COVID-19 Pandemic: A Trying Time to Flaunt Leadership in the Politicians’ Cave

By Razaq Adedeji Jimoh

IN an online seminal dedicated to the 50^th birthday of Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo, the Apex Leader of the Alimosho Progressives otherwise known officially as All Progressives Congress (APC), the Central theme of the lecture was clearly captured as the imperative of mutuality of loyalty flow between the leaders and followers as the bedrock of stability in any political party. I went further to metaphorically describe the world of political party as the Politicians’ Cave to emphasis it as a community on its own within a broad system of a the country, which by implication extends to establish it as a kind of extended familyhood.

An excerpt of the relevant body of the text on leadership-followers mutual loyalty reads: “The loyal bond between a leader and followers is composed of many particulate matters. Foremost of this are fairness, responsiveness, justice, tolerance and leadership transparency”.

Emphasizing the last as the fundamental element that could depict the loyalty of leader to the followers, it read further: “To show transparency by a leader is a veritable source of imperative absolute loyalty (a leader) may desire from followers    

Interestingly, and disappointingly though, many saw the piece more as a hagiography for the subject of reference – Alhaji Enilolobo – than they grasp the inherent message of the subject matter that was a lesson in leadership loyalty to followers.

Curiously too, and not disappointing though, the purported subject of reference, Enilolobo, did not appear to appreciate it even as so falsely projected. This, in my understanding, was not necessarily a deliberate fault of his own any way. It was more out of a true conscience that could prick anyone in his solitary reflection when he knows he has done nothing, however simple much less being extra-ordinary for this author to deserve any praise singing from him. Meaning to say this essayist never owed him any gratitude to discharge in manner of such praise writing.

As a writer, I knew it was better to wait for an opportunity to clear the mix up and shed more light on the valuable lessons of the subject matter than move any instant joinder that would create a needless controversy. COVID-19 pandemic simply comes now for opportunity to tell clarify the lesson on when followers expect the true loyalty of their leaders to manifest before them.

So the questions to apply arise thus: 1) how is the welfare of all elected and appointed public office holders at all levels of governance in Lagos State along with their families at their respective homes at this time of lockdown? The answer to this cannot be far-fetched and anything less of comfort and joy.

2) In comparism however, how is the welfare of all other APC members not privilege to hold public office, particularly the vulnerable ones in their various homes now at this time of lockdown? I mean – the mama and babas – at the pyramid base of social and economic strata that always make mass of crowd we deploy at rally times and public mobilization at election times, how are they coping now and how has the party leadership at various local governments shown concern for their plights as could be imagined in this trying time?

These are the questions this piece intends to apply for the inherent lesson of manifesting Party’s leadership loyalty to members in a trying time like this. The Alimosho Progressives is applied as a case study for being the residential local government of this author with access to far reaching data to drive the factual information.

Just about two days past, this magazine published pre-emptily that President Muhammodu Buhari had a plan of welfare package for Nigerians to cushion the effect of economic lockdown occasioned by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic war, using the comment of Director General of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) as source.

Within the same breathe, it also revealed that Lagos State was set to begin distribution of its own social welfare package to a total of 200,000 indigent and vulnerable Lagosians for the same reason.

Thence it became known that the Lagos’ is real and subsists and this magazine is on the field trying to track the flow for reality of the set objectives. Impressively, The Lagos Emergency Food Distribution is not a token and neither is it half-measure: each of humanitarian food pack contains the quantum of assorted food stuffs that will be enough to last a family of six per household for the 14 days – a measured bag of rice, beans, garri, bread, dry pepper and possibly table water.

The consequential broadcast of President Buhari on Sunday, March 29, however did not raise nay hope beyond a prompt release of two months stipends due to the existing beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer for the vulnerable Nigerians. The two-month pay amounts to a total sum of N10,000 as it had being a long existing policy of his administration’s social welfare programme. He nevertheless complemented this with appeal to all creditors of loan facilities that they should concede a 2 months moratorium to their debtors.

Unknown to many, the latter incentive would have its own far reaching impact too. Many of the elected and appointed public officers are civil servants beholding to one loan servicing or the other. For clarity and as so relevant to the subject matter of this essay, the average pay of a councilor in Lagos State is about N160,000 and virtually all of them are an obligatory loan servicing to the tune of N50% of their monthly pay.

The implication is that everyone is going home with his/her full salary this month that coincidentally marks the commencement of the 14 day total lockdown and neither will the lockdown affect their immediate next month salary.

At the inspection of the State’s welfare package being prepared for implementation witnessed by this writer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative annex, Oko-Oba, Agege, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said: “This is a catalytic initiative of our administration with the hope that well-meaning corporate organizations and private individuals can step up to complement the efforts of the government”.

From this appeal arises this question: who are the individuals and organizations he could be inferring to here? I see two categories of them: those under compulsory obligations to act appropriately without any goading. They include political leaders and religious organizations, particularly the church for understandable reason. The others for non-obligatory category are those with the wherewithal to make emergency voluntary charity cause in the spirit of humanity.

While the reasons for these categorizations are clear, the area of interest is to discuss the failure of political leaders to heed this appeal of the governor by taking up responsibility for welfare of the party faithful in the spirit of all-for-one and one-for-all with which APC earned the electoral victory to form Lagos State government and put its members into the position of authorities in trust for the entire members.

