By Shaka Momodu

I cannot claim to know Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila,
the man who was the House minority leader of
the 7th House of Representatives. He contested
for the speakership of the 8th House of
Representatives and failed in a transparent
contest. He finally emerged as the House majority
leader, after a gang of party members, doing the
bidding of some powerful forces, held the nation
to ransom for seven weeks. But I have heard a
couple of good things about him from political
discourse with friends and colleagues. He is said
to be a fierce believer in the principles of party
discipline and party supremacy. This is a good
quality, no doubt. He is also said to be loyal to a
fault to his godfather, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Well,
time will tell whether this is a vice or a virtue.
I have also heard about Gbajabiamila’s not-so-
sterling past in the United States of America. His
alleged debarment by the Georgia Supreme
Court, after allegedly pleading guilty to charges of
professional misconduct, was said to have earned
him a 36-month practice suspension. Whether
these are true or false, I hold not his US exploits
against him. However, I dislike the hypocrisy
about him, and I hold in contempt everything
about him and people like him who see things
from the perspective of one nation, two
moralities. I am amused whenever I read in the
media statements that sound like exhortation to
the conscience of the nation attributed to him.
That some people even take him seriously is
baffling to me. But then again, that is the nature
of our country.
He appears a nice guy on the surface, and can
easily pass for a hero of democracy tomorrow,
given how easily we make heroes out of ordinary
mortals and hypocrites in this clime. I was raised
to believe that a man must have the conviction
and character to either stand for something or
stand for nothing, and that you are nothing when
you cannot be identified or associated with a set
of values or a principle.
According to reports in the media, which have not
been denied by Gbajabiamila or his aides, he was
the one who took the former Speaker, Aminu
Tambuwal, to his godfather, Tinubu, who quickly
mobilised his then Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) members in the House of Representatives
to align with some renegade Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) members to sabotage the PDP
preferred candidate, Mulikat Akande-Adeola, for
the speakership of the 7th House. Tambuwal
eventually emerged as the speaker by a very wide
margin, thanks to the role said to have been
played by Gbajabiamila.
But he suddenly started championing party
supremacy when the odds turned against him in
the struggle for positions in the House of
Representatives. A man, who actively helped and
aided Tambuwal to undermine party supremacy,
became the champion and advocate of party
discipline and party supremacy? Gosh! And
strangely, we had some naive people – who
helped him to advance his cause and win
sympathy for his selfish argument. Now that his
personal ambition has been achieved, alas, the
business of the people can begin. I am always
filled with a sense of bewilderment when I hear
people talk or when I read articles advocating
“strict adherence” to this so-called party discipline.
I am resentful of how valueless and
unaccountable our politics is; I am depressed by
the fact that our people are so easy to
manipulate. What is even more confounding is
the willingness of the public to acquiesce in the
new narrative that is quickly gaining ground –
“party supremacy”.
If Gbajabiamila actually believes so much in party
supremacy, then it is important to ask him why he
did everything in his power to undermine the
same principle in the PDP. Why did he actively
work against Akande-Adeola – the preferred
candidate of the PDP in 2011? Or is he telling us
that party supremacy applies only to the All
Progressives Congress (APC), and when his
personal interest aligns with his party’s position?
What happens when his personal ambition
conflicts with the party’s position? Will he still be
pushing the button of party supremacy? He
worked assiduously to undermine the very
principle he anchored his argument on, and
wanted Nigerians to take him seriously?
Something must be wrong here. His gang had to
hold the nation hostage to satisfy his greed for
power. Needless to state that the “sickness of
greed and lust for power” is strong, but holding
on adamantly to his position that nothing must
move forward until he got what he wanted was
greed taken too far. Was he born a member of
the House of Representatives? Must he actualise
his unbridled personal interest on the pretext of
party supremacy? Now that he has been
appointed the House majority leader, can he join
hands with others to move the nation forward?
So his ambitions for position superseded the
national interest? What better demonstrates this
than what he and his gang just did? Is this the
change that they talked about?
The man Tambuwal, who he was alleged to have
taken to Tinubu for his backing eventually did
emerge as the speaker, and did exactly what he
was meant to do: destabilise the PDP. What did
Tinubu and co. do for him as a sign of
appreciation? He was rewarded with the
governorship ticket, and eventually the seat itself,
of his native Sokoto State – as the man went on to
win the election. Today, he sits atop as the symbol
of authority and the moral compass of the people
of Sokoto State. Tell me, how this cunning,
immoral and treacherous behaviour qualifies him
to sit in the Government House? What values can
such a man teach our children? And they claim to
be agents of change? In the land of my fathers,
we were taught to shun such values because they
won’t ennoble us on this journey of life. But these
are the values that are now being rewarded
before our very eyes. Our faith in what we were
taught by our parents to be the lightening rod of
any serious society has been seriously shaken by
the entrenched reward system – causing some of
us to doubt whether they were right after all. The
party that promised change is proving to be as
guilty as the party it defeated. The very people
who told Nigerians that they were bringing
change for the better.
My problem with these people is that they equate
their strange values and standards to love of
country, and anyone who disagrees with them is
unpatriotic. I will continue to hold their feet to
fire, and expose the hypocrisy of these politicians,
lest we are all turned into a nation of zombies.
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Ironically, the same people who are now
