignificant position. Indeed, pastor Adeboye towers in influence and prestige above many secular world leaders who preside over organizations with vast economic resources or over polities with immense military might. A possibly apocryphal story has it that when Winston Churchill in January 1944 suggested to Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the possibility of the Pope being involved in some of the decisions to restore peace to a war-torn world, the latter replied: “The Pope, the Pope. How many divisions has he?”. This was obviously in utter contempt for and derision of spiritual authority which lacks the backing of arms and men to be put to use in battle.

Of course, the Catholic Pontiff commanded no troops compared with the legions at the disposal of the Russian leader. Yet, today, Stalin is long gone and the communist empire he presided over significantly decimated. But the Catholic Church and the papacy live on. To exercise spiritual leadership and authority in non-formal organizational structures like the church or other religious groupings demands far greater sense of responsibility, charisma and levels of acceptance voluntarily given than is the case in secular organizations which can draw on formal organograms, economic resources or state-backed punitive sanctions. Coming from an insignificant, poor family in an obscure village, Ifewara, located in Osun State, Nigeria, Pastor Adeboye has placed his rustic birthplace on the global map by ranking among one of the most outstanding and iconic leadership figures in our contemporary world.

I can vividly recall that during my secondary school days in the mid-1970s, the burgeoning Scripture Union movement at the time was widely believed to be the ultimate refuge of academic, career or marital failures who sought spiritual solace to compensate for secular lack of success. By the time I was admitted into the University of Ibadan in the early -1980s, however, the story had begun to change astoundingly. At that time, the exceedingly active and vibrant Ibadan Varsity Christian Union (IVCU), had as members some of the best and brightest students academically not to talk of some of the most beautiful ladies on campus. Pastor Adeboye’s Christian Odyssey can certainly not be attributed to any failure in the secular realm. He never addresses himself or seeks to be addressed by his earned academic doctoral degree. He is simply Pastor Adeboye even though his field of academic specialization, Applied Mathematics, shows clearly that his intellect soars far above the average.

Many whose scholastic attainments are far less impressive than that of Daddy GO scoff haughtily at the very idea of God. ‘There is no God here but man’, the great outstanding educationist, social critic and unrepentant atheist, Dr Tai Solarin, once thundered in one of his newspaper articles. The atheist confidently asserts that there is no God and that the concept of a creator is an absurd human construct. On his part, the agnostic claims that he cannot know if God exists or not because he has not been given sufficient evidence to decide on the matter. I side with the psalmist who declares that “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork”. My perhaps overly simple mind finds it difficult to comprehend how there can be a creation of which I am a part without a creator.

Pastor Adeboye’s belief in the existence of the creator is categorical, inflexible and uncompromising. Only the most absurd would attribute his faith to any form of mental or other deficiency. He was even an amateur boxer in his youth! Even if he had not abandoned his secular professional career to serve in the Lord’s vineyard, Daddy GO would still have attained considerable success as a prized professor of Mathematics in any distinguished university in any part of the world.

I have often listened with amusement to many of the supposedly sophisticated secular minds who attribute the difficult-to-ignore financial prosperity of the modern Pentecostal church to the business, entrepreneurial skills and manipulative strategies of the church leaders. My challenge to those who make such claims is to ask them to urgently proceed to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register a church business and see how easily and speedily their millions will begin to roll in without the specific call of God on their lives. There are perhaps more churches that start and die than those that succeed and become spiritual and material success stories. The truth is that there is something called the covenant anointing for prosperity. Beyond this, those who simply notice and commend the current prosperity of some Pentecostal churches including the RCCG are possibly unaware of years of hard spiritual Labour and material deprivation endured by some of these leaders before experiencing spiritual and financial breakthroughs.

Of course, it is not impossible for some unscrupulous spiritual leaders to resort to occult and other unseemly dark and evil practices to attain wealth. Here again, I differ from those who aver rather arrogantly that it is scientifically, logically and empirically impossible for people to become wealthy through rituals involving, for instance, the harvesting and utilization of vital human parts. They delude themselves. Occultist and diabolical forces of darkness are as real as the material world of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. St Paul famously asserted that “we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers; against spiritual wickedness in high places”. If the entire enterprise of making money through ritual killings is fake and illusory, why has the practice become so prevalent across the country? By the fruits of both genuine or fake spiritual leaders, agents of light or darkness as the case may be, we shall know and classify them.

Yes, many Pentecostal church leaders in particular have definitely not demonstrated Godly wisdom in the utilization of the gift of prosperity it has pleased God to bless them with. There was a Bishop who, for instance, once boasted in a soft sell magazine interview that he used to go around Lagos in Molue buses but now owns a private jet. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, another Abuja-based cleric prayed that the pandemic should continue because he had acquired two private jets during the lockdown. That clearly is not the spirit of Christ. But even here, Pastor Adeboye has been exemplary. He is never loud. He is never vain. He is never boastful. He is not arrogantly showy or exhibitionist. He is always an epitome of humility and unassuming self-effacement. Under him, the Corporate Social Responsibility interventions of the RCCG to help the underprivileged in diverse sectors is massive and impactful.

President Bill Clinton once remarked that he felt exceedingly humbled once when he was in the presence of Mother Theresa, a Godly woman of unusual modesty. The humble Nazarene walked the backwaters of Galilee ministering to the poor, weak, vulnerable and shunned even as the powerful Caesars reigned in the magnificent and opulent palaces of the Roman Empire. The Caesars today lie in dust but Messiah lives on in the hearts and minds of multitudes.

