Having lived a lie for eight years, the governorship of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu eventually got its comeuppance and suffered an irreparable damage in its dying days. Lies,vindictiveness, paternalism and despotism of the worst kind- the essential staple of the governorship- coalesced in the impeachment of Otunba Olufemi Pedro by a House of Assembly shamelessly doing the bidding of the governor. This servile and small-minded act was carried out clear 24 hours after Otunba Pedro had resigned his position as the Deputy Governor. And a governorship started to unravel.

Flustered by the censure of an outraged public, the Tinubu administration has reached for lies as usual to explain away the indefensible and becloud the obvious and the crystal-clear. Its self-inflicted discomfiture was apparent in its response in form of an advertorial to a deluge of criticisms of the purported impeachment. The advertorial in some Sunday papers of May 13,2007,entitled “In Defence of Truth : Asiwaju Tinubu and the Impeachment Saga”,was confused for the most part and confirmed the worst fears of the public about the Tinubu administration .It reeked of arrogance, vindictiveness and inconsistency. Apparently, these gentlemen have never heard of Usman Dan Fodio’s admonition:” Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it”.


Thanks to the advertorial, the public was able to confirm,once again,that Governor Tinubu ordered his House of Assembly to impeach an empty office because Otunba Pedro committed an unpardonable “sin” by defecting to Labour Party. The House and the Tinubu administration had vehemently denied that the impeachment was about defection. Indeed this defection,which is not an impeachment offence,never made it onto any of the numerous notices of impeachment which the House cooked up in its desperate attempt to nail Otunba Pedro.

But the advertorial in question unwittingly put the administration and the House on the spot by declaring that the Lagos State Governor had tried to forestall “moves in the House to initiate impeachment proceedings against the Deputy Governor following his decision to decamp to Labour Party”. The advertorial, tongue in cheek,said the governor demonstrated “magnanimity” by causing a letter to be advertised in the newspapers” in fervent effort to seek public support for his pleas to the House to pardon his deputy on account of the defection”.


That the governor pleaded for Otunba Pedro is a blatant lie.In any case,why would a governor,except a paternalistic and deluded one, pretend to seek pardon when an offence has not been committed? Defection is a right; not a crime. Indeed, the whole House of Assembly and the governor defected from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Action Congress (AC).Nobody asked for their scalp. Nobody called for the recall of the legislators: no one called for the impeachment of the governor, not to talk of begging for his pardon.


Even so, what the advertorial failed to mention was that the governor’s publicized plea then was a dubious one. It sought to make an issue out of the defection and set the stage for future punitive action while also contriving to portray the governor as tolerant. Which explains its ambivalent tone. The governor, in one breath,categorically said Otunba Pedro had not committed any offence as he had only exercised his freedom of association by his defection.


In another breath, however,he argued that he reserved the right not to involve him in governance again because of that same defection.

And that was exactly what the governor did. He ambarked on a whole gamut of mean-spirited actions against Otunba Pedro totally unexpected of his exalted office,such as physically barring the former Deputy Governor from the state executive council meeting in a way reminiscent of the treatment dished out to Pedro’s predecessor,Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele.Civil servants and security aides attached to the former Deputy Governor were also made to spy on him and sabotage his activities.

The leave issue,which was also the subject of the worst form of spin in the May 13 advertorial, arose out of the vindictive actions of the governor.Here,too,as even the letters published by the Tinubu government clearly reveal,the former Deputy Governor acted with decorum and respect for his boss.Otunba Pedro had asked for his 2007 pro rata annual leave to last from 26th March to 16th April,2007.

But the governor, clearly irritated by the sight of his deputy, asked him to proceed on a leave of absence till May 22,seven days from the handover of government . Otunba Pedro seized the opportunity of that leave to attend to his health. He left Nigeria on April 23rd.He is still abroad. Pray, where is “defiance” in a reminder by Otunba Pedro before he left the country that he had only asked for leave till April 16th ? Indeed, Otunba Pedro had dutifully presented himself for work on April 16th,only to be told to flee for his life as some thugs were being organized to storm his office for daring to defect to Labour Party.

