Adeobamich@gmail.com
When the minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN urged the people of south-west to re-elect President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 in order for power to return to the region, I knew the minister had steered the hornet’s nest.
The avalanche of attacks unleashed on him by political opportunists and ethnic champions especially on the social media revealed the low level of Nigeria’s political development.
What was fundamentally wrong in asking one’s kinsmen to support his boss’ re-election bid?
Does it mean that even when there are sentiments that power should shift to a particular region in 2023, should that stop Fashola, as a thoroughbred Yoruba son from fighting for his region’s interest.
I don’t know what the hoopla was all about.
If this writer ignores the army of uninformed online commentators who raged at the minister for expressing his political views, the gratuitous attacks on Fashola by Chief Olabode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and former Chairman of Board, Nigerian Ports Authority should not go unchallenged .
Chief George asked Fashola to leave 2023 and fix port roads in Apapa, Lagos .
Bode George should be reminded that the ports access roads in Apapa didn’t degenerate over night but carved in because his party, PDP where he served as one of the elders in the Board of Trustees neglected the roads and failed to invest in other alternative infrastructure that will lessen the burden of the roads.
We will also not forget in a hurry how Chief George conducted himself when he was the chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority where he was accused, tried and convicted for allegedly dipping his hands in the cookie jar of the NPA.
Chief Goerge cannot deny that on October 26, 2009, during the PDP era when he was sentenced to prison for alleged contract splitting and inflation and was whisked in a black Maria from Ikeja High Court to Kikiri Prisions that Apapa roads where the prison vehicle plied were not in shamble.
Why did he suddenly realized that roads which were essentially allowed to deteriorate by successive PDP-led administrations must be fixed overnight by Fashola just because the minister made a case for the Yoruba nation.
Politically, Chief George is a toxic liability for the opposition PDP.
Even in Lagos PDP, only few scavengers respect him because he has no political value and aura.
George’s intervention and support for the PDP under any guise would be counter-productive because he has been stripped of honour in south-west.
If not that the society’s moral fibre has totally collapsed, men like Bode George should try at all cost to dodge the media even if pressmen sought their views on matters of national importance.
The supreme court vacation of his conviction notwithstanding, Chief George is no longer a credible voice in the polity.
He should stay indoors in his Gerald residence in Ikoyi rather than disgracing himself.
Chief Bode George was being mischievous for asking Fashola to fix the roads which are currently under construction.
On June 17, 2017, the minister signed a N4.34 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd and some other stakeholders for the reconstruction of the four-kilometre Apapa-Wharf Road.
Chief George and his co-travelers should be aware of other interventions by the Muhammadu-Buhari-led administration in finding lasting solution to Apapa ports roads debacle.
The rail lines were being revamped to relieve the roads amidst other short, medium and long term measures.
Adeoba Michaels, a Public Affairs Analyst wrote from Lagos via Adeobamich@gmail.com
