Did President Tinubu actually snub Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at last week’s inauguration event of the completed phase 1, section 1 (30km by six lanes) of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway? Yes, he did! That is the honest truth, even though some of the president’s praise singers have been trying to spin a needless yarn. Some have argued that it was an oversight on the part of the president, some claimed the governor, as the host, should have been on the president’s entourage and not on the queue. I have heard a commentator say the president felt like, ‘Sanwo-Olu is my boy, I see
him all time, so no need to give him a handshake. Let me greet other important people’. How ludicrous!
I have watched the video severally and I couldn’t in anyway justify the president’s action. He completely snubbed the Lagos state governor as a non-existent entity. What I find amusing is that Ondo state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, was on the second row behind Governor Sanwo-Olu, and he managed to make his way to the front row and still got a handshake with the president. It also beats me why Ogun state governor, Dapo Abiodun, was allowed to speak at the event while the host governor was completely shut out. What backward and primitive politics are we practising in this country?
On Thursday, Sanwo-Olu was absent when President Tinubu flagged off the reconstruction of the deep seaport access road in Epe, Ijebu-Ode area of the state.
Although Sanwo-Olu’s seat was clearly labelled, he was noticeably absent, with his deputy, Hamzat, seated behind it. Analysts said the governor deliberately stayed away so as not to suffer another public ridicule from the president.
No matter the animosity they harbour within their party or among opponents, politicians usually greet one another and exchange banter when they meet at public occasions, even if it is for the camera. After the event, they can resume their hostilities.
During the Mudashiru Obasa vs Lagos assembly members crisis, I was reliably informed that Governor Sanwo-Olu travelled to Abuja and made several attempts to see the president but he was denied access. I understood the governor was accused of bankrolling Obasa’s removal and he went to see the president to clear his conscience. I never believed that gist until it was reported that members of the Governance Advisory Council (GAC), led by 88-year-old Pa Tajudeen Olusi also went to Abuja to see the president and he refused to grant them audience.
I spoke with Pa Olusi to confirm if the rumours were true and he said “It’s true. We went to see the president in Abuja but he has to travel on that day. We never had any prior appointment with him. He has to travel by 1pm. We thought we could see him between 10am to 12pm but it was not possible. There was no prior approval of our meeting with him, we only took a chance thinking we could see him but we couldn’t as he had to travel out of the country”.
In writing this article, I sought the reactions of two media aides to the president but they declined to comment. An aide of Sanwo-Olu who asked not to be named as she is not authorised to speak said the governor was to give the welcome addressed at the event but the president allegedly did not permit him.
“Yes, the governor should have walked in with him on that occasion, being the host governor but we don’t know why that didn’t happen. Also, the governor was on the programme to give a welcome address but the president also asked them to skip him. So, clearly, the snub was not an oversight, it was deliberate. Nobody knows what he has done to deserve such a humiliation,” the aide said.
No matter what the governor’s offences are, humiliating him in public glare, first by refusing to honour him with a handshake while every other dignitaries around him were given same and preventing him from speaking at a programme where he was the chief host was totally unacceptable and a bad precedent in the history of Nigeria’s democracy. Maybe President Tinubu is a man not given to dissembling or pretending to be happy with you when he is not. But the truth is, that action of his, to be frank is unstatesmanly and unpresidential.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Tinubu as Lagos state governor were not on good terms from 1999 to 2007. Correct me if I am wrong but I never read it anywhere that Obasanjo publicly humiliated him publicly or refused to greet him like he (Tinubu) did to Governor Sanwo-Olu. Like highly respected journalist and public affairs analyst, Olawale Olaleye, frankly puts it, that action greatly diminishes the president because “to be referred to as a president of a country carries more weight, meaning, seriousness, discipline and responsibilities that transcend cheap pettiness”.
It is also pertinent to ask this question: Will any governor in Lagos successfully complete their tenure without having issues with President Tinubu? Fashola was almost denied a second term; Akinwunmi Ambode was denied. Now Sanwo-Olu who got a second term without a struggle is on the verge of being removed at the latter stage of his second term. Who can please Mr. President?
On this note, let’s also tell Governor Sanwo-Olu some hard, bitter truth. I may not know all the reasons why the president was unhappy with you as I am not a member of the inner caucus of the APC but I know a little from my interaction with some stakeholders within the party and the president’s associates. It largely borders on the president’s loss of Lagos state to the opposition in the 2023 general election and the fall-out of Obasa’s removal as speaker without the president’s knowledge.
Till date, President Tinubu is pained by the fact that he lost Lagos state, his home base where people believed he has total control, to Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Some analysts have argued that Governor Sanwo-Olu cannot be blamed for that because the Obidient Movement revolution caught many people by surprise. In fact, the widely held belief was that Sanwo-Olu’s saving grace was that the presidential and gubernatorial elections were not conducted the same day. If that had happened, unlike Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu will likely not be in office today as the governor of Lagos.
