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Impeachment Saga: Obasa Can Possibly Learn From This…

By Kayode Fasua

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For septuagenarian Cardinal James Odunmbaku, popularly known as Baba Eto, the day broke before time. Party faithful had as early as 3am swarmed his hotel abode at the Allen Avenue area of Lagos, not necessarily to pay obeisance, but to lay final touches, in the rush hour.

It was a day finally scheduled for the Lagos All Progressives Congress primary election. The all-important elementary poll had been postponed three times. And at last, the final hour came.

Yes, there was a rock of Gibraltar in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the APC National Leader and ‘Final Word’ in Lagos politics who was being looked upon to map out his strategy to show the Lagos State governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, the exit door.

For Tinubu, Ambode had overstayed his welcome and no amount of entreaties could save him from losing out of the second term race, for as long as the latter remain in the APC. On why Tinubu, the Jagaban Borgu of the popular Borgu Emirate of Niger State took this hardline position, is a story that shall suffice shortly.

However, on the day finally slated for the APC primary election, there was palpable anxiety in the Tinubu camp, a camp that had already taken a step of no return in the candidature of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the General Manager of Lagos State Housing Development Authority, a parastatal under the Ambode administration.

The reasons were not far-fetched. In the first place, history was about being made as, apart from Chinwoke Mbadinuju who was a sitting Peoples Democratic Party governor in Anambra State who lost a re-election ticket during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, no known sitting governor had been recorded to have kissed the dust in that fashion.

Still to the fear, shortly before the party’s primaries, the streets buzzed with the rumour that Ambode had earmarked N55 billion to influence voters in the party’s direct primary election. This staggering figure, if it was real, it was feared, could sway most of Sanwo-Olu’s already fattened prospective voters. But the Ambode men immediately came out to dispel the rumour, and their denial was later tackled as some Tinubu die-hard supporters in the civil service reportedly helped farm out necessary files alleging slush money tacked to the embattled governor.

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Even if the Ambode misfortune of not securing a second term ticket was considered unprecedented, it would seem that not much thought had been given to the fact that since 1999 when Tinubu started out as Lagos governor and assumedly the embraced godfather thereafter, no deputy governor had secured a second term ticket.

In fact, in the Tinubu eight-year reign as governor, there were three deputy governors in which his first deputy, Mrs. Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, and her successor, Mr. Femi Pedro fell to ‘political palace coup’ in their times.

In the tenure of Babatunde Fashola who succeeded Tinubu, there were two deputy governors in succession. Mrs. Sarah Sosan was deputy in the first tenure, while Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire had her turn in the second tenure.

Indeed, Fashola nearly lost his second term bid but for what re-collectors described as his political sagacity and the intervention of Tinubu’s mum, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, of blessed memory.

At the Lagos APC governorship primary, however, it was a crushing defeat for Ambode, who despite last-minute protest of discrepancies in the list of voters, was simply humbled. Sanwo-Olu defeated him with a wide margin. Apparently faced with inescapable realities or possibly acting in his strides, Ambode accepted defeat and embraced Sanwo-Olu, promising to remain in the party.

But why, unlike Fashola, did Ambode fail to come anything near a political swan-song for Tinubu, widely famed as the Lion of Bourdillon; a man who would be President? Why did Tinubu not forgive the governor ‘his sins’, after much pleading, reportedly from President Muhammadu Buhari, state governors and traditional rulers at the period?

Sources in the Lagos APC then offered some possible causes. Some pointed at the governor’s alleged exclusionist policies, in which key party leaders and members were sidelined to the advantage of ‘strangers’, who dictated affairs of his administration.

“Even there were occasions that Tinubu would invite him (Ambode) for talks and he would tell Jagaban that he was busy; not just that, there was a day Baba Eto was delayed for a whole day, whereas the governor was in the office and the old man had to leave dejectedly, unattended to,” said an APC leader who craved anonymity.

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Another issue cited for Ambode’s fall was the scrapping of the Private State Partnership (PSP) environmental sanitation agency said to have been ceded to Odunmbaku, for the upkeep of loyal APC members at the very bottom of the ladder. Indubitably, Odunmbaku, a Celestial Church of Christ top cleric in Lagos, is Tinubu’s unspoken political deputy. In the place of the PSP, Ambode introduced Cleaner Lagos Initiative, placed under the control of Visionscape, an environmental firm of which Tinubu had no idea. But from all indications, however, the Cleaner Lagos Initiative failed to gel, as under it, Lagos was dirtier with heaps of refuse and putrefying odour, as evidence.

Yet, a sensational dimension was added to the Ambode political trajectory, as some people attributed his inability to secure another term to the friction that once occurred between his wife and the Government House chaplain. The said cleric was sacked from the Government House allegedly for ‘dishonouring the governor’s wife by not attending to her during anointing service.’ “After the man was sent away, he looked up unto heaven and said ‘God, if truly I serve you, let this tenure be the last here for this couple’,” a civil servant, who claimed to witness the scenario, recalled.

Sundry reasons were equally adduced to the irreconcilable differences that played out between the Lagos godfather and his godson. But the real reason for Ambode’s ouster may not be fully known until maybe, after the publication of his memoir.

What can be established rather unarguably is that, if Ambode had not run out of favour with Tinubu-his steely entrenched godfather, he would have secured a second term as Governor of Lagos State.

This vivid episode thus chants up forested cognomen in the ongoing ordeal of Mudashiru Obasa, the Lagos lawmaker who was until recently, Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly.  Obasa was impeached by his colleagues two weeks ago while he was away on an overseas trip, expectedly with the familiar reasons of corruption allegations and other legislative sins.

For an Obasa who can best be classified as a political Methuselah, one who had been in the living room of power since ‘the days of Abraham’ to be booted out ferociously with the ease of a harmless goalkick, speaks volume.

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Has Obasa, the Scion of Agege political fiefdom of the Tinubu progressives’ fold, since his ouster as Speaker, ever taken time to look straight ahead in deep contemplation, to ascertain the fountain of his trouble? Assuredly, it would seem that he is yet to read ‘The Prince’, the age-long treatise written by Nicollo Machiavelli on why battle over power is as pleasantly diabolical as it is heartlessly pleasant.

For a man, who through the grace of God and evidently the backing of his political godfather, has been in the Lagos House of Assembly for a period of four terms and had enjoyed the last three terms as Speaker, to kiss the dust in an ignoble manner, simply say of his loss of grip on the godfather. In clear words, the anger of his godfather is kindled against him, as in the case with Biblical Kings against erring subjects.

Why did Obasa’s mind stray into the expressed thoughts of planning to succeed Sanwo-Olu as Governor of Lagos in 2027? Would it not have been safe to first, like a plane trying to fly up or land, seek permission of the Control Tower? Perhaps, he was unaware that the name of another possible aspirant known as Seyi Tinubu, was also being touted at the period he was engulfed in the expensive fantasy of becoming the next Governor of Lagos State.

Now, Obasa is out as Speaker but remains a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly. He has two choices, to wit: be ready to present a new image of a fearless political agitator and bear its unpleasant consequences; or stay relevant in the corridors of power by keeping sealed lip and pretending to be alright with his situation.

Gallivanting around Lagos streets with the tantrum of “I remain Speaker” apparently takes the appearance of an impending political bad crash and he’ll get it in full dose.

With these two courses of action available to beleaguered Obasa, no advice to him may be needed anymore.

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