GBAJABIAMILA AND THE RESIDENT FORCES

Defiant and determined, the forces against the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, are not unfamiliar, writes Nasiru Mohammed

Anyone who knows the Chief of Staff to the president, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, fairly enough, will always scoff at the many nonsenses so far alleged against his name. At best, these false narratives have only fed the starving political hawks their desperate meals, in and outside government. But none truthfully speaks to who he truly is. 

I’m one of the many people, who can confidently speak about the character of this man, both from close and remote quarters, and I pride in it. I knew him from the moment he ventured into politics and I’d followed his trajectory up until now, even though we do not share any personal relationship. This, however, is why I have learnt to laugh off the swirling misrepresentation about his person. 

On Tuesday, October 8, the THISDAY newspaper did an interesting piece on the ‘notoriously’ popular Chief of Staff to the President. I describe him as notoriously popular because if you’ve followed the sort of things since said and written about him on assumption of his current office, there’s the tendency to believe he was some preternatural creature capable of the impossible. 

But he is not. At least, if there was anything that the article did – as objective and critical as it was – it established that Hon. Gbajabiamila is just another passenger – like you and I – in the corridors of power, doing his job to the best of his ability.

This is not to say he is infallible. Of course, he is and does not pretend to be either. But if we must point out anything about him or his management of the affairs of his current office, we have a responsibility to be as honest as possible. After all, facts don’t lie. 

The culture of demonising people, especially those in sensitive political offices in order to make others feel good, is a fiendish culture that everyone must rise in unison against, because it is definitely antithetical to our collective growth, progress and development.

The cliché: “There’s no smoke without fire” is as plane as it is tricky. This is why circumspection is instructive when leveling allegations against others. At the minimum, an average right-thinking individual is expected to build a level of safety into whatever assumptions they’re  peddling or fondling with.  

Unfortunately, in the case of Gbajabiamila, there’s no allegation so far levelled against him that has been established anywhere. Isn’t that curious? When the president came public to declare support for his chief of staff, doesn’t it suggest to any critical mind that such could have been informed by the findings of security investigations on the man?

Observing closely from a vantage position, it is becoming crystal clearer that the forces against Gbajabiamila are a legion and may not give up easily or anytime soon. This is why I have identified them as the “resident forces” because they are mostly not just within but ‘living’ with him, somewhat. 

For the record, the forces are three in categories. The first category is made up of people I choose to call the “envious lot”. They do not hide the fact that they envy ‘the man’ that Gbajabiamila has become and desire to be like him. An average successful person goes about with such enemies, and it’s almost natural that such people accompany obvious success at all times.

This particular category of haters has followed his trajectory from day one, unknown to him, and had always wanted what he has. They could not comprehend why it has always been him because they consider his feats a function of luck and not hard work. Either way, they could not come to terms with why neither luck nor hard work gave them a chance, too.

Category number two consists of people who are trending at the moment. For the purposes of this intervention, call them the “Ambitious few”. They are the people who want his current job. Why must it be him again? After spending so many years in the House of Representatives with meteoric progression that saw him become the speaker, should he get this all-important job again?

Rather than ask his principal the reason he settled for him as against them, they aligned with those in category one to further escalate their enmity and make his work more difficult. But they forget that unless the man who appointed him feels otherwise, they have no say in the choice of his personal staff, more so one as critical as the chief of staff.

Welcome to the third category of the resident forces, and please feel free to identify this last but not least category as the “political mind-readers”. This is just another very interesting class of people. From speakership to chief of staff, this third category has concluded, perhaps, having seen the future with their crystal ball, that Gbajabiamila’s next stop is the Lagos governorship.

For a man, who has neither mooted the idea nor shared it with anyone, least his wife, that he was interested in the Lagos governorship, this curious conclusion, which has accentuated the agitations by these hate groups, is to say the least, confounding.

Let’s drop the hate, antics, and political theatrics for a fleeting moment. Is he not qualified to be governor if he chooses to throw his hat in the ring? What more qualifications does it require to be Lagos governor? A former speaker, after several years in the House of Representatives and now the chief of staff to the president, coupled with his sound education as a lawyer, he is very qualified, I must say. 

But that is not on the card for him. If anything, he wants to acquit himself as the chief of staff to a successful president, God helping his principal. If at the end of the day, the owners and people of Lagos root for him, that’s their call, not his. How is anyone even sure he would say yes to such a call to service?

Like the Yoruba would say, the one who does not get a breather from the world around him and constantly getting controversial mentions, is much better than the individual consigned to the obscurity of history whilst he is still living. It’s at this point Gbajabiamila must admit that such unprovoked and undeserving attacks come with the job.

More importantly, he must also learn to objectively and with a plain mind, sift through criticisms, and take that which seeks to help make him better, either as an individual or on the job. The fact that he is not perfect in humanity presupposes that he, too, might have poorly handled certain matters, which could have pitted him against some powerful blocs. 

However, seeking to throw away the bathwater with the baby is a pre-civilisation predisposition, which never allowed room for improvement or gave people multiple chances. And if people really understand that life, as much as power, is indeed transient, they would be moderate in their chase of vanity.

Taken together, while it is expected that the chief of staff considers some of these attacks as a challenge to be a better person through introspection and self-appraisal, it is definitely not a call for him to let down his guards, while the enemies regroup for more devastating onslaught.  

Certainly, the last has not been heard of the resident forces, as well as their machinations against President Bola Tinubu’s chief of staff. 

Mohammed writes from Kaduna

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