By Steve Omolale
As preparations for the May 18 governorship primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) gather momentum, all kinds of emergency political analysts, beer parlour commentators and unrepentant charlatans have started coming out of their cocoons, offering moronic arguments on who should fly the party’s flag.
In one of such jaundiced analyses, and writing in “The Best of the West”, an online newspaper, under the title: “The ‘Baba Sope’ trap: Lagos, godfather politics and the man who deserves a second chance”, a certain self-styled political analyst, Usman Adewale, while trying to make a case for the second coming of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, concocted a cock and bull story disingenuously tagged “analysis”, and spewed falsehoods about Deputy Governor Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat.
His so-called analysis, which is laced with all manner of innuendos against the person of Hamzat, Hon. James Faleke, representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, the highly respected Governance Advisory Council (GAC) and President Bola Tinubu GCFR, ranks among the worst analyses of Lagos politics one has read in recent times.
It is full of outright lies, half-truths and sheer mudslinging. Clearly, the trash is a by-product of a shallow mind, masquerading as an analyst. It is an unintelligent presentation from a demented soul. I will explain.
Firstly, Adewale vehemently condemned GAC, whose members he disrespectfully described as spent political forces, for holding a meeting with President Tinubu where he reportedly said Hamzat should be supported to succeed Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as hinted by Faleke. To him, this is not democracy, but a “Baba Sope Trap”.
I do not blame him. Perhaps, he was asleep in 2015 when the same GAC that he now derogatorily refers to as “Baba Sope” brought in Ambode, who some people said was not the most qualified of all the aspirants then, as governor. While the decision of GAC was democratic in 2015 and its members were not “spent political forces” then because they favoured Ambode, the same Council with a similar decision today is undemocractic because it endorsed Hamzat. What a pity! Was Adewale hallucinating when he wrote this trash? Most likely!
Still in his dreamland, and in his futile attempt to question the roots of the deputy governor, he mischievously asked: “Where, precisely, does Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat come from?”
To him, this is not a “trivial question” because he, obviously, has lost his wandering mind when writing his so-called analysis. But, to discerning Lagosians, who are in their millions, his question is the most trivial and most senseless ever. Saying Hamzat is not a “genuine indigene” of Lagos, whatever this means, is a submission of a man under the influence of some substance.
Unlike Adewale the “political analyst”, all discerning Lagosians know that Hamzat was born into the family of the late Oba Mufutau Olatunji Hamzat and the late Alhaja Kehinde Hamzat from Iga Egbe, Lagos Island. His father served as a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly and a Commissioner for Transportation in the state between 1979 and 1983 before becoming the Vice-Chairman (South-West) of the then Alliance for Democracy (AD). The deputy governor’s father later became the Lagos West Senatorial District leader of the Action Congress (AC) and a monarch through his maternal royal lineage. He was also a member of GAC that Adewale derided so much in his write-up.
With this, Hamzat is clearly not what the Yoruba will call “Omo Atounrinwa” (a total stranger) in Lagos because he is “Omo Eko Gangan” (an original Lagos indigene).
Why would Adewale have problems with Hamzat’s Epe roots? Did Epe people tell him the deputy governor is not one of their own?
In case he did not know, the first military administrator of Osun State, General Leo Ajiborisha (rtd) from Epe, is Hamzat’s uncle. His late father changed his name when the family stopped idol worshipping and when he became a monarch, hence his title was Ajiborisha I. The fact that Hamzat’s late mother hailed from Lagos Island has eminently qualified him for the exalted seat of the governor of the Centre of Excellence.
And in case Adewale, with his bitter mind, still did not know, a prominent Lagosian, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, recently reaffirmed that “Hamzat is a bonafide Lagos indigene”, citing the examples of some past and present Obas of Lagos, including Dosunmu, Akintoye and Oluwole, as well as Akiolu, who were and are from the female lineage and were still crowned as kings. Besides, he could as well be sleeping when Oba Akiolu acknowledged that the Lagos monarchy is from Benin, while the Benin monarchy is from Ile-Ife.