In the countdown to due day of the lock down, Tuesday March 31, the members of public acquainted with this essayist had besieged him for any information on what could be in the pipeline to aide their survival all through the period. Their concerns in this regard were palpable from their pulses and visible in their eye pupils. Everyone got the right responses according to the perspective from which the enquiry was raised. Such was the reason for publishing the said previous post on this page: Covid-19 Lockdown: Buhari has a plan for Nigerians.

But that in my mind and as intended was a piece of information for non-partisan matters of governance known to be blind to any political affiliations of the prospective beneficiaries. Impressively too, the channels for distributing the Lagos food packs also foreclosed the fear of hijacking it by any political class, at least from the framework on paper. That gracefully exposed the innards of the Progressives’ Cave for a thorough evaluation of how the party leaders are providing the desired leadership of responsiveness in the management of the collective packs and commonwealth of the APC victory in the 2019 general elections in Alimosho.

Granted that the situation may change tomorrow, the consensus of the party members’ cry in this Chapter at the time of pushing this to post was a shindig of gross disappointment from the leaders. Appropriate enquiry sent to Enilolobo and two other leaders did not get any reply. A stop-press enquiry sent to Hon Kehinde Joseph was replied, referring this author to his Instagram page while Hon Bisi Yusuf remained mute.

Alimosho is a home to the serving Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (Lagos West Senatorial District), the House of Representatives member for Alimosho Federal Constituency, Hon Femi Adebanjo and two members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Kehinde Joseph and Bisi Yusuf.

Other elected public offices holders are six Executive Chairmen of local government/ LCDAs and about 34 councilors.

Those in appointed capacity include Adejoke Orelope Akinfulire, a former Deputy-Governor of Lagos and presently Director General of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); Hon Akinbile Yusuf-Hamzat, Commissioner for Employment and Job Creation; and Chief Aboyade, Vice-chairman of the Lagos State Security Neighbourhood Corps (LNSC). There are also about 34 Supervisory Councilors across.

Thus the question: shouldn’t APC members in the lowest pyramid of the progressives cave be truly disappointed they were left in the cold and primed to be famished in the 14-day sojourn through the wilderness of COVID-19 pandemic in spite of this parade of the broad spectrum of senior party members entrusted with the commonwealth of the party’s electoral victories.

But interestingly, these angry members of the Alimosho APC have not failed to direct their angers appropriately. They are holding their Apex leader, appropriately Mayor of the Progressives’ Cave, Alhaji Enilolobo, responsible for their predicament. While they see all elected and appointed public officers as the resourceful capacity for them to be hopeful and go into the lockdown fairly equipped against hunger, they believe it was Enilolobo that put them in the lurch for failing in his leadership responsibility.

A party member from Meran, Agbado/Oke-Odo LCDA, said: “We knew it to be the practice that Eni (as the leader is fondly called in the cave) is the channel through which these people (public offices holders) have always reached us. So, even if they are not willing to do anything, we expect him (Eni) to fight for our rights. He had been the one to guide us on how to vote; who and who to vote for and we have always complied in the spirit of loyalty to him. In this case of COVID 19 he really disappointed us”.

Another member from Agric area of Egan said Enilolobo could as well lead by example by creating a purposeful pool of fund for the party members’ welfare during the lockdown.

He said: “if our welfare takes prime position in his (Enilolobo’s) mind, even if our public office holders are not willing to do something, he could have started by saying, ‘okay I put down, say for example, N50,000’ and then request others (the public office holders) to complement him by putting in their own. The truth we cannot wish away is that Enilolobo is far richer than many of the public office handlers”.

There are two significant facts that must be realized here: first, many of these party members fall into the category of the hand to mouth poor class laboures. This makes them to be readily available for electoral mobilization and other party events requiring crowd pull credit. Second, by membership of the party, those in positions of authority are by rational sense holding the parks of their respective offices in trust for the party.

All party members should also be happy always

These two facts, therefore, literally confirms that it is an obligatory requirement for the party leaders, elected public officers and about 50 appointed public officers to pull resources together to, as pleaded by Gov. Sanwo Olu, augment the government’s humanitarian gesture to cover the party members, particularly that it is yet the government of APC trying to meet the obligatory needs of the collective public via governance.

This brings out the enquiry made by Chief Reuben Umeugoji, Chairman/CEO of Current Foam seeking to know if the party leadership had any such welfare resource pool plan for members so that he could make his contributions to it. And if heard him correctly, his wish was to commit about the sum of N200,000 to it. But somehow, communication gap appeared to hamper his genuine interest. I will not elaborate this further, but it yet remains why many party members besieged this author for information on what plans the party had for them. This would not have been so if they had received information from the leadership via the usual channel of Top-bottom communication flow. This communication failure was the origin of this missive. But as the members truly understood it to mean as one member put it, it was a statement that said: “expect nothing”

Nevertheless, the party leaders would do well to appreciate that this is one of such rare opportunities they have to show their loyalty to the followers. And of course, the gainfulness for the party as a whole is that it will help to foster a sense of belonging in the massive members with a multiplier factor that helps to renew their reciprocal loyalty to their leaders and improve their commitments to the party’s aspiration of continuum as the ruling party. Irorun igi ni’orun eye.

It is not for mouth that Sanwo-Olu coined the mantra of collective responsibility in the governance of Lagos that: Igbega Eko, Ajumose ni. It is, in true philosophy, an admonition that put the people in the spirit of seeking to gain where he works and work where he seeks to gain.

The packs of APC victory in Lagos State is the commonwealth of all members. However lowly any class of them could be, they should not be denied their due. Let the Alimosho Leadership and elsewhere in the State do the needful now.