One of the party leaders however told this author that based on developments that transpired in the 2023 elections, Sanwo-Olu would have won and Tinubu will lose if the elections were conducted same day. Hear him “I don’t agree with those saying both Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu would have lost in Lagos. If the elections were conducted same day, Sanwo-Olu would have won the governorship election and Tinubu will lose the presidential election in Lagos. The problem then was the opposition to Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket and not because the governor did not perform. If it is a total rejection of the APC, how come APC cleared the national assembly seats in Lagos? So, I think one of the anger of the president was that Sanwo-Olu won while he lost in Lagos. The President Tinubu I know would have preferred that Sanwo-Olu lost his reelection and then he will use his influence to regain it for him like he did in the cases of Ekiti with Kayode Fayemi and Osun with Rauf Aregbesola in the 2007 elections”.
However, as the battle for the 2027 presidential election begins to gather steam, President Tinubu’s major concern is not just getting re-elected but to win Lagos and not allow a repeat of what happened in 2023. That was why he was angry with Sanwo-Olu when the Lagos assembly crisis erupted. It was a bad omen for the president as it gave the impression that his homebase was in political turmoil. His opponents publicly said the assembly crisis was an indication that he was losing his grip on Lagos politics and some even insinuated that Sanwo-Olu is now in full control having gotten rid of Speaker Obasa. That was why the president damned all the consequences and employed all the arsenals at his disposal to ensure that Obasa was reinstated.
While the president eventually had his way in reinstating Obasa, so many things were badly fractured in the process. Currently, there is no peace in the Lagos assembly, the GAC is divided, the APC state executives are also not on the same page as some are loyal to the governor while another faction is loyal to the Obasa group. Now, if the APC can be defeated in Lagos during the presidential election when they were united, what will happen now that there is disunity and the possible realignment of opposition ‘coalition’ forces? That was what the president wanted to avoid. He wanted Obasa to resign peacefully the way they managed the Ajuri Ngelale saga. Even though, Governor Sanwo-Olu has been making frantic efforts clear his name and the assembly members have publicly said he had no hand in Obasa’s removal, President Tinubu strongly believed that he has failed in his responsibility of holding Lagos together for him.
In fact, some party leaders blamed Governor Sanwo-Olu for the genesis of the crisis in Lagos APC, accusing him of neglecting party members who worked hard for him to get re-elected against all odds and appointing his cronies who were not even party members. That led the Obasa-led assembly to reject his list of commissioners and special advisers he sent for confirmation. Some party loyalists however argued that given Sanwo-Olu’s gentlemanly nature, there was no way he could have sent any list to the assembly without the president’s assent.
There is also this feeling in the president’s camp that having realised that he is completing his second term and will not be seeking re-election again, Governor Sanwo-Olu doesn’t care about governance any more. While he keeps receiving all manners of awards and attending parties everywhere. If he doesn’t know, he should know that an exclusive story by a national online newspaper titled ‘Sanwo-Olu abandons work, secretly attends multi-billion naira party in Grenada’ infuriated the president’s kitchen cabinet.
Lately, some residents of Lagos Island sent an SOS to the president complaining of several abandoned road projects, lack of potable water and anti-social behaviours by miscreants popularly called area boys. That is the area where Governor Sanwo-Olu was born. The residents claimed the governor has abandoned them and they will wait for him and the APC in the coming elections. In all honesty, it appears that the huge revenue being generated by Lagos state is not commensurate to the projects on ground.
Let me tell you my story of Lagos Island. I spent the formative years of my life there, having grown up in Bamgbose Street in Campos area. As kids, we usually play football at Campos Stadium. Directly behind the stadium in Campbell street, there is a public tap where we usually drink from when thirsty as we had no money to buy sachet water. Today, how many public taps are functional in Lagos, the megacity? Democracy should make things better, not worse off. Most houses now rely on boreholes while water merchants, popularly called ‘me ruwa’ are busy making brisk businesses bringing all manners of dirty water into people’s homes.
Governor Sanwo-Olu started well, he should do more and endeavour to finish strong. When former governor Babatunde Fashola had a fall-out with Tinubu and the Lagos assembly attempted to impeach him, many Lagosians trooped out in protest and rejected the move because Fashola worked hard and transformed Lagos state far from what he inherited. I remembered one NGO called LORAF which was formed to show appreciation for the good programmes of his administration. I don’t think Lagosians will bat an eyelid if the president instructs the Obasa-led assembly to remove Sanwo-Olu today.
I love Governor Sanwo-Olu’s style of governance. He is a charming and unassuming leader who bears no malice against nobody. I love the way he handled his fallout with his predecessor, Akinwunmi Ambode, in spite of events that played out in the prelude to the 2019 general election. I will humbly advise the governor to continue managing the situation well and reject the advice of some end-time activists and sycophants who are telling him to call President Tinubu’s bluff. The president of Nigeria is too powerful to confront; he will crush you with all his might. The president is angry with him now and he is not hiding it. He will be angrier if he loses Lagos again in the 2027 general election. He is not called ‘the Jagaban’ for nothing.
In conclusion, I jokingly asked one of the president’s aide if there are people Sanwo-Olu can run to in order to broker peace between him and President Tinubu. He listed four people the president defers to and can ask anything from him and get instant results. They are the First Lady Oluremi Tinubu; former Delta state governor James Ibori, former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and lastly, Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
Akinsuyi, former group politics editor of Daily Independent, writes from Abuja.
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