Banire, does Ambode have the capacity now?
By Olatunde Fashakin
Political betrayers are in a class of their own-calculating, sly and out rightly chameleonic in their disposition. As opportunists they sometimes create crisis and come to the victims to offer solutions. But when they are obsessed by the quest for a political position they can go to any length to undermine or cast aspersions on those they feel constitute stumbling blocks to their vaulting ambition.
For instance, back in 2014 when the political pendulum in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Lagos started swinging in favour of the current incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode one Muiz Banire went to town with his co-travelers that he did not possess the quality, charisma, vision and intelligence to steer the ship of Lagos state.
To them since Ambode had never been a member of the state executive council nor any antecedence in party politics he would not be able to do the job. With that Banire started mounting a campaign of calumny against him. He told whoever cared to listen that the man did not have the capacity to govern the country.
Good enough, two years after mounting the pedestal of power as the governor of the Centre of Excellence he has put his critics to shame, by his sterling performance in the areas of infrastructural development, security, education, healthcare delivery and job creation hasn’t he?
That has elicited the swan song in town of ”two is greater than eight”, meaning that his achievements have since buried that of his predecessor, Babatunde Raji Fashola who was the poster boy of the APC. The million Naira question now is: “Baaaanireee, has Ambode got the capacity now?”
This question is pertinent now because what Banire did in 2014 he has started re-enacting in 2017 like an ugly coin. He has gone to town again, sponsoring miscreants aimed at rubbishing the recently held APC primaries in the state. The good people of Lagos should therefore, be mindful of the man who says one thing in the night and denies so at dawn.
As Nigeria’s democracy evolves we should be wary of the Judas Iscariot amongst us. We should learn lessons from Marcus Brutus, a Roman senator, who joined a plot to oust Caesar from power. Another person is Benedict Arnold. At the start of the American War of Independence, Benedict Arnold was an American hero, a brilliant general who fought bravely in several tough battles. But by the end of the war, he was commanding British troops against his former forces, a general on the losing side who has gone down in history as a “turncoat” and a traitor.
With events unfolding and 2019 inching closer Lagosians should be careful of Banire, a man who has never stood for any elective post but angling to be a serial spoiler. For now, he is on his way to Golgotha and belongs to the dustbin of history.
Olatunde Fashakin writes from Oshodi , Lagos