Of the gubernatorial primaries that took place across the country last weekend, the one in Lagos was decidedly the most watched.
The news media framed it not as a contest among the 12 aspirants seeking the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket, but as a titanic clash of wills between former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his successor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN).
Tinubu, the media reported unequivocally, had chosen and was set to impose a candidate on the party in the person of former Lagos State Accountant-General Akinwunmi Ambode, and Lagos being the stronghold of the APC, all that remained was the coronation. Yes, a primary would be held, but it would be a mere formality; the result was already known.
APC’s National Legal Adviser, Dr Muiz Banire, appeared to have given some impetus to the “imposition” in a rambling interview he gave the online journal Premium Times several weeks ago, leading some to quip that, with a legal adviser like Banire, which political party needs a well-placed insider to foul its nest?
Ambode himself unwittingly gave stories of his alleged preferment some credence when, on the the eve of the primaries, he was reported to have urged other contestants to withdraw from the race because he had already won.
Fashola, the media reported just as unequivocally, was seething with resentment that, whereas it was left to governors in other states to handpick their successors, he was allowed no say in determining who would take over from him. There was no better time than now, at the end of his non-renewable tenure, to assert himself.
To that end, the reports went on, he had picked his own candidate from among the aspirants, to do battle with Tinubu’s candidate at the primaries. He would match Tinubu Naira for Naira, dollar for dollar, and Lagosians, nay Nigerians, would get to see the real Fashola, not the person who had been forced to operate in Tinubu’s shadow for roughly eight years.
If he was persuaded that his candidate had been cheated out of victory by hook or crook, Fashola would not hesitate to dump the APC and take shelter under Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) umbrella, not minding the consequences. If that happened, the PDP would capture Lagos. Fashola, many media outlets reported breezily, was set to beard the Lion of Bourdillon in his redoubt.
I don’t know how Tinubu came to be called the Lion of Bourdillon. To be sure, there is an agreeable cadence to the title, and he does live on Bourdillon Avenue, in Ikoyi, Lagos. Other than that, the term would seem misplaced. He does not have the muscular build of a lion. He does not roar. More often than not, he is soft-spoken
But I digress.
Just to show that he meant business, Fashola, it was said, had dispatched state officials to Ambode’s residence on the eve of the primaries to bundle him out of the place on the grounds that, as a private individual, he was not entitled to live in government quarters.
These were the tales doing the rounds in newspaper newsrooms, in gossip magazines and on the misnamed social media, all travelling at the speed of the Internet, not forgetting peppersoup joints and commuter buses, all of them claiming to derive from “authoritative” or “informed” or “reliable” sources, and all of them “speaking on condition of anonymity.”
Thus was the stage for a titanic clash of wills between Fashola who, reports said, had resolved grimly to bring down the house down if his candidate did not emerge from the primaries clutching the APC’s gubernatorial ticket, and Tinubu who was just as determined to take out any obstacle in the way of his candidate securing the same ticket
The die was cast.
I was troubled and conflicted.
Troubled, because my mind raced back to the impasse arising from the selection of the SDP gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State, in 1991. That conflict paved the way for the NRC candidate Michael Otedola to win the governorship by default.
With Lagos State in the hands of the NRC that had called for the annulment of the 1993 presidential election won by the SDP candidate Bashorun Moshood Abiola and supported it enthusiastically, the resistance to that infamy was less than optimal.
Could that happen again, and perhaps throw up an Obanikoro who as Minister of State for the Army routinely deployed soldiers to terrorize crews working on public projects in Lagos, or horrible thought, a rampaging Fayose who operates on the principle that statesmanship consists in smashing things up and turning the clock back?
Having lived in Lagos on and off since 1963, I found those prospects really troubling
I was also conflicted because, as one who has identified with the progressive cause in all his adult years and can claim some familiarity with Tinubu and Fashola, what should I do amidst reports that the twain were at daggers-drawn, with frightful consequences for the progressive agenda?
Pretend that I had no inkling of all the tales that were being peddled – tales that might well turn out to contain a grain or two of truth? Call their senior aides to find out what was going on, given that Tinubu and Fashola may not be reachable in the charged political atmosphere? Or call them, hoping that you might be lucky to get through and that they would open up.
When you reach a certain age in our culture, it translates into generational capital you can draw on. If in addition you have acquired some professional standing, you feel entitled to raise issues, confident that in those circles that really count, your bona fides would not be questioned.
So I called Tinubu and Fashola.
Tinubu’s position is already on the public record. I have nothing to add to it.
What Fashola told me — and this was before Tinubu’s statement was published— tallied in all essentials with that statement.
The contest, they have said, was never about individuals. It was about Lagos State, its future, and the well-being of its residents. No aspirant was shut out of the contest. The process was fair, and the outcome unexceptionable. The clash of wills on which the imminent implosion of the APC was grounded was the confection of talebearers.
The loser in this narrative is the PDP that had stoked the fire assiduously with help from its proxies, persuaded that an implosion in the APC would be its sure path to power in Lagos State.
Now, Chief Olabode George and company will have to devise another battle plan.
