The recent media reports credited to the Oba of Lagos, Alahji Rilwanu Akiolu, to the effect that the Igbo indigenes resident in Lagos state would be drowned in the lagoon should they fail to vote his anointed political son, Akinwumi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the April 11 governorship election and the condemnation that followed the threat have once again brought to the fore the vexed issue of traditional rulers getting involved in partisan politics.
The highly revered monarch was quoted as saying that he single-handedly picked the APC flag bearer instead of his main challenger, Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who, incidentally, is his blood relation. And that he would not tolerate any opposition to his choice for the cosmopolitan state. He was said to have summoned prominent Igbo leaders to his palace where he gave the warning. Even though the first class traditional ruler was caught on tape issuing the threat which has also gone viral in the social media, he has denied the allegation.
His Majesty must have been rattled by the performance of the opposition party in the state, the PDP, which gave the APC a run for its money in the March 28 presidential election. Lagos state, no doubt, is the stronghold of the APC in the South-west, the party that will form the government at the centre come May 29, 2015. Oba Akiolu could not imagine his domain being in opposition should the PDP capture the state in the Saturday’s polls.
We do not know how the monarch arrived at the conclusion that it was the Igbo electorate that swung the massive votes in favour of the opposition party. As a cosmopolitan state and the nation’s former capital, Lagos is home to all Nigerians who are entitled to hold political beliefs different from that of the Oba. Besides, Nigeria runs a democratic system and not a monarchy where Akiolu’s order is not to be questioned. So, he should not expect all indigenes of the state to cast their votes for his preferred candidate.
The Oba’s frantic denial has not doused the anger that arose from the alleged threat.
The opposition camp, concerned citizens and some religious bodies have criticized the monarch for the threat. As a retired assistant inspector-general of police, many expected him to be circumspect in his public utterances knowing the implications of the threat he allegedly issued. Lagos state is a highly volatile destination. Granted that virtually all revered institutions in the country have been dragged into partisan politics in the build-up to the 2015 polls, the Oba should have used persuasion rather than outright threat to woo the people of the state to the side of his anointed godson.
As stated earlier, there is no hard fact to prove that the Igbo voters worked against the interests of the APC in the presidential election. If anything, the Igbo should support the party in the state for the simple reason that the commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Benjamin Akabueze, is one of their own.
There is nowhere else in the current dispensation that a non-indigene occupies such a position. The state governor, Raji Fashola, is also on record to have come to the aid of an ailing Nollywood star of Igbo stock, Ngozi Nwosu, who was in need of medical attention outside the country not too long ago. This is the kind of spirit that the royal father should emulate. He should be seen as a father to all the residents of his domain regardless of where they come from, the religions they profess and the political air they breathe.
Having successfully put the presidential election behind us despite the bad blood that came with it, the next thing Nigerians are looking forward to is an icing on the cake. No one should set the stage for any conflagration that could end up consuming the fire starter himself. The leadership of the APC should distance itself from any situation that is capable of causing the breach of the peace. It has also become necessary to totally insulate traditional rulers from partisan politics. Many of them were heavily compromised before the last polls.