Made in Lagos (2): Star Boy, State Boy, Street Boy and Tinubu’s other Lifebuoys
While Osinbanjo rose from academia to state and federal political prominence, Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC, Oluomo eventually emerged from the streets to secure a formal political appointment with the Lagos State government, despite his suspension by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
Following Mr Akinsanya’s exit from the NURTW, Governor Sanwo-Olu suspended the operations of the union in Lagos State, and appointed the embattled Akinsanya as the pioneer Chairman and Director General of the newly instituted Lagos Parks Management Committee.
Thus, Mr Musiliu Akinsanya continues to lead his men, popularly called Agbero, who collect on his behalf an estimated N123 billion per annum, according to an ICIR investigative report.
MC Oluomo on the Charts
Though MC Oluomo still trails behind the political attainments of the likes of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu and his godfather, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his rise to political relevance in Lagos State despite the odds against him is worthy of note.
Officially recognised as Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya, MC Oluomo’s music genre is a fusion of fuji blues layered on underground syncopated tatatatata beats, a rythmic groove made popular in Okene, Kogi State, which normalises scaring intending voters with gunshots and shooting at political rivals.
Besides few appearances like his live performance of Case together with the music Diva, Teni, MC Oluomo’s body of work is hard to trace. But his role as a regional politician made in Lagos is fast becoming significant.
Oluomo is reputed to be the street enforcer of voting decisions at the polls in Lagos State, and recently, Nigeria’s Southwest. In the last general elections in 2019, he boasted that his presence and that of his boys had secured wins for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, and he promised to repeat the same feat at the polls against the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State.
Responding then to a reporter's question about the state of the elections in Osun State, Mr Akinsanya said, “Now, we are in Oshogbo. My heart is full of joy. Who is PDP? where is PDP? PDP that’s dead?”
Then gazing straight into the camera, he sent a direct message to an incumbent President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, “You Saraki, you brought your money to spend. Is your money not wasted now? Your money is wasted.
You are mad. We have just started, Eh! Listen! Regarding Ilorin, Kwara (State), we will take it from your hand.”
Beating his chest, Oluomo affirmed, “It is confirmed. We will take it over from your hands. APC owns Kwara”
True to Akinsanya’s declaration, the All Progressive Congress won the Governorship election in Mr Saraki’s home state.
Yet, like Wizkid, Akinsanya has his own Ojuelegba story too. It was reported that he hustled in Lagos “from (a) Yellow Bus Conductor to Conducting Millions”.
Perhaps the notorious MC conducts much more than millions. A 2021 report by the ICIR shows he actually controls billions.
The ICIR report on Agberos in Lagos estimates that, given LAMATA’s conservative figures of 75,000 buses and other vehicles, enforcers of motor park and road transport levies, a.k.a. Agberos, rake in about N123 billion in revenue per annum. These levies are collected by different cadres of officers under Mr Musiliu Akinsanya.
This annual estimate of N123 billion equals 29% of Lagos internally generated revenue (IGR), and surpasses that of states with the highest IGR in Nigeria in 2020, namely, Rivers (N117 bn), the FCT (N92 bn), Delta (60 bn), and Kaduna (N51 bn).
The battle for these billions reaped monthly from commercial vehicles, tricycles, and motor bikes on Lagos streets has pitched Akinsanya against his colleagues in the state and the federal hierarchies of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
Such billions of sustained slush fund evidently dwarfs what the Senate President, Bukola Saraki would spend for the PDP anywhere, hence the MC’s boast and mockery of the Senate President’s pocket.
To keep this underground-legit election-financing structure and lifebuoy intact, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, dissolved the state NURTW on March 10, 2022, and less than a month after, appointed Mr Akinsanya as the Chairman of the Lagos Park Management, the body set up to continue collection of Transport levies through the street boys, agberos.
This development earned MC Oluomo his first formal political appointment with the Lagos State Government and charts the way for his rumoured ascent and influence beyond Nigeria’s southwest to the national political scene, a terrain many believe the leader of the APC has been prepping his loyal street son for.
Aregbesola on the Charts
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola made his debut with the single E je kan maa buwa, a song on the folklore genre which he dedicated then to his Lagos Godfather at the 7th Bola Tinubu Colloquium.
