Sanwo-Olu, Obasa And The Lagos Cabinet, By Kazeem Akintunde
That Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is still a political neophyte is glaring for all to see. Though he joined partisan politics 20 years ago in 2003, when he was appointed Special Adviser on Corporate Matters to former Deputy Governor of Lagos, Femi Pedro, he seems not to have learnt the basic rudiments of politics. It beggars belief that Sanwo-Olu would send a list of 39 Commissioner-nominees to members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, majority of whom were in the same political party as him, and 17 of those on the list would be rejected by the lawmakers. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, this would be the first time that a Lagos State Chief Executive would find it difficult to have his nominees screened and confirmed. This is because the same political party has dominated Lagos politics for over two decades.
Now that he has been taught a political lesson by members of the House, it is hoped that he will realise his folly and make corrections as soon as possible. Though Sanwo-Olu is not a newly elected Governor who is just learning the ropes, he got his Commissioner-nominees screened and confirmed in 2019 without much of a whimper from any sections of the state then, so what went amiss this time around?
Four years ago, political heavyweights led by President Bola Tinubu were still very much on ground, they would have rallied the Governor, given directives and counselled him on what to do even before the list was sent to the lawmakers for their screening and confirmation. With Tinubu leading the charge then, all different stakeholders in the state would have been consulted and carried along. The interests of all strata in the state would have been considered and taken care of. But his godfather, Tinubu, now has bigger fish to fry. He now presides over the affairs of the whole country and the politics of Lagos is now relegated to the background in the scheme of things in his head.
The Governor, thinking that it will be business as usual, has learnt the hard way.
To give the Governor a soft landing, members of the Governor Advisory Council (GAC), an amorphous political group, unknown to the constitution of the APC at the Federal level, the political party that produced the Governor and majority of the lawmakers – the All Progressive Congress (APC), as well as other interest groups, are now rallying the Governor to save face. It is doubtful if Sanwo-Olu consulted widely and involved critical stakeholders in the state before coming up with the list as they would have pointed out to him the folly of having only eight Muslims in a list of 39 proposed cabinet members in a politically-charged and religiously-sensitive state as Lagos.
The first sign of trouble came the day the list was made public. Professor Lakin Akintola, Executive Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) was the first to cry foul when he stated that the list contains names of only eight Muslims as against 31 Christians, and called for its rejection. Many Muslim faithful felt shortchanged and quickly joined in condemning the lopsided nominations. In a state where the numbers of Muslims and Christians could be said to be at par, it was no surprise that the entire Muslim community in the state rose in unison against the list.
A protest march was organized at the Lagos State House of Assembly by prominent Muslim clerics in the state where they called on the lawmakers to reject the list and demanded that 60 per cent of Commissioners in the state must be Muslims.
The 2023 commissioner’s list won’t be the first time Sanwo-Olu would be shortchanging Muslims in the state. In 2019 during his first term in office, he appointed 14 Special Advisers and only one among them was a Muslim. Again, his State Executive Council, which had 43 members, only had 14 Muslims, while the remaining 29 were Christians. Also, of the 23 Commissioners in the cabinet, 10 were Muslims and 13 of them were Christians. Only 15 Muslims and 35 Christians made up the body of 50 Permanent Secretaries who worked with the Governor in his first term. Thinking that his list would prove more accommodating four years later, a worse dish was served to the Muslim community.
The protest by the Muslim community was yet to die down when members of the Epetedo Indigenes Association also rejected the list and called for its review. Alhaji Maroof-deen Babatunde Oshodi, Dr Mondiu Babatunde Sarumi, and Hon. Nosirudeen Adegboyega Oshodi in their capacities as Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary of the association respectively, stated that the composition of the cabinet was rather disappointing as they stressed that it fell short of the expectations of the electorate. “Our decision to ventilate our stance derives from the seeming hard stance of the Governor after all citizens sacrificed for him to shield him from electoral defeat. We hereby register strongly, the disappointment of Epetedo indigenes with the contemptuous disposition of the Governor to the people that stood for and with him when the going was rough, really rough.”
The group made it known to Sanwo-Olu that as the real indigenes of Lagos, his cabinet should be made up of true Lagosians who know the problems confronting the state. Their anger stemmed from the fact that many non-indigenes of Lagos made the list. This is hardly surprising, considering the fact that the Governor is also not an indigene of the state and even less so that the son of Dele Alake, a Minister representing another state in the Federal cabinet, made the list of Commissioner-nominees in Lagos State.