Just like the Lord Jesus hardly ever concerned himself with the politics of the Roman Empire, not even with the cause of the political emancipation of the Jews, Pastor Adeboye confines himself to his single-minded mission of preaching the good news of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus. He keeps a wide berth from partisan political commentary and involvement. It is obvious that many leading political and economic Titans feel humbled in the presence of this modest man of God.

But then, is Daddy GO a model of human perfection? No, there is no such thing as a flawless mortal. For instance, the RCCG’s opposition along with other Pentecostal churches, to the code of corporate governance drawn up by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) under the tenure of its former Executive Secretary, Mr Jim Obazee, and passed into law by the National Assembly, is responsible for that very important law being held in abeyance till date.

Not only has the corporate governance code designed to guide the conduct of non-governmental organizations been rendered comatose, Obazee was fired from his job most unfairly in my view for seeking to enforce the law. While Obazee, also a Pentecostal pastor, could have been relieved of his job if found guilty of any infraction, the code which was designed to bring some sense of responsibility and accountability into the running of churches, mosques, NGOs and other non-formal organizations within the realm of civil society, should have been allowed to come into effect in the larger national interest. It is precisely because a not insignificant number of religious leaders, particularly of the Christian Pentecostal stock, do not possess Daddy GO’s high level of self-discipline, humility, restraint and prudence that the code of corporate governance drawn up by the FRC ought to come into force.

Again, Daddy GO and the leadership of the RCCG will ultimately have to decide if the church’s revolutionary goal of planting a branch of the church within five minutes driving distance in developed countries or five minutes walking distance in developing countries, an objective responsible for her phenomenal expansion, does not fundamentally contradict its ongoing unprecedented expansion of facilities for mass gatherings at its headquarters along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Wishing the great man of God many more years of service to his creator and humanity.

Does Mr. Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) since 2014, desire to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as elected leader of the country in 2023? This is from all indications the case. As has become an all too familiar story in Nigeria, all kinds of faceless groups are urging on Emefiele to run, printing campaign posters on his behalf, and even placing advertorials in the media in pursuit of this objective of pushing his candidacy even though the man himself has maintained a studied silence on the issue. The main thrust of their campaign is that he has performed so brilliantly as CBN governor over the last seven years that the governor of the apex bank is best placed to help actualize the ongoing ‘economic consolidation project’ as well as continue and achieve the Buhari administration’s goal of lifting 100 million people out of poverty in the next couple of years. Of course, the dominant reaction has been that if indeed he has this political aspiration, which is his right in any case, Emefiele should immediately resign from his current appointment to pursue this goal in the interest of fairness and fairplay, the credibility of the critical office of CBN governor, the integrity of monetary policy in the remaining years of Buhari’s tenure as well as the health and stability of the Nigerian economy.

Ace columnist, Sam Omatseye, is one of those who have pointed out the patent immorality of the deceptive antics of Emefiele and his cheerleaders on this matter. With unsparing pungency, he wrote in this newspaper on Monday: “An abuse of office is going on with Godwin Emefiele. His so-called committee of friends failed to protect the CBN governor. Rallies are around town. Posters are everywhere. He is still mum. If he wants to run for president, he should resign his office. He should not hide under pieties about God or Muhammadu Buhari”. Of course, the very next day, the apex bank governor’s shadowy  friends had responded in a full page advertorial. Seeking unconvincingly to distance the CBN governor from the campaigns that he run for the highest office in the land, they argued among others that “Godwin Emefiele without prejudice to how he may feel about the posters, also respects the constitutional right of Nigerians, guaranteed under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, to hold opinions and express them without any encumbrances”.

This is of course utter balderdash. Anyone who is convinced that Emefiele is unaware of the architects of the campaign and indeed part of the entire game plan will believe anything. One of the arguments of some of these amorphous groups for an Emefiele candidacy is that he has a track record of loyalty, patriotism and performance and is different from the typical politicians “who are well versed in political deception, intimidation and blackmail”. This is a grand irony. For, the very essence of the surreptitious campaigns that have heralded Emeliele’s bid for the presidency in 2023 is deception on a grand and stunning scale. If he wants to contest the office of President next year, Emefiele should be bold and courageous enough to declare his ambition rather than acting by proxy. He should be honest enough to voice his aspiration openly and clearly as well as demonstrate sufficient loyalty and patriotism to the country to quit his current office so as to shield the sensitive institution of the CBN from corrosive political partisanship.

What we have here is also fundamentally a question of character and integrity. Over the last seven years, Emefiele has presided over the most massive financial intervention by the apex bank in virtually every key sector of the economy. As my colleague, Sanya Oni, put it in his column on Thursday, “Never mind those high sounding programmes of the Buhari administration, the man, Emefiele, – in the absence of an effective fiscal counter -foil from the executive branch – has quite easily become the author and finisher of all developmental activities of the current government”. In other words, the CBN under Emefiele has only seized upon the ineptness of the managers of the fiscal side of the economy to get the Apex bank involved in the humongous funding of diverse sectors of the economy – agriculture, textiles, aviation, tertiary education, power, health, entertainment etc with hardly any mechanism in place for effectively ascertaining the efficacy or impact of these policy initiatives.

The Emefiele-must-run orchestra credits the CBN governor for whatever may be the successes of the Buhari administration on the economic policy terrain as if there is no Vice President and the National Economic Council, no Minister of Works and Housing, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Finance, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Power, Minister of Trade etc. They assert that Emefiele is singularly responsible for the vacuous and largely meaningless claim that Nigeria is the number one economy in Africa while studiously ignoring the hardly disputable logic that, if so, the CBN governor should be held no less culpable for the equally valid assertion that Nigeria is currently the poverty capital of the world. To quote Sanya Oni once again, “Yes, Emefiele wants to run. No problem with that. What is problematic is when he prefers to hide behind the fingers – and some dark – forces to proclaim or quite predictably, deny an ambition that bears every hallmark of opportunism and greed! Or when as he seems set to do, willfully convert an office held in trust to further a personal ambition”.

