What happens To Fashola After May 29?

Governor Babatunde Fashola is perhaps the most long-suffering governor in Nigeria. When his predecessor and political godfather, Senator Bola Tinubu, was the governor of Lagos State, Tinubu had the free hand to choose his successor, running mate/deputy, commissioners, and aides.

 He frowned seriously on being patronised by the then President of the country, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. He returned fire for fire on all issues concerning Obasanjo, and most Nigerians had sympathies for him, especially given the overbearing nature of Obasanjo as well as the fact that from 2003 and 2007, Tinubu was the only governor of the Alliance for Democracy (which later morphed into Action Congress, then to Action Congress of Nigeria, and then to the current All Progressives Congress).

Tinubu had a running battle with his first and second deputy governors, Mrs. Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele and Otunba Femi Pedro, and succeeded in easing both of them out.

But as a governor, Fashola was not allowed to choose his successor and other aides like other governors in Nigeria. When he was rounding off his first term in 2011, which was generally commended as exemplary, there were rumours that Tinubu was not happy with him and was planning to drop him in spite of his popularity and performance in office. 

It took weeks of agitation and unease before information circulated that Tinubu and Fashola had resolved their differences with the result that Fashola would be allowed to run for a second term in office. Interestingly, in all that state of uncertainty and the cheapening of his office, Fashola never made any comment against his political godfather, Tinubu.