Opinion: Gov. Fashola’s greatest achievement

by Ralph Egbu

Babatunde-Raji-Fashola-SAN-Governor-Lagos-StateBut Fashola caused me to cease: against expectation he apologized to all for the development which certainly achieved a result far from what was obviously intended. By that act Fashola for me recorded the biggest achievement, far greater than the physical achievements he has posted in Lagos State.

When I decided that I will join the column writing business I had some ideas clear in my mind. One of them is to use the platform to re-emphasize new ways of solving old problems, proffer solutions, acclaim and commend just as it is very vital to constructively criticise and condemn where the need arises.

Those who have followed me closely in the more than two years this column has existed in the Sun or while I wrote on the back page of Sunday Champion, would have observed that I have kept faith with that promise.. I remember recently criticising and condemning the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Madam (Justice) Aloma Mukthar, when she suspended temporarily the swearing in of Madam (Justice) Jumbo Ofo into the prestigious Appeal Court over issue of which between her state of birth and that of her husband was her state of origin
I have never met either of the parties to that issue, but I was so incensed that even the blood in my veins was boiling. I saw the move as needless affront on womanhood. If a woman is denied the pleasure of staying at her parents’ home and still have to totally lose her identify, that for me is enough sacrifice; to now add that she could not benefit from both ends if need arises did not make sense to me. Some said legalism. I couldn’t understand that. So, I was very angry, moreso when the power pushing the other angle this time was a woman. But thank God great Aloma got back herself and quickly aligned with the needful and that for me was a great act and magnificent example I did not waste time for the significance of the gesture to fade away unrecognized. I took my pen and in a full page discourse effusively commended her. Since then this great Jurist and committed dispenser of justice has continued to go from strength to strength. One day, not too far from now, I am sure to come back to her matter especially when I will discuss how the judiciary through positive judiciary activism filled in the missing gaps in national laws and introduced jurisprudential precedents which changed entrenched negative stereotypes and propelled the wheels of genuine development in places like Britain, America and France.

In this piece I am extending the same commendation to Governor Raji Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State. Let me reveal this before I go further. What Fashola did with the deportation of some Nigerians particularly the Igbos was for me very offensive. The action desecrated the dignity of the human race. That was how I saw it; not because Igbos were involved, but because it was fellow nationals who were involved who got the ill-treatment of being forcefully taken and dumped in a crime infested area in the unholy hour of about 3am.

That kind of treatment is not fit for any human being, the race or station in life notwithstanding. Like many other Nigerians, I was bitter and my adrenalin, boiled over. What I couldn’t do physically, I did very well with my pen in a two part series that appeared in this space.

As would be expected reactions came in good quantity; many of them very hot. By the time I extracted reactions from my phone, I had upto part 7 to dispense with and I was determined to let them loose, if that is all I did for the remaining part of this year. But Fashola caused me to cease: against expectation he apologized to all for the development which certainly achieved a result far from what was obviously intended. By that act Fashola for me recorded the biggest achievement, far greater than the physical achievements he has posted in Lagos State. By that outing, not through a press release signed by unknown press aide but delivered physically at the gathering of elites comprising mainly the aggrieved; Fashola fully restored himself to great reckoning as a true modern leader in present day Nigeria.

He proved that some of us who have seen something unique about him and his style were not mistaken. By this singular gesture, Fashola confirmed beyond doubt that the real problem with this nation is not lack of laws but the operators. Important to me is the lesson that those who will deliver our country are still within the boundaries of our nation and that with little care, propelled by patriotism and a sound electoral system, things can take shape pretty soon. That is the bold statement Fashola has made by accepting to take another look at the issue and to adopt the position he took. I don’t care what other variables that may have been in play; some say the Anambra election. Whatever it is, life is full of momentum; it is these that make men take to a given path. If Fashola did not desire to aid the emergence of a new Nigeria he probably would have refused to go the way he went no matter the pressure. This is why I doff my hat for him and confirm him one of the greatest leaders to ever emerge from our nation. Fashola has set an example that has been difficult to institute in our nation since independence. Many of the troubles buffeting our nation may have been avoided if our leaders knew how to retrace their steps and to say the common sorry. But our leaders have been tutored to be stiff and in flexible because it has been wrongly established that to beat a retreat is a sign of weakness and indecisiveness.

It is this seeming paradox that Fashola is using his high visibility to rewrite. We owe him huge support in this onerous task if truly we mean to change the way things are done here. Fashola as a governor has done well. He has shown that Nigerians are capable of carrying big visions, and to add to it capacity. But one thing remains, Fashola must prove he can grow above the Lagos axis. He must show he can embrace Yoruba in its entirety and other parts of Nigeria. I would like to see him venture more often outside Lagos into other parts of Nigeria. Nigerians love him. Let me state this with emphasis and end: those who took Fashola to court over the matter of deportation are not decent fellows. They don’t have conscience. They don’t love Igbos. I can assert that they don’t have the mandate or support of Igbos. If a man is great enough to say sorry; to kill him is murder. I mean it?

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Read this article in the Sun Newspapers

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

 

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