This is about Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has proven, irrespective of the outcome of the primaries in Lagos, that he is the only cock the crows in the politics of Lagos.
Alvan Ewuzie
As Nigeria goes through another four-year ritual given the imminence of another election circle, observers are treated to the trend of struggle for power. There are no real surprises in the array of incidents on the heels of struggle for party tickets. The trend of allegations and counter-allegations have not ceased. Those who call the shots and hold party structures have held sway and shown their prowess. The novelty of direct primaries as introduced by the All Progressive Congress (APC) at the state level is a departure from the norm. It gives the obvious advantage to the people at the grassroots to choose candidates and escape the previous imposition of candidates by those who hold the levers of power. Those who hold the structure at the the lowest levels would be sure to reap the fruits of direct primaries.
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Two states provide lessons in the process as spectacle. Imo and Lagos states come to mind in this respect. I have since held my muse from inspiring any article in the matter unfolding in Imo in the area of successor to Rochas Okorocha. I will still restrain my muse from veering in that direction even as the primary there was steeped in confusion as I penned this. I may yet make a comment in this intervention or later, if and when I allow the muse to move in that direction. What the former governor of Lagos has done in Lagos seems to have given a political direction to Governor Rochas Okorocha. I go no further in that direction. This is about Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who has proven, irrespective of the outcome of the primaries in Lagos, that he is the only cock the crows in the politics of Lagos. As this was being written, the coast was yet unclear for any authoritative winner in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in lagos. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who was made by Tinubu, had fallen out of favour with The Godfather. The man who made him is set to undo him. Tinubu has become the ultimate godfather and leader of political movement in Lagos. But there is a tendency for him to bring down those he brought up. The immediate past governor, Babatunde Fashola, came under Tinubu’s hammer during his second term contest. He was as good as gone but for the intervention of prominent people in Lagos, including the Oba of Lagos. He did not fail the test of performance, just as Ambode did not. There may have been attitudinal issues as being levelled against Ambode. It did not matter how well you transformed Lagos, as the two governors have done, it was The Godfather who determined that you have met the standard and were thus worthy of re-election. Tinubu is a man of power. He knows how to get it and knows what to do with it. When he became governor in 1999, he methodically erased the power and influence of Abraham Adesanya, on whose back he rode to power, and effectively entrenched himself. He put together a structure that has seen him calling the shots in the politics of Lagos, a move that threatened to extend to the South-West. As the saying goes, headhunters never let anyone with a knife go behind them. Tinubu know that an Ambode emergence would reduce his relevance. However, there is something ominous about a mother that eats her children. The Godfather has made the loud point of being the major factor in Lagos politics but there ought to be a limit to raw display of power. The people of Lagos should determine where the pendulum of power should swing.
As things stand, one man holds the ace and he is the only cock that crows in the state.
READ ALSO: Lagos guber primary: Ambode concedes to Sanwo-Olu