By Reuben Abati
Nigerians woke up to the delightful news, Monday morning, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, currently on Sallah vacation in Lagos, had decided, following entreaties from interested and concerned parties, to forgive his political godson, with whom there had been a frosty relationship for months. The political godson is Babajide Sanwoolu, the sitting governor of Lagos. It is common knowledge that till date no one can be governor of Lagos state without the blessing of President Tinubu. He has been the Kabiyesi of Lagos state politics long before he became the President of Nigeria. Every governor after his own tenure as governor of Lagos state (1999 – 2007) was handpicked by him.
Anyone who has ever held any important political position in Lagos since 1999, either as a councillor, local government chairman, member of the house of assembly, national assembly member, or a political appointee knows that he or she has held that position at the pleasure of the godfather, popularly known as Asiwaju or the Jagaban. One wrong step, any act of misdemeanour could land the person in the godfather’s black book.
Those who have found themselves in such a position would rather wish it had never happened. And so it happened to Governor Sanwo-Olu. The rift between the governor and his godfather became a matter of open, public knowledge during the president’s latest visit to Lagos for the Eid-el-Kabir break. When the president arrived at the Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos, it was reported that as courtesy and convention dictate, the governor had gone to the airport to receive him. He was reportedly snubbed publicly. The president by-passed the governor and shook hands with the deputy governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, and others. During the inauguration of the Phase one, 30 kilometres stretch of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, a major public event, the president again openly snubbed the governor. He refused to shake his hands. Rather than invite him to speak, he being the host governor, the president ignored Sanwo-Olu and asked Governor Dapo Abiodun, governor of neighbouring Ogun state, to speak. Everyone was shocked. The snub was so open, so clear, it was no longer a matter for speculation.
It was at this point that peacemakers who had knowledge of the rift between godfather and godson intensified their efforts to broker peace. They seem to have succeeded as reported at length by ThisDay newspaper of June 9. The newspaper refers to them as “Wise Men”. The Holy Scripture at Matthew 5: 9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”
The peacemakers include the chairman of the Governance Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos state, Alhaji Tajudeen Olusi, Chairman of the All-Progressives Congress in the state, Hon. Cornelius Ojelabi and other members of the GAC (the Baba Sope group) in Lagos. They appealed to the president to forgive the governor and others who might have erred in his sight. The president reportedly responded that “It’s all over now. All is forgiven,” and that he had also accepted the report on the local council primary elections. Members of the GAC were said to have immediately prostrated for the president. Some of them are either his age-mates or older than him. His hands were tied.
Outside of the GAC members who were granted audience, ThisDay reports that quite a number of “wise men” also intervened to make the truce possible. They include Chief Dipo Eludoyin, Mr. Gilbert Chagoury, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, Mr. Dele Alake, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief James Ibori, and Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola. There are probably traditional rulers, like the Ooni of Ife, Ojaja II, and others in the background, which means the ThisDay list may not be exhaustive.
Governor Sanwo-Olu owes the peacemakers a debt of gratitude. They are individually and collectively people that the president respects and whose friendship he values. The governor is also a very lucky man. Godfathers in Nigerian politics do not often forgive their godsons that offend them. They crush them. They inflict much pain to teach them a lesson and to deter other present and future godsons who may be tempted to grow wings.
Whoever is in doubt should revisit the travails of Gov. Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo State (2003 – 2006, 2006 – 2007) and his Godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu; Gov. Chris Ngige of Anambra State (2003 – 2006) and his godfathers, Chris and Andy Uba; former Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State (2016 – 2024), and his Godfather, Senator Adams Oshiomhole; Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State (2015 -2019), and his Godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State (2023 to date) and Godfather Nasir el Rufai, and Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State (2023 to date, currently suspended), and his godfather, Minister Nyesom Wike. It is not often that the godson succeeds in driving the political godfather out of town as Gov Uba Sani may have done, or gets reinstated in office as in the examples of Ladoja and Chris Ngige.
It is usually the case that the godson gets punished. By promising to forgive Governor Sanwo-Olu and everyone who has erred against him, President Tinubu has shown magnanimity. He may have forgiven, and may not forget, but the act of forgiveness is in itself divine. By that singular gesture, President Tinubu has set a good example for other godfathers in Nigeria’s political landscape. Those godfathers who go about threatening to fight those who have offended them “to the finish” should learn from the president’s leadership example. The symbolism of the Eid el Adha season inheres in the ideal of sacrifice. Godfathers should project the milk of human kindness by learning to sacrifice their egos. As the folk saying states, it is only the elder who learns to forgive who can build a large community.
