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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Tuesday, June 22, 2004.
Still on Tinubu/Ogunlewe tango
By Habib Aruna,
Assistant Political Editor
and Femi Ogbonnikan
Reporter, Lagos
A writer some
years back had warned that if left unwatched, the ambitions of
politicians might jeopardise the efforts being made to build a virile
democratic culture in Nigeria and by extension, he argued, it may be a
clog in the wheel of growth and development of the country.
The above might perhaps
provide enough ground to ponder over the current out-of-the-ring face-off
between Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Works Minister, Senator Adeseye
Ogunlewe. Besides, it may indeed help to have a grasp of what may, from
all indications, become dirtier in the months ahead.
Barely a week ago, the Lagos
State government through the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Segun Ayobolu, at
a press conference accused Ogunlewe of deploying people wearing reflective jackets
of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to dislodge the officials of both the Lagos State Traffic
Management Authority (LASTMA) and Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) brigades from some Lagos
highways.
Ayobolu explained that the people
numbering over 150 operated at Marina and Lagos/Ibadan toll gate,
arriving as early as 7.30a.m brandishing various weapons and launched an assault on LASTMA and
KAI officials while they took over the roads.
Corroborating the attack, a
Commandant of KAI, Mr. Dayo Williams, alleged that the attack at Marina was led by a PDP
local government chairmanship aspirant (name withheld), which resulted in
the brutalising of at least
two LASTMA officials and two
KAI personnel. A similar attack took place three weeks earlier.
The immediate or remote
causes of these attacks, to an ardent observer of the state politics, are
more than scuffles between road maintenance officials; it is an extension
of the continued political rivalry between Tinubu and Ogunlewe, who has
been rumoured to be in contention of the governorship race in 2007.
For sure, the ongoing
acrimonious rivalry between the duo stems from primordial
hostilities arising from the
resolve of the minister, backed by a powerful Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) clique, to challenge the tenacious hold of Tinubu on the politics
of the state. At the inception of the present democratic dispensation in
May 1999, the relationship
between Tinubu and Ogunlewe was thawed. The duo of Tinubu and
Ogunlewe were elected into various elective offices on the platform of
the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State.
Both Senator Ogunlewe and Dr.
Wahab Dosunmu had represented Lagos East and Lagos West Senatorial
districts respectively at the Senate between May 1999 and May 2003, but
in 2001 decamped to the PDP. They allegedly accused Tinubu of hijacking the party in the state; giddying
profligacy; and the lack of
control and failure of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation,
Afenifere, to call Tinubu to order.
Prior to their defection, the
two senators were indicted
by the party over reports of their disloyalty to AD. The AD house, an appendage of
Afenifere, was inundated with a myriad of anti-party activities reports
ranging from flirting with the presidency, attending nocturnal meetings
with PDP senators in and outside Abuja and working against the interests
of the AD.
Ogunlewe is a lawyer and
one-time permanent secretary in Lagos State and a prince from Igbogbo in
Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State.
The senator hails from an
affluent dynasty of Igbogbo, the home country of Chief Olorunfunmi
Basorun, who is the immediate past and founding chairman of PDP in Lagos
State and former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), and also former commissioner for
education, both during the administration of Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
Adeseye is a younger brother
to Dr. Akin Ogunlewe, a
former super permanent
secretary, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, an astute
technocrat and an erstwhile chairman of Eko International Bank Plc. He
was relieved of his position
in what looked like a civilian palace coup at the state level
shortly after Seye decamped to the PDP.
The scion of the late
Adeboruwa of Igbogbo, Oba Adelaja Ogunlewe, Seye and his two brothers,
Dr. Akin Ogunlewe and an incumbent Permanent Secretary, Lagos State,
Prince Segun Ogunlewe, are formidable forces to reckon with. Their
generosity to touch the life of poor people and improve the well-being of
sons and daughters of the town informed the floating of an educational
foundation almost three decades ago to offer financial support to the
needy and indigent students of Igbogbo at both the undergraduate and
postgraduate levels.
Consequently, as the April
2003 general elections drew closer, and candidates were screened to vie
for elective posts, the patterns and methods adopted by Governor Tinubu
at the primary election in the state spurred bickering among potential
contestants and party faithful.
Rather, he (Tinubu) single-handedly, with the support
of the state party machinery, handpicked candidates for each of the three
senatorial districts and
other posts.
For the Lagos Central
senatorial district, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi was moved to Lagos West;
the immediate past Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Dr.
Olorunnimbe Mamora, was pencilled down to tackle Senator Ogunlewe , while
the former Lagos State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs, Musiliu Obanikoro, was honed to counter Senator Wahab Dosunmu
from the Lagos Central senatorial district.
Hell was let loose at the
primary election held at the Women Development Centre, Agege, in the
first week of January 2003 when supporters of Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon,
from Mushin, now a member of the House of Representatives, went on
rampage to disrupt what they described as shoddy and pre-planned primary
election by threatening to attack the leadership of the party, who
attempted to foist Afikuyomi on the Lagos West senatorial district, with
acid.
Nevertheless, a few days
after the release of the senatorial election result, the defeated Senator
Ogunlewe, in an interview with an Ikorodu tabloid, Factor, averred that
Mamora was not a Lagosian, and would at every weekend go to Ijebu-Mushin,
Ogun State to junket with
his family and relations.
