I would categorise people who are ranting about godfatherism in Lagos politics as belonging to the class of the opposition saying one-man rule, they are just mentally vacuous or at best merely playing to the gallery to attract attention to themselves, for their own ulterior motive. Yes, I’m sure it’s the governor of Kaduna state that brought this into focus recently from the lecture, whatever it is that he came to give in Lagos, and he made those statements about godfatherism.
Let’s define what exactly is godfatherism, even in religion isn’t there a godfather? Even when you have a newborn baby or child, a lot of family members aggregate together giving names and some people say, “I’m his godmother or godfather” and stuff like that, even in religion, isn’t there a godfather? More so in politics, and everywhere in the world. My own basic understanding of godfatherism, in the esoteric format, is somebody who helps somebody to achieve or to climb a ladder, either social, intellectual or business, whatever ladder, can be regarded as a godfather. If I’m in a position to help you succeed, progress or develop, then I can be labeled your godfather that is in the esoteric form, in the positive form.
Now when you say godfatherism in a negative context, that is what we don’t have here. Awolowo the sage, our revered sage, in this part of the country, he was a godfather, how? He bred many leaders, he gave birth not biologically, but he gave birth to many leaders, he created many platforms that enabled many other leaders to flourish, that’s a godfather. So if you refer to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as a godfather, then I would put him in that mould of a godfather because he has also bred many leaders, he has created a system, a platform that has enabled scores, myriads of people and leaders to flourish. However, when you put it in the negative form of the El-rufai format, we don’t have that here and I would like to ask Elrufai if he can honestly in good conscience say that he is not a beneficiary of godfathers, has he not had people who helped him climb the political ladder, who was El-rufai before Atiku brought him out, and took him to BPE at that time, which led to his being noticed by Obasanjo, was he Obasanjo’s younger brother? Did Obasanjo pluck him from his cubicle to come and make him minister? Somebody gave him a platform to get noticed before Obasanjo took him on and made him a minister, so Atiku was his godfather, Obasanjo was godfather and now Buhari is his godfather because we have seen him genuflecting before Buhari, kneeling down and paying obeisance, there are pictures of him doing that to Buhari and it is common knowledge anyway that he rode on the political wings of Buhari to become governor of Kaduna state, that’s not debatable, you know it in Kaduna, so is he himself not a beneficiary of that godfatherism he seeks to denigrate? He said he had retired some godfathers in Kaduna, I do not know of any godfather that he retired in Kaduna, I do not know of any godfather that helped him into office in Kaduna or on whose back he rode into office in Kaduna that he retired, except if he meant senator Shehu Sani that he fought, and Shehu Sani would never label himself as a godfather or Nkuyi, that one who’s house he demolished, won’t call himself a godfather, I think any other person would call that one a godfather, so I don’t know the godfathers that he retired in Kaduna to justify his rethorics. I think he was only playing to the gallery to draw attention to himself.
Again he was like Awolowo on one of his birthdays when the then head of state General Badamosi Babangida wrote him a letter and called Awolowo the issue in Nigerian politics. Which meant “Awo” was very, very important that whatever was happening in the country, you had to think of what “Awo” would say, and what he will do.
Tinubu has become the issue in Nigerian politics, so if you want to attract attention to yourself, the easier route is to take a pot shot at Tinubu, so that you would draw attention to yourself for your own ulterior motive.
I want to wish BabajideSanwo-Olu lots of goodwill, heavy dose of goodwill and good luck because he needs it. Governing a heterogeneous society like Lagos is not a tea party, I have had the privilege of being part of it, and given my proximity to the dynamics of Lagos power play since I left school, it’s not a tea party, but again like I said he is mentally qualified, he is well equipped, he is socially and emotionally stable for it, and he has the knowledge, the intellectual capacity, the people skills and above all the humility to see him through.
His deputy is also quite knowledgeable and humble, so they share a lot of attributes. I think it’s a very fantastic combination and I think Lagos state is quite lucky to have this team coming in.
I wish Sanwo-Olu success in all his endeavours and I would enjoin Lagosians to give him maximum co-operation so that his team can take Lagos to the land of Eldorado which is all our objective.