Babatunde Fashola, SAN, former governor of Lagos State and outgoing minister of works and housing, has a status for erudition and a knack for memorable turns of phrase. Not too long ago, Professor Wole Soyinka credited him with what he referred to as “the Fashola Dictum”, primarily based on his saying that elections ought to be “carnivals and festivals”, not wars. But, generally, Fashola’s logic is flawed and, generally, his views are warped. Take his latest apologia for Bola Tinubu, his former boss and speedy predecessor as Lagos State governor.
In an interview on Channels TV, Fashola was requested about Tinubu’s integrity. He ducked and dived. Regardless of the interviewer’s greatest efforts, Fashola was so slippery that pinning him down was like nailing jelly to the wall. Finally, he delivered an appalling apologia. Permit me to cite the phrases verbatim.
Seun Okinbaloye (Channels TV): “You had been Tinubu’s chief of workers. Why is it that the person has a lot controversy round him? There’s controversy about his true age, controversy about his true instructional standing, controversy about his title; the truth is, there are controversies about whether or not or not he has twin citizenship, controversy about his previous life in america. Are you able to clear the air about this man?”
Fashola: “I believe that’s what makes it the extra fascinating. And I believe these points have been ventilated sufficiently, and, you realize what, the Nigerian individuals have determined these points don’t matter. That’s what they’ve stated by this vote.”
Which vote? Did Fashola examine the outcomes of the presidential election? Going by INEC’s figures, 25m Nigerians voted within the election; 8.8m voted for Tinubu, 16.4m voted in opposition to him. If Fashola is aware of something about democratic legitimacy, slightly than mere constitutional technicality, he gained’t suggest that the votes of 8.8m individuals are extra essential than these of 16.4m. If the election was a referendum on Tinubu’s character and integrity, nicely, 16.4m out of 25m voters rejected him. So, who had been “the Nigerian individuals” who “determined these points don’t matter”?
Surprisingly, Fashola, who repeatedly stated faith shouldn’t be introduced into politics, introduced God into the difficulty. “I believe now that Tinubu has surmounted all of those hurdles,” he stated, “perhaps there’s a divine goal for it.” Divine goal? That’s a pathetic transcendental apologetics. And it’s the surest path to destroying what’s left of Nigeria’s democracy: for any fraudulent election may be justified on the idea that “there’s a divine goal for it.”
Not too long ago, Premium Occasions, the unbiased media outfit, recognized for its investigative journalism, stated its evaluation of the outcomes posted on the INEC Outcomes Viewing portal, IReV, exhibits that Peter Obi, not Tinubu, gained in Rivers State. Related discrepancies, displaying extremely inflated votes for Tinubu, are reported in Lagos and several other different states. Absolutely, God doesn’t want an acutely flawed particular person and a fraudulent election to realize His goal for Nigeria. Does He? Properly, Fashola suggests God does, and has a idea, a dictum, to help his view! I name it Fashola’s perverse doctrine!
Right here’s the doctrine. Within the Channels TV interview, Fashola stated: “Governance shouldn’t be about integrity, it’s not about sainthood, it’s about effectivity, it’s about efficiency, it’s about supply.” He admitted “there’s a stage of integrity to which you need to by no means compromise” however insisted that authorities is about “getting the outcomes”, not about in search of a saint!
In fact, leaders should not saints. However are the extent and nature of controversies swirling round Tinubu acceptable? The problems transcend Nigeria. Not too long ago, a overseas newspaper quoted a overseas diplomat as saying: “Tinubu’s private story is exceptional. His age, native land and training are the topic of hypothesis.” Ought to anybody trivialise or justify that?
