First of all, I will like to state categorically that I, Femi Ismail Oyetunji, do not know Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) on a personal level; at least, I have not met him one-on-one before and up till now. But one thing is crucial, facts are sacred and … while opinion is free.
And as an Accountant, one should always have the courage to say the fact, even if it is bitter, otherwise, one should just keep quiet instead of joining the band wagons of false crusaders.
On this note, I will like to avail the readers of this piece of the little facts I know about the allegation against BAT so that posterity will not accuse me of knowing the truth and keeping silent and most importantly so that many people who have been fed with either half-truth or outright falsehood may have the opportunity of knowing the truth and peradventure may be influenced to change their wrong perception of BAT as a politician. However, I need to add that this piece also contains my personal opinion about the personality under reference, BAT, which I believe I am entitled to.
Let me start from the days of Abacha (1993 – 1998) which is still fresh in the minds of many of us. BAT was one of the major active participants and financiers of NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) which mastermind the end of Abacha draconian regime and subsequent enthronement of Democratic dispensation which we are still enjoying till date.
In 1999, when Nigeria returned to democratic dispensation, BAT unsurprisingly emerged as the Governor of Lagos State under the platform of AD (Alliance for Democracy), a political party that produced all the six Governors of the SW (Southwest) States of Nigeria in persons of Lam Adesina (RIP), Oyo State, Segun Osoba, Ogun State, Niyi Adebayo, Etiti State, Adebayo Adefarati (RIP), Ondo State, Bisi Akande, Osun State and no less a personality than BAT for Lagos State.
At that crucial time, the only political structure (association) that was very viable and reliable for any Yoruba politician from the SW of Nigeria was AFENIFERE, under the leadership of the Late Pa Abraham Adesanya, may his patriotic soul continue to rest in peace. Then, if the Afenifere leader raises your hand up as the governorship candidate of any SW State, in fact, the following morning, you should start forming your cabinet in advance and in anticipation of your victory at the Poll and subsequent swearing-in as the Executive Governor of your dear state. But what do we find today?
If you are unfortunate to be publicly adopted by the “Afenifere” Leader of today, the immediate implication is that your closest opponent in the coming election will be celebrating and every enlightened Yoruba man or woman will know for sure that you are a loser already. That is exactly what happened to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) and some Senatorial and Federal House of Rep Candidates when they were publicly endorsed by the current “Afenifere” leaders.
To say the least, the “Afenifere Leaders of today are clear opposite of the real and authentic Afenifere Leaders, originally personified by Obafemi Awolowo, Adekunle Ajasin, Abraham Adesanya, all of blessed memory, may their great souls continue to rest in peace. Take it or leave it, I dare say, with all sense of responsibility that the only resemblance of the real and authentic Afenifere Leaders in any part of Yoruba land as at today, I don’t know tomorrow, is BAT and his Associates. If your hand is publicly raised up as a governorship candidate in any part of Yoruba land and even beyond by BAT you can be sure of at least more than 50% probability that you are going to win the election.
Now, to the very common and persistent wrong and malicious allegation of personal enrichment at the expense of some state governments in the SW against the person of BAT, and which I would like to disclose, is the principal objective of this write-up, I wish to categorically inform everybody who is ready to listen that all the allegations are very wrong and malicious. And I want to say that the real perpetrators of the malicious allegations are aware by themselves that what they have been saying and still saying are not true. But they want to continue in that propaganda, for the purpose of deceiving the electorates so that they could gain political advantage.
They have been failing, and I believe they will continue to fail. This is because, unlike other people of Nigeria, Yorubas are very politically enlightened and highly sophisticated. They can always read between the lines. But because of the few gullible ones and those who do not know the recent political history of this country and with special reference to the SW part of the country, hence, this write-up is being put forward for necessary enlightenment of all and sundry.
On the economic development of some of the state governments in Nigeria in general and those of the SW in particular, let me digress a little bit.
Before the advent of the 2nd Republic in 1979, Lagos State Government was not the wealthiest (richest) state government in Nigeria. The richest state government used to be Bendel State (now Edo and Delta States). We used to know these facts then, immediately the various State Governments announced their Annual Budget Estimates. In fact the 2nd and 3rd richest States used to be some other states rather than Lagos State in those days before 1979.