But the Minister of Interior had since moved on to contemporary beats with the signature call and response chants like Bye Bye to jagba jagba, Oya yo’gbale re, and other tracks notably laced with diatribes against Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his erstwhile political godfather.
Some interpret Mr Aregbesola’s departure from praise-singing his former boss to shaming him to mean that the political son has strayed from his father’s political order. But the former Governor of the State of Osun insists it was his godfather that strayed from the ancient progressive paths that he, Aregbesola, still purportedly treads.
Compared to his other Made in Lagos politicians, Ogbeni Rauf only exceeded MC Oluomo, who had the least aggregate score of 8, by 4 weight points.
One possible reason for this is that there is no record of his private practice on his Wikipedia profile, except a few other mentions elsewhere.
It is common in Nigeria for politicians not to own up to companies they currently have administrative control over because they do not want to declare a possible conflict of interest when contracts are awarded to such companies by the government.
His time as the Executive Governor of the State of Osun was also mired with controversy, ranging from his refusal to appoint commissioners for 2 straight years to non-payment of salaries to civil servants for an extended period.
Beyond changing the name of Osun State to The State of Osun and implementing the change of the name of the Nigerian Prison Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service, Mr Aregbesola’s nominal innovation has achieved only a marginal public impact in the last 2 offices that he held.
Sanwo-Olu on the Charts
At a distant second to Osinbajo is Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the incumbent Governor of Lagos State. Although he has lived most of his political career in the shadow of his Godfather, he is another promising star made in Lagos.
Mr Sanwo-Olu’s THEMES template for managing the multifaceted stress points of a city-state like Lagos is commendable. Yet as much as Lagos is the most prosperous state in Nigeria, due to its obvious geographic and historical advantages, it is not helpful to continue to measure the state’s performance by comparing it with other states in the country.
To measure Lagos as a pacesetter state is to compare it with other like-cities in Africa and indeed the world.
Based on the general assumption in this measured sample that appointments are made on merit, Sanwo-Olu appears too to have just begun to outperform his Lagos political father.
There is a general consensus that Mr Sanwo-Olu managed the COVID 19 scare relatively well, second only to the see-nothing say-nothing approach of Governor Yahaya Bello, which helped isolate Kogi State from any official record of incident or deaths.
However, it was believed that Sanwo-Olu was initially with the people during the EndSARS protest before taking the path of subterfuge that led to the killing and maiming of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll gate, under the flag of their country.
Ultimately, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s performance, this time in the highest office in Lagos State, would be measured by how much he yielded himself as an elected public officer to serve the Lagos electorate or how far he continues to see himself as an appointed officer to serve the interest of a ubiquitous principal.
Tinubu on the Charts
Tinubu comes by more as a music critic than a performer. His musical taste unveil a man with a deeply reflective cultural core. Even when he dances, he listens more than he moves - his pulse and pauses the emotive response to a griot’s lyrical invocations.
But Tinubu is listening even more these days. Of course, it’s hard for one to dance to dis tracks from boys formerly on one’s record label, or to sing along on karaoke the deodorised tunes of rival producers.
Really, besides his obvious ageing signs, the major odds against Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential aspiration for 2023 are the same factors that position him in the 3rd position behind Mr Sanwo-Olu, at a middling level among the 5 sampled Made in Lagos political brands.
In the run-up to the 2023 Presidential Primaries, the APC leader made a clear case for his presidential ambition. He seemed to be saying to everyone, I have done it as a governor in Lagos, I will do it now as the President of the Federal Republic.
Really, going by some of his achievements while he was the Governor in Lagos State, Mr Tinubu could be a good candidate to run for the next presidency. But the problem always sets in when his conduct out of office is held under close scrutiny by other politicians and the informed section of the electorate.
Why could a person of such political stature not simply emerge as a consensus candidate of the party he fused and funded to work? Why does he seem to have more than 6 Judas among every 12 of his political disciples?
Perhaps it is because Mr Tinubu stood out in this current political dispensation due to his managerial prowess more than his humanistic ideals.
Perhaps he captures the senses of the best of mortals and commandeers their service due to his mercantile bent more than by his moral strength.