A two-time Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, known as the fearless Koro-Ibo (Koro-Vote) during his bid to become the governor of Lagos State in 2007, speaks from the heart.
In this interview, he dissects Lagos politics, President Bola Tinubu’s style of governance and why Nigerians should be happy that Tinubu is at the helm of affairs today.
Obanikoro, who had served as Minister of State for Defence and Foreign, took a long look at the security situation in Nigeria and concluded that it is surmountable if fifth columnists can be quashed, while citizens provide the much needed intelligence. Asked about the negativity of defection, he simply said: “You see, everybody is trying to align themselves with our party because there is something positive which President Tinubu is doing and which the people are seeing.”
Excerpts:
Apart from your outburst in the wake of the illegal removal of the Speaker of the Lagos Assembly as pronounced by the court, you’ve been too quiet. What has been happening?
I don’t know what you are talking about. I am not a member of the House of Assembly, neither was I privy to the crisis. However, that is now water under the bridge.
The context of the question is the stasis or incapacity of the Governance Advisory Council, GAC, to nip it in the bud.
All we were trying to do was to midwife a resolution at that point but some people misread the situation. As leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that the state does not unduly get into an unnecessary crisis. When that situation occurred, the responsibility to douse it fell on us. Now we know the outcome, because as we have said, the rest, as they say, is history.
When you say it was difficult to douse the issue, some would find that a bit curious. The almighty GAC?
Sometimes, when emotion flares, it can affect our judgement. The issues surrounding that removal and what have you, the actors were emotionally enraged. It was almost impossible for the leadership to penetrate them. As I have said, it’s behind us now, and there’s a lesson, it’s a learning curve, even for them too. I am glad that there’s a resolution, and I am glad the House is now functioning properly. Crisis management is part of democracy, and doesn’t hurt the system, it makes it stronger.
This your GAC, some people have mixed ideas of its real relevance. Some say it’s supposed to be a feedback loop between the elected people and the grassroots. But then, some also accuse the membership of needless subservience to Asiwaju who introduced it. How does that come across?
When you have a situation like this, what you realize is that if you say yes, you lose. If you say no, you lose. So what you end up doing is to allow people to ventilate whatever opinion that they have. What I can tell you for free is that the opinion does not represent what that structure or that body stands for. You see, let me take one of our leaders as an example for you to appreciate what we have there.
Baba Olusi, who is now presiding in the absence of Asiwaju, was a councilor in Lagos. From there, he rose to become a supervisor at the council, Lagos Island Local Government. Later, during the 1979-83 political dispensation, he represented Lagos Island at the House of Reps. These are elders who are full of wisdom, who have been this, been that. He was also a commissioner in Lagos State.
They have seen it all. Let me tell you, no matter how brilliant you are, no matter the school you attended, it cannot compensate for experience. All that cannot. It can help, but it cannot compensate for experience. Don’t forget they have been through so many crises that they overcame. In any serious society, they are needed to guide us against so many needless occurrences that hitherto would have set the state back, either in terms of development or in terms of peace and tranquility. So, you need such a sitting.
That is what experience does to people who are wise enough, and who are clever enough, and who are deep enough to understand that experience is the best teacher in anything we do.
So, Asiwaju, that put that body together, is a very wise person. He is a very strategic person. If you ask him, with the benefit of hindsight, what he will say about GAC, he will tell you that it has served Lagos well. I can tell you that even all other states now in Nigeria, I know Oyo at some point was trying to do the same thing. And I know Ogun State also is trying to do the same thing.
In essence, when we combine the experiences of every member of that council and considering the fact that we are all leaders within our communities and areas, we brainstorm to assist the government in terms of wise counsel, results of which have been very positive.
But the perception of a rubber stamp…
(Cuts in) Perception is the problem. Let me tell you, there is a saying in Yorubaland that those who seek to inherit an inheritance that does not belong to them, will tell a bad story to inherit it. That is what is happening. Those who are unduly ambitious, let me say, those who are recklessly and unduly ambitious, are the ones saying there is no relevance when it comes to GAC. It is because they too forget that at some point, they are going to become senior citizens too. In any case, some of them have been beneficiaries of the intervention of GAC.
The GAC guides and ensures that we all learn from the past, so that the same mistakes are not repeated.
Would I be correct to say that in 2023 when Asiwaju lost the presidential election in Lagos, a mistake was made in terms of improper mobilisation? Shall we call it a loosening of guard of the political leaders in Lagos?
Asiwaju lost Lagos for so many reasons, not because some of us did not try our best. One, don’t forget that it was a Muslim/Muslim ticket. That was the first time that we had such in Nigeria. Two, Lagos, whether you like it or not, is the capital of the Christian religious groups in Nigeria. All these religious associations or religious groups are all headquartered in Lagos or outskirts of Lagos, and they have a huge population.
The decision was taken because they felt threatened that a Muslim/Muslim ticket would reduce the Christians to second class citizens in Nigeria because that had never happened before. What we were accustomed to before then was a faith-balanced ticket. If a Muslim heads, a Christian is second. Where a Christian is the head of the ticket, a Muslim would be the second. So that is what we were accustomed to, and it became the norm, like a tradition. So anytime you want to create a shock in a system like that, you are going to have the kind of reaction that we saw at that time. So, like I said, there were many factors, including the one I just mentioned.
But you will agree that their fears were not unfounded?
Of course. Was their fear genuine? Yes, it was genuine. If you are confronting something that has never happened before, it is game to have such fear. It is game because you cannot predict the outcome, you want to protect yourself against it. But what they forgot was to look into the background of the individual who was heading the ticket, which is Asiwaju. If they had studied his background, they would have known that Asiwaju is not a religious bigot, and he’s not the type of person that will put one religion over another. His household is a good example of that.
The First Lady of Nigeria today is a pastor. Seyi, his son, is a Christian. The president is not the type of person that will impose – and that speaks to how the GAC also operates, as I was trying to say before . But they didn’t know that. Some of the people knew. But the fear of this not happening before in the history of Nigeria, you cannot blame them for that.