A man of firmer moral fiber and vertebrae should have come out to declare in clear and unmistakable terms that, given his sensitive and delicate role as one of the key managers of the economy over the last seven years including the disbursement of public funds on a stupendous scale, he has absolutely no interest in venturing into partisan politics – at least for now. That would have stopped all these shadowy Emefiele – for – President advocates in their tracks. In the alternative, he should wholeheartedly plunge into the political waters but immediately quit the CBN job for a politically disinterested successor in the best interest of a country he professes to love. Of course, on the campaign trail, he will be obliged to explain to Nigerians if, given the interest rate, exchange rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate at the time of his assumption of office in 2014 and what these indices are today, he considers his tenure the unqualified success those goading him along this dishonorable path are suggesting.

In any case, with his hitherto hidden political ambition now in the open, how does Emefiele credibly convince anyone that the disbursement of funds under him as CBN governor through the various sectoral financial interventions was not motivated by his subterranean partisan political interest rather than the advertised reasons for doing so, which should be the overall good of the economy? The office of the CBN governor in Nigeria has tremendous powers of political patronage particularly in the absence of any meaningful executive or legislative oversight. This envisages a man of the highest standards of integrity in that office who will not abuse these powers for partisan or any other type of selfish advantage.

Those who are championing the cause of Emefiele’s 2023 presidential candidacy have the right to do so. But he has a greater obligation to say a firm no on ethical grounds. If he lacks the moral character to stoutly resist those, possibly beneficiaries of his patronage, calling on him to engage in what is clearly an abuse of trust and power by contesting in 2023, how is Emefiele better than those well- known military and civilian Heads of State in our history who could not refuse the seductive and destructive lure of sycophants who urged them to perpetuate themselves in office even against the stated will of the people and the constitution. This moral lapse was fundamentally responsible for military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, General Sani Abacha’s life presidency schemes and former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term agenda. What guarantee do we have then that if he achieves his goal and is elected president, Emefiele will not be susceptible to the antics of those ever present sycophants who will inevitably seek to pressurize him to exceed constitutional term limits as the best thing ever to have happened to the country?

The marketers of Emefiele as a possible presidential candidate in 2023 refer essentially to his role as a technocrat and CBN governor in the last seven years. This column does not dispute that he has some plaudits to his credit in this regard. The not unimpressive 3.4% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded in 2021 and the relatively quick recovery from the COVID-19 induced recession were partly due to the expansionary policies of the apex bank under Emefiele. However, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), this attainment was driven “mainly by Agriculture (crop production); Trade; Information and Communication (Telecommunication); and Financial and Insurance (Financial Institutions), accounting for positive GDP growth”. It is thus dishonest and uncharitable for Emefiele to seek to claim sole credit for what is at best a collective achievement.

In any case, Emefiele’s proclaimed genius has not helped us to unravel the mystery of how to translate relatively high economic growth rates into concrete improvement in the material living conditions of millions of Nigerians. For, no less impressive growth rates were experienced at various times under the preceding Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan administrations with negligible impact on poverty and unemployment levels. We need a president and economic managers in 2023 who will be able to solve this conundrum. But even as CBN governor, Emefiele’s performance has not been necessarily more superlative than that of either Professor Chukuma Soludo or Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido before him. Those two were also widely applauded and won a number of prestigious awards by professional bodies for their achievements as governors of the apex bank. Indeed, in terms of core CBN functions, it appears to me that the preceding two were more creative, bold and imaginative than Emefiele.

Even then, given the multifaceted crises confronting Nigeria today; the diverse existential threats to the country’s very survival, the country needs in the immediate post-Buhari dispensation a president who is not just a strait-jacket technocrat; he must be a tested political hand and proven bridge builder who can run an inclusive government and pull the country together. The next president must not be a conservative system – man but one with a demonstrated capacity and past record of thinking outside the box in governance and coming up with radical innovations that can help revive virtually comatose organizational structures and set them on a path of sustained accelerated growth and transformation.

What exactly are the fundamental causes of the now all too obvious and seemingly irreconcilable differences between the immediate past governor of Osun State and current Minister of the Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and the incumbent governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola? I find it difficult to say. There does not appear to be any concrete, substantial ideological or philosophical divergences between the two. Whatever disagreements there may be between them seem to stem from sycophantic supporters and hangers on on both sides bent on profiting from hostilities between their two patrons. While Ogbeni Aregbesola has come out to categorically and publicly declare his support for The Osun Progressives (TOP), the main opposition to Oyetola within the Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC), the governor himself has remained reticent and unwilling to speak on the perceived strained relationship with his former boss.

Sources close to Oyetola indicate that he does not see himself as having any problems with the Minister but rather perceives the latter as being the one on a war path against him. It is no longer a secret that Aregbesola and his group will do everything possible to prevent the governor from securing a second term in office in this year’s governorship election in the state while the latter is no less determined to fly the APC’s flag for a second term and triumph in the general elections. The APC governorship primaries is set to be a straight fight among Oyetola, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yusuff Lasun and ex-Secretary to the Osun State government in the Aregbesola administration, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti.

If Oyetola clinches the APC ticket as is not unlikely, will the TOP group throw its weight behind him in the general election? It is doubtful. And if the opposition to Oyetola prevails in the intra-party contest, will the Oyetola tendency, which wields the power of incumbency, support the emergent candidate in the inter-party contest? Again, it is unlikely. Either way, the Osun APC seems poised to shoot itself on the foot and gift victory to an evidently formidable opposition that it can take for granted to its peril. That would be an unfortunate scenario in which neither Aregbesola nor Oyetola can be the ultimate winner no matter what their calculations and permutations may be.

