have happened. Lives have been lost. Property damaged. Essential
institutions such as the police force and army are under justifiable
scrutiny. Protests call for needed reform. Taking advantage of the
situation, less noble actors have pressed forward, either to steal the
hard-earned property of others or to prosecute selfish political
objectives not germane to the protests at hand.
Even with many people taking undue license to press cases that would
otherwise be tossed from the court of public opinion, one would think
certain people would keep their mouths shut and hide their pens even
during this period. Bode George is one such person. In commenting on the
protests and trying to fault Bola Tinubu for every human imperfection
ranging from the original sin in the Garden of Eden to the cost of
tomatoes in the local market, George is either one of the world’s most
bulbous hypocrites or the victim of the worst bout of amnesia ever
recorded in the journals of medical science. In that this gruff,
indelicate man well remembers the sound of his own name and responds to
the ruffle of fresh naira with the pounce of a hungry jackal, one may
fairly assume that his particular diathesis points more to the former
moral decrepitude than to any medical infirmity that might affect his
memory.
In his recent article published by NEW DAWN entitled “Lagos State THE
Anger, The Rage”, Bode George huffs and puffs in contrived indignation
at recent events in Lagos. He misrepresents himself as a storm for
change and justice. He is nothing of the sort. For all of his blowing
and the grand noise he thinks himself to make, he barely manufactures an
audible moment. He is but a rickety, broken tea kettle trying futilely
with all its waning might to bring a tiny pot of water to boil.
Try as it might, the rickety kettle is unstable and cannot hold itself
upright. In the end, the only noteworthy sound it can muster is the
sound of its falling to the floor after toppling from the counter top.
Inept as he is loquacious, the former naval commander, once again, has
proven that he cannot successfully navigate a toy boat from one end of a
bathtub to the other. He would make a wreck of even this simple
assignment. Everything he has touched ends up being worse off, if not
in complete ruins, than when he first happened upon it. His coming into
a room is a cause for sorrow and his exit a cue for celebration. The man
is an albatross around his own neck.
Yet, he had the audacity to write that all conscientious men must stand
with the righteous at this hour and the he had “chosen to identify
with the voiceless…” It seems that George discovered morality a bit
late in the game of life and over a decade after the time when even a
fiber of morality on his part would have amounted to something. George
squeals about the deaths and destruction that have occurred in Lagos and
then lays the trouble at the foot of one man who happens to be his
political nemesis. Such as assignment of guilt by George is based on
political convenience and con games rather than fact. George says Tinubu
has questions to answer about the incident at Lekki but he offers no
proof as to why Tinubu should be on the spot.
If George were really interested in justice, how come he did not jump at
his master Obasanjo when the latter was commander in chief? As commander
in chief, Obasanjo presided over the slaughter of several hundreds and
perhaps thousands of unarmed innocent men, women and children in
separate incidents in Zaki Biam and Odi. In each case, people were
burned alive in their homes or dragged away and butchered. George voiced
no indignation at these large massacres although they cost a hundred
fold more lives than even all the precious lives lost everywhere in
Lagos, not just Lekki during this period. Unjust death anywhere is a
tragedy and must be condemned. But George’s background tells us that
he is not crying because he cares about those who died or were wounded
during events in Lagos but because the moment conveniently serves his
political interest.
If he had morality, he would have chastised Obasanjo for killing
innocent women and children and ransacking whole towns. Instead, George
kept publicly quiet while in private endorsing the carnage set down by
his boss who would eventually reveal himself to be a turncoat friend
and master who would shuffled George off to prison. George talks of
people being brought before the ICC in the Hague for what has happened
in Lagos. His lawyer should advise him to be circumspect. Should some
diligent human rights attorney take a good look at his role in the
Obasanjo government and his endorsement of the confirmed large-scale
massacres at Zaki Biam and Odi, that lawyer might take a very keen
interest in Mr. George. George would surely quake in his boots upon
finding on his doorstep one morning a mysterious brochure saying that he
just won an all-expenses paid holiday to the Hague.
