#LekkiTollGateMassacre: Demystification Of Jagaban, The Last Of The Godfathers

Tinubu

 

 In Mario Puzo’s classic, The Godfather, one of five mafia families running things in the underworld in United States in the early 1940s accused Don Corleone (the major character) who was also the Don controlling illicit business in New York, of having the judges and police in his pocket “like so many nickels and diamonds” and refused to share them. Even as Don Corleone resisted the accusation, the accusing Don concluded by saying that, “Don Corleone don’t want us to draw water from the well.” He insisted that Don Corleone must provide the services when needed to protect the other families when they are in trouble with the law by making available the judges and police that are in his pocket (payroll). 

Here in Nigeria, we have a classic case of a politician who can be rightly said to have Lagos State ( a population of over 20million and perhaps the most educated population in the country) in his pocket “like so many nickels and diamonds.” In his case, he is ever willing to share it with the highest bidder as a King Maker or when he aims at being the King himself. Recall that at the run-up to 2011 presidential election, the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) General Muhammadu Buhari in a Voice of America (VOA) interview had accused the former governor of Lagos State and Jagaban Borgo Emirate in Niger State and leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Bola Ahmed Tinubu of having struck a deal to support the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in exchange for cabinet appointments for ACN members if Jonathan wins. In response Tinubu described Buhari as a blackmailer. He said, “Jonathan will invite the leadership of ACN to even have a discussion on collaboration, he has done well. It means he has shown the desire to win the election. But what has Buhari done? Has he ever willingly contacted the leadership of ACN privately? “Until we were rallied by some leaders who wanted us to form the alliance, Buhari never took a single proactive step. I don’t believe a man running for the president of Nigeria and not the Emir-ship of Katsina should not have the needed flexibility. To be a good leader, you have to be flexible and accommodating,” he stated. 

In the end, Jonathan won the election after being guaranteed the much-coveted Lagos votes but not without settling the Lagos Godfather in a style and fashion of Babangida’s mode of settlement! In 2015 sensing that Jonathan Presidency had been weakened irredeemably amidst allegations of corruption, Boko Haram insurgency and threats of violence from sections of the North if the power does not return to the region, Tinubu threw Jonathan under the bus and threw his weight behind Buhari with the aim of emerging the vice president under the platform of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC). He was resisted by those who think that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not fly if they were to unseat an incumbent president (a fit that had never been done before then). He reluctantly ceded the position to his former commissioner, Prof Yemi Osinbajo. 

Jagaban, the political trader and political investor operates much like Warren Edward Buffet-the American investor, business tycoon, philanthropist and chairman and CEO of Berksire Harthaway and considered one of the most successful investors in the world with net worth of US$78.9billion as of August 2020 and world’s seventh wealthiest person-major difference is that Buffet is in a transparent trading system, while the ‘Lagos Market’ where Tinubu holds sway is so opaque that it makes the Mafia Dons look legitimate. 

Between 1999 and 2020, Tinubu has grown so powerful that he could declare, “I am Lagos and Lagos is me!” and he would not be wrong. It reminds one of Louis XIV of France who declared that “I am the state.” And indeed it appears that Tinubu is Lagos State. No one can become a councillor in Lagos without his approval. To think of becoming governor of Lagos State without Jagaban’s approval is tantamount to searching for water in the Sahara Desert. Even when the governors emerge he determines whether they would seek for the second term or not. Here, the emergence for the second term by any Lagos governor is not based on performance. It depends on Tinubu’s political investment calculations. It is all about Tinubu and not the people of Lagos State who should matter most. He holds Lagos with iron grip and because of that, he has been unofficially crowned the Last Godfather in Nigeria. It was his penchant for having his hands in anything that brings ‘Real Money’ in Lagos that nobody believes him when he claimed that he was not part of the ownership structure of Lekki Concession Company Ltd, that runs Lekki Toll Gate Plaza, where armless #EndSARS protesters were massacred by the men in military uniform on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. 

The Lekki massacre marked perhaps the beginning of the unravelling of Tinubu and the loosening of his iron grip on the nation’s commercial capital. Outraged by the Lekki Massacre, the youths went on the rampage in Tinubu’s beloved Lagos. The man fled from the country as he confirmed in a telephone interview he had with some women at the aftermath of the Lekki killings which went viral, only for him to resurface a few days later to boost that, “I didn't go nowhere, I’m a Lagosian. I still hold the title of the Asiwaju of Lagos. I’m still the Jagaban. Fake news is all over the place.” 

While the public and private properties were being destroyed by the youths including those owned by Tinubu, one striking observation was the failure of Tinubu’s 'millions' of supporters to defend the properties of their Asiwaju. The #EndSARS protests exposed the vulnerability of Tinubu as the political juggernaut. It remains to be seen how he would rise above his demystification and emerge the presidential candidate of the APC in 2023 and win a presidential election without coming clean in the eyes of Lagosians, Nigerians and the international community on the #LekkiTollGateMassacre.