Before his election as Lagos State Governor, I once met candidate Babajide Sanwo Olu at an event. He seemed a bit tentative, a little bit unsure even though he tried to provide an answer to every question. There is no doubt that he has grown on the job, more sure-footed and even likeable. You cannot accuse the governor of lack of intelligence or imagination.
But, let's be frank. There are many in Lagos state as intelligent, if not more intelligent than Sanwo Olu, who will never be Governor, Deputy Governor, Commissioner or even Permanent Secretary. Many will end their careers as middle level managers in some nameless organizations.
The difference is timing and that word, "Connection". At the right time, Babajide Sanwo-Olu became connected to the "Emperor" of Lagos, the one and only Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and regardless of what the people of Lagos thought, it was decreed that Sanwo-Olu would be the next governor of Lagos. So said the "Emperor", so it came to be.
Many in Lagos had no problem with Akinwunmi Ambode, Sanwo-Olu's one term predecessor. To some of us, he was pro-active. We could see what he was trying to do with Lagos and thought that Lagos would be a good place if Ambode was allowed to do a second term. Despite his struggles, it was clear that Ambode could not survive the primaries of the APC having fallen out with the "Emperor". He was sent into political oblivion and was even set up for the EFCC to hound. Ambode did only one term not because the people of Lagos did not want him but because the Godfather who controls Lagos did not want him.
Before Ambode, Babatunde Fashola had a similar problem. Do you remember the loud groan by APC members, "Na project we go chop?" Fashola was said to have spent too much money on projects and very little on servicing the wheels of the APC spun by the Jagaban. He eventually became a "good boy", negotiated his way and served a second term.
Today, Nigerians go to the polls to elect their governors and state assembly members. All over the place, it is tense. In Lagos, it is like the 3rd World- War has been unleashed. Everything is being deployed in the battle: thuggery, arson, violence, false ethnic propaganda, intimidation, Oro, blatant partisan political intervention of otherwise neutral Obas, etc.
This time last month, if anybody had suggested that Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Tinubu's boy, would be in a battle of his life to serve a second term as Governor of Lagos State, the person would have been accused of drinking too much "ogogoro". Apart from PDP's Jandor, who else did you see his posters around Lagos? All that changed on February 25, when Peter Obi, the guy with no poster, no structure, who does not give "shishi" and is purportedly supported by 'only four guys tweeting from one room', dusted the "Emperor" in his supposed homebase and stronghold!
That development sent shivers down the spine of many who have depended on the morsels from Alausa for their bread and butter. And so, the decision to wake up the Jagaban Army, assemble all hands-on-deck, clean and dirty, to launch a no-holds-bared counterattack against these "Obidient" people who are attempting to foist 'sacrilege' on Lagos!
Sanwo Olu may not have had this kind of problem if he was not seen as the godson of the "Emperor".
Sanwo-Olu's greatest asset, the asset that made him Governor, has become his greatest liability … his albatross. I don't think there are many who will say that Sanwo Olu is a terrible governor. The battle in Lagos today is not really a battle against Babajide Sanwo-Olu. It has to do with the coming together on one side of many who are scared that an individual with insatiable appetite is deploying enormous resources obtained from Lagos State to acquire complete control of Nigeria, a nation of over two hundred million people. Another fear of the Sanwo-Olu camp is that scary word, PROBE. Will a new landlord at Alausa open the books and sniff at what exactly has been going on with the enormous resources of Lagos State. There is just too much at stake!
Make no mistake, the people against a Sanwo-Olu returning as governor are not just "Obidients" or Igbos. There are many Yorubas and people from across Nigeria who are just mad and tired of the politics of Lagos. They can't understand how for a long time, one individual has pocketed a whole Lagos. The politics of Lagos has been the politics of what one man says and what he wants. That is why there are suddenly, alignments and re-alignments, and many abandoning Jandor, despite his significant campaign, to join forces with Labour Party's previously little-known Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV), who with the Peter Obi connection, is believed to have the best chance of wrestling power from Sanwo-Olu. One thing is clear; my extremely talented sister, Funke Akindele is not likely to be Deputy Governor of Lagos.
How will the war end? Nobody knows. The fact is that the people in the Tinubu camp are rattled, very rattled. People like MC Oluomo is said to be issuing open threats against those not willing to vote for Sanwo-Olu. The strategy appears to be to scare as many of the anti-Tinubu group as possible and keep them away from voting. There are so many factors that will be at play today: INEC, BVAS, Hackers, Police, Area Boys, Obas, Dollars, etc. Victory for either side will not be easy.
Fascinating!
See you next week.
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