By Olaotan Adejumo

This is not a particularly rosy period  for ex-Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola. The political platform which produced him as governor is now subjecting the one they called ‘actualiser’ to barrage of savage attacks, aimed at undoing him and destroying him politically. And this attack is being sponsored, orchestrated and stage-managed by the same group for which he was once a standard bearer.

Fashola

A  group called Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), led by Debo Adeniran, has chosen the period when President Muhammadu Buhari is considering nominees for ministerial slots to launch an attack on Fashola, who, obviously, is getting a good consideration by the top shots in the Presidency. Having known the President’s disposition on the issue of corruption concerning those who will serve in his cabinet and that it is enough to make an allegation, particularly when so much noise is made about it, CACOL decided to harass Fashola with claims concerning a N78 million website contract.

It is believed in many quarters that the man who put Fashola in government is coordinating the campaign. The new administration in Lagos State is probably not opposed to what is happening to the former helmsman. That is why Alausa has kept quiet over Fashola’s  ordeal.

To further understand the scheme behind the campaign of corruption against Fashola, one should look at a development in Aso Rock in which  an  All Progressives Congress, APC, leader reportedly moved desperately to block any attempt by Buhari to consider him as Chief of Staff.

As soon as speculation started becoming rife that Buhari may make Fashola his Chief of Staff and the President decided to put the ex-Governor of Lagos State on his entourage on a foreign trip, the APC leader started calculating that he must stop the President in his track. Pronto, Mr. Ade Ipaye, a  former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, under Fashola, surfaced in Aso Rock to  work  as Chief of Staff to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Knowing that the Chief of Staff to the Vice President is actually the President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, the plan is that once a Lagos man is DCoS to the President, it will be difficult for another Lagos man to be CoS. Lagos cannot produce both the main man and his deputy. Well, Buhari has not formally announced Ipaye’s name because his own CoS has not been named but the nominee of the APC leader  is already working in Aso Rock.

This War Against Fashola or WAF is not new. The senior advocate experienced the same campaign of hostility in 2011 when  Association for Better Lagos launched a vicious campaign against him in a bid to stop him from getting  second term.

This group did all they could to stop the then Governor. Public rallies were held, the House of Assembly was instigated, the police and EFCC got petitions, media houses were inundated with sponsored articles and stories, all these were thrown at BRF. He survived because the APC leader later realized he will be toying with electoral defeat if he tried to drop Fashola. So, the ‘actualiser’ got his second term by subterfuge and the APC leader  is ready to ensure he does not go further, whether Buhari likes him or not, whether his intellectual capacity and competence as an administrator with a good record of performance, are needed in the new government elected on the promise of positive change or not.

That is the context in which the WAF should be viewed. Are the anti-corruption campaigners just waking up to see the documents given to them from Alausa?  If there is need to probe Lagos State Government, then let it date back to 1999.

It should be noted that what Fashola is suffering now is what Saraki has been battling with since he declared his interest in the Senate Presidency. When the APC leader  decided to pay back Saraki for mobilizing against Muslim – Muslim ticket and urging for sacrifice on all sides to ensure Buhari’s victory, he employed all weapons in his arsenal to deal with the senator. Saraki’s daring move in which he got the Senate Presidency, in spite of the APC leader’s  belligerent position, is the reason  somebody decided that the 8th Senate will not know peace.

After Saraki and Fashola, the APC leader  will definitely look for the next victim. The political war general derives his kick in designing the ambition of others. He has lined up those who will be publicly caned, politically though. The next person will probably be Vice President Atiku Abubakar. The former Vice President’s crime is that he dared to be the Chairman of Board of Trustees of the APC and not to back the plot to impose the leadership of the National Assembly against the wish of overwhelming majority of members.

The APC leader  is also interested in the position, or if he cannot get it, he will like an acolyte to get it, not minding the fact that with the party Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, being from the South, the North will want a balance achieved by the emergence of a northerner as BoT Chairman. Atiku had been pilloried for allegedly supporting the National Assembly leadership, but the APC leader already has a script on how to further ‘deal’ with him.

When Atiku’s is done with, Ogun State Governor  Ibikunle Amosun may follow. He is said to have refused the APC leader’s proposal to make a  former Lagos State Commissioner  the ministerial nominee from Ogun.  Amosun’s supporters are said to have insisted that the former commissioner cannot come and reap where he did not sow. Already, some online publishers are descending heavily on a female commissioner in Amosun’s last cabinet because it was learnt that she may be the Governor’s nominee into Buhari’s cabinet. The Ogun Governor will have a tough time if the APC leader does not have his way at the end of the day.

It is believed Amosun’s colleague in Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, may also be on the line for the special treatment from the APC leader’s  men, depending on how he handles the issue of the ministerial nominee from the state.

And so, many more will follow. The APC leader  continues to publicly and politically ‘execute’ those opposed to him or whose political viewpoint he does not like while claiming to promote democracy, social justice and fiscal federalism, fighting corruption and advocating the success of the Buhari regime.

*Adejumo is an Ikeja, Lagos – based public affairs commentator.