JIDE OBANIKORO : Welcome home

The news has just hit that this handsome scion of the Obanikoro family is berthing in APC. Just like his father, he has moved his baggage from the PDP to the party that, although seems to be unravelling elsewhere, is still holding sway in Lagos, the most important electoral battle ground in the country.

Now, Jide is a friend, having met him through the highly talented Fashion designer, Mudi. We have had one or two occasions to rub minds but that was like years ago and I am sure the gentleman himself would have forgotten those occasions. That said, I have received this news with mixed feelings. I am positively excited at his strengthening the process within the APC but at the same time disturbed by the simultaneous weakling of the opposition by this move. Capped with the obvious self-serving motive behind the move, you begin to see the sheer nakedness of our so called leaders and the vulnerability of the masses.

I admire Jide simply because he had held the Jagaban down in his own backyard by winning an election on the platform of the opposing party in Ikoyi. This was a genuine dent on the cache of the Jagaban, having to go as far as the Appeal Court to neutralise this boy. In that stead, I remember putting in a call to Jide and congratulating him and seeking his steadfastness in the struggle to come. His campaign was robust as you felt his presence all over the local government, he had keyed into the sensibilities of the youth, speaking their language and understand their needs and ethos and they in turn gave him their votes in a transparent exercise that saw him defeat the ruling party’s candidate.

He was riding the same horse his father had ridden by standing against the norm, against a sea of genuflecting morons who were in the majority and who could only prostrate at Bourdillon irrespective of what issues were to be discussed. They – both father and son, stood against that tide and made appreciable impacts thereby strengthening our democratic process by keeping the incumbent and over lords on their toes.

Read also: …Tunji Braithwaite and the Snake

Today, they have both capitulated effectively, returning Lagos almost to a one party state. I am an APC sympathizer, no doubt, but I stand much more for a robust democratic system that accommodates a divergence of opinion, robust debate, all leading to a transparent and effective electoral process that would throw up sound leaders. Today, the Obanikoros have done great damage to our democracy as it concerns Lagos. They have capitulated on the altar of self-preservation and in the process damaged the structures for an effective monitoring and opposition in government.

Let me state here, that I do not believe Jide or any of the Obanikoros have anything to offer Lagos or Nigeria for that matter in the area of good governance or intellectual depth but being experienced grassroot politicians one would have expected them to form the bulwark of opposition which our democracy needs at this point.

Well, all that is now hogwash as Jide has gone to join his father in a place of refuge.
I wish him well,

 

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