Did Lai Just Fluff His Lines And Live Up To The Godfather Hype

By Isiaq AbdulGafar

Hon Minister of Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed is a political warhorse and communication specialist with at least three decades of experience under his belt. But on a cloudy Saturday at Ilorin during the commissioning of the APC Loyal Secretariat, his words didn't reflect it. He spoke a lot but nothing. He opened his mouth but (right) words betrayed him.

After the salvo fired by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq last week, the event exactly 8 days after provided an opportunity for the minister to clear his name and (re) set the narratives favourably. For a party leader who was alleged of mismanaging the campaign funds and logistics, he needed more than the usual rhetoric of 'ingrate, selfish..and broke' story he and his group have been labouring heavily to sell for the past two years. I am not sure they know that is not working and is not going to sway the ordinary people. Yet for some strange reasons, they appear to be sticking to it even after being branded thieves and charlatans fraternising to unlock and deplete the state treasury for personal interests. 

I have seen all the videos and statements credited to the minister and his boys from the commissioning today. Nowhere did he deny, as established by AbdulRazaq, that he didn't source for and unilaterally disburse the campaign funds and logistics. He also didn't deny that he abandoned the candidate in the heat of O'to ge struggle for not dancing to his tunes. These were weighty allegations the commissioning afforded him to dispel and hit back at AbdulRazaq with evidence. 

Instead, Lai shaved a part of his head and left the other bushy. And this is what necessitated this article. He alluded to funding the 2019 elections and holds no one an explanation on how he sourced and spent the money. Neither AbdulRazaq nor the good people of Kwara State, because he did it all by himself. Bad, bad button! He must have sounded like what to you too?! 

Godfather! 

They brook no respect for decency and morality. They fight hard and petty for bragging rights. They invest in elections to reap humongous benefits. They place personal desire over the common good. Everything can go wrong, but not the godfather's food! Or you will see _craze_! 

Since Lai has officially claimed he 'financed' O'to ge 2019, it is finally sitting well with the narrative by AbdulRazaq that some cabals want him to share out state funds and contracts to compensate them. Or did Lai himself not call him an ingrate? Has he not said that he regretted supporting him? Something like a typical godfather cry: I made you. Feed me. If you don't do it, you are dead.

While such is not unheard of in politics, the consequences on state and society are striking. It strengthens classism, breeds social degradation, underdevelopment, and a people premised on faulty values of life and enterprise.  Archetypical of this society was the one started and lived by Kwara under the Sarakis for forty years. It is such an arrangement Lai himself supposedly stood against he is unwittingly accepted to be launching without minding his bald head getting thoroughly boiled. 

He spoke for at least 1hr with no talk about the development and welfare of Kwara people. Those didn't have a place in his mind. What then is this activism all about? 

So, he actually wants to be the new Kwara godfather? 

While AbdulRazaq didn't mention names in his allegations last week, the allusion to 'cabals' was strategic. Lai should have avoided the pitfall. His and the lieutenants' direct response to AbdulRazaq's claims shows he fell for the bait. He has clearly revealed himself to the people and it is only a matter of time before they marked him out as an enemy. 

He could also have earned himself the wrath of the CPC caucus in the APC. In a video gleefully shared by his friends, the minister while berating AbdulRazaq, said he was unknown and "only came from CPC to join us," scathingly. It was a clear attempt to downplay the CPC faction, one of the parties in the merger of APC in 2013, for wild reasons. Such a statement by a federal minister might be legitimising the rumours in the media that the Buhari-- Tinubu alliance has ended and both are in a rat race to seize the party. It could mean that Lai was putting down the president Muhammadu Buhari's camp and are indeed dividing the party in Kwara to further Tinubu's interests. He wouldn't want to do that but he has shot himself in the legs!  

The takeaways from the Saturday commissioning are simple. Lai couldn't deny he *_kolobied_* campaign funds and wanted to become the godfather. He merely came home to expose Ajuloopin, expose himself, and wear the godfather cap with swag. It only remains to know the number of weeks or months or years his old neck can dorn it before it is broken. 

Lai seems to have entered the ring with the Kwara people. Uneasy lies Baba's head.