Taiwo Lawal
This is another election that I shall beg to be neutral; Babajide Sanwo-Olu is Eko and Ijebu son through and true, so also is Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a bona fide son of Isale Eko.
My neutrality stems partly from the fact that my children, if they were to reside in Nigeria, will be of the #EndSARS generation, I won’t be a father that will not wish his children to take their destinies into their own hands and make the best of it.
This is the first election ever that we’ve all seen in Nigeria’s political history where Nigerian youths are bent on flexing their numerical strength and political muscles, the first time they woke up from their political slumber and have so far refused to go back to sleep.
When this #EndSARS crisis erupted, Sanwo-Olu, the incumbent governor started very well, we saw him join in the protest against the police, and he believed their cause was just. At one point, the Lekki toll gate sector of the protest was almost turning into a musical jamboree that was sure to fizzle out, we all saw our youths distributing food, water and running their show seamlessly, protesting at the toll gates and returning home peacefully in the evenings.
The #EndSARS protest was about to run its natural course, when somebody from somewhere unleashed thugs wielding cutlasses and pick axes on them in Ikeja part of Lagos, hired thugs brandishing cutlasses against youths merely matching about in town carrying only megaphones and loud speakers.
Being the old capital and the economic hub of Nigeria, Lagos has the “misfortune’ of having an ever increasing population of youths seeking employment and better lives, the city is host to about five million-strong university and polytechnic graduates, these vibrant youths formed the nucleus of the #EndSARS Movement.
It started out as a small campaign after several videos went viral of young men and women allegedly killed by Nigeria’s Police SARS operatives, it snow-balled into a nationwide protest.
The protest was galvanised online with about 28 million tweets bearing the hashtag “#EndSARS”
Young men were arrested, extorted for just wearing stylish hair-cuts, young men could be detained and killed for simply carrying a fancy phone, laptops or for just driving cute cars. The 2020 #EndSARS protest was largely effective due to the use of digital technology, particularly the internet.
Nigerian youths tagged it ‘SŌRŌ SOKE’. They started the protest from Twitter before taking it to the streets. ‘Sōrō Soke’ is a Yoruba phrase which means ”speak louder”.
This #EndSARS Generation is a Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour generation, he part-took in it. Gbadebo is the youngest contender for the seat of the governor, among GRV’s backers are these up-coming musicians, skit makers, Internet influencers, a part-Nollywood artistes etc. Any experienced politician will know this is a “dangerous” mix.
Point out that parent that wouldn’t like a childlike Gbadebo, an activist, young, handsome, well-educated, well-travelled and urbane.
Since this is not a monarchy where only the children of the king and queen can be princes and princesses, it is a DEMOCRACY where everyone is a PRINCE.
There is no AUTOMATIC SHIRT anywhere, (Onika luku maa ja fun shirt ę ni).
These youths see Sanwo-Olu as the representative of the ‘old school’, the candidate of the establishment; they want every candidate in the race to run on their own merit. It therefore makes this a straight duel between the OLD ORDER and the NEW ORDER, a match between the “Sōrō Soke generation” and the “Baba Sōpe generation”.
A contest between the ‘new breeds’ as against those that are hell-bent on keeping power and the enormous privileges that accrue therefrom.
We all know the #End SARS arrow heads, even from my dingy room six thousands kilometres away; I can single them out one by one. I don’t know if it is not too late at this juncture, but they needed to be appeased, else, they are lying in wait, and are intent on exacting their pound of flesh from Sanwo-Olu for his role in that #EndSARS crisis.
His road this time around is extremely complicated, especially coming at a time when the “God-father” has been trusted with a bigger and heavier national assignment.
These kids saw and noted some of Sanwo-Olu’s inconsistencies; when he said he called in soldiers to maintain the peace during the #EndSARS protest, later claiming he never invited them. The last straw was when he openly disagreed and dismissed the judicial panel report that he himself set up to review the aftermath which claimed scores were killed.
