With the ouster of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, from the political firmament of Kwara State, by Kwarans through the ‘O To Ge’ (Enough is Enough) Movement, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State adopted the ‘O to Ge’ mantra and imported it to Lagos, with the aim of using the same to end the political hegemony of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress and former governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU examines the efficacy of the slogan in Lagos politics
Aftermath of the presidential and National Assembly election held on February 23, the Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has adopted a slogan which puts an end to former governor and Senate President, Bukola Saraki’s hegemony in Kwara State.
Recall that the people of Kwara State had in 2015 began a movement to put an end to Saraki’s stranglehold in Kwara State, but for the tsunamic posture of President Muhammadu Buhari, which many governors and National Assembly members rode on to win election.
As the 2019 election approaches, Kwara people began a movement, which was powered by the ordinary masses, tagged ‘O To Gee’, (Enough Is Enough), aimed at checkmating Saraki and his camp.
The movement eventually ended the Bukola Saraki’s hold on Kwara on Saturday, February 23, when the Senate President, who also doubles as the Director General of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidential Campaign Organisation, lost his reelection bid to return to the Senate.
He also lost Kwara State to the All progressives Congress, APC, in the presidential election, just as the PDP lost all the three senatorial seats and all the House of Representatives’ seats to the APC.
In Lagos State, the APC has been in charge of the state since the advent of the present democratic dispensation since 1999, starting with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who became governor in 1999 on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy, AD.
He returned in 2003as a the lone voice in the wilderness, when he refused to align with the Yoruba socio-political group Afenifere’s decision to support former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term ambition, where all South West governors lost their reelection bid to the PDP in 2003.
Tinubu formed the defunct Action Congress, AC, and returned to office in 2003 and in 2007, he succeeded in installing a successor in Babatunde Raji Fashola, the incumbent Minister of Works, Power and Housing. He also succeeded in installing a successor to Fashola in Akinwunmi Ambode in 2014, under the aegies of the APC, when the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, teamed up with other parties to form the APC.
Following the success of the APC in the February 23 election in Lagos State and the success of the ‘O To Gee’ Movement in Kwara State, the PDP in Lagos adopted the same slogan to put to an end the perceived hegemony of the APC National Leader, Tinubu, in Lagos.
But will this work in a state like Lagos? Already, the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist, has hinged his campaign on the mantra of ‘Freedom for Lagos’, and following the events of the February 23 elections, the Lagos PDP and its candidate adopted the ‘O To Gee’ slogan with the aim of ending Tinubu’s reign in Lagos State.
Already, Agbaje has been receiving flaks from Lagosians for daring to say that they are in bondage and rather than key in to his new slogan, meant to put an end to the political reign of Tinubu and the APC in the Centre of Excellence, Agbaja and his co-travellers have come under serious knocks from not across the nook and cranny of the state, but from the social media as well.
A public analysts and lawyer, Afolabi Ogundimeji, said that rather enough is enough, Lagosians want more of the unprecedented development which has put Lagos among the top five economies in Africa.
According to Ogundimeji, Lagos has “steadily improved and grown to become the 5th largest economy in the whole of Africa, since the advent of this democratic dispensation.
“It is a vibrant and cosmopolitan city. It is the centre of business and culture, the Centre of Excellence. Every day, 8000 people come to Lagos to make it their home. I dare say, some of those people are Kwarans, escaping the hardships of Saraki’s rule.”
He concluded that had Lagos and Kwara (or Tinubu and Saraki) were the same, these people trooping to Lagos in their large numbers would have stayed put where they are.
To the lawyer, rather than abuse and vilification, “if, indeed, Lagos has spent the past 20 years under the guidance of one man, that man deserves a good deal of praise, not censure, for helping to make Lagos State a catalyst for progress and the envy of all the others.
“Indeed, Lagos has seen progress and development unmatched by any other state in the whole of Nigeria.”
Read Also:
He opined that to free Lagosians from the sustained progress and development that Asiwaju Tinubu and his allies have brought to Lagos is nothing but freedom from democracy or good governance and as far as he is concerned, “such a move would not be freedom, it would be failure.”
He said that it was an aberration to compare Tinubu with Saraki or Lagos State with Kwara State, adding, “While the former gives generously of his time and money to improve and advance Lagos State, the latter has spent the past 16 years ignoring the people of his state.