It is now up to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu “to go and sin no more”. We have argued elsewhere about the menace of godfathers in Nigerian politics. In a heavily competitive atmosphere, those who seek advancement in politics cannot rely solely on the wisdom of the electorate. Nigerian politics is expensive. It is money-driven. Godfathers provide the financial resources. They fund the political machinery. They mobilise goodwill. The electorate and party agents listen to the godfather who is part-financier, part-cultural leader, even if they do not know the candidate. Disagreements with the godfather usually occur when the godson, now in office gets so carried away, he begins to assert himself, act independently, expresses opinions that are unacceptable to the godfather, or as in the case of Ladoja and Ngige fails to honour deals previously agreed to with the godfather. The average political godson asserts himself at his own risk. It is instructive that the referent here is masculine as there are extremely few goddaughters involved. This is a graphic illustration of the underdeveloped and exclusionary nature of Nigeria’s democracy.
What could possibly have been Sanwo-Olu’s offence in the present case? Those who are familiar with the matter have come up with a number of possibilities but these can at best be regarded as assumptions since neither the president nor Sanwo-Olu has publicly disclosed what transpired between them.
The speculations are as follows:
One: It is said that the rift could be traced to the 2023 general election. It would be recalled that the president, then a candidate on the platform of the APC scored less than 50% in Lagos, his very own political stronghold. He was outperformed by Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who won the state with 45.81% in the February 25, 2023 election. This was a huge political embarrassment. President Tinubu thus found himself in a situation similar to that of President Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1999 Presidential election in Ogun State and indeed the South West. Jagaban was one of the opposition politicians who laughed at OBJ then: how he even lost at the polling booth in front of his own home. For Tinubu who had earned a reputation over the years as a master political strategist, it was a deep cut for him to be defeated by Peter Obi in Lagos! When the gubernatorial election held on March 18, 2023 with Sanwo-Olu as candidate, the APC won Lagos with 65.95% of the votes. It turned out that on February 25, APC party agents were not mobilised to man polling centres during the presidential election. The feedback was that the governor said there was no cash, allowing Labour Party agents to have a field day at the polling centres! But cash became available ahead of the governor’s own election. With all his claim to political mastery, President Tinubu cannot in all honesty accuse any of his supporters in other states of failing to win enough votes for him, when he also fell short in his own state. Where was Sanwo-Olu, the sitting governor of Lagos state? What did he fail to do to help the godfather?
Two: as if that was not embarrassing enough, there was also the case of the speaker of the Lagos house of assembly, Hon. Mudasiru Obasa. There had been no love lost between the governor and the speaker. In November 2024, when the governor went to present Budget 2025 proposals to the assembly, accompanied by members of the GAC, they were reportedly kept waiting for four whole hours by the speaker. This was clearly disrespectful. When the president visited Lagos in December 2024, both the GAC and the governor reported Obasa to the president. He was summoned and was reprimanded by the president. The president did not want another Rivers state in his own backyard. But if he thought he had settled the brewing conflict between the executive and the legislature in his state, he was mistaken. When the president travelled abroad in January, and Obasa travelled to the United States, the speaker’s impeachment was quickly arranged and he was replaced by his own deputy. When Obasa returned from his trip, he refused to vacate the seat, and literally, hell was let loose in Lagos. It was said that the president not only wondered who on earth could have overruled him in Lagos state, he was further miffed when the governor feigned ignorance about the crisis in the Lagos state house of assembly. If he had overlooked the election matter, he did not this time around. He shut the door against Sanwo-Olu thereafter. Every effort by the governor to see the president was rebuffed. Whenever the president travelled either to Doha or France, Sanwo-Olu travelled hoping to be granted audience. But no way. Eventually, President Tinubu directed that Hon. Obasa must be reinstated as speaker of the Lagos state house of assembly. Nobody needed to tell the governor that he was in trouble.
Three: there is this additional matter of a certain merry widow who went to the Caribbean to throw a lavish birthday party in an exotic, all-expenses paid hotel resort. Governor Sanwo-Olu was reportedly sighted at the party behaving as if he had inherited another man’s workshop! He sneaked out of town, abandoned his duty post, and people saw him, merrying around in a strange land, and they talked. They whispered. The president of course must have heard too and he thought the governor was beginning to lose concentration.
But all that is over now… The president says all sins are forgiven. Sanwo-Olu is old enough to know that his “enemies” would now go into an overdrive to watch everything he does or says, and what he fails to do, so they can build another case against him, to tell the president that he is not deserving of the forgiveness that he has been granted.
He is advised to stay away from sin and sinful activities. He stands to lose nothing if he extends the olive branch to his known detractors. He will lose more if he tries to fight back. It was good to see him at the president’s Lagos residence granting an interview and saying there is no discord between him, the son, and the father, President Tinubu. He is like the Biblical prodigal son, whose story is told in Luke 15: 11-32.
In his joy and celebration, Governor Sanwo-Olu should reflect on lessons he may have learnt. He should be concerned about his political future, for having served as governor for nearly two terms, he certainly should not do anything to risk a spell in political wilderness. Above all, he should not meddle in the politics of other states. He should concentrate on the mandate that he has been given in Lagos state. Let him go and sin no more.
Abati, a former presidential spokesman is a public affairs analyst
