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Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Senator Babafemi Ojudu provides the insight …
In a period of two months he must have visited VGC more than fifteen times. Town hall meeting here, parlor meeting there and street walk there. He met with professionals and engaged resident associations just as he dialogued with people of faith.
At the end of the elections they will still not let him deliver his unit.
I have received many calls and text messages asking what happened? It is not far fetched.
It is a combination of ethnicity, elite mentality and living in the midst of people who the policies of the administration does not favor.
As we held those meetings I saw it coming and remarked to colleagues that coming to VGC and appealing to the voters there was a waste of time. I could see it in their utterances, in their body language.
The bile was palpable and in some cases you could perceive hostility. Osinbajo , as we have known, is a never say die person. He dug at it with severity of a tunnel digger with the belief that there will be light at the end.
At the last meeting he had, which was on the Wednesday before the initial February 19th election day I slipped away and went to have a rest in the hotel so as to be stronger for the tasks ahead.
Only an Osinbajo would depart Uyo for Lagos at 9.00 pm after hard day campaigns in Plateau and Akwa Ibom States and take an arduous ride through the Lekki traffic to VGC from the airport sometimes for one and half hours and still go and address a motley crowd of thirty residents.
Those engagements were for me a spectacle. I am easily irritated. Many of us his aides were disgusted. Not Osinbajo who will take his time taking all manners of questions and sometimes subtle and not so subtle insults.
There were cases of some fellows who had nothing to say than “Osinbajo you have come now and you didn’t bring kola how do you want us to vote for you again?” Kola in the local parlance meaning money or bribe. And this is a supposed elite location. I was shocked hearing this.
Some said since he was elected they expected him to have donated a mini stadium to VGC.
Some wanted him to have solved their problem of flooding. A fellow said he and Buhari stand blamed for the loss of his first child who died when his pregnant wife walked into an electrified flood water in his house. One expressed disgust at his men parking in front of his gate.
Another accused him of lying that the 3rd Niger Bridge project has taken off. Every effort to convince him was ignored and he kept interjecting until he moved on to other topics.
He took all of this with calmness and gave time, hours at a time, explaining government policies: why the administration is fighting corruption and why Nigeria must not depend on imports from other nations and the infrastructural projects going on across Nigeria.
All of this was like pouring water on the back of a calabash for some.
To be honest there were a handful who were civil and patriotic. Some others were sympathetic and could reason with the logic of his presentation and the sincerity of his purpose. I could hear the voices of many too who shared his dream of a greater Nigeria. A Nigeria where the leaders pursue the good of the majority as opposed to the minority.
Many suggested great ideas and offered criticisms that could help sharpen policy. Some offered to join the Osinbajo train.
Some too were taken in by his humility and understanding of the problem. A particular person right there then sought to have an account number to which he could pay a donation and a few others must have too.
Some were generous, offering us snacks and drinks to wet our parched throats.
Most were however new money, importers of all manners of things, beneficiaries of the abuse the Buhari administration was dedicated to stamping out. Many others were driven mainly by ethnic hatred.
This, however, is understandable. Even in America many still made their political choices based on colour of the skin.
The majority of the British who voted for Brexit did so because of aversion for the Eastern Europeans who come to their country to seek a better life not minding the harm such a decision will do to the economy of their country.
Good or bad every voter has the right to the choice he makes. No one can deprive him of that. That is the essence of democracy.
It was easy therefore to see that this was a battle this ‘ajantala’ would not win. I knew they were not going to vote for him.
He was however relentless and persistent invoking the tenacity that has taken him to the height he has reached in life today; best grade in secondary school, a first-class in the university and lecturer at the age of 23, a professor of law, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) an exceptional Attorney General in Lagos for eight years and an accomplished Vice-President of Nigeria for close to four years now.
Yes Osinbajo lost the vote in his neighborhood of VGC. VGC is not his constituency.
Certainly not.
He could easily have gone to vote in Ikenne, his ancestral home where he is deeply loved and reverred.
He could have queued to vote in the Somolu area of Lagos where he was born and raised and where his aged mother lived and was adored .
He could still have chosen to cast his vote in Akoka, on the premises of University of Lagos where he taught and taught for many years and his unit could have embraced him and give him a landslide victory but Osinbajo is one who never runs away from a problem. He will dig his teeth in it until he is able to bite through.
Knowing him he will not quit VGC until he is able to make the new money residents see reason.
Left to me he ought to move his base to that glorious abode of late Obafemi Awolowo, a place of history, a community that is synonymous with progressive politics and intellectual pursuit.
By the way I am told that the small town has produced up to thirteen Senior Advocates of Nigeria, (SAN) more than most states of Nigeria has produced.
The VP remains grateful to the VGC voters that placed the interests of the society above parochial considerations. They have proved to be the glow of light in the dark. They have demonstrated their commitment to logic and common sense. For those who took a different pathway, definitely in the nearest future, they will come to realise that history and prosperity will put Osinbajo on the scale as a righteous man who stood for the greatest good of the greatest number.