The two men would surely be wise to step aback a little bit from the maddening crowd of their belligerent supporters fanning the embers of war and undertake a sober and clinical analysis of the unfolding political scenario in the state with regard to whatever political future they envisage for themselves. In his veritable bomb of a book, ‘My Partcipations’, which continues to cause ripples both in political and literary circles, the first elected governor of Osun State in this political dispensation, Chief Bisi Akande, gives a vivid and gripping account of the deplorable and sordid condition of the state when he assumed office in 1999 – it’s near financial insolvency, crippling indebtedness, dysfunctional and over bloated bureaucracy, entrenched corruption and ineffectual governance among others. Chief Akande had to take some hard decisions to reposition the state and place her on a sound developmental pedestal that necessitated stepping on some privileged toes which, combined with the blatant rigging of the elections across the South West, denied him of electoral victory in 2003.

Unfortunately, whatever gains were recorded during the tenure of Chief Akande were quickly eroded under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ‘s years of the locusts resulting in Osun state slipping deeper into the mire of underdevelopment and impoverishment. To his credit, when he assumed office as governor of Osun state on 27 November, 2010, Aregbesola brought fresh air of progressive, redemptive and audacious governance into the state of the living spring. For eight years, he dared to dream big and conceptualized as well as actualized projects of gargantuan proportions across diverse sectors of the state including road construction, education and health in addition to various initiatives to generate jobs, ameliorate poverty and enhance the quality of life.

However, no human government across time and space has ever been found perfect and infallible. Perfect governance would require the ministration of angelic beings and not mere mortals. Conceiving of projects on the scale of what was accomplished during his eight-year tenure as Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 during the tenure of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as governor, the Aregbesola administration in Osun was not sufficiently mindful of the reality that the state did not necessarily have the revenue base to sustain such large scale legacy structures in the long run. Thus, as revenue accruals to the state from the Federation Account dwindled, the Internally Generated Revenue base of Osun had not been sufficiently strengthened to enable the government sustain its lofty infrastructural projections as well as fully meet routine obligations to the citizenry such as regular payment of workers’ salaries. This understandably created friction between the administration and workers, for example, which no doubt had a limiting impact on the APC’s performance in the election that brought Oyetola to power in 2018.

Beyond this, some of the Aregbesola administration’s well-meaning radical initiatives in the education sector, for instance, obviously did not go down well with influential segments of the elite such as old boys associations of prominent schools who detested the merger of their institutions with others or the changing of school uniforms to which they were sentimentally and emotionally attached. But these were errors of the heart and not deliberate misdeeds of the head. From my observatory, it appears that the Oyetola administration’s reversals of some of Aregbesola’s education sector reforms is one reason why supporters of the latter perceive a subtle agenda to erode the legacy of their leader in the state. But I understand that these changes were effected after extensive consultations with stakeholders and following the recommendations of a high-powered panel of experts headed by a renowned educationist, Professor Olu Aina. Given Oyetola’s narrow victory in the 2018 elections, it is understandable that he had to take steps to redress some of those policies that alienated critical segments of the electorate from his party.

A pertinent question here is: does Oyetola deserve a second term in office whatever may be his differences with his predecessor? Those who are familiar with the developmental terrain of Osun State answer this question emphatically in the affirmative. The governor himself said as much after going through the party’s screening process to enable him participate in the primaries.

Credible witnesses testify that Oyetola is systematically paying the debt obligations inherited from his predecessor as every government necessarily takes on the assets and liabilities of the preceding government; his administration is fully paying workers salaries and allowances while at the same time undertaking infrastructure projects and poverty alleviation policies in diverse sectors particularly with regard to health, road construction and rural infrastructure. I personally do not see how Oyetola’s serving a second term will detract the tiniest jot from Aregbesola’s exemplary legacy as a two-term successful commissioner in Lagos State, a two-term governor in Osun State and now Minister of the Interior at the federal level. Ogbeni has every reason to be grateful to God for His abundant grace and mercies upon him.

In the same vein, it is difficult to see what Oyetola stands to profit if he wins a second term at the cost of demystifying his predecessor. The governor had been a successful and accomplished professional ever before occupying public office. Perhaps these two gentlemen only need to sit down and think rather than being driven by and enslaved to the unreasoning passions of their supporters.

During his tenure as governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) once stated, perceptibly, that it was not his desire to be the best governor ever in the history of the state but would only do his bit in the hope that his successors would perform better in the best interest of the state. Each successive governor in Lagos State since 1999 has been inspired and motivated to seek to perform better than the preceding one and the people are the better for it. In the first republic, the Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Ladoke Akintola factions of the defunct Action Group (AG) fought each other to a standstill with the ultimate decimation of the party, disruption of good governance in the Western Region and leading on to the destruction of democratic rule in the country. I am sure that the two lead actors in the entire drama would make different choices were they given the opportunity to reenact their life trajectories all over again. There are several such instances in Nigeria’s political history.

It is certainly not too late for Aregbesola and Oyetola to pull back their rampaging supporters spoiling for war right now. The differences between the two men stem more from natural and inevitable personality differences rather than fundamental divergences in philosophy or ideology. Given his antecedents since his youthful student days, Aregbesola is an impassioned ideologue, charismatic orator and restless political activist. Oyetola is a reserved technocrat, taciturn achiever and sober political pragmatist. Both, however, have progressive inclinations and orientations. Aregbesola was in the trenches during the struggle to emancipate the country from military dictatorship. Oyetola operated from the background playing critical roles in financing the struggle. The personality differences between the two reminds one of the difference in outlook, temperament and disposition between Asiwaju Tinubu and his successor as governor of Lagos State, BRF. This is natural in politics and calls for mutual patience, tolerance, accommodation and understanding rather than unbridled hostility and self-destructive hatred.