But in 1979, when that Action Governor, the irresistible Man of action, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande (LKJ) emerged as the 1st Civilian Governor of Lagos State, everything changed in favour of Lagos and the tempo has not changed and has even been increasing in what I will call geometric ratio. Since, 1979 to date, Lagos has been the richest and wealthiest State government in Nigeria. In fact the truth of the matter is that Lagos State Government is currently richer than about ten other State Governments in Nigeria combined, if not more. And I want to say without any iota of contradiction that the only person who should be given credit for this great feat achieved by Lagos State Government, apart from LKJ, who laid the foundation, is BAT.
I am sure many people will shout “What of BRF”? But I will quickly add that truly, BRF too must be highly commended for his great vision and selflessness for the high level of Good Governance that is the lot of Lagos State today. However, a more sincere person will quickly recollect that Fashola is the “product” of BAT. It was BAT who single-handedly discovered and installed BRF even to the consternation and open annoyance of many people within and outside Lagos. But today, they cannot accuse of BAT of a wrong choice in BRF. What an irony of life? It is this same set of mischievous and myopic politicians, who had initially myopically condemned BAT for the choice of BRF as his successor, but whose mouths have been shot as a result of 5 Star performance of BRF that are now orchestrating the propaganda that BAT is enriching himself to the detriment of Lagos State and some other states in the SW.
Now, these two questions are very pertinent and germane:
(a). Has Lagos State Government been getting poorer or richer since 1999 to date when they say BAT has been enriching himself?
(b). Have other State Governments, apart from the Oil producing States which are getting chip heavy allocation from 13% Derivatives from the Federal Government Allocation, been getting richer when they don’t have any individual like BAT in their respective States who could be enriching himself like BAT?
Again, let me digress a little bit by informing us, that, by every standard, BAT was not pauper before he became the Governor of Lagos State in 1999. At least, he was financially comfortable. Available information was that BAT bankrolled the 1999 electioneering expenses of some of his counterparts from the SW to become victorious in the Governorship Elections of 1999.
To again buttress the political wizardry and erudity of BAT, in 2003, when there was another round of governorship elections in the SW, only BAT was able to win his re-election into the State Government House. All his other counterparts in the SW lost woefully. At least one of the losers then is now among the “Afenifere” Leaders of today who publicly endorsed GEJ and collected Dollars from him. But now, GEJ is now in a position to differentiate between those who made him win the SW votes in 2011 and those who made him lose the SW votes in 2015 as the difference is very clear, pure and simple.
On the allegation of personal enrichment at the expense of Lagos State against BAT, I have the following explanation to make as an Accountant. This is in view of the fact that posterity has been judging and will continue to judge BAT. As you can all see that he has been recording and will continue to record political victories over all his political adversaries (as I don’t believe he has political enemies).
One should recollect that when BAT became the Governor of Lagos State in 1999, within the first six months of his assumption of office, everybody throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria was not in any doubt as to the fact that Lagos State has been very fortunate again to be blessed with another Action Governor soon after LKJ of 1999 to 1983 The economic development of Lagos State was just rising in an astronomical order.
But suddenly, and during his 2nd term in office (2003 – 2007), and when he innovatively created additional 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), which make the total number of Local Governments in Lagos to move from 20 to 57, the OBJ led Federal Government descended heavily on him by illegally seizing the Federal Allocations of all LGAs in Lagos State. But for the calibre of the personality of BAT, this singular action of OBJ led FG was capable of killing the operational activities of the state. But BAT was undaunted. He faced the challenge squarely and became more creative in the areas of enhancing the IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) potentials of Lagos State. BAT creatively and intuitively opted for the use of consultants to be collecting IGR for Lagos State and even with the withholding of the Federal Allocation of LGAs in Lagos State, the state was still able to survive and raise its head high among all the State Governments in Nigeria.
Now, when BAT left the office as the Lagos State Governor, after his 2nd term in 2007, he was able to be succeeded by BRF, whom he single-handedly identified and nurtured to succeed him as the State Governor, even to the consternation of many. Naturally, only a fool will expect that BAT will not support BRF especially in the area of getting adequate IGR to sustain the economic and infrastructural development tempo of Lagos State. The use of Consultants to enhance IGR in Lagos State continued unabated under BRF.
