Tag: Muiz Banire

Since my Advanced Level study years at the Ogun State Polytechnic (now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic), Abeokuta, in the mid-eighties, I had come to admire one of the quotes in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1803-1882) “The Conduct of Life.” The edifying book is a collection of essays published in 1860. Emerson was the first American author known to receive payment for delivering a talk when he was paid $5 and oats for his horse.

The quote, which can be found on page 91 of the book, goes thus: ‘The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.’ The nuance of this quote was what came to my mind since the newest “political saint” in the Centre of Excellence’s political firmament, Muiz Banire, protégé of Oba Olatunji Hamzat and former Commissioner for Transport/Environment in Lagos State for 12 years, threw all decorum to the winds and in the process, portraying himself to the discernible as hypocritical harbinger of false-hearted struggle against what he calls political ‘imposition’.

So, when l read his largely duplicitous recent paper delivered in Osogbo, my immediate response was: ‘why would he be writing something that is capable of projecting a party he currently serves as national legal adviser as a bunch of dictators?’

While still ruminating over the genuineness of his intent, he, symptomatic of a loose cannon – this time in a November 9, 2014 – granted another interview to Premium Times, a popular online newspaper. His latest imprudence was titled: ‘APC may lose Lagos in 2015, National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire, warns.’ He actually threatened brimstone when asked to name those he accused of using state resources to promote personal political causes. He declared: ‘We are going to define that very soon. Any time from December 3rd, we’ll start defining and documenting it appropriately.’

When asked if Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s influence is waning, particularly in Lagos APC, he said: ‘Number one, APC is a new creation, it’s not ACN. APC is a much bigger party, and it’s a conglomeration of several interests. So, to that extent, one person cannot be in charge again. So for now, everybody is in charge, every party member is in charge now unlike before. So that’s the difference.’ And surprisingly, Muiz deludingly thought himself to be one of those in charge, may be because he had the undeserving privilege of imposing candidates in the past.

His final word in the interview was that the people should not ‘feel intimidated by anybody because nobody is god.’ He equally stated that he believes that ‘…. we have equal rights to aspire to anything. And you need not have any godfather before you can be anything, particularly in APC.’ Let him tell the world the true statement of his bank statement in 1999 and whatever he is today is courtesy of Oba Hamzat and particularly Asiwaju. What are these people to this man of ingratitude?

Banire’s outbursts are covert vituperations on Asiwaju Tinubu, former Lagos governor and political iconoclast. Let me quickly state here that while Tinubu is fallible, being a human but Banire is an ungrateful element masquerading as champion of the people. What should be of concern is that Banire, for obvious selfish political reasons, has chosen to wash in public what he has overtime consistently benefited from. If he thinks he would at the end of the day benefit from his own hypocrisy by destroying Asiwaju, his waterloo awaits him.

Banire is the type of self professed leader that Nigerians, especially Lagosians should be wary of in 2015 and beyond. Lagosians do not deserve any young man who chooses to lead by precept rather than example. It is necessary at this juncture to give an adumbrated dissection of how this former poor ‘toddler’ lecturer (yes, he was a mister when he joined government) came into the political limelight of Lagos. He rode on the political influence of his mentor/godfather, Oba Hamzat, father of current Commissioner for Works in the state, to win Asiwaju’s confidence. In fact, Tinubu was reticent when Banire was recommended to him by Kabiyesi Hamzat who was using him as the caretaker (rent collector) for his estates and also to write minutes of meeting at political gatherings.

That was how he gained inroad, first as special adviser and later as commissioner for transportation in the Tinubu administration before he was later nominated by Asiwaju into the BRF government in his first term. He ended by spending 12 years in government. All he achieved was through recommendations from godfathers and after some years, he sees himself as a stalwart in Mushin area where he became a ‘master of imposition’, relying largely, on his reviled Tinubu influence within the party. It is surprising to read the same Banire saying as the Lagos APC primaries approach: ‘There is a tendency of imposition on the people…So, I believe that it must not even be allowed to happen now, even if it had been happening in the past. It is not progressive.’ At what time did Banire realise that imposition was not progressive? May be at the point where he believes he has made so much money because we know that he was far from being comfortable before he joined government when he was a proud owner of a ramshackle automobile.

Whoever doubts Banire’s profile as a master of imposition should go to his constituency in Mushin. Seye Oladejo, former chairman of Mushin Local Government and now Special Adviser, Commerce and Industry was a victim of Banire’s highhandedness. But for Asiwaju’s good sense of judgement, the man would not today be in the BRF government. It was BRF that nominated him but Banire wrote a letter to Asiwaju, threatening to leave the party if Oladejo was given the slot. He does not even have simple courtesy for the governor. For goodness sake, how do we qualify what Banire wanted Tinubu to do for him then if not master imposition? Up till today, this deceitful chief campaigner against imposition in APC is a leading light in that direction since he still writes names of ‘who gets what’ without recourse to the people. Yet, he talks about popular candidates when he was not even popular when Kabiyesi Hamzat rescued him from hustling in life.

Let us ask Banire if he is ready to henceforth follow due process himself. The other time when his ‘anointed candidate’ was not elected speaker of the House of Assembly, he threw decorum to the dogs because his bid to impose, as godfather himself, his will on the House failed. Also, he opposed Yemi Ali in Mushin Odi-Olowo but Tinubu stood his ground against his whims and caprices. This same man tried to smuggle at least four persons into BRF’s government without the governor’s consent. In the current ensuing Lagos governorship race, Banire says as ‘a national officer of the party, we are meant to be neutral,’ but his partisan neutrality knows who he does not want and that person according to him is the ‘so-called anointed candidate (Akinwunmi Ambode).’ What is the definition of this unjustifiable insolence?

Banire is fast becoming a misguided element that lacks the moral suasion to be in the vanguard of fight against imposition. Was it not through imposition that he became the national legal adviser of ACN and now APC? All those queuing behind him in his current outbursts, known and unknown had been at one time or the other beneficiaries of imposition from Asiwaju and by extension, the progressives’ leadership. His act of venting his spleen on Ambode, smacks of undue pride from a man who has acquired and is still acquiring so much from Tinubu and the progressive platform that he unthinkably wants to destroy because of selfish political ambitions.

Banire is a pious hypocrite posturing as virtuous. Anything that is not for him, in his warped view, is not democratic. He preaches the rule of law while his eyes are on the Lagos governorship that is far beyond his egotistic grip. Of course, yours sincerely knows that for people like him, there is always a hidden agenda. But he must realise one naked fact: The hypocrite is naturally doomed!