IN his address at this year’s annual thanksgiving service of the Lagos State government, which held at the Lagos State House, Ikeja, Governor Babajide  Olusola Sanwo-Olu indicated that Y2022 would be a critical one both in the trajectory of his administration and that of Lagos State. Noting that this will be the last full year of his first term in office, the governor said among others that “By the special grace of God, the vision of having the largest Rice Mill in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest in the world will become a reality this year. Also, this year, 2022, will witness a milestone achievement in the rail transportation system in our state as we expect the 37km Red and 27.5km Blue Line Rail projects to commence commercial operations between the last quarter of this year and first quarter of 2023. Equally, construction work on the 38km Fourth Mainland Bridge – which will be the longest in Africa – and the Opeibi-Mende Link Bridge will commence this year. 2022 will also witness by the special grace of God, the completion of the ongoing reconstruction work on the 18.75km Eleko to T-Junction in Epe, the 10km Lekki Regional Road and the section of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway that the Lagos State Government is constructing with the permission of the Federal Government”.

The governor has since demonstrated that these were no idle words only meant to stir up illusory and unrealistic expectations. Last month, BOS inaugurated the construction of the Ojota-Opeibi link bridges and approach roads to ease congestion in Ikeja and its environs. Designed as an innovative solution to the perennial gridlock around Opeibi/Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way/Ojota/Mende corridor, the project is planned to reduce travel time for Lagos and Ikorodu bound traffic from Opebi and ease gridlock at the Opebi-Sheraton Link Road and Mobilaji Bank Anthony Way. The 3.89km Ojota-Opebi Link Bridge and approach roads consisting of 2,829 meters road length will connect Opebi Road from its tail end with Lagos-Ikorodu Road by Odo Iya-Alaro.

Speaking on a recent Channels television interview programme, BOS disclosed that actual construction work on the Fourth Mainland Bridge will commence in the second quarter of this year. According to him, “From about 30 companies that expressed interest we are now at the final stage with three shortlisted companies and I am optimistic that by March we should have completed the process”. The government he said is now at the stage of selecting one of the three shortlisted concessionaires that are interested in building the bridge so that its concrete actualization can commence by the middle of the year. This iconic project is a 37.4km freeway subdivided into three sections namely Island Section, Lagoon Section and Mainland Section. It will commence from Abraham Adesanya Roundabout in Lekki and pass through Ajah and Langbasa areas, traversing the Ajah-Badore road to the Lagoon shoreline.

Back in April 2021, BOS had conducted the ground breaking ceremony of the Lagos Rail Mass Transit Red Line Project, an event at which he handed over compensation cheques to property owners whose structures would be affected by the construction. The Red Line Light Rail will convey at least 500,000 passengers daily between the  Agbado and Marina axis. It will have eight train stations from Agbado to Oyingbo. In the 2022 budget, the sum of N153 billion  has been allocated to the Light Rail Project thus ensuring, according to the governor, that work will proceed simultaneously on both the Red and Blue Line components of the project. The Blue Line takes off from Okokomaiko in Lagos-Badagry Expressway axis to Mile 2 and then Marina on the Island. The Blue Line is planned to be serviced by six rail lines, 14 BRT lanes, three cable car projects, 20 waterway routes and one mono rail.

The BOS administration has taken a major step towards the actualization of this landmark project, which has been in the gestation, nurturing and gradual implementation process over the last two decades, when it acquired two new 330kmph intra-city metropolitan trains with a total of 10 cars for use on the Red Line Light Rail route from Patentes Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard and high speed passenger trains. On January 26, the governor announced that the state had acquired three additional trains for the Blue Line Route. It will be recalled that on assumption of office, BOS accorded priority to completing infrastructure projects initiated by his predecessor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, as well as housing and health projects started by the Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola administration, which had remained uncompleted. This has not impeded his administration from vigorously implementing his six-pointTHEMES agenda with scores of projects either completed or ongoing across the state in this regard.

It is surprising that as BOS continues to pilot the affairs of the state with a practiced and steady hand with the support of his level headed Deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, and other members of his team, a news item went viral on social media this week to the effect that members of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), APC party leaders and other stakeholders had decided that BOS would not serve a second term. Rather, the report said, it had been decided that the Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri Okunola, would fly the party’s ticket in 2023. The puerile and even idiotic reason given for this purported decision was that it is the turn of Muslims to govern the state since there have been two Christian governors after Fashola. Of course, religion has never been a factor with the discerning and sophisticated electorate of Lagos state. In the Second Republic, both the governor,  Alhaji Lateef Jakande and his Deputy, Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo, were  Muslims and the electorate voted overwhelmingly for them. In this dispensation, both Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Fashola who were in office between 1999 and 2015 were Muslims and this was not an issue with Lagosians.

Expectedly, the GAC moved swiftly to debunk this report when the body’s secretary issued a statement stressing that “The process of picking a Governor is clearly stated in the constitution. And contrary to the false impression the merchant of hate, confusion, discord and disharmony wanted to create with the post, there is no discussion of second term ticket by the GAC. It should also be pointed out that it is not within the realm of GAC to engage in picking replacements for a governor. Governor Sanwo-Olu was elected for a 4-year term which is still ongoing. The matter of replacement of the governor does not arise and is subjudice. Governor Sanwo-Olu is doing a wonderful job delivering infrastructure projects for Lagos and working daily on making the state better for all residents”.