But the major crisis over the controversial list is the no-love-lost between the Governor and members of the House of Assembly. Starting with the speaker, Mudasiru Obasa, some of the other lawmakers were also unhappy with the Governor. His performance in his first term as well as his crisis management techniques did not jell with some of the lawmakers, but they could not move against the Governor without incurring the wrath of his godfather-Tinubu. However, with Tinubu in Abuja, the coast seems clear for the lawmakers to get their pound of flesh.
Again, in the build-up to the election of a Speaker for the 10th Assembly, Sanwo-Olu supported the aspiration of another lawmaker, Abiodun Tobun, for the Speakership position. Obasa felt bad but eventually got the endorsement of his colleagues. Now is the perfect time to deal with the Governor. Some of the lawmakers also complained that their local government councils were not represented or that they were underrepresented in the proposed Cabinet.
Raising a ‘Matter of Urgent Public Importance’, the lawmaker, representing Ikorodu II Constituency, Aro Abiodun, told his colleagues on the floor of the House that despite contributing to the success of the APC in the last election, Ikorodu got one slot in the list. The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Ademola Kasunmu and Nureni Akinsanya from Mushin pointed out that the list did not come with the Local Government Areas of the nominees. They also noted that if the Governor desires technocrats, there are many of them in the APC that should have been picked by the Governor. Also, Hon. Kehinde Joseph (Alimosho II), said that loyalists and party members deserved to be nominated as much as technocrats. A source within the Screening Committee alleged that the Governor failed to carry party leaders along at the local level before picking some of the nominees. He said some Local Governments like Badagry have no nominee in the list sent by the Governor.
The lawmakers were also not happy that many of those who made the team in Sanwo-Olu’s first term treated them shabbily and did not identify with their constituents while in office. “Most of the so-called technocrats who served in the first term refused to relate with their constituencies. Even if you are a technocrat, once you are appointed to the position of Commissioner, you should know that you represent a certain Local Government and it behoves on you to relate with leaders in the local area. Most of them didn’t do this. The party is run by the people and once you are appointed, you cannot remain aloof”, one of the lawmakers said.
This is where the likes of Professor Akin Abayomi, Gbenga Omotosho and Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo had problems with the lawmakers. The trio performed excellently during the Governor’s first tenure to the extent that Abayomi, as Health Commissioner picked up COVID-19 on more than one occasion during the pandemic on the job. But they felt that they were technocrats and didn’t need to join active politics. They also failed to relate with politicians in their localities. Aside from that, many of the lawmakers believed that those technocrats have no electoral value, while other technocrats who are in politics are adding value at the local level.
Again, some of the dropped Commissioner-nominees did not perform well during the screening at the House of Assembly. A source stated that the former Special Adviser on Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Aramide Adeyoye performed poorly during the screening exercise.
With the lawmakers not confirming 17 of the commissioner’s nominees, members of the Governor’s Advisory Council, led by Prince Tajudeen Olusi, have now embarked on a trouble-shooting mission to resolve the crisis between the Governor and the lawmakers. Already, there are plans to appoint more Muslims to the cabinet, while many others would be considered for Board appointments. A jittery Governor Sanwo-Olu has dissolved the Board of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB), and appointed a new one with the Chairman and six of the seven Board members being Muslims. Again, Mr. Governor, I make bold to say that this is wrong. In a bid to satisfy Muslims, the Board of a body like LASUBEB should not be made up entirely of Muslims. C’mon, you can do better.
Though in most advanced nations of the world, religious and ethnic considerations are not in play when considering such appointments, Nigeria, and even a widely-acclaimed cosmopolitan state like Lagos State, still remains unripe for such development, as we are still attached to our religious beliefs and ethnicity when such decisions are being taken. It is hoped that such considerations would begin to fade as we advance in our political evolution. For now, it can only be hoped that Governor Sanwo-Olu and the lawmakers would be able to sit at a round table to have a heart-to-heart discussion and find an amicable resolution to the logjam. Doing this would be to the benefit of the masses and the development of Lagos state. Sanwo-Olu should also step up his game in providing democratic dividends to Lagosians. The amount of money generated in the State, and what the State receives from the Federation account monthly is far higher than the level of development we have in the state. Lagos now looks more like an urban jungle with deplorable roads all over, while refuse now competes with cars on major roads. Insecurity and criminality, due largely to unemployment, are now the order of the day on most streets of Lagos. It is time for him and his cabinet, when they are eventually cleared, to sit up and face the task of governance for the benefit of the masses.
See you next week.
