Between Babatunde Fashola and Biodun Oyebanji

JUST like the Bible, in the Book of 1 Corinthians 15:45, acknowledges Jesus Christ as the second Adam, circumstances and behavioural patterns are beginning to draw global attention to Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, a.k.a. BAO, the 12th Chief Executive Officer of the 27-year-old Ekiti State, as the second and present day Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, a.k.a. BRF,former two-term Lagos State Governor. This is on account of his (BAO’s) ways of doing things through which he is putting the smiles on the faces of many and receiving national and international accolades. Having said that, let me start with a confession: that I have spent a substantial part of my life, thus far, in Lagos before natural circumstances of life withdrew mein 2019 from the Centre of Excellence as Lagos is relishly called. From those early days on the grounds of CMS Grammar School, Lagos, the first Secondary School in Nigeria, founded by Rev. Henry Venn,on June 6, 1859, to my studentship days at the University of Lagos, to the Media Industry and finally to the Financial Services Industry, I savoured the aroma and relished all what Lagos pleasantly stood and probably still stands for.

But that is not the point in issue. The meat of this discourse is the fact that within the almost four and half decades I lived in Lagos (1975to 2019), I got familiar with and accustomed to some of the behavioural architecture of all the Chief Executive Officers that ever-ruled Lagos State – be it Military of Civilian.I am tempted to submit that of all the Governors of Lagos State that I know, the urbane, suave and lanky immediate past Federal Minister of Works, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, (BRF), stands tall on account of the civility he brought to bear on governance in Lagos State. Within those eight years that BRF was at the helms of affairs as the Captain of the ship of Lagos State between May 29, 2007 to May 29, 2015, he earned himself the enviable reputation of a Chief Executive who would not blow the siren any time he was in the hectic and most times frustrating Lagos traffic. Rather, some good guy and a typical example of leadership by example, he would sit in traffic like every other ordinary Lagosian! BRF was the man who would not flaunt his position and office to intimidate other road users simply because he was wearing the toga of the Governor of Lagos State.

Perhaps because he is a lawyer and member of the Inner Bar (as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria) for that matter, he respected and obeyed laws, including traffic laws, to the letter, and the admiration of many.He did not use (or rather he did not abuse the use of sirens) which in many cases have led to ghastly but certainly avoidable accidents that claimed many lives, limbs and means of livelihood. Two experiences will suffice here. Piqued by the perceived nuisance value of the ubiquitous and ever-impatient commercial motorcycle operators known as ‘Okada’ riders in Lagos, BRF on November 24, 2011, stormed the streets to personally caution some operators who rode against the traffic. This was before two of his Commissioners announced the ban of Okada Riders from Lagos streets. The governor, who was returning from Apapa area where he had gone to commission the LSDPC Housing Scheme, intercepted the Okada Riders by directing his security aides to stop the erring motorcyclists riding against the traffic on the highway, before handing the culprits to law enforcement officials for prosecution. The arrests took place at Apapa –Ijora Link Bridge, just as the then Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, and his Transportation counterpart, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, jointly addressed newsmen to place a tactical ban on the operations of commercial motorcyclists in the State.

The second incident was when BRF on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, arrested a Military Officer and an Army Staff Sergent for driving on theBus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane at the Outer Marina in Central Lagos. Fashola who insisted on zero tolerance for lawlessness was quoted as saying: “I don’t use the BRT lane; I sit down in traffic, and I expect everyone who wants to drive his car to do the same. The alternative is to use the bus. “The bus is for those who cannot afford to buy cars. They have the right also to use the road and we cannot encroach on that lane which we have reserved for them. This is democratization of the road, and I will defend it”. And now to Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji of Ekiti State. I have been in traffic with BAO in Ado-Ekiti twice. The first time was on Sunday, October 1, 2023. I was driving behind his five-vehicle convoy on Ijan-Ado-Ekiti Road. Of course, I knew it was the Governor’s convoy. But what amazed me was that no sirens were blown, and nobody was harassed off the road because a Governor was passing by. He took his time. He did not overtake any vehicle. Rather, trust them, the ubiquitous and the ever-impatient Okada Riders were overtaking his convoy. He was not perturbed. He maintained his cool and of course, his aides borrowed a leaf from him.

The second time was on Saturday, October 7, 2023, on the same Ijan-Ado-Ekiti Road. This time around, I was in front of his convoy. The glowing lights on his security vehicles confirmed that the first citizen of Ekiti State was around. I drove as far as Matrix Filling Station,opposite Ado Grammar School, to buy some fuel. Even though I spent about 15 minutesat the Filling Station, the Governor’s convoy was not in sight throughout that time, a confirmation of the maritime speed his convoy drives! It was after I had pulled out of the Station that I saw BAO’s convoy virtually crawling back to base. What a lesson in humility! With the string of successes already recorded by Ekiti State within his first year in office, BAO has started well, and the people have acknowledged that he is doing well. He therefore deserves the support and prayer of all Ekiti Ketes and others living in the state to pilot the affairs of the state for it to take its rightful place in the comity of states and become the envy of other states in the country. One can only wish the mercurial BAO the grace and the good health to nurture his dream for a better and greater Ekiti State to fruition. Just like the late Premier of the Old Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, told Hon. Justice KayodeEsowhen the Secretary to the Western Region’s Government, Chief OluseyeEjiwunmi,took the erudite Justice to the Governor on the grounds of Government House, Agodi, in 1965 during the trial of Prof. Wole Soyinka, “Olorun a fun yin se o” (meaning may God help you).