Not too long ago, Tinubu’s interview with The Guardian newspaper in October 1998 went viral. The interview began thus: “Senator Bola Tinubu, 52, returned from self-exile just lately.” If Tinubu was 52 in 1998, how might he be 71 in 2023? And the way might Tinubu be a organic son of the well-known Tinubu household in Lagos and but be so indigent that he couldn’t go to main and secondary faculties, as he claims? Didn’t he himself admit to forfeiting $460,000 to settle a drug-trafficking case in America? In fact, he did! And what’s Tinubu’s relationship with Guinea that he obtained the nation’s passport? A president with twin citizenship?
Anybody who says these integrity points don’t matter is unpatriotic, an enemy of Nigeria. Reality is, honesty and integrity matter in politics, and a president with out integrity imperils democracy. Moreover, in democratic governance, efficiency and integrity are intertwined, and may by no means be separated. You’ll be able to’t have one with out the opposite.
Let’s take into account two examples: one from Britain, the place efficiency and integrity often go hand in hand; the opposite in Nigeria, the place they don’t. Take Britain. In 2000, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched the “congestion cost” to sort out the insufferable site visitors in London. The cost lowered site visitors and generated large income for the London authorities. Right here’s the purpose. Livingstone had completely no business curiosity within the firm accumulating the congestion cost or, certainly, in any firm accumulating tolls in London. So, right here, efficiency and integrity had been in tandem!
Now, take into account Nigeria. As governor, Tinubu raised the Internally Generated Income, IGR, of Lagos State from N600m per 30 days to over N7bn (estimated to be value about N50bn at present). Nevertheless, it has lengthy been extensively speculated that he’s a co-owner, albeit by proxy, of the corporate, Alpha-Beta, that collects the taxes and IGR for the Lagos State authorities. Certainly, in 2020, in a writ of summons deposed to at a Lagos Excessive Courtroom, a former boss of Alpha-Beta alleged that Tinubu owned however hid a big fairness curiosity within the firm.
Going by Fashola’s doctrine, the elevated IGR (efficiency) trumps the alleged battle of curiosity and corrupt enrichment (integrity points). Certainly, that was the view of Dele Alake, a prime Tinubu aide, when requested about Alpha-Beta on Channels TV. “Does Tinubu personal Alpha-Beta?” Alake was requested. “I don’t know, and I don’t care who owns it,” he replied, including: “So far as I’m involved, Alpha-Beta is delivering on its aims and that’s sufficient for me.” So, like Fashola, Alake believes efficiency trumps integrity!
However no severe nation decouples integrity from efficiency. Sadly, neither exists in Nigeria. Take efficiency. The place’s efficiency when Lagos, which Tinubu and Fashola ruled, is the “second-worst metropolis to reside amongst 172 cities worldwide”, in keeping with the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2022 rankings?
Learn additionally: Controversy trails Fashola’s comment over Tinubu’s dual citizenship, others
The place’s efficiency when two out of three individuals in Lagos reside in slums, in keeping with the World Financial institution? And, nationally, the place’s efficiency when 133m Nigerians are multidimensionally poor? Or when Nigeria can not meet the essential wants of its residents, can not shield lives and property?
In 2015, when President Buhari shaped his first-term cupboard, he created a brilliant ministry – energy, works and housing – for Fashola and referred to as him a “Tremendous Minister”, primarily based on his overhyped achievements in Lagos. However Fashola failed woefully in Buhari’s first time period.
The one factor he was remembered for was his notorious assertion, in 2018: “If you happen to don’t have energy, it’s not the federal government’s drawback.” In 2019, beginning his second time period, Buhari stripped Fashola of the “tremendous ministry”. He took energy away, leaving him with works and housing. Besides, Fashola will depart workplace on Might 29, failing to fulfil his promise in 2019 that “the Federal Authorities will full ongoing and deserted tasks.” So, the place’s the “effectivity”, “efficiency”, and “supply” he’s speaking about?
Sadly, for Nigeria, it’s a double whammy: no supply, no integrity! But, if Nigeria should succeed, efficiency and integrity have to be two sides of the identical coin, completely inseparable! So, Fashola’s doctrine is perverse: efficiency doesn’t trump integrity!
