FASHOLA AS A ROBUST BRAND

The former Lagos State Governor inspires confidence in the Nigerian dream,

There is something no one can take away from Shaka Momodu: his fidelity to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) even when the party’s soul is gone and all that now remains is its shell. He is truly wedded to the party. Therefore, it is by no means surprising that Babatunde Fashola, the immediate past Lagos State governor who is now the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has been the butt of Momodu’s savage criticisms. Momodu has since this year mentioned Fashola in the titles of at least three unflattering articles under his column. The latest is “Revisiting Fashola’s Lagos”, published in THISDAY of November 4, 2016. The column was supposed to be an assessment of the minister’s record as the Lagos State governor from 2007 to 2015, but it is neither an elegant piece of literature nor a respectable record of events. It scarcely qualifies as history in a hurry.

Fashola has been the subject of Momodu’s revisionism for the simple reason that the erstwhile governor played a star role in the nationwide dethronement of the PDP from power in the 2015 general elections. His role went far beyond his dedicated campaign against Jonathan’s extraordinarily corrupt and ineffectual government which The Economist of London called moronic. Fashola, among other visionary people like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, made the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) possible, going ahead to become the first party in Nigeria’s history to defeat a ruling party at the national level. Fashola was for some years the only Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor in the country. His effective performance became the reference point in the ACN’s electioneering campaign promises. In other words, Nigerians in various states were told to vote ACN if they wanted their places to develop rapidly through robust governance as in Lagos. This message worked well in the Southwest, hence the massive victory of the party over the ruling PDP. The South-westerners wanted their states to be like Fashola’s Lagos. PDP members and apologists have not forgiven Fashola for sentencing them to the political museum.

Their grievances against the former Lagos helmsman are so deep that their otherwise intelligent propaganda storm troopers like Momodu take liberty with facts and make comparisons which are decidedly otiose. For instance, Momodu claims that Fashola did not impact Lagos the way Lee Yuan Yew did in Singapore, Mahathir Mohamed in Malaysia and Mohammed ibn Rasheed Maktoum in Dubai. While Fashola was in office in Lagos for eight years, Lee was prime minister from 1965 to 1990, that is, a whole 25 years. Mahathir was prime minister for 23 years, starting from 1981. Maktoum has since 2006 been vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and the emir or ruler of Dubai. Whereas Lee and Mahathir were leaders of sovereign nations, Fashola was a governor in Nigeria where states do not enjoy an appreciable level of autonomy even within the federal context. Is Lagos State’s share of value added tax fair considering VAT’s percentage from its territory? Dubai may be one of the five emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates, but it is autonomous in a lot of ways, as could be expected in any genuine federal setting. This is why a lot of highly knowledgeable and patriotic Nigerians have been pressing for a more appropriate federal nexus in Nigeria. Momodu considers the N30b which the Lagos State Government paid to Julius Berger, the construction giant, outrageous for the 1.358km LekkiIkoyi Bridge. He is not smart enough. True, Julius Berger could have constructed the bridge for a little above N10b if we are talking about just brick and mortar. But the bridge is a tourist attraction which enormously enhances environmental aesthetics, hence the enchanting frills. The bridge is as long as the so-called Second Niger Bridge meant to connect Asaba in Delta State and Onitsha in Anambra State which Goodluck Jonathan, so beloved by Momodu, pledged on August 31, 2012, in Onitsha must be delivered in 2015, otherwise he would go into exile. How much did the Jonathan claim the Second Niger Bridge would cost? A whopping N140b! And without frills! Why has Momodu been playing deaf and blind to this monumental scandal?

It is interesting that in the article, defined by the pull-down-Fashola-at-all-costs syndrome, Momodu talks about transparency. He knows in his heart that he does not possess the moral credentials to mention transparency and integrity even in a fleeting second; he is a fanatical PDP/Jonathan supporter. Nigerians would like to find out Momodu’s take on Jonathan’s export of $15m in raw cash to South Africa, purportedly to pay for arms and munitions from the black market? What is Momodu’s take on the PDP government’s management of $15b meant for arms procurement to destroy Boko Haram but was rather shared to a few persons, including a former Sokoto State Governor Bafarawa who received some N4.6b to get some marabouts to pray for Jonathan’s reelection? Jonathan even got the National Assembly to approve a one billion dollar loan to procure arms and ammunition to fight Boko Haram but the humungous amount ended up in the pockets of a handful of PDP members. Frankly, Jonathan and the PDP brought governance to particularly low levels in our history.Fashola’s record as a governor will ever remain brilliant. All Lagosians know how Lagos was before him and we all know what it became under his leadership. Fashola made it possible for over 80% of foreign direct investments in Nigeria to end up in Lagos. Though Fashola excelled in brick and mortar development, too, people like Momodu who think of leadership only in such mundane terms are in grave error. What made Rudy Giuliani a household name when he was the New York mayor was not the infrastructure he built, but the profound and inspiring leadership he displayed particularly during the September 11 terrorist attacks. When the dreaded Ebola virus hit Lagos 2014, Fashola was out of the country but he quickly returned on hearing the news. Though it was the first time any part of Nigeria was experiencing the virus and the first time Ebola was occurring in any urban area anywhere in the world, Fashola set up an Ebola Emergency Centre overnight. He went to the centre himself when most doctors could not near it. This is what Chinua Achebe would call leadership by personal example. Even Ebola patients from places like Port Harcourt were sent to the centre Fashola established. An example was the widow of Dr Enemuoh who lost her husband to Ebola in Port Harcourt. Fashola made it possible for a number of victims to be treated successfully, regardless of where they came from.

Unlike Jonathan’s Minister of Health, Onyebuchukwu Chukwu, a medical professor, Fashola visited First Consultants Medical Centre where the index case occurred. Unlike Jonathan, Fashola invited Ebola survivors to his office and praised them for their heroism, a development which ended the discrimination they were facing even from family members. He donated some N70m to both First Consultants Medical Centre and the patients. Fashola’s meeting with Ebola survivors is reminiscent of President Barack Obama’s meeting on October 24, 2014, with Nina Pharm, a nurse who survived Ebola contracted from a Liberian American in a Texas hospital. Despite his refusal and that of his officials to meet Ebola survivors or families of Ebola casualties or the First Consultants medical facility set up by Dr Ohiaeri from Imo State, Jonathan went on to claim credit for the impressive manner Ebola was eradicated in Nigeria. The credit should go to Fashola and his team as well as First Consultants.

Fashola’s inspiring stewardship in public service cannot be wiped out by a handful of latter-day revisionists. When caricaturists go to work, something big happens to Fashola. When he was about to be nominated for a ministerial position last year, caricaturists went into a paroxysm of propaganda against him. But he emerged Nigeria’s first and only super minister. He has been in office for just one year, and we are confident he will deliver the goods effectively. As I wrote in a different medium recently, I now travel regularly to my hometown of Achina in Anambra State by road because the road is much better and safer today. The reconstruction already done on the Lagos-Ibadan-Shagamu-Ore-BeninAgbor-Asaba-Onitsha Expressway under Fashola is more than whatever Jonathan did on this critical highway for the six years he was our president.

Umenzekwe is a former president of Odunade Building Materials Dealers Association, Lagos