criticising the Senate President Bukola Saraki and
the House Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, were
the very same people who were hailing Tambuwal
for doing everything he did to embarrass and
damage his former party. Recall that at the height
of the mass defections from the PDP to the APC in
2014, Gbajabiamila obviously excited by the mad
rush of the PDP renegades to join the APC,
couldn’t wait anymore for elections to test his
party’s strength. He hurriedly announced that the
APC had emerged the majority party since many
PDP members in the House had defected to the
APC – that his status as the minority leader then
had changed, and that he should be recognised as
the majority leader.
Before some people begin to think I am a fan of
Saraki, one of the people who brought down his
former party – the PDP, let me state here without
equivocation, I am not. If I have my way, I will
personally hold him to account for the crimes he
was alleged to have committed and make sure he
pays a big price to society if found guilty. But a
chill runs down my spine, if because he has also
now defied his new party, and beat its preferred
candidate, his case file is suddenly dug up for
retribution. Some have argued that there is no
relationship between the developments, and that
it was a coincidence. But how many coincidences
do we have to get before they stop being
coincidences? And that is what rankles me. It even
rankles me the more knowing how this same APC
fought tooth and nail to have Saraki and his co-
travellers’ defection letter read on the floor of the
Senate. And they took the former Senate
President David Mark to the cleaners for refusing
to read the letter. Of course that did not stop
Saraki from fraternising with APC, and ultimately,
he defected to the party – which was just too
happy to swell its numbers and expand its spread.
Then, the party cardinals didn’t remember that
Saraki had pending corruption cases that should
have disqualified him from the Senate. And
apparently recognising his clout, the party
cardinals bypassed Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed,
and Mohammed Belgore – who was the original
arrowhead of the party in the state, and made
Saraki the party leader in Kwara State. Now, we
are being daily reminded that the man has
pending corruption cases. The questions
everybody should ask the APC are: when did it
realise that Saraki has pending corruption cases?
Was it after his defection? If yes, why was he
allowed to realise his senatorial quest on its
platform? Did they plan to use him to achieve
success and then, dump him? Needless to remind
Nigerians, this same Saraki, now branded as a
“betrayer”, “corrupt” and disloyal pro-PDP
member by the APC cardinals and their media
goons was not long ago celebrated as a
progressive who was committed to “change” when
he defected from the PDP to the APC with his
Kwara horde. That was what we were sold before
the elections. For the life of me, how can Saraki
truly be a progressive? It appears when it suited
them, he was a hero; when it does not, he is a
villain.
I have always cautioned Nigerians at the risk of
shouting myself hoarse, that these people are
opportunistic politicians, and are not the
messiahs they portray themselves to be. So far,
every action of these “agents of change” has
proved me correct. The so-called party supremacy
is nothing but the supremacy of the whims and
caprices of one man, period!
Gbajabiamila ceased to hold the moral high
ground and the entire claim to genuine party
supremacy – the moment he aided Tambuwal to
undermine party supremacy in the PDP. He
cannot be pointing an accusing finger at others,
when he and his party are beneficiaries of the
very act they now condemn.
In a rather strange irony, the same Tambuwal
whom the APC apparatchiks used to fulfill their
agenda was reported to be one of the
arrowheads of the group that supported Dogara
against Gbajabiamila. It was an interesting
revelation which even Gbajabiamila will find
difficult to believe and live with for a long time to
come. But it provides useful lessons for politicians
whose desperate quest for power blinds them to
danger, when entering strange alliances that are
principally driven by inordinate ambitions rather
than enduring values. More often than not, they
are left holding the short end of the stick – which
is what has happened in this case. Now, the
cookies are crumbling – emergency friends are
becoming frenemies and unholy alliances forged
in the coven like “witches” are unravelling at
dizzying speeds in full public glare. But who are
the losers in all of these? Of course, the Nigerian
people who had been held to ransom, because
the inflated egos of some party cardinals in
conclave were badly bruised by the spectacular
result of the quest for control of the National
Assembly on June 9.
Not surprisingly, these APC cardinals don’t take
defeat lightly. It must be their way, or the roof of
the National Assembly will be brought down on
everyone. It is this same lack of sportsmanship in
them that has defined all their participation in
elections – such that they have come to equate
our national aspiration for fairness and equity to
their rabid partisan inclination for power. They
even have the audacity to reduce the definition of
free and fair elections to their narrow-minded
and selfish view – such that it is only when they
win that elections are free and fair. And with a
clever mix of “true lies”, half-truths, propaganda
and a conniving media, they have successfully
sold apples as oranges, and mangoes as pears to
a very gullible section of the public.
As the war within the ruling party rages, the
prospect of “change” is flickering. The party now
reminds many Nigerians of the Biblical Tower of
Babel whose promoters can no longer speak with
one voice. The APC story today was so succinctly
captured in that story so long ago – the similarity
is compelling: “Come, let us build ourselves a city,
and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us
make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered
abroad over the face of the whole earth.” As they
built their tower, the Lord said: “Come, let us go
down, and there confuse their language, that they
may not understand one another’s speech and so
the Lord scattered them abroad from thence
upon the face of all the earth.” Oh yes! The party
made a name for itself by defeating the PDP in
the election alright. But managing success, and
laying the first building block of national rebirth
which it promised, has proved a herculean task as
the scramble for positions for personal benefits
and influence reaches a crescendo.



