Some people support the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State governor, because they want him to rule Nigeria the way he ruled Lagos State. But they must be careful what they wish for, because, as the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold.
There are many aspects of Tinubu’s reign in Lagos, but the one that concerns me in this week’s column is the political environment and governance culture he created, nurtured and continues to foster in Lagos. Let me explore this by drawing on some encounters!
First is my encounter, some years ago, with some Lagos State’s local government chairmen and councillors.
They came to London for a week’s training, and the organisers invited me to teach them the principles and practices of public policy and local governance. I spent two days with them. But in those two days, I learned so much about politics and governance in Lagos State.
The people who cared about public infrastructure and good governance hardly cared about electoral politics and rarely voted; whereas those who cared about stomach infrastructure were the core voters, and they always rewarded their benefactors
They described how little governing took place at the local level, and how the politics of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the governance of the state were based on personal rule, driven by the fear, money and patronage of one man: Tinubu.
Since that encounter, the insightful experience has never left me; in fact, it has shaped my views, buttressed by further evidence, about the utterly discreditable nature of Lagos State APC’s politics, the entrenched culture of bad governance both at the local and state levels, and the deleterious and corrosive effects of Tinubu’s omnipresence and strongman’s grip on party politics and governance in the state.
Let’s start with local governance. The chairmen and councillors told me that little public service was being delivered because they spent their money and time meeting people’s personal needs.
People always came to them for money to pay their children’s school fees, meet child-christening or funeral expenses and satisfy sundry other personal needs.
Why, I asked, were they not focusing on projects and services that furthered the public good, that benefitted the whole community, instead of meeting individual needs. They looked at me and laughed.
If they built public infrastructure but failed to provide “stomach infrastructure”, they would lose elections, they said. The people who cared about public infrastructure and good governance hardly cared about electoral politics and rarely voted; whereas those who cared about stomach infrastructure were the core voters, and they always rewarded their benefactors!
It’s a typical public choice problem where politicians are forced to do the bidding of those whose votes matter most to them.
But the message is clear: extreme poverty or neediness and stomach infrastructure at the local level, call it patronage at the state level, define politics and governance in Lagos State.
Which explains why money politics is deeply entrenched in Lagos, and why the most powerful man in the state’s politics, Tinubu, is stupendously rich and has an overwhelming power of patronage.
Truth is, Tinubu’s wealth and patronage power are the main sources of his political dominance, of the utter loyalty and absolute fear he commands from APC members in Lagos State.
For instance, although far away in London, the chairmen and councillors spoke in hushed tones about Tinubu as if there were spies around who would grass on them when they returned home.
They said that, metaphorically speaking, Tinubu knew what was going on in their bedrooms, and that they owed their political future entirely to him: if he said it was over, it was over! Really? Why didn’t they rebel? I asked. They stared at me and guffawed: “Rebel? Not if you want to remain a councillor or a chairman”!
They gave the example of how Tinubu emboldened and enabled a faction of the state’s chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), led by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as “MC Oluomo”, to extort motorists, raking in and pocketing an estimated sum of N123 billion annually, while the state government looked on indulgently.
Recently, the national NURTW sacked MC Oluomo as chairman of its Lagos State chapter. The state government swiftly banned the NURTW from operating in Lagos and set up the Parks Management Committee; it appointed MC Oluomo as chairman of the committee, putting him in charge of the affairs of all motor parks and garages in the state.
Of course, MC Oluomo, who is described as Tinubu’s godson, enjoys state protection because he serves a political purpose. The motor park hoodlums that he leads have been known to cause violence, intimidate voters and disrupt voting during elections, as they did in 2019 when violence erupted in Lagos amid allegations of ballot-snatching.
Last week, MC Oluomo endorsed Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second-term bid, promising to deliver 3 million votes for him at next year’s election. Which makes you wonder: 3 million votes? How? By what means?
Read also: Presidency: Osinbajo, Tinubu in fight to the finish
Anyway, the above recollection of my London encounter with the Lagos State chairmen and councillors was triggered recently when I watched a viral video on YouTube where, in a no holds barred speech, an APC councillor and council leader, Osayande Gbinigie, spoke about local politics, democracy and governance in Lagos. Everything he said corroborated what the chairmen and councillors told me in London.
Gbinigie confirmed the links between poverty, stomach infrastructure and voting. He said that councillors spent a lot of their resources meeting people’s personal needs, stating that this was critical to getting their votes.
Even so, voter-turnouts are extremely low. “Do you know that I emerged in my ward with only 400 votes and the population of the area is not less than 5,000?”, he asked rhetorically, adding that in some polling booths as few as five people voted, “despite much mobilisation from 8am to around 3pm.”
Of course, abysmal voter-turnouts raise questions about the legitimacy of Lagos State elections. But they also raise a curious political question: if, as we are told, Lagosians love Tinubu passionately, why are they not voting enthusiastically for his party and candidates?
For instance, in the 2019 presidential election, Lagos State had the lowest voter-turnout in the country, with just 20 per cent! Clearly, what matters most to Lagos State APC, the party that has ruled the state since 1999, is just victory, whatever the turnout. After all, a win is a win, but a win can come with a huge legitimacy gap!
Well, back to Councillor Gbinigie. He portrayed Tinubu’s politics as using money to buy loyalty and influence. He said Tinubu was popular because “he is not somebody that eats alone.”
One of the panellists quipped: “So, the name of the game is eating”! Gbinigie blushed. “Eh, eating is the name”, he said, adding: “and when you are eating, you don’t talk”. He said that the party valued loyalty – the ability to keep one’s mouth shut – more than competence.
In 2018, a commentator and Lagos APC insider, Kayode Ogundamisi, wrote about the “mafioso nature of the APC in Lagos”.
He said, “Lagos State civil service is an extension of the party structure”, adding that “hardly would you find a Lagos State civil servant who is not a card-carrying member of the party.” He went on to say that “Lagos APC has political leaders who depend on state resources.”
Truth is, Lagos State APC operates like a mafia: civil servants are utterly politicised; party leaders leech off a lavish patronage system; there’s even a party/state-enriched musician who sings Tinubu’s praises and attacks his opponents.
Put simply, Lagos APC’s politics is personalised; it’s dependent on the wealth and patronage power of one man; and it’s based on a feudal lord-serfs relationship. It is an utterly corrupt model that has no place in civilised democracies. So, it’s wrong, dangerous and unpatriotic to wish it on Nigeria!
