While the welfare package was being sorted out, I had called a meeting of the Forum of Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants for Monday, 8 May 2006 to discuss some urgent matters. I told members of the Forum during the meeting that all the prayers we made in our submission, in respect of our welfare, had been approved. Therefore, we didn’t have to delay the commencement of our assignment considering the level of preparedness of our rival, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its gubernatorial candidate, Funsho Williams. The assignment took a new twist as I decided to change the focus from manpower development to agenda evaluation. The change was compelled by the fact that our opponent, Williams, was a veteran in election participation. He was a formidable politician who began his political streak in 1996/1997 under the then United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), which was later dissolved after the death of General Sani Abacha, the parabolic founder of the party. Williams (740,506) also contested the 2003 gubernatorial election in Lagos State, which he lost narrowly to Bola Tinubu (911,613). I also realised from media reports that we lacked a strong defence for our performance since 1999. I therefore thought that we should do a self-evaluation of our performance to see if indeed, we had met the expectations of the people in the last seven years of our administration.
Our party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), was yet to have a candidate but there were speculations here and there. I knew of two people that were being rumoured to have been endorsed by Oga. I didn’t want to bother him with the rumours by asking him if they were true but I called one of the two people to know if truly he had been consulted. Mr. Akin Kekere-Ekun is like my big brother. We worked together when he was the Chairman of the Governing Council of Lagos State University (LASU). As LASU’s ambassador plenipotentiary in government, I had to work with him on so many policies and decisions of government as they related to LASU. He told me categorically that he was not interested. He didn’t say more than that.
Hakeem Gbajabiamila is my friend but for some personal reasons, I didn’t want to ask him. I forged on with my team irrespective of who would eventually emerge the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
Thursday, 1 June 2006, our assignment began in earnest. We set our goal, just one goal: To ensure victory for ACN in the 14 April 2007 gubernatorial election in Lagos Stare. We set our objectives as well: (i) to evaluate our 10-point agenda and identify our policy strengths and weaknesses as a government and as a party (ii) to determine or identify which of the 10-point agenda would still excite the electorate during the campaign after seven years in government and (iii) to prepare a working document that would guide the party’s gubernatorial candidate on how government had executed its 10-point agenda. Our methodology was simple. We made use of resident Special Assistants who would give us comprehensive presentation on the activities of their respective ministries stating in clear terms process and extent of implementation of relevant government’s agenda. For instance, the resident SA in the Ministry of Agriculture would address the forum on how well the Ministry had been able to translate or implement government’s food security agenda via facilitation of sustainable food production and processing; empowerment of farmers/fishermen cooperative societies and the Ministry’s role in providing support for strategic food preservation and farm settlements development. After the presentation, a workshop would follow to firm up loose ends in the presentation.
Our approach to the assignment was both conceptual and practical. The 10-point agenda covered a wide range of sectors such as employment, power and water supply, transportation, roads, education, health, environment and physical planning, food security, revenue enhancement and shelter. We were meeting every week in order to meet up with the various electoral timelines both at the party and governmental levels. Due to the sensitivity of the work we were doing, I decided to do the recording and the typing personally. Not even my secretary was allowed to type any aspect of the document.
While we were still working on the document, rumours of more people joining the gubernatorial aspirants’ list were flying around and about . Aro Lambo, a veteran politician, was top on the list. Oyinlomo Danmole, a close associate of Dapo Sarumi, was another big name on the list. Rahman Owokoniran, Tinubu’s campaign manager in 1991/92 during the senatorial election under Babangida’s regime, was also there. There was Kunle Lawal, a Professor of History at LASU. Also on the list was Tola Kasali, a medical practitioner from Ibeju-Lekki. Another prominent name that was being rumoured to be on the list was Tòkunbó Afikuyomi. The next name on the list was Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist cum politician while the last name was that of Hakeem Gbajabiamila.
