Ambode’s Apprenticeship In Bourdillon: Now Is The Time To End The Trade

By Olusola Adegbite,Esq

imageIn the last few weeks, Nigerians have come to behold with rude shock, the subtle antagonism, dirty shenanigans, and lethal media war, which the Lagos State Government, through the instrumentality of its willing seen and unseen hands, has remorselessly waged against the immediate past Governor of the state, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN. Initially, it was tactically disguised to appear as mere routine updates of the state’s media platform, but with time, things became clearer, such that though the puppet has continued to camouflage the ongoing charade, his masters have refrained from emerging from their hiding place, choosing to stay anonymous. Sadly for the puppet in question, all of the drama so far has only help further confirm all of the peoples’ initial apprehension about him as Governor, while the supposed victim has remained larger than life.
To start with, the emergence of Mr.Akinwunmi Ambode as Governor of Lagos in 2015 is no way different from that of Mr.Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN in 2007. Both had emerged in rather uncharitable circumstances as the favoured beneficiaries of the Bourdillon political machinery that over-ran and levelled the collective ambition of all the other super-aspirants, consequent upon which they were installed in office. As fate would however have it, this similarity stands as the only convergence point casting a resemblance between the duo. Apart from they both been once-upon-a-time rookies from Bourdillon camp, nothing else seem to point them as been on the same par. They both belong to two starkly different worlds in term of those key leadership qualities such as charisma, eloquence, intellectual dexterity, political sagacity, and lastly, though quite homourous, having the suave of a Governor. While on the one hand, it can be confidently said that the enigmatic Fashola would be said to be an Usain Bolt or more within the context of these qualities, for one to cast an apparently pedestrian Ambode in the image of even an Okagbare, may amount to being too generous.
As a matter of fact, before the announcement of the result of the April 11, 2015 Governorship elections in Lagos, a lot of Lagosians were so apprehensive about the chances of the APC in that elections, not because Fashola had not so well in Office, but because the more they saw Ambode on the APC ticket, the more his candidature and his accompanying shortcomings gave them cold feet. All of what they kept seeing during the electioneering campaign did not give them any hope. Not only did Ambode flunk all of the gubernatorial debates, even his look on TV consistently casted the image of a political apprentice, always fearful that his Oga might just be looking over his shoulders, to see how badly he was doing. Sadly, this is the same man now given the job of a Night soil man, to bring down a Man that he should be aspiring to be like.
Amongst the Yorubas, it is said that nothing grieves the heart as much as seeing that it is the same water that the fished once lived in, that is now being used to cook the fish for her enemy to devour. No one cares about who the big masquerade for whom and on whose behalf Ambode has willingly lent himself is, but that Ambode will just barely 3months into his infant regime lend himself as an idle tool in the hand of these fighters, is a big disgrace. Like the Yorubas will say, even if you are dispatched on a dirty errand as a Slave, wisdom demands that at the time of delivering the message, you act like a Son. To not as a Governor know the difference between the two, is one of the greatest tragedies that can befall any leader, and Ambode may want to ask those who have gone before him. It is infantile for a man to become Governor, only to within a few months start peddling dung against the personality of another Man who so did everything to return prestige and honour to the same office, he now gladly gallivants around in.
Even if Ambode, in his now “I have arrived” pride feels that he does not owe anything to Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, at least the little benefit that sound political wisdom offers, will tell him that he today stands on a ground that Fashola once watered assiduously to make so fertile for the likes of him. Maybe because he is now been referred to as “Your Excellency”, he has quickly been robbed of the benefit of hindsight to know that there was no way he would have defeated a more charismatic and eloquent personality like Jimi Agbaje, if not for Fashola’s eight years of Sterling performance. Again, the current disgusting behavior of the Lagos Governor makes one recall with nostalgia, the words of our elders who would say in Yoruba that, “Ai se dede Ara Aiye, ni mu ni ranti Ero Orun”. When translated to the White man’s language, this simply means, “It is the useless behaviour of those still living that makes people remember the dead”. Ambode’s ongoing juvenile pandering to the dictates of his paymasters is sure to soon bring Lagosians to the point where they wish Fashola was still in Office.
After all, even though Fashola was installed by the same Lagos power brokers, but all through his eight years in office, he never for one day cut the picture of an errand boy to the Bourdillion Merchant. Rather he exemplified purposeful leadership, uncommon finesse and marshaled the affairs of the state with tact and political industry. Shamefully, the same cannot be said of Mr.Ambode. He has found it difficult to disengage himself from the umbilical cord of those who gave birth to him, to the extent that, whether by the design of those controlling him or by his own deficiency in being a strong personality, he has simply disappeared into oblivion, and reduced the Governor’s Office in Lagos to that of a Primary School Captain. The sum of his behavior thus far appears to suggest that, he simply does not understand the difference between been a once-upon-a–time Asiwaju’s choice for Governor and now being a Governor indeed. He seems desperate to fulfill the proverbial saying that, “where a House is yet to be put asunder, it can only mean that the Son from yonder is yet to come of age”.
To apply more political sense at this juncture, can only be good for Ambode. He needs to gather the remnant of his inner recesses and interrogate all of his wrong steps so far. No one will teach him, he must teach himself that the wisest of men do not fight those who built the bridge for them to cross over. It is not those who sponsored him from wherever that built his bridge, Fashola built that bridge and he should not fool himself to think that because of his current descent to the mud, the people will suddenly abandon Fashola and queue up behind him. Ambode must take notice, that not only did Fashola perform with distinction in Lagos, he for the first time since the 1975-76, 1979-83, and 1984-85 combined regimes of Murtala, Jakande and Buhari signposted the unmatchable standard of the kind of respect a great leader must command. If Ambode has any difficulty living with this fact, it is better for him to learn while toiling to transform himdself from being an errand boy to being a Governor, than for him to continue to insult that Office by remaining an errand boy, even while everyone sees him as a Governor.

*Adegbite, Esq. is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

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