He was also not in this world when the revered elder statesman, Chairman of GAC and Ado-Ekiti chief, whose mother also hailed from the Ekiti State capital, Prince Tajudeen Oluyole Olusi, said the prominent Ojora Chieftaincy Family of Lagos have their roots in Aramoko-Ekiti. It is also an open secret that Akinwunmi Ambode himself has his roots in Ondo State. Many prominent Lagos families today have their roots elsewhere in Yorubaland and outside the shores of Nigeria before their forefathers came to Lagos. Yet, like Hamzat, they are all indigenes of Lagos. The drinking joint analyst can definitely not know better than Oba Akiolu, Prince Olusi, the distinguished senator and former minister, Obanikoro, and many other respected Lagos indigenes.
Where was Adewale when Hamzat’s father was part of the pro-democracy forces that fought the late Gen. Sani Abacha and his evil regime to a standstill? Where were his sponsors who keep on, as they say, hiding behind a finger.
Although pretending to be unperturbed by religious sentiments, Adewale still revealed his biases in his banal analysis. Common sense should have dictated to him that religion has nothing to do with performance. There is no governor of Lagos State, right from 1999 to date, who has not done exceedingly well, irrespective of his religion.
Besides, in one breath, he acknowledged that “deputy governors in Nigeria occupy a peculiar constitutional purgatory,” in another, he contradicted himself by saying, “From Agege to Ajah, from Badagry to Ikorodu, what can any resident of Lagos point to and say with confidence, ‘That is Hamzat’s work?'”
He should check Chapter 6, Part 2, Section 193 of the Nigerian Constitution to read and comprehend the duties and limitations of a deputy governor. With the duties and responsibilities of a deputy governor clearly spelt out in the Constitution, what specific work does he expect the Lagos deputy governor to do “from Agege to Ajah, from Badagry to Ikorodu”?
Since Hamzat is a very loyal deputy and party member to the ever-performing Governor Sanwo-Olu, both of them and their team of commissioners and other political appointees have taken Lagos to greater height. They are a winning team any day. A governor’s achievement is shared by his deputy; it is a joint ticket. To ask what Hamzat done, smacks of pure illiteracy on the part of the unknown Adewale, a hired gun.
However, and as part of his achievements as the Lagos State Commissioner for Science and Technology in the Tinubu administration between 2005 and 2011, Hamzat enforced the application of modern technology in ministries and agencies, thus changing the face of data and record keeping and at the same time eliminating the trend of ghost workers. That was why the revenue of Lagos State went up and Asiwaju Tinubu, the then governor, became the champion of financial re-engineering.
And as the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure under the then Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN between 2011 and 2015, Hamzat initiated and completed several projects that actually changed the face of Lagos, one of the reasons Fashola again appointed him as Special Adviser (Technical) when he was the Minister of Power, Works and Housing under the late former President Muhammadu Buhari. And since 2019, he has been the deputy governor of Lagos State. Therefore, Hamzat is not a novice to public service where his image has never been tainted by any scandal.
Yes, Ambode did well as the governor of Lagos State. But insisting that, that is the only position he could occupy and perform well is diminishing his status. If given the opportunity, he can also perform well at the national level, as some former governors have found their ways to the Senate and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) where they are contributing to national development.
Those who are close to Hamzat have been speaking glowingly about his impeccable character, his dedication to duty, his compassion and his brilliance, among other good attributes.
One of them, Mr. Moshood Gbadamosi, a lawyer, in a thank you message to the deputy governor, as he approaches the party primaries, recalled how he did not know him before but still supported him financially, just after making a phone call to him, when he (Gbadamosi) was admitted to the Nigerian Law School. In his words, “That gesture is still fresh in my memory. I can’t forget it.”
This is just one of the many testimonies from one of the many known and unknown people about Hamzat.
Even Adewale in his myopic “analysis” acknowledged that, “Party insiders describe Hamzat as cerebral, educated and policy-oriented.”
Therefore, if the deputy governor possesses all these attributes enunciated above, and even acknowledged by his arch-enemies and political opponents, nobody should deny him his inalienable right to the governorship seat in Lagos State by saying he is a non-indigene.
Omolale, a seasoned journalist, writes from Lagos.