PhD @28, Original Japada; what a slogan!

 

By LANRE ADEWOLE 

For multiple reasons, my preference will always be for suave people, particularly, men. The root of the adjective, is in the Latin word suavis; meaning being sweet or agreeable. 

In borrowing the word, English Language expanded the meaning, to mean being polite, confident, charming and slick in mannerism, often with a burnished style. 

Synonyms common to the adjective, include; sophisticated, debonair, urbane, polished and smooth. 

Is there anything around suave, that doesn’t define Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, current Lagos Lieutenant Governor and the ruling party’s candidate for the February 6, 2027 governorship election? 

An addition from my end to the synonym list, would be the generally perception of him as humility personified, though I hold the opinion at the pleasure of secondary sources relating very closely with him. 

He has also been variously decorated as being adroit and a friend who has worked closely with him for decades, (a Deeper Life pastor while Hamzat is a devout Muslim), will tell you he (Hamzat) is almost angelic in his relational, without my friend descending into human worship, which is idolatry in all major religions. 

The column’s headline, minus the latter part, is a campaign slogan on a particular poster marketing the Lagos number two citizen to the state electorate, so he can take over the number one job and seat, from his current principal, Babajide Sanwoolu (an older friend will tease the name as Sanwoolu, Sanwo ilu, Sanwo eko, Sanwo gbese. 

Hopefully the current administration isn’t owing too many contractors. 

And I find the creativity in the campaign message as intriguing as didactic; reason I’m writing about it today. 

Yesterday, Saturday September 19, the APC candidate was 62, having been born in 1964 and the projection is that if he wins in 2027 and sustains the streak for his reelection in 2031, he would be 70 years leaving office, God sparing his life. 

That would make him a mature man going into the direct administration of the most commercially viable and disputably, most populous state in the country (there is still contestation that the demographic numero uno title is officially Kano’s) and leaving, as a statesman. 

The state deserves no less. 

And this is not demeaning others. 

But the Yoruba will say ohun to jora won la fi nwe ra won (some things are naturally contiguous and complementary). 

For the sake of country, its financial capital can’t be a laboratory for governance experiment; not even now when the rest of the world especially other global smart cities are taking giant leaps in diverse sectoral space. 

But that is not impugning the competence of others. 

Hamzat’s likely main challenger, the-Igbo language speaking, Yoruba language-learning Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (with political sobriquet of GRV) seems a talented young man. My deduction is from sitting across him at a restricted media parley in Lagos, in the build-up to the 2023 poll when he almost pulled a stunning upset as the Labour Party governorship candidate. 

Now running on the ADC platform, I still see him no less; a politician with a future, who needs a little more time to garner requisite governance experience to rule a state like Lagos that never sleeps. 

I agree, it’s always great to start from the top. Who doesn’t want to be the CEO, dishing orders to subordinates. 

But even for the entry point, the valued talent must still be brushed up, shown the way around the assignment and gets straightened up regularly when his lack of experience muddles things up. 

When it becomes compelling to have an inexperienced CEO, particularly if a family fortune compels it, hands for firmer grip on crucial corporate decisions, when boardroom crucible feels like a raging furnace, must always be available to steer him from crashing and crushing everything, particularly the delicately built. 

Can a state of about 20 million people afford a governor that will be hand held and arm led around governance, maybe for the first two years of his tenure, to avoid costly schoolboy errors? 

I will leave the electorate to answer the above.

GRV is intelligent and seems to have his sight set on what he thinks he can do for the state different from what the ruling establishment has been doing and his youthful vigour adds to his appeal. 

But nobody has ruled the state so green like him. 

From today’s president who was senator before leading the state, to his immediate successor (Fasola) who was deputy and substantive CoS for eight years, then Ambode, a thorough system person, handling huge financial burdens and today’s incumbent (Sanwo Eko), who was ex-this, ex-that, before providence lifted him. 

Sentiment aside, who can GVR, with all his grit, call his class amongst them in governance experience? 

Experience isn’t everything but it counts heavily. 