The maximum punishment contemplated for Otunba Pedro by the governor – impeachment – was not applied before now because the Tinubu administration had reasoned that its backlash could affect the installation of its governorship candidate.It was not out of magnanimity or tolerance as falsely claimed. And the desperation of this governor and his House of Assembly was exposed when, clearly seeing that they had left the impeachment too late with Otunba Pedro’s resignation, they nevertheless went ahead to impeach an empty office.


Always a gentleman,Otunba Pedro had borne insults, libel and atrocious injustice against him with his characteristic equanimity. In this sordid matter, he has emerged a symbol of amazing tolerance and restraint .The governor alleged without evidence that Otunba Pedro was planning to rope him(Tinubu) into a phantom coup.He promptly ordered Pedro’s campaign bill board removed around the Alausa seat of government. He equally said he could not trust his deputy with the treasury even when only the governor controls the state purse. Later,he called Otunba Pedro a traitor for joining other candidates in protesting the flawed governorship election in Lagos State.The governor failed to call his mentor,Vice-President Atiku Abubakar,a traitor for making the same case,demanding that election results in the 36 states,including Lagos,be cancelled.

Even now,the Tinubu administration continues to make wild and unsubstantiated allegations linking Otunba Pedro and the People’s Democratic Party with its many headaches. Perhaps,one of their most sustained lies is about a Council of States meeting where Otunba Pedro allegedly moved a “motion that the proceeds of the excess crude be used to fund the Independent Power Project of the Federal Government”.Trust the Tinubu government, this incoherent rubbish became a major impeachment allegation. Only that the House gave a slightly modified version of it by saying the money went to Delta State instead of IPP. But this allegation is a comedy of errors.


First, they don’t move motions at meetings of Council of States, a gathering of the president, past presidents and state governors It is strictly an advisory body. Its word is not law. So, whatever Otunba Pedro or anybody said at the meeting was not cast in stone. Otunba Pedro represented the governor at the meeting. Second, his contribution in question was that the Federal Government had no business sitting on the excess crude oil money in the face of decaying infrastructure .That position ,in effect, synchronized with that of the Lagos State government that it should be given its share of the money to spend as it wished. The minutes of the meeting can be obtained to know the truth.

It is instructive that Otunba Pedro’s contribution at the Council of States meeting was made in 2005.But,surpisingly,it became an impeachment allegation only in April 2007.Yet,the governor had repeatedly sent Otunba Pedro back to the same Council of States to represent him after the 2005 meeting. Perhaps, to continue to move more injurious “motions”?

All these lies portray an administration on its last leg, with its credibility in tatters. Only the truth can set it free. But,sadly,it continues digging itself deeper and deeper into the abyss of lies.Where cometh its salvation?

Well, I love Tinubu and to be candid he has done so well for Lagos.He stands as one of my few heros.
While i will not be caustic and full of venom like my brother here i will say WHAT IS HAPPENING IN LAGOS IS A BIG SHAME!!!
i am so disappointed, anyway the Bible has said it all "do not put your trust in Nobles"
I wonder what he was fighting baba iyabo for anyways.
For all the good things he has done,this has brought so much shame on those of us who still appreciate him.

Lack of Checks and balances is the overriding factor. The word executive and legislative might as well be fused into one single word to make it only 2 arms of government:-

The "Execlative" and The Judiciary .

GNature:

Lack of Checks and balances is the overriding factor. The word executive and legislative might as well be fused into one single word to make it only 2 arms of government:-

The "Execlative" and The Judiciary .

Gnature you are sooooooooo correct.I guess it's one of the price you pay for a budding democrazy(sic).i read a book once about the American(US) democracy and it went like:the senate as we have it today didn't happen until the Nixon saga the famous watergate and then reps and sen were trying to save their hides.so the senate woke up and gave the Executive a fight and power changed so suddenly that the Nixon admin found itself out.It's playing out again in the Iraqi saga.
It will come to that someday soon.

For once. I agree wtih you StreetCyph. Tinubu is out of control. And please explain to me how Tinubu has done well, in eight long years, lagos is the same.
In my opinion, he has failed lagos and could have done much more for lagos if he wasnt too busy operating 16 foreign accounts e.t.c and carting away lagos money.