George is infamous for his meanness of personality and mercenary outlook
toward policy – give him an official position and he will do any
number of ugly things to keep it. In his writing, he called himself a
elder statesman. However, one cannot award that title to oneself. It
must be earned not unilaterally expropriated lest it be taken away by
those who can rightly bestow it. George is no more a statesman than a
mosquito is an eagle.
George claims Lagos to be an awful place yet he still lives here even
after vowing to move away forever should the APC win the 2019 election.
George will not move because, deep in his heart, he knows Lagos is the
best that Nigeria has. It is the best not because of anything George
did. It is the best despite George for he tried to thwart every major
constructive initiative the state’s progressive governors have
attempted since 1999.
George has the nerve to lament about the poor state of infrastructure
and blame Tinubu and others. George drips with a double dose of highly
toxic hypocrisy here. George well knows he encouraged Obasanjo to
illegally withhold Lagos state funds when Tinubu was governor. George
did this because he was afraid Tinubu would gain political support if
allowed access to those funds to do projects in the state. Thus, George
cared nothing that his antics might hurt Lagosians. He is captained by
the perverse logic that rules all people who crave public office but are
inherently unfit for the roles they seek. He believes the best way for
him to gain the support of the people is to make them suffer. This is
the way his mind worked then and the manner it malfunctions now. He is
more interested in inveigling support than in duly enhancing the public
welfare.As governor, Tinubu brought power generator barges to Lagos to
provide 300MW of power to the state and give residents and businesses
more, cheaper power. What did George do? He did not applaud the
initiative as a boon for Lagosians. He connived with Obasanjo to stop
this. Again, he decided that he would rather see Lagosians suffer than
Tinubu succeed at doing something new and needed for the people
Like he did in the past, George today is happy about the events that
have befallen Lagos. He only feigns concern. He now is possessed of that
cruel happiness that specially effects the mean at heart. They are only
truly happy when misfortune comes to others. George now gloats the
evildoer’s gloat and dances the wicked man’s dance. He is in this
deformed way because he knows he cannot gain political traction by
outperforming anyone. He cannot win by doing something positive because
there is essentially noting positive in him. He is a bundle of negative
impulses and actions. Thus, his only avenue of political pleasure and
success is to tear down that which others have built. George is a
breaker not maker of things.
His career has been monstrous. As military governor in Ondo, he was
known to be corrupt to the utmost. He plundered the state’s treasury
describing himself, by way of explanation, as a ‘Lagos Boy’ – giving
the state a bad name. There was no part of the state treasure his sticky
hand did not explore. As NPA chairman, he allowed the port to
deteriorate. He is thus partly responsible for the economic bottleneck
that is the port and all the harm and higher costs it brings to us.
Worse, he was caught artificially segmenting large contracts into
smaller ones so as to bypass procurement requirements and oversight. In
this manner, he bilked the nation much like he did Ondo state as its
governor. If nothing else, one can say that as a thief he has shown
remarkable consistency if a coarseness of approach that always seems to
get him caught.
As an operative of the PDP in Lagos and the SW, he has been the APC’s
best friend for the division and antipathy he foments within his own
party makes him one of the APC’s top recruiters.
Last, there is not a truly original thought that ever came from him.
Toward the end of his piece, he asserts that the Lekki toll gate should
be closed. George is a day late like most plagiarizers are. Tinubu made
a similar recommendation the day before. George would not have made his
copycat gesture but for having read Tinubu’s earlier statement.
Like the thief he is, George steals someone’s idea then foments hate
against the other man for having had the idea first.
George is not a leader, a statesman or a visionary. His is a criminal
mind and a cold hearted and an amoral personality. Bode, don’t forget
there are still people old enough to remember where you are truly from.
At the end of the statement, George signs off “CON.” For most people
that would mean Commander of the Niger. Yet, to get the perfect
description of him, one must simply use this word before writing the
word “artist” who can’t even identify the grave of his father in
Ogun State… WHAT A “LAGOSIAN”.
Adeduntan, a public activist and a true son of Lagos State