Lagos security system alone can confound a greenhorn. Despite its huge population, it is one area the state has excelled since insecurity began ravaging the country, including the rest of the South West. 

As inviting as an underdog victory in the state is, in the next year poll, the implications of a rookie taking the helm are frightening. 

But let’s give the 43-year-old Lagos chief (he’s Obalefun of Lagos), his electoral flowers please; despite the fact he’s yet to record any victory in all his contests; from trying to be council chairman to senator to governor. 

The other time, he almost deposed Adeola Yayi as senator. That should count for something. 

I love his Sowore-esque political courage and conviction. Wish he’s running mate to a candidate that can win who will hand over to him after eight years.

I see a fantastic future Lagos governor in him. 

But for now, I doubt.

What is required to govern the state at a time like this is more than an MIT degree, Queen’s English, family heritage and political stoicism. 

A well-trained hand should steer. 

In the 2023 uprising against APC in Lagos, minimal thought went into consequences and the ruling party deserved the electorate mutiny due to its recklessness, in conducting internal affairs and public service as the party in power. 

It was almost binned especially after voters literally tasted blood with Asiwaju’s defeat in his backyard. 

Hamzat and his principal seemed headed for political guillotine. If the electoral coup de grâce had run its full cycle, GRV would be the incumbent seeking his second term now. Maybe he would have been persuaded into the ruling APC and Hamzat would have likely been far away from being a potential govenor he is today. 

That sounds like Daniel 4:17. 

12 years ago, he sought the ruling party’s ticket strenuously against the anointed; Akinwunmi Ambode. 

It wasn’t his time and despite his best efforts, he placed second. 

Then he was asked to be “second calabash” eight years ago, queuing behind a principal who was doing everything to “serve” him, four years earlier if he had prevailed over Ambode for the party’s ticket. 

With uncommon grace, he served and still serving as deputy. 

But his time to be number one seems here and one thing that appears to be going on well for him, is that no one has yet flagged him as a damaged, disruptive, terribly baggaged or a chaos candidate. 

Beyond tested capacity and depth for delivery, popular perception about candidates in electoral contests everywhere, ranks high on how voters make their pick.

Even democrats who rarely vote will turn out in record number once the man they love to hate on the other side; Donald Trump, is on the ballot. 

Polling after polling has shown more democrats voting against him than voting for their party’s candidates. 

That is how divisive he is. 

His equivalent in Nigeria is Peter Obi, now of NDC. Or more like his truculent Obidient base.

You see respectable Yoruba spewing unfathomable stuff about him and his cult-followers once his name shows up in political discourses. 

Once it’s Obi and his army, Yoruba voters want to troop out “to show them”.

Asiwaju also has that love-hate relationship with voters, now and even before his ascension to the highest office in the land. 

Hamzat, to his luck, hardly draws such strong emotions from voters; at least, not yet. 

A younger sister, well educated and who has lived almost her 40 years in Lagos, was practically clueless about who the APC candidate was when she learnt I was going to listen to him talk last Friday at the inauguration of his campaign. 

That is how safe the APC candidate has played so far and how hidden he can’t afford to be, going forward. 

That is why his campaign poster which triggered this piece, is a nice piece of brainy art that should reach homes and households, not just the roadside where multitude of other posters could easily eclipse the visibility it deserves. 

Did he actually get a doctorate degree at 28?

Yes, his bio reads “ He graduated from the University of Ibadan with a degree in Agricultural Engineering in 1986 and a master's in Agricultural Engineering in 1988. In 1992, he had his PhD in System Process Engineering at Cranfield University, England”. 

What about the original Japada thing? 

It means he made a sacrifice returning to Nigeria from abroad when many were headed out. 

Japada is like an opposing campaign against Japa. 

I can’t yet see how the Japada part will help him, considering his political leader is taken to be part of the ruling elite causing the exodus in the first place. 

But Hamzat, apart from being a safe candidate, seems a safer option for the Lagos electorate though it would still be an interesting campaign with the two well-educated leading candidates going head to head. 

Can’t wait for the eggheads debate.