*Making sense of the union between Babatunde Fashola’s adviser and Bola Tinubu’s Man
By Según Oderinde
Picture Femi Hamzat as Babajide Sanwoolu’s running mate. Would he, in time, mutate, like a feral dog against its master, grunting and growling, his spirit lashing out, while he claws at the bars of the ‘Lagos blueprint?’
Scratch that. Simply imagine the godsons of ex-Lagos governors and reunited foes, Babatunde Fashola and Bola Tinubu, as deputy governor and governor of Lagos respectively; will they emerge thick and tight, chanting victory songs?
Will they make music for the gods, or their godfathers to be precise? Do they understand the dodgy lilts of their patrons’ farcical opus. Or will their sonorous tune trail off in confusion, soon after they attain the high offices?
As discordant notes crescendo and harmonise at the point of climax, will their minds madden to the thump of darksome lyricism, lyricality of their gods?
How long shall they stay faithful to one another? Who will betray who? When will the deed be done?
Pundits aver that the pairing of Femi Hamzat and Sanwoolu is akin to proverbial marriage of strange bedfellows. The former, mischief makers contend, will betray Sanwoolu, if eventually they emerge as Lagos Governor and Deputy Governor at the 2019 general elections.
Such conjecture stems from Hamzat’s past as a Special Adviser to Fashola, even as the latter engaged his godfather, Tinubu, in a battle of will, thus becoming estranged to him in the process.
But like they say, in politics, there are no permanent enemies or foes but permanent interests. Individual and party interests have brought Fashola and Tinubu back together hence their decision to bury their hatchet and arrange a political union of their godsons.
Notwithstanding their gentleman’s agreement, pundits aver that Hamzat, a brilliant and very hardworking man and who is unwaveringly loyal to Fashola, will never run foul of his boss and partner, Sanwoolu, if they win the elections and occupy Lagos’ highest offices. He is a great guy!
It’s a known fact that Fashola and his budding political machinery are hell-bent on neutralising Tinubu’ s political structure and interests.
Indications have emerged that Fashola is going for broke against Tinubu; in what appears to be an emerging battle for the control of Lagos State, the Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Fashola, has set up a separate campaign group to secure at least 4.5 million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 in the state.
Although the campaign group, christened ‘PMB 2019,’ was set up to canvass support for Buhari’s re-election, competent sources disclosed that the group, with vast support base state-wide, was designed to be a formidable political group after the 2019 election.
With its concealed post-2019 plan, one of the sources disclosed that the constitution of the group violates an understanding of political juggernauts in the ruling party, who agreed that all groups in the All Progressives Congress (APC), should be collapsed into the Mandate Movement, a political group loyal to the APC National Leader, Tinubu.
According to sources within the party, the Fashola group would definitely become a formidable platform in the state, after the 2019 general election, considering its vast support base across all the local government areas and local council development areas.
This, they contend, will pit him and Tinubu in yet another epic conflict that may devastate the foundations of the APC in the state.
