Ambode: Adebule’s unkindest cut – Part 2
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Adebule.
Perhaps, Adebule had no choice really. A lecturer at the Lagos State University, the Lagos APC party leadership plucked her and installed her Fashola’s SSG.
From that position, they drafted her to be Ambode’s running mate. So, perhaps, she really had no choice.
But in her shoes, God forbid, I don’t know if I would have the courage to publicly disown my boss, unless he was thoroughly mean to me.
Even then, I would have done so in a more tidy manner than she did. Number one, I will not go to the voting centre with the posters of his opponent.
Number two: I will not grant a press interview endorsing his opponent. It was an over-kill.
Unless, as earlier said, my boss is mean to me. Now, I don’t know if that was the case, but believe me, many state governors are mean to their deputies.
They have no respect for them. A number of commissioners are more influential than them.
They hardly consult them on any major issue. They are just there because the Constitution says so.
It is because of such treatment that most governors hardly allow their deputies to succeed them just so they are not paid back in kind. Those who did, or forced to do so, have sad stories to tell.
Ask former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso. His then deputy, now Governor Ganduje, has barred him, almost, from entering the state. Not even the Police can help him.
Also ask former Ebonyi State governor Martin Elechi. He has since abandoned the PDP for his former deputy, Governor Dave Umahi. Elechi is now an APC chieftain. But, how relevant is he there?
We never heard, or read anywhere that Adebule was having any misunderstanding with her boss and/or his elegant wife, Bolanle.
Yet, the story everywhere, now, is that the man runs a one-man show, and has allegedly, forcefully removed the feeding bottle from adults – you know, the usual patronage and other fringe benefits, even from the DG, SSG, and his commissioners. If true, he is the architect of his downfall. Good politicians know better than that. They oil the political machine.
For the records, Ambode is on a long, lonely journey to his village. If he doesn’t manage the situation well, and package himself better than he is doing now, he may become politically irrelevant.
Even, now, he has become a lame-duck governor. His friends, if he still has any, may start disappearing. He is no longer the centre of attraction. Sanwo-Olu is.
A thorough-bred civil servant, I understand, who was brought out of retirement and enthroned as the governor of Nigeria’s number one state, how did Ambode fall out of favour everywhere – to the extent that neither President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the National Working Committee of his party, nor several VVIPs could save him?
As confirmed by Tinubu, it is not that he has not performed well as a governor. The problem, as has been more than hinted, is that he “may have been eating alone.” He was not free with patronages. He became swollen-headed.
He deviated from the norm. He may not have remembered to oil the party machinery, nor those who helped him to the exalted position.
Tinubu put it nicely. Ambode deviated from the Lagos development blueprint and, is not a good party man.
But where is this blueprint? Can it be publicised so others can copy. Or, does it have a patent?
Ambode’s rejection by about everybody is unprecedented. It was total. Never in the history of politics has any rejection been this overwhelming. It is like a bad dream.
His fall should be a lesson for people who forget those who made them in life, or helped make them, once they find their feet. They not only forget, they run the person down behind, even publicly.
Fact is: such attitude is a sin before God and man. It beats me that Ambode could attempt to tango with Tinubu.
For now, Tinubu is the most powerful, the most influential politician, not only in Lagos, but in the South west. He commands followership, and loyalty.
But that’s because Tinubu, on the average, has a forgiving heart, and rewards loyalty. When he sneezes, Lagos shakes.
But, here is the implication of his power, influence and, hold on Lagos politics. Any APC member, who rejects his opinion, goes nowhere. If Sanwo-Olu wins, his main job has been made simple.
It is: Look unto the Asiwaju, hang unto his every word, or you get the Ambode treatment. Even the APC NWC cowered before him in the Lagos matter.
From publicly saying no election took place in the state, Clement Ebri, the Chairman of the Electoral panel, made an about-turn within 12 hours. Many people were embarrassed for him. He learnt late that “power pass power!”
Yet, Ambode can still redeem himself. He already started with his broadcast to Lagosians on Wednesday, October 3, accepting the fate that befell him and, pledging to cooperate with Sanwo-Olu. Not that he had any choice.
He knows the implication of fighting on. Who are his backers? He is standing alone.
When some people advised him to dump his party for the PDP, I laughed. He knows better than that. In Lagos? That would be committing suicide.
He wouldn’t have lasted two weeks more in office. He would have been impeached.
So sad he learnt his lesson very late, and in a hard way. A political novice? Yes. For, even when the chicken was coming home to roost, he hardly noticed.
His earlier outburst against Sanwo-Olu was ill-advised. He called him a criminal who is unworthy to occupy the office of a governor, yet, the guy was a high profile LASG official appointed by him.
He alleged that Sanwo-Olu went for rehabilitation at the Gbagada General Hospital – meaning he was a drug addict – and asked anybody in doubt to go check the records in the hospital.
That was beneath the office of a governor. Where were his media managers when committed this blunder?
The question is: How did Ambode access the medical records? Such things are confidential. Even though Sanwo-Olu has denied both allegations, I suspect that heads will roll at the Gbagada General Hospital, particularly at the Records department, if he finally wins the governorship election.
But back to Deputy Governor Adebule. Not a few people will keep referring to her as the woman who abandoned her boss.
The choice before her, excuse this cliché, was like one between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one hand, she is a product of the party.
On the other hand, Ambode is her boss. It is a no-win situation. Either way, many will look at her with suspicion.
Situations like this are some of the reasons many people, especially women, don’t have the liver to join politics.
Concluded.
Obi is Editor-in-Chief, The Source (Magazine).
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