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The time to end the choke hold on Lagos is now, reckons Folake Aderibigbe
There is a saying that those who live in glass house should not throw stones. The rationale for this is the dark prospect of retaliation which could be more heinous and destructive given the structure of the habitat of either the initial assailant or the avenger. This message is thus a very wise saying. One wonders then why someone like Bola Tinubu, an accomplished and successful politician but highly suspected godfather, should go out of his way to acknowledge that he is not only a godfather but a positive one.
That clearly beats the imagination that the idea of a godfather in Nigerian politics can ever be linked to anything positive or in any democracy for that matter. This is because in plain terms, godfathers cut corners and promote their selfish goals and objectives at the expense of merit, justice and community life in any society and democracy. Godfathers are simply anti-democrats.
According to reports, Tinubu told a campaign rally that Governor Mimiko of Ondo State took money from him but did not play ball. He said Mimiko has labelled him a godfather and he accepts that because “godfatherism is biblical and that is why Christians refer to God as their father.” According to him, “I play godfatherism in the South-west for the good of our people. My godfatherism is for progress and monitoring. I have brought development to Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Edo and Ogun States and the people are better for it.”
This is a very clear and provocative example of hubris and a classical case of the Icarus Complex in Greek mythology. The Icarus complex is the fascinating story of a brilliant man blessed with intellect by the gods to make a bird-like object glued together with wax and able to fly. Icarus grew heady with the applause of onlookers and flew too close to the sun which melted the the wax and he plummeted to death on his strange contraption.
It is unbelievable that someone like Tinubu can liken his attested godfatherism to how Christians see God whom they worship as the type of godfatherism he practices and acknowledges. I leave it to the people and governors of the other South-west states to which he said he has brought progress to react as they deem fit to his boastings. We are however interested in how he has been able to ask for change at the centre of government in Abuja while promoting continuity in his backyard here in Lagos.
One thing is clear and that is that this self proclaimed godfather is a Godless and hypocritical man without any religion. This can be seen from the way he mistook godfatherism at Christian baptism for the way Christians regard God. Secondly the fact that he allowed a Christian-Christian ticket in Lagos and created the Ambode ticket and went one to attempt to foist himself on Buhari for a Muslim-Muslim APC ticket before sanity prevailed in the party for him to anoint Osinbajo and make a U-turn, showed clearly that he was only interested in retention of power in Lagos State at all costs and not in placating Christians in the state for their long, political neglect and discrimination.
So it becomes apparent that both the change and continuity that Tinubu and APC are asking for at the centre and in Lagos are shallow, hollow and false in all respects and Nigerians and Lagosians should deny them both at the polls during the presidential and the governor elections in Lagos.
In fact, the inconsistency and dishonesty in their intention in Lagos is clearly highlighted at rallies where Ambode is present and they shout “APC for Change” when all they are seeking in Lagos is dismal and suffocating continuity of the state governance in Tinubu’s dirty and deep pocket of 16 years of thievery, nepotism and cronyism.
Definitely, again, the governorship election in the state will put an end to that with the emergence of J.K Agbaje as the new governor of Lagos. That is the main duty of Lagos voters for now.
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