₦airaland Forum

By Mobolaji Sanusi

'Gratitude is not only the greatest of
virtues, but the parent of all the
others’ — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Last Friday was a great day across the country. Indeed, it was a swell moment for the progressives among the political class. That was an epoch-making day when the progressives, for the first time in the annals of the nation, through their political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over the reins of government at the centre. Not just that, the APC is now in control of 22 out of the 36 states in the
country.

This national electoral feat calls for intense celebration because some few months back, most
Nigerians erroneously believed that the leadership
of the progressive party was wasting its time
because the centre’s reactionary party since
independence had, through electoral gimmicks,
remained inviolable. But the 2015 general
elections put a lie to that over-rated assumption
with the emergence of the Buhari/Osinbajo
presidency at the centre.

At a time that other states were falling to the
dictates of Olusegun Obasanjo and the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) political chicanery, Lagos
State stood against the rampaging reactionary
elements like the rock of Gibraltar. Undoubtedly,
this was made possible by the political ingenuity
and doggedness of one man – Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu. Upon reflection, his toughest
political battles as far as this column is
concerned was the electoral battles he fought to
win re-election in 2003 and more importantly, his
bid to ensure that the conservative PDP under
Obasanjo’s obnoxious leadership did not produce
an unworthy successor to succeed him as
governor of Lagos in 2007.
The latter battle was the hallmark of Tinubu’s political sagacity as a great political risk taker for he went for an
unknown political and widely rejected entity called
Babatunde Raji Fashola. Many of his then inner
cabinet rebelled against this decision but he
stood his ground and opted to push for the then
inconsequential Fashola alone. He deployed huge
resources, time and immense energy against
Obasanjo-contrived odds, including the federal
government’s seizure of Lagos council’s statutory
funds and using of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) to attempt to
circumvent governance in the Centre of Excellence
under Tinubu.

To the chagrin of rampaging reactionary PDP
elements, Fashola won the election to the glory of
God and the sole efforts of Tinubu. Fashola didn’t
spend his money for he could then not be
described as a rich man. The party’s primary was
a foregone conclusion for him through Tinubu’s
clout, and the logistics, he knew nothing about
because his first major exposure in life was when
Tinubu made him his Chief of Staff – that
opportunity that Tinubu gave Fashola kick-started
his great leap to political prominence. His second
term election was made easy through the same
Tinubu. And any reasonable man from any
continent of the world would have thought that at
any opportune time like his formal handing over
last week to new Governor Akinwunmi Ambode,
Fashola would seize that auspicious occasion to
publicly show gratitude to the man that God used
to catapult him to fame from the position of a
once proletarian lawyer, that was hardly known to
his next-door neighbour.

Fashola did not do this; he merely send a
worrisome index of ingratitude to the man that
God used to fulfill His promise in his life when in
his remark at the Tafawa Balewa Square last
Friday, he said: ‘‘The great people of Lagos, from
our very first governor, Brigadier Mobolaji
Johnson, to Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande and all
of those who have served; your royal majesties,
former deputy governors and those who truly
make Lagos what it is, I say thank you. Thank
you; thank you for giving me the opportunity to
serve all of you….’’

At this point at the venue of inauguration of the
new governor, the mood of the crowd and facial
expressions of many showed stern disagreement
to the ungrateful posturing of Fashola by skipping
Tinubu’s name which could not have been an
oversight. This column appreciates the founding
contributions of Brigadier Johnson and the
penetrating efforts of Lagos first civilian governor,
Alhaji Jakande. The column holds these great
leaders in highest esteem but the contemporary
contributions of Tinubu to Lagos’ political and
infrastructural development can only be
downplayed or overlooked by a mischief maker
and more sadly, an ungrateful beneficiary of
Tinubu’s large-heartedness and benevolence like
Fashola.

At a juncture while at Ambode’s inauguration, this
column remembered the edifying statement of
former American President John F. Kennedy. He
once said: “We must find time to stop and thank
the people who make a difference in our lives.”
Permit yours sincerely to satisfy his curiosity by
asking: What could Tinubu have done for Fashola
to make him maliciously skip his name while
listing names of those that made Lagos what it is
today, according to him? Apart from being a great
benefactor of his, Tinubu was that far-sighted
politician of global standard who was the
architect of the policy foundation that made
Fashola’s administration what it is today in the
public gallery. Is it the BRT idea that was
completed by the then governor Tinubu and
selflessly left for Fashola to commission to kick-
start his government? Yet, Fashola futilely tried to
commission all projects, both completed and
uncompleted, before leaving office.

