Something quite unfortunate, however, with a strong message played out in the senate, last week, when Senator Smart Adeyemi, Kogi West, stood up to address the floor on the state of the nation with particular reference to the escalating insecurity in different parts of Nigeria.
It was, therefore, to the shock of the nation that his colleague from Lagos Central, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a former first lady of Lagos, scolded him by describing the Kogi legislator as a “wolf in sheep’s skin”. She didn’t stop there. She further queried if the Kogi senator had also joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Was she implying that only PDP members are affected by insecurity? What exactly did she mean to say? Does in insecurity discriminate between PDP and APC members? Unfortunately, these are the kind of people our country is saddled with in leadership positions. On merit she would never have made it to the senate. But there she is representing Lagos Central all because of her husband who has held Lagos state by the jugular in the last 21 years.
For Mrs. Tinubu, anything that would scuttle or undermine the alleged presidential aspiration of her husband, in which she stands to benefit as the nation’s first lady is unworthy of attention – whether or not she and her husband have to step on the blood of innocent – lives spilled through insurgency or banditry to the Villa.
Interestingly, Mrs. Tinubu’s barefaced outburst speaks not only to her, but a larger chunk of the elite, political and ruling classes, who had since this downhill movement maintained an undignified silence for personal aggrandisement. Unfortunately, the menace is closer home than they can ever imagine and when the chips are finally down, everyone has a price to pay, either for their ignoble roles in all of this or their criminal silence.
