THE 'SINS' OF AMBODE AS WRITTEN BY THISDAY COLUMNIST, SEGUN ADENIYI

Excerpts

'.. Ambode was behaving like the foolish Yoruba wife who goes into marriage with a “me-and-my-husband” attitude that discounts the in-laws. In the event of crisis, such a wife will have nowhere to run for succour. But even at that period, I could also sense a feeling of frustrations from the camp of the godfather. I tried to gauge the mood in Bourdillon and the feedback was that Ambode “is a loudmouth, always bragging that he is now in charge. He sidelines any official known to be connected to Asiwaju (Tinubu) like the SSG and Chief of Staff among others and any commissioner known to be visiting Bourdillon regularly is in trouble”.

Until then, I had assumed the relationship between Tinubu and Ambode to be very cordial but the governor must have been given a false sense of security. I was therefore not surprised when the story broke recently that a certain Jide Sanwo-Olu had been endorsed as the preferred APC candidate in Lagos ahead of Ambode. By then, the governor had not only lost many of the critical constituencies in the state, he had become more a political liability than an asset to Tinubu. There are several stories of a governor who would sack officials at the slightest provocation and gloat about it with the refrain, “Mo bee lorun” (I cut off his neck). From the LASTMA boss to 18 permanent secretaries, Ambode spent his first weeks in office dismissing Lagos State officials he suspected were loyal to Fashola without any evidence.

Ambode’s human relations is another issue altogether. Generally regarded as arrogant and distant, even by peers, there is hardly any prominent citizen in Lagos who speaks well of him. Besides, unlike most other states where commissioners are glorified errand boys, Lagos has always been different with commissioners that had the authority of their ranks. That was until Ambode came. A commissioner told me as far back as March this year: “Our Exco meetings are nothing but a joke. The governor is the only thinker and he doesn’t like debate. He comes with pre-conceived ideas and any contrary opinions would be met with a stern ‘I am the governor here’ rebuke. The person I pity most is the deputy governor. Contrary to what has been established over the years in the state, it took Asiwaju’s intervention for her to be given approval to control the education ministry. But she can’t go beyond that ministry so effectively, the governor has reduced her to a commissioner.”

Unfortunately, the multi-million dollar Visionscope deal under which the state has been subjected to a monthly Irrevocable Payment Order (IPO) running to hundreds of millions of Naira, has not worked. Lagos is now an environmental nightmare, a city littered with refuse. So, invariably, he is paying more than he would under the old arrangement and there is no result. But that is not even his sin. By uprooting the Private Sector Participation (PSP) in waste management started by Tinubu and continued by Fashola, which empowered political leaders at the grassroots and yet delivered on refuse collection, Ambode had dug his own political grave.

In Lagos, the PSP is more than just a waste management outfit; it is an elaborate political patronage system that took care of thousands of party supporters and kingpins from the ward level to local government. Yet, by the stroke of his pen, Ambode took food out of the mouths of381 powerful PSP operators each of whom also had hundreds of people under them. With that, he also dismantled a thriving economy in the state. Many of the ‘Area Boys’ displaced from Oshodi and other areas as well as influential market women were absorbed under this programme as drivers, sweepers etc. When the pleas of the PSP operators fell on deaf ears, they sent a petition to Tinubu, who forwarded it to the governor, asking that the issue be resolved because of its political implications. Ambode ignored his godfather. On Tuesday, these injured politicians came out in full force to deal a fatal blow on the governor who does not understand the significance of ‘Jeun Soke’!

In all, Ambode did not lose the primaries because of his performance in office. But it is difficult to isolate the fate that ultimately befell him from what is happening all over the country vis-a-vis the role of godfather and its implications for the future of our democracy. While the governor may have congratulated the new godson, I am concerned about the manner in which Sanwo-Olu emerged because it suggests the same under-hand method of imposition that could also backfire with the people left to bear the brunt somewhere along the line. I am particularly not impressed by what I have seen so far. Sanwo-Olu’s response to Ambode’s desperate and ill-advised press conference of last Sunday was good on message but I could count up to ten grammatical/typo errors in the statement which betrayed a clear lack of attention to details.