Tinubu left very sound financial foundation for
Fashola before leaving office but Fashola left a
debt of well over N400billion and had even spent
a reported figure of over 75 per cent of the
budget by May when he left power, leaving
virtually nothing for his successor to meet in the
public till. When Tinubu backed Ambode for the
governorship slot of APC, Fashola failed in his
surreptitious sponsorship of Shashore, his friend
and Femi Hamzat, his commissioner for works
against his benefactor’s choice at his party’s
primaries. Yet, in Fashola’s vying time, Tinubu
managed everything for him without any serious
opposition. Under Fashola, the greatest crime any
officer of state can commit was to be perceived
as very close to his benefactor or to be a buddy
of somebody that was close to his great patron.

To Fashola, the game of malice continues. Yet, at
the time Asiwaju appointed Fashola to vie for the
governorship, he made a hundred and one people
unhappy only to be repaid now with
ungratefulness by the beneficiary of his choice.
How would Fashola feel if all those relations of
his and close friends that he reportedly made
heads of emergency agencies that he created
while in power turn around to snub him publicly?
This should be serious food for thought for him!
The simple act of publicly acknowledging
benevolence of another is a demonstration of
gratitude to an experience that was meaningful
which affirmatively was what happened when
Tinubu made Fashola governor from nothing.
But when a beneficiary does not show gratitude in
return, definitely, something vital has disappeared
from his humanity. This is because a person
would certainly be defined by his wilful desire to
show gratitude to a benefactor, which Fashola at
that auspicious inauguration time surprisingly
failed to do.

On that occasion, history has recorded Fashola’s
act as that of an avoidably mischievous
beneficiary of Tinubu’s benevolence that reminds
one of William Arthur Ward’s words when he
pronounced: “Feeling gratitude and not expressing
it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

What a calamity of immeasurable proportion that
Fashola consciously missed during Ambode’s
inauguration, being his last public official
opportunity, to show the entire world that he is
capable of showing gratitude to whom it is
robustly due. What a repulsive example – and
indeed a bad signal – from a supposed former
governor of example!

Source

Hmm

Fashola you old fool, you spent 8yrs being a puppet under Tinubu now you have the audacity to grow beyond your significance.

On that occasion, history has recorded Fashola’s
act as that of an avoidably mischievous
beneficiary of Tinubu’s benevolence

Wonder if it was Tinubu's benevolence alone and not the fact that Fashole was elected by the people of Lagos state?

As for Tinubu, I see the north is ramming it hard and dry into him.

Tinubu should concentrate henceforth in his clueless region and never dare ever again to think he can export his amala politics to the centre.

To understand politics, you need to learn the tricks.

Fashola the 'best governor' in Nigeria,though he won't be forgotten for carrying out project,that can be financed with lesser amounts, after his failure to sign the FOI bill,and the use of the media to trumpet his achievement and never get criticised.

Now, I can understand why Ambode was alleged to have sacked a few people known to be very loyal to Fashola.

Politics is a messy game in Nigeria indeed.

It's simply politics ..... Just move on!

This same "gratitude" made GEJ grant presidential pardon to ALAMS who he said was his Godfather and instrumental to his political strides.

I think Tinubu shud be satisfied with Fashola's show of gratitude by protecting his loot and not probing his administration.

cc lalasticlala OAM4J

Interesting times ahead

OP and columnist are big fools, in fact very stu-pid to openly support hijack of a political
system by god-fatherism. Where is democracy then? If democratically elected governors cannot take sole decisions. Fools! Talking about grattitude. Monkey men.

Ok

This Op and the columinst are ingrate.

I think the status of godfatherism should be expunged from Nigerian politics because it is the major cause if corruption in Nigeria.

Despite the fact that he sponsored his election ONLY God knows what Fashola passed through in hands of Tinubu.
Only God knows if Tinubu took a larger chunk of the so much condemned debt of Lagos.

Buhari should beware of Tifnubu

If u know that u need a man like Tinubu in your career oya click like.

ARKdiscloser7:
I think the status of godfatherism should be expunged from Nigerian politics because it is the major cause if corruption in Nigeria.

Despite the fact that he sponsored his election ONLY God knows what Fashola passed through in hands of Tinubu.
Only God knows if Tinubu took a larger chunk of the so much condemned debt of Lagos.

Buhari should beware of Tifnubu

Fashola is not a saint, stop trying to paint him as one. Tinubu found certain 'useful' attributes in Fashola, hence they were able to work together for 8 years.