Beyond his delivery of infrastructure projects, what is perhaps most remarkable about Sanwo-Olu’s leadership is the emotional intelligence, maturity and level headedness which he has brought to bear on the governance of the state. The unanticipated Coronavirus pandemic, which derailed the plans and projections of rich and poor countries alike across the world, would have been a perfect excuse for non-fulfillment of his campaign promises and leadership obligations by the governor especially with Lagos as the epicenter of the disease in the country. He rose admirably to the occasion responding to the crisis with an alertness, vigour and assurance that has been responsible for some of the awards he has won from credible organizations.

The #EndSars protests of October 2020 again with Lagos as the epicenter tested the governor’s leadership acumen to the core. Quite apart from the contentious incident at the Lekki Toll Gate dubbed in some quarters as the ‘Lekki massacre’, the large scale destruction of public and private property by hoodlums who hijacked the protests leading to losses worth trillions of Naira in the state was another major crisis BOS had to contend with. Again, under his resilient leadership, the state has rebounded with verve and resumed its rapid developmental course. Not only did he set up an independent panel to investigate the purported ‘Lekki massacre’, his government gave the panel a free hand and the requisite resources to carry out its assignment. Rather than seek to capitalize on the obvious discrepancies and inaccuracies in the panel’s report to discredit the entire exercise as most people in his shoes would have been tempted to do, Sanwo-Olu focused on the positives and accepted most of the panel’s recommendations within the jurisdiction of the state to act on. This is dignified and elevated statesmanship at its best.

The baseless post on his being purportedly denied the opportunity of a second term is no doubt an attempt to distract BOS and his administration. If it emanated from the opposition, it is a brilliant and legitimate tactical stroke designed to destabilize the party in power. If it was the handiwork of over bloated egos with unbridled ambitions within his administration, the governor has a responsibility to identify and weed them out. Effective leadership is not just about compassion and empathy, it also entails appropriate sanctions and ruthless action if the need arises.

LAST week Monday, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss important national and party matters and on his way out he addressed the State House Press Corp where he answered questions on his presidential ambition. Asiwaju Tinubu was most daring, courageous and audacious when he made a categorical declaration that he would run for the nation’s highest office and he had already informed the President about his intention. The 2023 polls are less than 14 months away. These are not times for tentativeness, anonymous ambiguity or timidity on the part of any serious presidential contender who seeks to make an impact in an election only months away. Speaking with the Presidential Villa reporters Corp after his private meeting with the President, Tinubu described his aspiration as a lifelong ambition.

All too often we have been saddled with accidental leaders who never deliberately desired and sought the country’s apex position of leadership and were thus largely unprepared for the tremendous responsibility. A candidate who has a passionate desire to lead the country is also more likely to have prepared himself for the demands of the office than one who is thrust on the throne by sheer luck. This does not mean of course that it is not impossible to seek public office for the pomp, glamour and material benefits rather than an ardent desire to offer transformational public service.

Tinubu naturally referred to his accomplishments and legacies as governor of Lagos State as an indication of his capacity to offer the country transformational leadership. It is difficult to credibly dispute this claim. On assumption of office in 1999, Tinubu inherited a practically collapsed and insolvent state. Coming up with an inspirational vision, a systematic programme of action, and appointing an impressive array of talents to actualize this plan, he offered the effective leadership that laid the foundation for the sustained progress Lagos State has been enjoying since then.

Some critics have faulted Tinubu’s assertion that he intends to build on the foundation and accomplishments of the Buhari administration. They referred to what they consider the “faults and failings” of the APC government even when these so called “failings” are matters of perspectives. But should an aspirant running on the APC platform like Tinubu focus on the negatives of the administration rather than its positives and attainments? I don’t get the logic. One indisputable fact is no government in the world and in history is so perfect to the extent that it could satisfy all the yearnings of every citizen. While the Buhari administration certainly has its low points, the government has also scored many big points that will remain landmarks for generations to come.

Others contend that as a kingmaker, Tinubu should not seek to become king. This may be true of a traditional, absolutist monarchy as in the Obaship institution of the Yoruba or the Emirate system in the north. However the concept of kingmaker is irrelevant and misplaced in a constitutional democracy like we run today. Anyone who has been supported by Tinubu in their quest to hold elective public office in the states or at the centre had to go through democratic elections in which the electorates are the Kings. In this context, the concept of kingmaker is meaningless. Thus, Tinubu’s concluding answer to the question is apt. His words: “Whatever is your attribute is your own opinion. Me, I want to pursue my ambition without the title of a kingmaker. You can write your literature or your story based upon your own perception”.

Responding to a question from the Presidential press Corp, on the purported presidential ambitions of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Dr Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State governor and Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Tinubu appropriately stated that he would not discuss other individuals but would rather focus on his own ambition. Another name routinely mentioned in connection with the 2023 presidential race is Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), Federal Minister for Works and Housing who seems entirely focused for now on his current public assignment. If these three accomplished individuals are perceived as being worthy of Nigeria’s presidency, then a lot of credit should be given to Tinubu’s judgement who spotted their talents and either appointed them into public office or strongly supported their electoral bid as in

However, it is difficult to find any contender across the parties who possesses Tinubu’s array of accomplishments and range of experience. As a Senator in the aborted Third Republic, he worked closely with then President of the Senate, Professor Iyorchia Ayu, and other like-minded Senators to thwart the effort of the military regime to use the National Assembly to legitimize the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election. Tinubu was a frontline player in the protracted struggle to dislodge military rule and enthrone democracy that has prevailed since 1999. His sterling record of performance as governor of Lagos State is already too well known and need not detain us here.

During his tenure as governor, Tinubu was an ardent fighter for the deepening of federal practice in Nigeria supporting his then Attorney General, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), to sue the Federal government over diverse issues on the rights of states and Lagos recorded no less than 13 victories in the Supreme Court at the time that helped expand the horizon of state autonomy in the Nigerian Federation.

