Ahead of this coming Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Lagos state, former Presidential aspirant and convener of the #YesWeFit revolutionary movement, Dr. Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, has charged residents and voters in the state to be vigilant and careful with politicians who preach tribal sentiments as their major message of campaign.
Ikubese, in an article written on Sunday, said Lagos is a cosmopolitan Mega city, whose political leadership should be voted in on the bases of quality leadership attributes and capacity to deliver good governance, rather than ethnic sentiments.
He described the Politicians playing up ethnic sentiments as potential looters seeking to build a wall around his targeted loot.
Below is the full text of the Message;
THE LAGOS OF MY DREAM
By Thomas-Wilson Ikubese
Every election year, our politicians play the tribal card, dividing Nigerians who have lived together harmoniously over the years along tribal lines, for their political gains!
Lagos, the Commercial Capital and former Federal Capital of Nigeria is a recurring decimal in this tribal game, cheesed by a cocooned political class
This class of Yoruba politicians are quick to play the “Yoruba ronu” (Yoruba think) card, wherein any Yoruba that fails to support a Yoruba candidate in any election in Lagos is summarily labeled an “omo ale” (bastard)!
To this group of politicians and their sympathizers, Lagos is a Yoruba land and the political leadership of the state must forever remain in the hands of Yorubas.
Permit me to categorize the leadership of Lagos as in most cities into two; political and traditional.
While traditional leadership all over the world is ancestral, political leadership in a democracy is a function of the choice of majority of the people.
This is why the revered stool of Oba of Lagos will forever be the exclusive preserve of Yorubas.
Interestingly however, this traditional ancestry has been expanded, deliberately so by a powerful political class, to the political leadership of the former federal capital.
This is not the Lagos of my dream!
This is not the Lagos we seek in the New Nigeria!
The Lagos of my dream is that Mega City where anyone from any country or tribe can run for office and be so elected by Lagosians, based on the strength of his/her character and not on the origin of his/her ancestry.
The Lagos of my dream is that Mega City where revenues generated and allocated are transparently deployed with utmost accountability, to develop the state into an enviable haven for all.
The Lagos of my dream is that Mega City where politicians seek office to better the lots of Lagosians and not to amass wealth or enrich a few.
We all cheered to high heavens, when Barrack Obama, an African of Kenya ancestry was voted as the President of United States of America.
With ecstasy we hailed, when Rishi Sunak an Indian was voted recently as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Yet, we cannot stand a fellow Nigerian from another tribe occupy a top political office in our domain!
As I infer for Lagos, I do for other states in Nigeria.
Verily I say unto you, those who play the tribal card in a democracy are potential looters, for their unspoken lingua is; “we won’t let you shorten our ration…we are the ones entitled to chop the resources of our State…go to your state of Origin and chop your own shares there”!
These same people will support a “non-indigene” who runs for office in their professional Associations because they feel there isn’t much to “chop” in those offices.
So when next you see a politician and his/her sympathizers playing the tribal card, look no further, you have right before you, a potential looter seeking to build a wall around his targeted loot, while using you as a pawn on the chess board of political manipulations!
Written on;
5th March, 2023