“The only time Saraki pays attention to Kwarans is when he is threatening them. No one can claim that Asiwaju has menaced anyone in such a manner. He is friendly and forgiving, even to those who have attacked him.
As far as Ogundimeji is concerned, the ‘O to ge’ movement, as spearheaded by the PDP has “spectacularly failed to take off in Lagos. We simply have not had enough!”
The PDP candidate, Agbaje also received serious bashing from social media users after the ‘O to ge’ movement for Lagos, orchestrated by the Lagos PDP and the candidate trended all through Twitter last Thursday.
Many of the critics described Agbaje and his PDP as lazy and lacking in genuinety, saying that he wanted “to fracture the unity being enjoyed in the state,” adding that Agbaje and the PDP cannot replicate what happened to Saraki in Kwara State, which they described as a ‘Movement by Ordinary Kwarans’ and not social media movement.
One Ahmed ibn Mustapha, who goes by the Twitter handle @MrAfobaje said, “Jimi Agbaje wants to fracture the unity of Lagos in a desperate bid to govern her. This man has no clear cut plan on how to move Lagos forward. He is just looking to whip up dangerous sentiments that can consume us all.”
For FOA, @alagakemi, “Jimi Agbaje is conducting a very lazy, lame, divisive and dangerous campaign in Lagos. He never learns. When he destroys Lagos, what state would he govern?”
Arinola
To @iyaboawokoya, simply known as Arinola, Agbaje lacks the acumen and administrative clout to govern Lagos. She said, “Jimi Agbaje just does not have the acumen and administrative clout to govern Lagos. Sorry, fine guy, yes, but not much substance.
“I see his pharmacy (shop) on Adeniyi Jones daily and wonder why he never even manufactured paracetamol? Emzor is also a pharmacist. Haba, dilapidated pharmacy store.”
She added, “Evil is so strong in our land that it makes people so unreasonable. So, because Atiku lost, losers think Lagos is their next battle field. Clowning. PDP will never win Lagos. We have a perfect governor and deputy in APC. Once again, PDP’s candidate is a poor presentation just like Atiku.”
Alabidun Abdulbaki, @BakiBayo, advised Agbaje to stop “his divisive politics,” adding, “I was born and bred in Ajegunle, the multitribal dynamics was one of the positives growing up.”
Another Twitter user, Kennygee Babe, @kennygee_70 said, “Jimi Agbaje is playing a very dangerous game with dare consequences if allowed to get away with it. Stoking the embers of disunity can’t help anyone eventually, hence the need for Lagosians to stop him in his tracks. Lagosians love peace because that’s the atmosphere in which business can thrive.”
Oluwakayode, who described himself as ‘Indigeneous Lagosian’ and goes by the handle @_KvngKortez, said that he has seen that Agbaje “didn’t learn any lesson from playing an ethnic card for political gains in 2015. We will teach you that lesson again at the polls…”
Taking a vox pop, many Lagosians who did not go out to vote in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections have vowed to come out next Saturday to “teach Agbaje and the PDP a political lesson, they will not forget in a hurry.”
Speaking to LEADERSHIP, one Mr. Peter Ajayi, a publisher, said playing the ethnic card in their desperation to ‘take over’ Lagos is what will undo PDP and Agbaje on Saturday.
He said, “Next Saturday will be a different cup of tea altogether. The Igbos in Lagos voted for PDP because of Peter Obi and I can assure you, they would have voted PDP next Saturday if the Atiku/Obi ticket had succeeded. They know what they stand to gain and lose if they fail to vote APC and vote PDP.
“What spoilt it for them is the ethnic card they are playing. What they are doing is just like going to the South East and start campaigning with non-indigenes as frontiers, the so-called Biafrans would overrun them. I don’t have much to say than let’s wait for Saturday, it is here already.”
Next Saturday will determine whether Lagosians have actually had enough or they want more, but the major slogan in Lagos now is “Tell them to stop their ‘O to Gee’ (Enough is Enough) or ‘won fee te’ (they want to be disgraced).”
It was also the consensus of political analysts in the Centre of Excellence that taking over Lagos by the PDP remains a dream that is far away from the realm of realisation.