After the routing of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the South-West with the exception of Lagos in the 2003 elections, Tinubu became the last man standing as governor in the region and he stood steadfastly in his party helping to rebuild and nurture the opposition contrary to the belief in some quarters that he would have no choice but to dump the AD for the then ruling PDP at the centre. That courageous stance is one reason why opposition did not wither and die in Nigeria and we have the competitive, vibrant democracy we enjoy today despite its failings and shortcomings. He has been widely applauded as a key and most critical factor in the formation of the APC and the latter’s success in dislodging a government in power at the centre through the ballot box for the first time in the country’s history.

He has built over the last three decades a network of friendships and political associates across the length and breadth of Nigeria. Before going into politics, Tinubu had achieved success in the private sector where, as an accountant, he rose to become Treasurer of the multinational oil corporation, ExxonMobil. He is thus at home both with the grammar of politics and also the algebra of economic and financial management.

When the Director-General of Tinubu Support Groups, Honourable Abdulkumin Jibrin featured on the Arise TV ‘The Morning Show’, one of the anchors persistently wanted to know the source of what he described as Tinubu’s immense wealth. He claimed that Tinubu owns a bullion van. I am not aware that the laws of Nigeria permit individuals to own bullion vans.

Again, any astute journalist ought to do his or her homework and come up with concrete and specific allegations of corruption against him that the Tinubu campaign can respond to. Beyond this, Tinubu has been out of office since 2007. That is clear 15 years ago. I remember PDP chieftains like Chief Bode George boasting that Tinubu would head for prison once he left office and no longer enjoyed immunity. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had been under the control of PDP governments at the centre between 2007 and 2015 when the APC government came to power. Could it be that the PDP governments chose to ignore allegations against Tinubu even when he was a persistent thorn in the flesh of the PDP?

All the talk about Tinubu and corruption reminds me of the travails of Chief Obafemi Awolowo throughout his political career. His adversaries accused him of amassing immense wealth as Premier of the Western Region. The vindictive Coker Commission of Enquiry into the finances of the Western Region under Awolowo accused Awo of building an empire around himself through the disbursement of public funds. Of course, these allegations remained un-litigated and unproven.

I recall that during the Second Republic, the Concord newspaper published a sensational front page story alleging that Awo owned 360 plots of land at Maroko in Lagos. This issue immediately generated widespread national controversy. How could a man who claimed to be a fighter for the poor and a democratic socialist own so much land many asked? And to tell the truth, I was quite disenchanted and apprehensive myself. Awolowo was on vacation abroad as this controversy raged.

On his return from his trip, a tumultuous crowd welcomed Awo at the Lagos airport. Interacting with journalists at the airport, Awolowo stated that he had handled and won a protracted land case for the Oniru family and he received the plots of land in lieu of his legal fees. Interestingly, he submitted and I paraphrase him here, “In Nigeria if a poor man is fighting for the poor, they will claim he is only being jealous of the rich and if a rich man is fighting for the poor, they will ask him to first of all go and commit economic suicide and join the poor before he can pursue their cause”. Awo went on to wonder how he could have established a powerful newspaper as well as help fund the establishment of viable progressive political parties if he did not have the necessary financial means.

Other issues raised against Tinubu’s ambition relate to his age and health. Of course, age is not a factor in the determination of a candidate’s competence and suitability for public office. This has again and again been demonstrated across time and space. One of the Arise TV anchors persistently sought to know what Tinubu’s real age is. The celebration of Tinubu’s birthdays over the last one and a half decades has been a major feature on the country’s political calendar. Anyone who doubts his declared age should come up with credible and incontrovertible evidence of what they consider his real age to be.

On the issue of health, we have seen all too many outwardly robust men and women, seemingly radiating health and energy, who succumbed unexpectedly to chronic ailments or even just slumped and died suddenly. On the other hand, there are several others who have been written off for their perceived fragile physical frame only to live for many productive years. On the matter of health, let no human being magisterially proclaim on the health of others as God Almighty is the sole determinant of the life or death of his ephemeral creatures.

IT is a grand irony. I refer to President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to withhold presidential assent to the new Electoral Amendment Bill sent for his approval by the National Assembly. With his refusal to grant assent, there is the strong possibility, just as happened in 2018 with the 8th Assembly, that the bill will ultimately end up not seeing the light of day after all. Two central provisions of the the new bill are the empowerment of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit election results electronically thus eliminating challenges experienced over the years with manual collation, processing and announcement of electoral outcomes as well as mandating parties to conduct their intra-party candidate selection processes exclusively through direct primaries. Consequently, the two other selection modes previously provided for, indirect primaries or consensus arrangement, had become prohibited by law.

His rejection of the mandatory direct primaries provision was the key reason cited by the President for returning the bill to the legislature unsigned for, among other reasons, its alleged prohibitive cost, essentially anti-democratic character and unfairness to smaller parties. In rejecting the mandatory direct primaries required by the amended law, the President is widely seen as having sided with state governors who had not hidden their fierce opposition to the proposition. By compelling parties to select their candidates mandatorily through direct primaries, involving the participation of all party members, the legislators obviously sought to curtail the excessive powers and influence of governors who, through their control of humongous state funds, were able to almost single-handedly determine the outcome of intra-party contests conducted through indirect primaries.

Apart from their control over statutory delegates most of whom are their appointees, the smaller number of participants in indirect primaries makes it easier for money to play a decisive role in the outcome of the process than if every registered party member is allowed to participate as required by direct primaries. The grand irony I referred to earlier is that President Buhari has been at the forefront of seeking to check the perceived excessive powers of the governors by taking initiatives to enhance greater accountability, transparency and more effective exercise of checks and balances at the lower echelons of governance in the federation.

