By Nimi Princewill.
As the ongoing cold war thickens between the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the founding national chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande has weighed in with the argument that contrary to distorted views on godfatherism, it is essential for the growth of democracy in Nigeria.
He explained that success in every endeavor, including politics, thrive on mentorship but some money-driven politicians have negated it, and tagged it as “godfatherism” in their bid to amass influence in the party without respecting the party’s ideology.
He said, “You are free not to join any political party. You are free to contest as an independent candidate. It is fraudulent, however, for you to join and win elections on the platform of a political party and subsequently form another group to override your political parties’ injunctions.
“Your legacy, by so doing, will belong to those of the selfish leadership. Like most learners serve article-ship before qualifying as Accountants; and like most lawyers serve tutelage before being professionally competent, so must a university lecturer seek mentorship before rising to professorship.
“In the same manner, the lower the hierarchy of a political party member, the more mentorship he requires to rise from mere canvasser, to ward organizer, to party officer and to election candidature within his chosen political party.
“It is these political mentor-ships that are being presently euphemistically negated as “godfatherism” by the neo-money politicians struggling to use money to hijack influence from political parties whose ideology they do not care to respect.
“And that was why the Sixth National Assembly ignorantly promulgated the nonsensical theories of “internal democracy” into the Electoral Act of 2010 which now results in big-money politics to the present day Nigeria.”
Reacting to Governor El-Rufai’s comment on how to end the menace of godfatherism in Lagos politics,
Chief Bisi Akande who is also known to be a close associate of Bola Tinubu fingered El-Rufai as a product and beneficiary of the system he is now fighting against.
Chief Akande said, “It is not about defending Tinubu or responding to el-Rufai’s statement about defeating godfatherism, I am defending common sense. You just don’t wake up one day and say you want to become a politician; you would need people who are more experienced to mentor you. El-Rufai learnt from some mentors, if you want to grow, you must learn.”
Governor El-Rufai, had recently insisted he has no apology over his statement that “godfather can be defeated” in Lagos State. He added that he has in fact, retired four political godfathers in Kaduna. He further advised on how to retire godfathers in Lagos politics.
The governor’s statement is being presumed as an attack on former Lagos State governor and current APC national leader Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who is popularly refered to as the godfather of Lagos politics.