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If the variety, velocity and volume of violence ascribed to the People’s Democratic Party senatorial candidate for Lagos West, Segun Adewale, popularly known as Aeroland, were true, then, the entire state should be one big ball of bellowing fire, consuming hapless lives and property in its path and leaving ruination in its trail. But that is not the case. It is, sadly, however, what the opposition candidate, Solomon ‘Yayi’ Adeola, wants the world to believe; dressing another man in a borrowed, ignominious robe. When a man is unilaterally imposed on a people by a godfather in furtherance of his political empire, it does not beggar understanding that he would be disconnected from the people’s realities. That is the problem with Yayi. At the outset, he wanted to contest as a senator in Ogun State but his party, the All Progressives Congress, ‘redeployed’ him to Lagos.
Now, instead of facing issues, letting the people know that he knows where the shoe pinches them and proffering sound solutions, the rambunctious Yayi has been syndicating lies about Adewale, orchestrating pockets of violence in different parts of the metropolis. It is to be expected; these are very tensed and testy times for Nigeria considering that presidential and national assembly elections are just a few days away.
Like the gentleman that he is, the hugely successful businessman refused to condescend to the ‘bolekaja’ (crude) style of Yayi, preferring to reach out directly to the electorate with promises of quality and prodigious representation at the Senate. And there is believability in his electioneering because even without holding public office, he has invested so much in the lives of the people of Alimosho especially.
Before now, there was a perilous canal in Aboru, a Lagos suburb, which had claimed several lives and despite the cries of the residents to the APC-led state government to save them from further untimely deaths, it paid them no heed. When Adewale learnt of this, he had the canal dredged. Today, people, goods and vehicles move freely around there, thanks to Adewale’s timely and humane intervention. Among other compassionate interventions by the successful businessman are provisions of potable water for various communities, generators and transformers for the police and the people, grading of different kilometre-long roads, construction of blocks of classrooms while giving out scholarships to brilliant or indigent students among others. One wonders what he would do if he was in public office.
The events of January 31st when Adewale and his followers were attacked for ‘daring’ to pass through Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, where Yayi, incidentally, has his campaign office have been twisted to misinform the electorate to mean he is a violent man. This is far from the truth. In fact, the reverse is the case. And the people of Lagos West, particularly, Alimosho know that Adewale is not just a gentleman and good family man, he is a quintessential pacifist. He has since taken the path of honour to explain his own side of the story. Yet, Yayi’s campaign of calumny has been senseless, severe and sustained which is why this unauthorised rebuttal is necessary not just to set the records straight but to re-orientate the electorate about voting for the right man that would steer the course of the nation’s ship for the next four years. That day, the electorate would also vote for the lawmakers that would help the new president administer the nation. Thus, getting it right is critical.
Public office is about service to the people. However, in the reckoning of Yayi, it is about self-enrichment and self-aggrandisement or how can a Member of the House of Representatives find it hard to point at any significant project as his achievement in a constituency he represents. Yet, he has had the privilege of serving in various sensitive committees in the House where he could have bettered the lives of Alimosho people. But what do we have? A conceited, overfed politician! In a sponsored article against Adewale in The Nation newspaper of Sunday, March 22nd, it is laughable, yet, instructive that one Kayode Odunaro who I later gathered to be Yayi’s media aide wrote, “At any event, one would counsel that all candidates should sell their credentials for the post they aspire to. This could be done through reaching out to the electorate with their life history, service to community and advantages over their opponents without recourse to violence. It is the electorate that will decide who represents them at the hallowed chamber of the National Assembly.” One is surprised that this kind of truism is coming from Yayi’s camp which acts contrary to this. All over Alimosho where this writer has had the privilege of living in for the past three decades, Yayi is a virtual stranger and unloved because of his irreverence for the well-being of the people he is supposed to be representing. He would understand how unpopular he is on Saturday.
Yayi is a hard sell and very hard to retail too. A man with dubious educational background, his profile on the National Assembly web page states that he graduated from the Ondo State Polytechnic in 2001. He was 32 years old then! It was not stated there whether what he got was an Ordinary National Diploma or Higher National Diploma. And there are no records that he furthered his education. He became a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2003. One is therefore tempted to say that he was an illiterate before he joined politics. But I digress.
Interestingly, Adewale holds a B.sc in Geography from the prestigious University of Ibadan and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Lagos State University. He was also a Students’ Union Leader where he served as the great institution’s Sports Director. Without further ado, no matter how well packaged lie is, truth would always catch up with it. No matter how badly Yayi and his goons are painting Adewale, the people know who they want; they know who has their interests at heart and they know who would stand up for them when push comes to shove. It is that person that would get their vote, not an itinerant political lapdog like Yayi.
Omowale Johnson is a public affairs commentator
