The kite Sanwo-Olu couldn’t fly FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN

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Lest we forget. We can’t afford to. We can’t also risk glossing over it. It’s no frivolity, neither triviality. It is damned serious business. And it must be seen so and treated as such.
He had a delicate issue at hand. Perhaps, so it seemed to him. It was a case of equal probability. It could make or mar him, he reasoned to himself.
He was convinced he dared not leave it to chance. Hanging it on fate would also be incriminating and damaging.
He “wisely” opted for pre-emptive action. That was thoughtful of him. The Nigerian politician in him played out. But just as we were yet to comprehend it. He made an unsuspected U-turn. With that, he left us at the crossroads, groping.
That notwithstanding. We strongly believe there’s no smoke without fire. We resolve not to be left guessing, fretting. We detest being treated shabbily.
We ask aloud in dismay: How did Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu achieve that feat? How did he fly the kite and shoot it down at the same time with the same speed? He performed the stunt Tuesday last week.
Sanwo-Olu holds sway in Lagos State. He is its chief security officer. He gives a pretending impression that he’s in absolute control. So it appears to him and his army of eulogists.
The reason he was led astray. And perceived the future wrongly the other day. Also for the wrong reason. His was how not to see tomorrow. Certainly, he didn’t see what he thought he saw. It was a blurred vision.
For all intents and purposes, he was not tactical. He missed the point. And got himself messed up. Before he knew it, he had burnt his fingers badly. That was obvious and given. Even the clueless rebuttal gave that useful clue.
He alone knew why he flew that strange kite the way he flew it. He was not even clever by half. The kite lacked the needed vigour and vitality. And crashed before take-off.
That was how Sanwo-Olu sauntered rudely into our already disturbed space that Tuesday. We least expected it. We had more than enough in our mouths to chew. He literally insulted our intelligence. And we refuse to forget that in a hurry.
Stranger than fiction! The governor went to court to contest an arrest that was yet to manifest. That may not even happen. He called it a contemplated plan to arrest him in far away 2027. That is, after he would have completed his two terms of eight years in office.
The guided secret suit leaked five months after it was ill conceived. It was filed exactly on June 6, 2024, at the Federal High Court, Abuja. It came into the open on October 30. His prayers were as ridiculous as the suit itself. He was just being unruly, attention-seeking and mischievous.
Sanwo-Olu was desperate. He was scared of life after leaving office on May 29, 2027. He wanted to secure that future. Right, while still enjoying the bounties, largesse of office. How daring! Alas! He goofed. He erred.
To stall the impending calamity. He thought he had the absolute monopoly of wisdom. He dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to the courtroom. But he can only delay it.
He can’t prevent it from happening the way it must happen. Yet, his counsel, Darlington Ozurumbu, sought “seven questions and 11 reliefs” for his governor-client. Imagine!
Sanwo-Olu requested unusual protection under Sections 43 and 44(1) of the 1999 Constitution. He claimed he was “entitled to acquire, own, operate, and manage both movable and immovable property, including bank accounts, as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the constitution before, during and after leaving public office.”
He prayed fervently that he should not be arrested for owning these items of property. He does not want to be accountable. Now and/or in future: “Based on a reading of Sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the Constitution, any threat of investigation, arrest, or detention by the EFCC,” during his tenure “is unlawful.”
Sanwo-Olu is frightened by his shadow. His lawyer brought this to our notice: “The governor is asking the court to declare that the alleged harassment, threats of arrest and detention instigated by political adversaries through the EFCC, based on what he described as false and politically motivated allegations of corruption, constitute an abuse of executive power and public office.”
He is not done yet. He requested the court to “issue an order prohibiting the commission from seizing his properties, international passport, or travel documents, or from freezing the bank accounts of either himself or his family members.”
He offered another prayer. That the EFCC should be prevented from “inviting, arresting, or detaining him over matters relating to his tenure as governor.” No, Governor, you must be held answerable to your deeds. Perhaps, misdeeds!
Of course, Sanwo-Olu’s claims couldn’t have held water. He buckled under almost immediately. His prayers collapsed before his very eyes. Like a house of loose cards. We were extremely glad it came out that ugly way for him.
He got wind of his big blunder. It dawned on him that he had miscalculated. He was lucky to have read between the hideous lines. He hastily swallowed his stinking vomit. Voluntarily without prompting. His hurried denial shocked our airwaves. Almost unbelievable.
What could have made him to cave in so easily? The rebuttal was thrown at us in less than 24 hours after the suit. He was made to distance himself from the case. And he believed it had to be done as swiftly. As it was possible for him to do.
The refutation came from unexpected quarters. So, we were expectedly curious. The voice is strange. It ought not to be. It has to be properly catechized. What has the Lagos State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Lawal Pedro, SAN, got to do with this? We asked into the thin air.
He strived hard to invalidate the suit: “Our attention has been drawn to reports claiming that Sanwo-Olu sued the EFCC over an alleged plan to arrest him after his tenure. At no point did he engage any legal counsel for such a suit.” Do you believe him?
Pedro has some convincing explanations to make. Who are the “we” in this context? Sanwo-Olu hired a lawyer privately. And he sued alone and for himself, all alone. He didn’t drag anybody into his mess.
He was ready to carry his can of worms by himself. Again, all alone. He wouldn’t be responsible for what is not his. And he wouldn’t want anybody to get involved in his quandary uninvited.
Pedro and his ilk should stay away from this. What’s their stress? If Sanwo-Olu needed them. He would have factored them into his straits, ab initio. But he didn’t. Because he knew too well the plight was not theirs. The predicament was solely his.
The attorney general has no business in this private business. It’s strictly personal. It couldn’t have been a government affair.
It wasn’t the attorney general that sued for Sanwo-Olu. He hired a private attorney. What exactly does the attorney general want to make out of this?
He needs to urgently explain the shenanigans. It was nothing but a gambit. Yes, a gimmick. It was overzealous on his part.
Pedro unwisely used a sledgehammer to the ant. He blamed the media for his principal’s glaring misstep. And he was outright reckless in his claim.
A report quoted him concluding his rebuttal this manner: “By urging media organisations to exercise caution in their reporting.” This is a reckless rebuke. It’s least expected from that quarter.
It is nauseating. These politicians think everybody lies effortlessly as they do. They lie brazenly with relish. For them, lying is a veritable hobby. Our rulers cuddle lies with love and affection.
They have struck an unholy alliance with falsehood. They have successfully made it lucrative part of their ungodly profession. They should get this to their troubled skulls. The bitter truth has come to the open, naked.
What Pedro thought he neatly swept under their dirty carpet. It is now hunting, haunting and hurting them! EFCC rubbished him and his frivolous claims. Sanwo-Olu did send a lawyer to file that ridiculous suit against the anti-graft agency.
The commission was furious. And it displayed it. Last Monday, EFCC did to Sanwo-Olu what he did to it barely a week earlier. It took the governor to the cleaners and dusted him thoroughly. It tagged his suit appropriately: “Speculative and a mere conjecture.”
Ufuoma Ezire, Litigation Secretary, Legal and Prosecution Department, did the task for the EFCC. He insisted, the agency “did not intimidate, harass or threaten the plaintiff (Sanwo-Olu) or subject him to any trauma.”
He affirmed strongly: “The dispositions contained in the plaintiffs’ affidavit are not true, as the application is misconceived and brought in bad faith to mislead this honourable court.” That’s how we choose to close EFCC’s submission.
This is what happens when a leader becomes jittery. Unsure of himself, his present and future!
It was obvious. The governor was acting an obnoxious, weird script. That was the kite Sanwo-Olu could not fly. He couldn’t have!