As if he had got the weapon
to fight back, with more leverage, the senator, on his appointment to
head the Federal Ministry of Works, swiftly embarked on the
rehabilitation and beautification of Federal roads in the state following
several years of neglect after the Federal seat was moved to Abuja in
1992.
Also, Ogunlewe, who has
attained the status of a stout defender of President Olusegun Obasanjo,
has since joined forces with Chief Bode George, the PDP Southwest leader,
to query every move of Tinubu, the most recent one being the creation of
additional 37 local councils.
The PDP had accused Tinubu of
trampling on the constitution with the creation of an additional local government areas and called
on the Federal Government not to recognise the new councils. Not a few
have attributed the recent withholding of funds to the councils by the
Federal Government to pressure by the leadership of the PDP in the state
who are visibly uncomfortable with the resultant effects the new councils
would have on the 2007 elections.
Tinubu has not disappointed
his supporters. He has used every forum to accuse the federal government
of operating a centralised structure which, according to him, is contrary
to the principles of a federal state. Yet he has not failed to remind the
PDP leadership in the state that his soured relationship with Aso Rock is
because he stood firm to what rightly belongs to the state. But George
and Ogunlewe have at every juncture engaged Tinubu in a war of words,
accusing him of mismanaging the resources of the state, and indeed,
reminding him that he is not an indigene of the state. Those present at
the recent book launch of Chief Dideolu Awolowo could not but wonder at
the dimension the animosities between the politicians is taking.
Many Lagosians have given
kudos to Ogunlewe when he embarked on the execution of 500 federal roads.
The picture was that of a minister who knows what he is doing and he was
articulate enough to educate the unwary that he has a job to do. But
critics have lashed out at his recent remarks and actions, saying that he
has deviated from his earlier stand and rather he is now playing
politics with his works.
“Ogunlewe is not an
experienced politician but a
technocrat. He is being influenced by sheer ambition. I think he should
do the job and let the people be the ultimate judge rather than
destroying what he has done in the first six months,” says a top PDP member who craves
anonymity.
He has not hidden his disdain
to the encroachment of the Lagos State on federal roads and has even
vowed that the more than N7 billion
claims by the Tinubu government will never be refunded. In a
recent interview with Daily Independent, Ogunlewe debunked the claims of
the state government, saying that there is a due process, which must be
followed before any payment could be made. He even hinted that the
Federal Government was not consulted before Lagos embarked on the
construction of federal roads.
However, reacting to a
directive by the Federal Ministry of Works that the state government
should steer clear of federal roads and parks, the Lagos State House of
Assembly has told the Federal Government to make sure its actions are
dictated by laid down constitutional procedure. The lawmakers added that
in any federal system, maintainance of parks lay squarely on the
shoulders of the local authorities.
Even then, some observers are
wondering why it is now that the LASTMA officials are incompetent and constituting
nuisance on Federal highways when there have been cooperation between
Ogunlewe’s predecessors in the same ministry. Questions have also been asked why the same measures
are not being put in place by the Works Ministry in other states of the
federation.
As it is, observers are
worried that the face-off between these politicians will have adverse effects on the
growth and development of the state. Just last week, Professor Bolaji
Akinyemi, former external affairs minister, faulted Ogunlewe and the
Federal Ministry of Works on control of federal roads in the state. And
fearing that the face-off might degenerate, Akinyemi also called on the
Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, to reconcile Tinubu and Ogunlewe.
In a press statement
entitled; “Destructive Federalism: Tinubu vs. Ogunlewe”, Akinyemi said
that the Federal Government should be grateful and not antagonistic to
the Lagos State government for doing what it has failed to do in a long
time. According to him, Tinubu has been very visible in three areas in
the last five years: high taxes, beautification of the Lagos environment
and instilling
discipline on Lagos
roads.
On beautification and road discipline, the former
minister scored the governor high, especially with the setting up of
LASTMA and KAI brigades. “It has taken the KAI and LASTMA brigades to
restore some element of sanity to Lagos roads. Where was the Federal
Ministry of Works when all these were going on?” he asked.
Akinyemi regretted that since
Ogunlewe became the minister, it has been war between him and the
governor, with the state being warned to keep off repairing federal rods
as well as their beautification.
The Works Ministry had warned LASTMA and KAI to keep off federal
roads threatening them with arrest and physical violence. Whatever way
this tango eventually plays out, analysts are of the view that the
current Ogunlewe’s posture will not only hurt his rumoured ambition, but
jeorpadise the chances of his party in subsequent elections in the state.
As the PDP stalwart noted, Ogunlewe should concentrate in making sure the
larger society reaps the dividends of democracy through the construction
of passable roads in the country. “This is how he would be judged in the
future”, he said.
Also last week, Prince
Ademola Adeniji-Adele, while speaking with Daily Independent, said: “I do
not subscribe to the tango between Tinubu and Ogunlewe. Whether it is
Lagos State or federal, we have a duty to deliver services to our people
and if anybody delivers these services, it is well and good for the
people. But the question I would ask is, is what is happening also taking
place in other parts of the country? Lagos should not be turned into a
battle zone. Tinubu and Ogunlewe must work together to deliver services
to our people.” He added
that if Ogunlewe had anything to do, it must be on national basis so
that, according to him, people will not read meanings into it.
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