By Adeyinka Adelabu
Click-bait and sensational headlines are the order of the day in blogosphere. The aim is to trigger emotional responses from the reader and drive traffic to blogs. Alas, this has made it very difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is false in today’s world. Thus, no time is more auspicious than now for the advocates of fact-checking to intensify on their crusade in order to stem the increasing damage of fake news.
Yes, since the leakage of his farewell message as the erstwhile Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Lagos, in which he dispassionately dissected the Akinwunmi Ambode administration, Dr Tunji Bello has been at the receiving end of utter falsehood and malignant vendetta orchestrated by some disgruntled forces.
Yes, he might have touched raw nerves with the brutal honesty of his statement where he lampooned the former governor for lacking the emotional intelligence necessary to steer the ship of Lagos successfully which led to his downfall ultimately, Bello has now become the fodder for paid bloggers who are conjecturing and fabricating utter falsehood to satisfy their paymasters. One is not surprised. Ambode is a dirty fighter. And, even outside government, his pettiness and imperiousness continue to dog his trail.
A lawyer and accomplished journalist, one of the finest breed of that noble profession that held successive junta accountable for their deeds and misdeeds, it bears reiterating that Bello was in the forefront of the fight for the democracy that an Ambode, a civil servant, became an immense beneficiary of. Despite his closeness to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State, Bello never lobbied for an appointment and was practically forced to accept to serve as Commissioner for the Environment in 2011. He served meritoriously and his achievements in that ministry remain the high water mark that successive commissioners will be measured.
A scholar of high repute, at the end of his stewardship under Babatunde Raji Fashola, Bello was going to return to school for further studies but he was prevailed upon, yet again, to help stabilise the new administration of Ambode as SSG. His selfless acceptance to serve may now be his undoing. Because of his viral statement, the fake news exponents have now gone to work, spewing puerile tripe that Bello is lobbying to be a commissioner under Governor Babajide Sanwoolu. Nothing gives a more graphical description to claptrap than such falsehood! The tirades from this club of fifth columnists would have been dismissed with a wave of the hand but when lies are allowed to fester, they travel far and are given some colouration of truth if not nipped in the bud.
There is no gainsaying the expertise and impact Bello brings to the table in all the government he has served. His 3Cs (capacity, competence and character) stand him above peers when it comes to governance ideas that blaze the trail; it, therefore, would not have been out of place if any government looked in his direction for inputs but Bello does not need to lobby to become a commissioner in a state where he has already earned glorious stripes.
Even though the rumour was false, paid bloggers feasted on it like harbingers of pain and ill-will, casting it across the social media and not minding the consequences of reporting lies as truth. Investigations have revealed that certain bloggers, many of whom have been found to be doing a hatchet job for Ambode are on a roll to drag Bello’s name in the mud. But they would not succeed because readers are wiser to their antics.
Indeed, too many bloggers are the votaries of cults, which, by definition, are dedicated to whitewashing warts and hanging halos. What they forgot to take into cognizance is that Bello is not just your run-of-the-mill government appointee; his foray into public service is predicated on personal and professional excellence while his meteoric rise has been as a result of an altruistic passion to contribute to the growth of his beloved Lagos State.
Again, unless the next Commissioner for the Environment in Lagos State ups his or her ante, Bello’s records, while manning that ministry between 2011 and 2015, may take ages to match, let alone be surpassed. Likewise, if the years of former Governor Fashola were truly adjudged as those when Lagos experienced a high level of environmental sanity, major credits must be accorded Bello who oversaw impactful projects and programmes that defined that era.
In hindsight, more strides would have been recorded under the past administration had Ambode created an enabling environment for a cerebral mind like Bello, who joined the former’s government on the strength of his peerless experience at the top level of governance in Lagos, to operate. But when a leader is only obsessed with dismantling the legacies of his predecessor, voices of reason are hardly accorded a listening ear.
Not only was Bello sidelined in Ambode’s government; he was disrespected by the former governor’s loyalists in tacit nudging of their principal. On several occasions, he was on the verge of quitting but for the intervention of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who constantly prevailed on him and promised to ensure that there would be better team cohesion, which never was due to Ambode’s arrogance. Bello has bared his mind and he is at peace with himself. The harbingers of fake news should also critically do a self-assessment before rushing to post.