There were two interesting things about this list. One, all of these people, but Agbaje were members of Tinubu’s administration. Two, the one whose name was more pronounced on the list and being rumoured to have been endorsed personally by the Governor himself was Hakeem Gbajabiamila. I didn’t believe he had Oga’s endorsement until a mild drama ensued between him and the Chief of Staff, Babatunde Fashola inside the Governor’s office.
I had gone to Oga’s office for one of my early morning routine discussions but I saw that he was not alone in the office. There was Dele Alake with him. There was Yemi Osinbajo with him. I joined them in the discussion. Few minutes later, Fashola walked in to brief the Governor about a meeting he was supposed to hold with Prof. Akin Mabogunje in his office. Mabogunje was the Chairman of a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Committee with Gbajabiamila and Fashola as members. The committee was established by the Federal and State Governments. There were other state and federal officials on the committee. Mabogunje had come to Alausa to hold a meeting with members of the committee but unfortunately, he was in a hurry to attend another function in Abuja with the President. So, what he did that day was like breezing in to offer an apology for his inability to hold the meeting, while fixing a new date for it. Fashola was still explaining this to the Governor when Gbajabiamila came in with a noticeable rage shouting: “Tunde, why didn’t you call me for the meeting with Prof. Mabogunje”? Fashola was about to reply when he shouted him down:”My friend keep quiet when I am talking. You did it deliberately. You know that was not your first time”. At this point, Oga was still tolerating Gbajabiamila’s rántíng by appealing to him to calm down. Instead of calming down, his fury was brewing large: “H.E (His Excellency), you are the one indulging this guy. Let me give him a piece of my mind”. Fashola didn’t know what to say as he remained silent in discomforting bewilderment. When Gbajabiamila wouldn’t stop hollering at a frozen COS, Oga had to send the two of them out of his office.
The shouting match was an unpardonable assault on the office and person of the Governor. It was a showy display of the arrogance of an “in-coming” power. That spectacle was an abuse of endorsement. The rest of us in the office, Osibanjo, Alake and I couldn’t venture an intervention when there was an unrestrained collapse of decorum. However, when the two of them left, the three of us had our interjections which changed the conferment of anointing. Fashola, whose name never featured on any “In-coming” list, started appearing very prominently on every gossip list. While the ACN gubernatorial candidate was evolving, that of the PDP was eclipsing as the nation was jolted with the news of the death of Williams on 27 July 2006. He was found bound, strangled, and stabbed at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi. One Bashir Junaid, an attendant at Maton Cemetery, Mushin, Lagos, was arraigned in court for the murder of the politician. Williams was later replaced by Musiliu Obanikoro, who eventually won the PDP primary.
The moment the core politicians in the ACN got to know that the Governor had given a symbolic and direct endorsement to an apolitical Fashola as his successor, they protested vehemently and demanded for an open and transparent party primary instead of imposition. Their protest rocked the party with elders, namely Alhaji Olátúnjí Hamzat, Alhaji Bushura Alebiosu, Alhaji Ajisebutu, Baba Taiwo, Baba Pupa expressing fear about Fashola’s candidacy when strong politicians like Aro Lambo, Oyinlomo Danmole and Rahman Owokoniran had signified their intentions to contest for the governorship seat. Series of meetings were held with the Governor to make him change his mind. From all indications, Oga was not ready to back down. He already held a secret meeting with Gbenga Ashafa, Mutiu Àrè and Kunle Odufuwa where he proposed me as the Director General of the Fashola Campaign Organisation. I was not at the meeting but I got the details of their deliberations. Apparently, this information reached Fashola who later went to persuade _Oga_ to appoint Fuad Oki instead. Though I was aware of Fashola rejecting my appointment, I didn’t allow this to affect my work and relationship with him.