Now, to the main allegation of personal financial enrichment against BAT, my own personal view and opinion is that the allegation is highly misplaced and borne only out of sheer myopicsm and undue envy and jealousy by all his political adversaries. And my point of view is that if actually, these political adversaries of BAT, have a valid and genuine allegation of personal enrichment against him they should have the courage and temerity of reporting him to the appropriate Nigerian Law Enforcement Agencies such as EFCC and ICPC, among others. Anything short of that, they should keep quiet and leave BAT alone.
For the purpose of enlightening the general public on the concept of using Consultants to collect revenue by any government, be it Local, State or Federal governments, the critical point of consideration by the concerned government is that the system must be “Cost-effective”. That is, the concerned government must be getting more benefits, in form of additional revenue on continuous basis, from the process of using the Consultants. In the case of Lagos State Government it is an open secret that the State is getting richer and richer from the time of BAT up to the time of BRF and I pray it will continue even after BRF.
Every Accountants and Financial Management Consultant, throughout the World is aware of the fact that any Consultants that is consulting (working) for an organisation or government to collect enhanced revenue will automatically be entitled to commission in form of a certain percentage of the revenue collected for the organisation or government.
And I want to state unequivocally and without any contradiction that all the political adversaries of BAT are very much aware of this concept of Consultants’ Commission, which is a world-wide phenomenon. But they are trying to bambuzzle and deceive the innocent members of the public to be looking at BAT as someone who is fraudulent and enriching himself with the State Government money for their sheer political gains.
At this juncture, I want to ask a pertinent question. Is it a sin to use your knowledge and professional expertise to be making your State Government of origin and other interested State Governments enhance their income on a sustainable basis? I am sure you will say “No” emphatically.
Therefore, in conclusion of this piece, I will like to state that all those political adversaries of BAT, who have all along been accusing him of personal financial enrichment against Lagos State Governments and some other state governments, are only deceiving the innocent members of the public. However, if they are so sure of the sanctity of their allegation against BAT, they should not hesitate to approach EFCC and or ICPC and stop shouting all around. I am cork sure that they don’t have any valid and actionable allegation against BAT, rather they are only maligning the personality of BAT so as to reap some political gains from their actions. But from the look of things, they have been failing since 1999 up to this recent 2015 General Elections. While they are losing, BAT is wining politically on a continuous basis.
To the innocent members of the public, especially the young ones, I want to draw your attention to the back page of The Nation edition of Sunday April19, 2015, titled “APC and the Tinubu Phenomenon” and with special reference to part of a paragraph, which I hereby quote as follows: “He (BAT) may not be president-elect or vice president-elect, but the role he played in deepening democracy, sustaining and nurturing the Culture of opposition, and strategising the defeat of the PDP, have all raised his profile sky-high. Like the APC, his main challenge will be how to manage both his success and new profile.”
A Yoruba adage says: “Ti Omo eni ba dara, ki a wi, a ko ni fi se aya” meaning “if our daughter is beautiful, we should acknowledge it, we would not marry her”. Philosophically saying, we should always have the courage to say the truth and be objective when commenting on a personality.
My candid advice for all BAT’s political adversaries is that they should have a change of mind and join the winning team. Also lest I forget, I want to advise them that they too should come out with a better formula on how to generate enhanced IGR for their respective state governments including even Lagos State Government so that they can over take BAT in the area of “personal enrichment” through receipts of Commission as IGR Consultants.
I believe, “the more is merrier”, if those of these BAT’s political adversaries who are indigenes of States other than Lagos State can come up with a better formula whereby their respective state governments could be getting an enhanced IGR on a continuous basis to the extent that within one year or two, each of their respective state governments will become richer than Lagos State, it will be a great welcome development at least to the entire Yorubaland if not the whole Nigeria.
If one looks at the political trends in the South Western Region of Nigeria since 1999 to date, that is, 2015, one should no more be in an illusion as to realize the fact that BAT is the authentic and de facto “Political Asiwaju of South West of Nigeria” leave it or take it.
May the Almighty God continue to bless the South West Region of Nigeria, the entire Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole.
Oyetunji Oyefemi Ismail
Femismail58@gmail.com