Whichever way one looks at it, all the contradictions that define politics in Nigeria are in full display in Lagos. A fairly enlightened electorate that votes according to the dictates of one man and a governance standard that is measured by its municipal efficiency have been the essence of its stability since 1999. Yet the leadership selection method is in accordance with a rule book that could have been written by some Sicilian Families in the heydays of the Italian mafia. For those who choose to play the game, those rules are pretty clear: know the godfather and his political family; understand the meaning of loyalty and most importantly, the price tag of that loyalty and the consequences of deviant behaviours.

As it would happen, Ambode spent his first year in office pursuing his predecessor instead of learning the ABC of power politics and paying attention to the signals from Bourdillon. He is so naive that on Tuesday, he even thought he could outfox his godfather by hijacking the ‘Seven Wise Men’ from Abuja sent by the APC leadership. At the end, whatever the deal he might have struck with those politicians, it was a waste of time and efforts.

The lessons of Ambode’s defeat are too many and a day will come when we will appraise them. But we must be very clear about it: at the centre of it all is the role of patronage politics that has in turn empowered a few individuals to decide the fate of others at every election cycle.

That then brings me to my final word which is for the emperor of Lagos who, feeding on the frustrations of his starved subalterns, eventually got his way; leaving no one in any doubt as to who calls the shot in the state. But this is his stiffest fight so far, and an intimation that even his hold, repeatedly under threat across the South-west, will eventually fade away. No empire lasts forever. Therefore, there is wisdom in a Yoruba adage that will also serve him: When the talking drum is sounding too loudly, the signs are ominous. So, as there is a deep lesson for Ambode, there is even a bigger one for the Lion of Bourdillon. In his own interest, he must reinvent his politics that has become the leitmotif for godfatherism in Nigeria today.

-Olusegun Adeniyi

Culled from THISDAY Newspaper. October 4

It's Not Easy At All !!

Everybody has become a wise analyst over Ambode , if Ambode had won this useless writer would still write to applaud him

In short, Ambode bite the finger that feed him...

Anyway you choose to look at it, sentiments apart, Lagos state has become the dirtiest Mega City in Nigeria, with its worst road spread all over ikorodu, from odonfuyan, igbogbo, Elepe, gberigbe and that is just to mention a few. I say good riddance!

Anyway you choose to look at it, sentiments apart, Lagos state has become the dirtiest Mega City in Nigeria, with its worst road spread all over ikorodu, from odonguyan, igbogbo, Elepe, gberigbe and that is just to mention a few. I say good riddance!

What was the achievements of Tinubu as a governor of Lagos state?

What a write up very detailed but don't know how fatual it is though. ..

..
.what of eko Atlantic which he refused to fund with tax payers money.

U dint mention dat

Most foolish post I read this year. So because Ambode refused to be a slave to Tinubu, that’s why you lots are becoming analysts and philosophists all of a sudden.
What your diabetic brain is implying means, Ambode is the only governor in Nigeria that a sinner .
A trip to Abia State would make u to shove this write up up ur ass

So there was an APC meeting where the issue of direct primaries was being discussed. Asiwaju had his body language. Unfortunately only two governors supported the idea in that meeting. Governor Ambode was not one of them. Betrayal!!!! And that was it.

I feel the real issues won't be disclosed by the two men

Seun mynd44

Yet, by the stroke of his pen, Ambode took food out of the mouths of 381 powerful PSP operators each of whom also had hundreds of people under them.

Bloody hypocrites

Ambode rendered waste operators jobless and he was visited with an appropriate sanction by the electorates in his party.

But 7. 9m middle class jobs were destroyed under Buhari with families turned destitute and the people do not see anything wrong.

What kind of nonsense article is this? Abeg tear this rubbish! Very repulsive.

FarahAideed:
Everybody has become a wise analyst over Ambode , if Ambode had won this useless writer would still write to applaud him

Exactly! Quite a turnoff!

Emescot:
Anyway you choose to look at it, sentiments apart, Lagos state has become the dirtiest Mega City in Nigeria, with its worst road spread all over ikorodu, from odonfuyan, igbogbo, Elepe, gberigbe and that is just to mention a few. I say good riddance!

I said it so many times here before the primaries that any party that fields Ambode would loose Ikorodu but so many anti Tinubu folks here refused to believe.

There's no good road in Ikorodu and Ambode didn't even pretend to care.