Date Published: 07/02/09
BRF AT 46: THERE IS HOPE FOR NIGERIA
By Joe Igbokwe
Shortly after addressing a press conference to mark his two years in office on May 29 2009, I was privileged to have a private audience with the Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Raji Fashola. His Chief Press Secretary (CPS) Mr. Hakeem Bello was coming into the office almost simultaneously as I was coming in. We greeted the Governor and congratulated him for his eloquent achievements after two years in office. He looked at me and said “Joe how are you? What book is in your hand? Oh, it is John Maxwell” I knew instantly that he has read the book: The Winning Attitude, Developing Leaders Around You, Becoming A Person of Influence. Instantly too, I knew where the ideas and the drive is coming from. Governor Fashola is a voracious reader and I know he would have gulped and devoured most of the classical books on Management and Leadership. Take or leave it I am yet to see a Nigerian that reads like Governor Fashola. I once sent a brochure to him to glance through and was stunned when I got it back with corrections few days after. Honestly I do not know where he gets the energy and strength to read all the memos, all the files, e-mails etc. I do not know where he gets the energy to preside over different kinds of meetings on a daily basis. But I have discovered the connect and the linkages between the man and what he does and at once, I got one thing straight: You know a man by what he reads. In other words you are what you read. Reading is the first step to greatness.
Soon, we veered into discussion on how the changes came and where the drive was coming from. In his usual humility, BRF attributed his modest success to the prodigious men and women working with him and the Lagosians. Though I joined the Governor to acknowledge the immense support of his team and Lagosians, I added that the success would have been impossible if the initiatives had not come from the captain of the ship. I said that the initiatives must come from the man in the driver’s seat. I insisted that the vision must come from the man at the top and it flows down to the people in a kind of triangular form. I told the Governor that a leader must define what his goals are and consequently push and motivate his followers to conclude the process. A production process is not complete until the final product reaches the consumer. We agreed that no situation ever changes except it is challenged or confronted. Hakeem Bello could not agree more with me though the Governor was still protesting that it is the people that made his day. Business finished, we left the Governor’s office without losing sight of the fact that success is a function of intelligence, self discipline and common sense.
On Sunday June 28 2009, BRF turned 46. As usual it was a quiet and low key birthday celebration with less privileged children. Nigerian newspapers would have been awash with congratulatory messages but BRF shunned all and asked his friends and associates to give the money they would have used in placing congratulatory messages to the less privileged in our society. BRF also used the occasion to commission an ultra modern children hospital he built with lightning speed almost opposite Surulere Local Government along Alhaji Mash Road in Surulere. That evening, few of his friends were in the State House Marina for a small get-together and two or three hours later it was over. The man returned to work. This is vintage BRF!
But at 46 BRF continues to give us hope that God is still interested in us as a nation. I read a well written piece by a Nigerian in diaspora in the internet who said that Nigerians may be the happiest people on earth but the most stupid. Hear him: “If less than one million rogues are able to suppress the will and aspirations of 150 million people what better explanation can one give for such a scenario?” BRF and few others in Nigeria can be used to prove to my angry friend in diaspora that we are not all stupid. My argument is that if we are 150 million people, God would have created 2 million or more prodigious leaders among us who can transform our society for the better if only we can fish them. I was tempted to run away with the thinking that Nigeria is one of the hopelessly retarded nations on earth until I witnessed what a combination of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and BRF did in Lagos in the past ten years. Have you ever bothered to ask how Asiwaju was able to withstand Obasanjo’s onslaught for 8 years in Lagos? Have you ever wondered how Asiwaju fished out BRF and insisted that he must wear the crown? Can you remember how Asiwaju handpicked 40 cerebral men in 1999 to give him a blue print for the new Lagos? Have you cared to know why Lagosians now line up to pay their taxes after two years of BRF in office? Why is FIFA excited about Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere? Why is BRF becoming a reference point in Nigeria? Why was he nominated a member of Nation’s Economic Council? Where did BRF get all the money for the gamut of construction work going on everywhere in Lagos? Can anybody give me the reason why BRF is seen as the new face of Nigeria’s roadmap to greatness? Can anybody tell me why children are in love with Fashola? Can anybody tell me where BRF picked the courage to confront the mess that is Oshodi? Can anybody tell me where BRF read that confrontation is a necessary condition for change? Why has BRF become the benchmark for measuring leadership in Nigeria? Why has BRF become a role model for youths in Nigeria today? Nigerians know their leaders.
Producing many Fasholas in Nigeria depend significantly on the choices we make today our behaviour, our decisions, our attitudes, our character. If our democracy still becomes a selection process by few criminals in power we can never get the likes of BRF in this country to help us realize our dream. Rigging elections is worse than armed robbery, rigging elections is the most dangerous assault on rule of law, rigging of elections is like infesting the nation with cancer and there is no way the likes of BRF will be produced through a criminal process. Likes of BRF will continue to elude us if we do not make haste to abandon stupid and irresponsible politics that have been our ruination for years now. Nigeria will not be a destination for serious minded persons if genuine efforts are made to change our bad habits of living a lie.
I hear that every goal man reaches provides a new starting point and that the sum total of all man’s days is just the beginning. At 46 BRF has proved that Nigeria is not a hopeless country. By 2011, we all will begin to see the manifestation of the new Lagos. BRF did not become the Governor of Lagos by accident. He dreamt of it, He had spoken of how to confront the problems of Lagos if given the chance, he had a vision of a new Lagos that will look like Singapore or Dubai. Readers please pocket this: There are no accidental great men. All great men made themselves in their own image. That which they become, they first desired. Happy Birthday BRF
Joe Igbokwe
Publicity Secretary
Action Congress Lagos