Therefore, those still addressing these incensed #EndSARS youths in a condescending manner do not love Sanwo-Olu; it is like when you continue to dare a frustrated Nigerian policeman carrying a loaded gun. The #EndSARS movement is just too refined, too informed, too educated, too sleek, too polished for this kind of “old” politics you want to play.
Disowning a son because of the mother’s heritage is in itself; Un-Yoruba-like. My children are of Owo mother, it doesn’t make them non-Ijebu.
We do have children of Calabari and Efik mothers in my family, but that doesn’t make them non-Yoruba.
I agree it’s a shame GRV can’t speak fluent Yoruba, we are all guilty of this, and we all have that in each and every Yoruba family today.
Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour has got an Igbo mother, his heritage is a plus, it is a huge advantage to him as things stand, you will be crazy to think Igbo women in Lagos will not stick to the son of one of their own, I don’t personally think Igbo men will ever wish to throw away this once-in-a-life-time opportunity to have a son who carries a part of their blood to be the head of Africa’s fourth largest economy.
Taking you down memory lane of our time on campus, the University of Port-Harcourt to be exact, I noticed then that all the Students’ Union contestants derived their political support first from their tribal bases. In my days in campus politics, Some names come to mind as I write this today, Duke Akposogo, an Urhobo had Urhobos and the entire Niger Delta form his “first eleven”, Victor Antai an Ibibio had the entire Cross River/Akwa Ibom those days as his base. My dear Late friend, Oladayo Kuti, an orator and arguably the most brilliant had the Yorubas being his first line of defence and support. But the crown always went to the Igbo coalition because they carried the bulk of the students’ population.
We all play this tribal game, so those raining abuses on GRV supporters by calling them names do not really love Sanwo-Olu, this coalition of disillusioned youths can wreck serious political havoc, using the diversity of one’s heritage as an advantage is legitimate, I don’t call that tribalism… it is POLITICS, it is fair game.
There is also this group that we all choose to ignore, the “Ambode Camp”, these are a crop of new generation singers who adopted the former Lagos Governor as their “God-father”, they never liked the way their benefactor was ditched, they are still pained and are still bent on venting their anger on the establishment through GRV, and Sanwo-Olu unfortunately, is the man in plain sight, he’s the man in their cross-hairs.
All these groups have morphed into a form of “Obama Coalition” in a way, it is a formidable coalition of youths, their campaign is even “shishi-less”, all they need and have is sizeable data, laptops and a mobile phones, they have formed a strong voting bloc… ignore them at your own peril. If PDP’s Jandor can subsume his ego and step down for GRV, or if he refuses to step down and plays the “OBI-Datti role” as in the last presidential election, and takes a chunk of APC’s vote, and if the standard of measurement is this last Presidential elections in Lagos, and if all known variables are kept constant, Sanwo-Olu can as well say “bye-bye” to The Round House in Alausa.
As for me; I love the game that is currently playing out, I have no cock in this fight. Sanwo-Olu too recognised that there was fire on the mountain. It has kept him on his toes. He’s clearly seen the hand-writing on the wall with the outcome of the last election – that our once-docile youths have been taken for a ride for too long, and should NEVER AGAIN be taken for granted. He has released all vehicles impounded by the Lagos State Government without fines; workers’ salaries have been doubled in the last three months, visited churches back to back, and taken his campaigns from markets to markets.
Sanwo-Olu knows intimidation can’t solve it, these youth groups can’t be cowed, they are much more refined, they don’t carry cutlasses, no pick axes, but they are working in the shadows, they are actually the ones who powered the “OBI-dient wave” in Lagos in the last elections, they brought out so many votes two Saturdays ago, they will want to do it again, and they are NOT chest-beaters, and… they are majorly SILENT.
And it was that former British Conservative Party Leader, Iain Duncan Smith that said some time ago: “…never under-estimate the determination of a SILENT man”.
This piece is my personal opinion; the views expressed here are entirely mine.
Lawal writes from Lagos
