Nigeria is such a dysfunctional place. Brazen corruption, subterfuge, and political thuggery attain in all places even into the remotest villages and hinterlands. Lagos State because the industrial nerve centre of Nigeria tells a narrative of how badly the nation has normalised thuggery and the way violence has been promoted to develop into a legit software in fingers of the lads who administer the state.
The just-concluded Presidential and State elections in Lagos State have, as soon as once more, dropped at the fore the grim actuality of how Nigerian politicians have additional time performed upon the tripodal elements of the illiteracy of members of the Nationwide Union of Highway Transport Staff (NURTW), their naivety and the large uncensored every day money of their fingers, to trigger unmitigated political crises in lots of elements of the nation.
Earlier than the approaching of Bola Tinubu and the resultant introduction of his Lagos State model of politics, no sane particular person can have anticipated thuggery to be as profitable because it at the moment is within the state. Nonetheless, one Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo has been empowered by Tinubu and his goons to develop into essentially the most illustrious space boy/Agbero such that he has now develop into a stakeholder within the polity of a state with over 20 million inhabitants.
Many Lagosians have no idea that the ‘space boys’ phenomenon they see in all places at present began as baby’s play in the course of the navy regime in Nigeria. It was a cognomen ascribed to a gaggle of boys within the nooks and crannies of Lagos who weren’t gainfully employed however eke out a residing by levying unlawful prices vide threats on others. Many who have been round at the moment informed tales of how they present up at occasions, development websites, and so on. Quickly sufficient, these boys grew to become emboldened and it wasn’t lengthy till they began introducing numerous types of coercion.
Once more, earlier than the euphemisation of road urchins as space boys, there was additionally a sister notorious group generally known as ‘Agberos.’ This set confined itself to varied industrial parks within the western a part of the nation significantly Lagos and Oyo States. Their chief usefulness was to assist industrial drivers in canvassing for passengers at a price. From there, this group went on later emerge as enforcers and served as armed wings of the varied transport unions working at parks. The unions ultimately assimilated a few of them together with space boys.
The foregoing brief-cum-undated historic abstract and distinguishing of the aforementioned entities turns into vital if Nigerians wish to appraise how MC Oluomo got here to develop into so large in Lagos. He was mentioned to be a former space boy/Agbero invited to go one of many parks in Oshodi. He was infamous and good sufficient to ultimately emerge as essentially the most highly effective Agbero/space boy in the complete Oshodi.
Curiously, regardless of his a few years on the park, he has no recognized personally registered transportation outlet but emerged as Chairman, of the Nationwide Union of Highway Transport Staff in Lagos. Regardless of being a college dropout, he took benefit of his relationship with the powers that be within the state and achieved a cult standing which earned him superstar standing within the state. Along with his unfettered entry to untaxed earnings and a retinue of space boys/agberos, he has now develop into a go-to political asset throughout elections.
With none debates, it’s protected to imagine that MC Oluomo is now undoubtedly the richest illiterate in Lagos. Recently, he has gone worse as a result of he appears to have all of a sudden realise that he’s a descendant of one of many ruling homes in Oshodi and, due to this fact, he’s now aspiring to be a king in Oshodi. Little surprise why quite a few music verses and tracks have been devoted to him greater than any politician, athlete, philanthropist, famend scholar, industrialist, entrepreneur, or skilled so far as the historical past of Lagos State is anxious.
What many Nigerians have no idea is that the quantity of cash being managed by MC Oluomo every day by very large margins is greater than what any of the 776 constitutionally recognised native authorities areas in Nigeria earn every day. If audited, his every day take-home pay needs to be larger than the month-to-month wage of the highest-paid Vice Chancellor in any of the colleges in Nigeria. On the streets of Lagos, he’s as highly effective and fashionable as a sitting Governor, That’s the extent of notoriety he has developed.
One will recall that on the tenth of March, 2022, he was briefly suspended by the nationwide physique of the NURTW after allegedly committing sure infractions. Surprisingly, barely hours later, he held a press convention and directed the governor to arrange a park administration system to keep away from the breakdown of legislation and order in Lagos. Barely 4 weeks later, exactly on the seventh of April, 2022, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu heeded the clarion name by this thuggish being who has now a noble ambassador of Lagos, appointing him as the top of the Parks Administration Committee barely 24 hours after he was completely faraway from workplace by NURTW on the nationwide degree. That’s the degree of energy Mc Oluomo has and that’s the quantity of affect he wields.
On a number of events, MC Oluomo has been seen boasting severally that he’s the son of Governor Emeritus of Lagos, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and due to this fact untouchable. In a state the place a retired excessive court docket decide has to go to court docket for his retirement advantages, MC Oluomo exemplifies the collective conscience and worth system as a rustic that can depart any sane particular person depressed.
The NURTW which MC Oluomo controls and superintends has now grown to develop into a potent weapon utilized by the Generalissimo of Lagos politics and the self-styled Jagaban to maintain his hegemonic maintain on Lagos politics. Similar to Oluomo, the motor park touts who work with him are filthy wealthy, sending their households overseas to stay. MC Oluomo himself have his youngsters in the USA have been they at the moment feast on the toils and struggling of the inhabitants of Lagos State.
These political thugs have develop into so highly effective that they’ve entry to the innermost recess of the political class, and are factored into each political planning. Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu will almost certainly attend to them first earlier than attending to members of the Educational Union of Universities (ASUU). These thins are those who’re despatched to silence political opponents, trigger mayhem in locations the place legislation and order appear to be too subtle to penetrate, and represent the main weaponry deployed on election days.
As seen within the simply concluded elections, they’re those who snatch poll bins, scare electorates to their pants off the polling cubicles in locations the place opponents have main holds, and usually, they’re the brains behind the violence that undergirds Nigerian politics.
The type of politics that Tinubu and his goons launched to Lagos State ought to depart any sane thoughts anxious.
Tinubu and each of his handpicked governors which have ruled Lagos has persistently taken unfair benefit of Lagosians. They’ve used the vulnerability of Lagosians for his or her private profit and self-aggrandisement. As victims of exploitation, Lagosians are worse off at present than at any time in historical past. Lagosians have develop into serfs used for the advantage of Tinubu – the feudal lord. Many Lagosians have now been left to their fates and left to lick their wounds.
Going ahead, the present Governor of the State, Sanwo-Olu should do effectively to ask himself what the variety of Lagos really means to him. Does he see the individuals as mere numbers to take advantage of for financial and political beneficial properties or as a composition of residing respiration people whose dignity have to be assured? Hopefully, it isn’t too late for him to rise above the murky ethos inaugurated by the political bandits and the MC Oluomos who made him what he’s at present.
For MC Olumo and his goons, the times of reckoning are coming. A day when individuals will stand on their ft and shout; ‘Sufficient is sufficient!’. A day when individuals will take their educated wild animals to their polling models to defend themselves and dare the implications. A day when individuals will take their destinies into their very own fingers, Absolutely, that day is coming.