This the President has done by pushing for greater autonomy by local governments in accessing and controlling their statutory allocations from the Federation Account and also seeking to ensure greater financial independence for the legislative and judicial arms at the state level; initiatives that the governors have continued to resist directly or indirectly. It is thus astonishing that when it came to the issue of institutionalizing direct primaries that could arguably help to deepen intra-party democracy and decisively limit the capacity of governors to maintain a stranglehold on political parties, the President has so comprehensively capitulated to the governors as it were.

No less ironical is the fact that Buhari himself emerged as presidential candidate of the APC in 2019 through direct primaries and he would have been expected to be an enthusiast of a process widely perceived as more open, transparent and reflective of the general will of party members. Even then, the impression must not be created that either the governors or the legislators are exclusively saints or sinners in this matter. Neither group is. They are all pressing not necessarily to deepen democracy but to enhance personal gains and interests. The legislators are bent no less than the governors on ensuring that the intra-party electoral process works to their advantage.

We must make no mistake about it. Neither Senators nor House of Representatives members are ordinary members of the party. The controversial humongous allowances and perks of dubious moral and even legal validity they collect give them a distinct advantage over less financially endowed party members who seek to compete for their positions within the party. But then, the governors have an advantage over the legislators in terms of access to funds to influence the outcome of intra-party contests. This is why some of the legislators have proposed that incumbents be given the right of first refusal before their positions are thrown open to interested party members, a patently anti-democratic proposition.

The truth of the matter is that the direct, indirect and even consensual modes of candidate selection are all prone to manipulation and domination by moneybags. It is just that direct primaries involving the participation of all party members will require substantially more money to influence than indirect primaries in which selected delegates have the responsibility of electing party candidates. Even then, a state governor with access to state resources and who has not alienated key stakeholders of the party is more likely than others to have the financial muscle to exert influence on the outcome of direct primaries. The challenge then is not a choice between direct or indirect primaries but rather how to substantially mitigate the role and influence of money in both intra and inter party electoral processes.

Surprisingly, the President cited the cost of the process as one of the reasons for his rejection of direct primaries even when INEC had stated that the mode would impose no additional cost on the commission. Surely, if nothing can be done now about substantially reducing the influence of money on the electoral process, then significantly expanding the base of participants in candidate selection through direct primaries will increase the financial strain and burden on money bags including governors and legislators, which is not necessarily a bad thing after all.

It is unfortunate that even though political parties constitute the most critical structures in our political process as the platforms through which members of the executive and legislatures emerge with the latter playing key roles in the composition and functioning of the judiciary, parties are essentially privatized entities in our current system run in a largely loose and informal manner. Thus, for instance, we have had since 1999, continuing contestation by contending cliques, tendencies, factions and fractions at the centre and the states fighting to the death to gain control of the soul of the dominant parties. Both the PDP and APC today are, to varying degrees, in the throes of such destabilizing and dysfunctional struggles to seize control of their structures with the 2023 elections in mind. This has negative implications both for the stability of the political system as a whole as well as the quality, effectiveness and productivity of governance.

What is clearer than ever before is that the political elite both within and beyond the two dominant parties have no inclination towards bequeathing to the country credible, transparent and open intra and inter-party elections that reflect the will of the citizenry at the levels of both party and general elections. Had they any such intention, the report of the Justice Mohammed Uwais committee on Electoral Reforms set up by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua which made far reaching proposals to strengthen the country’s electoral system structurally and procedurally would not have been left to gather dust over the years.

If public office holders of the two parties at all levels believe they can use the position of incumbency and the consequent humongous wealth available to them, to seize control of the parties and determine, arbitrarily, who holds public office at all levels, they will most likely face the prospects of intra-organizational implosion. The PDP experienced this in 2015 and it is now just trying to put its house in order again. The APC will be living in an illusory world if it believes that it cannot  suffer a similar or worse fate if it continues along the the path of muzzling intra-party unity, stifling party autonomy and organizational efficacy and enthroning the arrogance and impunity of a few as overlords over ordinary card carrying party members.

In the final analysis , what is most critical in this regard is the insistence by INEC that it has the capacity to and will always transmit elections electronically  as it did in the off season elections in Edo and Anambra states irrespective of whether or not the Electoral Bill is passed. Those who hold the parties’ by the jugular and are bent on the sustenance of non-inclusive candidate selection processes through indirect primaries may meet their electoral Waterloo in general elections that are becoming more and more difficult to manipulate and thus increasingly reflective of the will of the electorate. Aggrieved candidates and their supporters perceived to have been cheated in primaries, may wait patiently for general elections where they can punish the party for whatever perceived injustices they suffered during intra-party selection of candidates.

Whatever may have been the shortcomings of the General Ibrahim Babangida regime’s transition programme, the formal institutionalization of the party processes leading to the creation by government fiat of the defunct National Republican Party (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP), was a key factor in the emergence of a candidate like Chief MKO Abiola as the SDP flag bearer and his eventual victory in the June 12, 1993 presidential election. It is difficult to imagine that Abiola could have emerge as a viable candidate in the party systems of the first or second republics.

This column supports the proposal for the establishment of a Political Parties Registration and Monitoring Commission, which will be responsible for the registration of parties that meet set criteria; the compilation and maintenance of registers of party members as well as the conduct of all intra-party elections at all levels in addition to substantial government funding of parties that win elections relative to the degree of the magnitude of their victories. That way, the parties will be less vulnerable to being hijacked by powerful people in government be they President, governors, legislators or sundry godfathers and the generality of party members will be more effectively mobilized and empowered to exercise some degree of control over their parties.