www.today.ng/blog/08044052-gbajabiamila-and-the-true-lies-about-party-supremacy/


Cc lalasticlala

As far as I'm concerned the idea and mantra of progressivism on the lips of many politicians is a matter of convenience, it all depends on the situation. All politicians are the same! Gbaja was at the forefront of the battle that saw the emergence of Tambuwal and how he decamped to APC. It was a natural law of karma that took its course when he was outwitted in his quest to become the speaker. Luckily he still got something and he needs to learn his lessons that life is a pendulum. APC is evolving and they definitely have experienced hands, I trust they will manage the success. Nigerians remain the judge

.what's your own now? Mr I Heard! Not like I like the Asshole anyway but set ur records...

This story too long joor

I can't read ds

op, summary?

Olryt

Baba long story.

All of you are bird of the same feather,but gbaja is party nominees

Rubbish

OP, you're just like Femi-Fani Kayode, an uncoordinated writer.

Summary or I don't believe it

OREMUSSANCTUS:
Summary or I don't believe it

You be girl now?

FREEEMANAN:

You be girl now?

Your own gf lost?

FREEEMANAN:
If Gbajabiamila actually believes so much in party supremacy, then it is important to ask him why he did everything in his power to undermine the same principle in the PDP. Why did he actively work against Akande-Adeola – the preferred candidate of the PDP in 2011? Or is he telling us that party supremacy applies only to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and when his personal interest aligns with his party’s position?

law of karma at work

OREMUSSANCTUS:
Your own gf lost?

Thought as much