This was how I got to know about my rejection by Fashola. There was a drama involving me at the final meeting Oga held with the aggrieved aspirants in the conference room of the Governor’s office. At the meeting, Oga was about to make his opening remarks when the leader of the team, Danmole raised an objection to the presence of the media, the civil servants and some other individuals at a meeting that was meant to be attended strictly by the Governor and the aggrieved aspirants. Puzzled by the presence of the crowd, Oga sent everybody out of the meeting. I did not leave. Oga saw that I was still in the hall when everybody had left. So, he asked them: “Do you want Dàpọ Thomas to leave as well?. They all chorused “No”. I looked around and I saw that Segun Oniru was also seated. I couldn’t say if he was for Fashola or against him. The meeting rolled on to a stalemate. I left the conference room to go to my office. By the time I got to the long passage of the annex building of the Governor’s Office, I heard Segun Osiyoye, the Chief Protocol Officer, saying “Mr. Thomas is out, do you want to talk to him”? He gave the phone to me and it was Fashola. “Dapsy, _bawo_ ni? “I am fine”, was my response. “I learned you were the only one allowed to stay in the meeting”. I said “Yes, and Segun Oniru”. He asked me all he wanted to know about the meeting and I told him. He then said:”You see, that’s why I said Oga should allow Dapo to stay in the office during the campaign”. I was sure he was referring to his objection of my appointment as the DG of his campaign organisation. He was definitely monitoring the situation from a hideout. Somehow, he sounded apologetical but I could still perceive a tinge of unrepentance in his demeanour.
I discountenanced the confusion the appointment controversy was causing for me and moved on with my team by speeding up the pace at which we were working on the agenda evaluation. Coincidentally, Dana Motors Limited delivered the new vehicles ordered for members of the forum on 14 August 2006. This was like a motivation for my team Fashola almost caused another crisis for me when he directed the PS (COS) via a short note on 17 August 2006, “to ensure that those who collected official vehicles in 1999 return them before they could receive the new ones”. That was not my agreement with the Governor. I got a counter order that superceded his directive to the PS. The Governor even did something wonderful by directing that the 1999 vehicles should be boarded to the officials using them at very affordable prices. This made more sense to me. However, I didn’t tell any of my members what happened between the COS and I in respect of the old cars in order not to cause disaffection between us. I was surprised that at a time this when Fashola should be embracing peace and good relations with people, he was taking this kind of unfriendly position. He was contending with the elders of the party who were more inclined to Lambo, who had been part of them from the beginning. Besides, Lambo was poached by the Governor from Williams because he was regarded as a master strategist and mobiliser as far as Lagos politics was concerned. He was also contending with other aggrieved aspirants who were not happy with his choice. In fact, the Governor remembered that only four of us fell into that category and he was wondering why four old vehicles should be a problem for the COS at a time like this. That was why he directed that the vehicles should be sold to us. Notwithstanding these unnecessary diversions here and there, my team continued working on the document.
All this while, Fashola was not aware of the work we were doing. By October 2006, we had concluded our working sessions. It then became my responsibility to complete the typing and the binding. By 16 December 2006 when Fashola was officially declared the winner of ACN primary held on 12 December, which was boycotted by the aggrieved aspirants, the 98-page document was ready. It was like a Bible on Governance in Lagos. I showed it to _Oga_ and he was very enlivened with the quality of work that we did. I made four copies. He collected two copies, told me to give one to Fashola and asked me to keep one with me.
On the day I was to present it to Fashola, I went with six other members of the forum namely Sunday Adepoju, Niyi Ìdòwú, Benson Akintola , R. A. Olaiya, Bola Banire and Toyin Amzat. He thanked the forum and solicited our support to mobilise for the April election.
I was not surprised that five months after the presentation, precisely, 14 April 2007, Fashola was declared the winner of the Governorship election in Lagos State with a total votes of 599,300 to defeat Obanikoro who scored 383,956, while Gbajabiamila, who left ACN in protest to contest on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), scored 13,576 votes. The moment Fashola became the Governor of the state, things started falling apart between the two of us.
To be continued
