BISI THE SINGLE STONE: ALIMOSHO IN AN EXCITING TIME

Story by Razaq Adedeji Jimoh

Long after Hon Bisi Yusuf's elevation to the height of Alimosho's commanding hegemony as a direct fall out of Mudashiru Obasa's impeachment, not a few people have reached out to me for my perspective understanding of the unfolding event. But a few among them would seem to have understood what could be the undertow of my evaluation of the situation. At least, this should go with verity from the case of one 'Didi Bugatti's response to my open correspondent to Her Excellency, Adejoke Orelope Adefulire (OFR) over her need to change leadership style to a more accessible presence to enhance the value content. Going to war path with his impish but serious reply in style of unrefined bootlicker and with conspicuous mischief, the Bugatti aptly connected my manifest cause of truth to his warped imagination of a new ground alliance of plots to displace Joke Orelope's leadership with the immanent Bisi Yusuf's Will of God. "It is the outcome of their AUF meeting with their 'Apesh' Leader", he said. No discerning mind in Alimosho progressives would fail to see his handwriting of clear reference to the now new Sheriff in town as the camp I could have pitched my tent to imform that memo. Whether he was right or wrong is not intended as the subject of tbis discuss. But surely, the open letter was informed by what I saw coming, which Bugatti would not have seen even if he stood on the top of Kilimanjaro. Doers of politics are not imbued with visionary capacity to see beyond appearance and presence of power only at their nose. They never see it as it creeps up on them to consequently creep them out as the current experience of Mama's political demotion.Thank God that Bugatti has now seen that to which he was blind previously. That is by the way anyway, but it makes a good pointer to the rhyme of Alimosho now in an interesting time.

Sincerely, Alimosho Progressives is now in an exciting time of comeuppances. A time where a swing of David's sling is crumbling a behemoth of Goliath and a GAC would be weeping to the lashes of an otherwise underrated. If Pa Rabiu Oluwa, my exalted GAC authentic with value addition in worth of that status, were to look back in time to the day he came around to mend a fracture of political seniority dispute between the Alimosho GAC and her current tormentor, I should think 'Takbir' would be his note of amazement at God's means of power distribution at His will. Going forward on the same crest of exciting epic, it is a time when Asiwaju's innocence of blind trust serially abused has come to town on mission of rampaging vengeance to take its toll on the long but lingering perfidy of the trusted. All that needs to be aptly clarified at this point is that given the known mystiques of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at headhunting with unmistakable result of those found to be the bomb at their trades, his eventual choice of the Omu Aran born Lagos politician cannot be anything beyond divine intervention. To simply put it succinctly: Bisi Yusuf is the God's chosen one for the "Single-Line Leadership" this essayist has consistently advocated as the ultimate panacea to the lingering crisis of political disharmony in Alimosho.

Of course, it cannot be ignored that it caught everyone by surprise. But why should that be when it is a common knowledge that God's way is always a path of mystery. What I can only say about this case of His many wonders is that it remains the best thing to happen to Alimosho Progressives in the recent time. A direct evidence of this was how it saved Alimosho from the consequencs of the "Jankara Politics" that suddenly hallmarked the primary elections for the coming Local Government Elections in Alimosho.

If The Nation's Snooper maestro were to stray into the progressives' cave of Alimosho in his habitual "snooping around" at this time, he would be swift to marvel at a semblance of his "Power Production and Distribution" theory upon which his Akhane-Odion's book review was predicated a while past. What he could possibly see as my dissenting voice should be my insistence that this case of Bisi's flagellating whip is a concept of 'Power Reproduction' and Redistribution' with an undertow of myth of Karma flowing independent of human drive. To fault this is to challenge the veracity of Idowu Akinlotan's concept of "Tinubu Mystique" as a latent force of note in the politics of Nigeria. To some extent, there is a degree of Bisi's innocence in the perfidious stench suffocating the politicians' cave, which could have made him qualified as the perfect man to clean the Augean stable in the convention of Asiwaju's visionary savvy.

Using him to neutralize the 'ajangbala' leadership tussle between ASM and BATCO leaders is evidently first acknowledgeable in his admitable suspicion that neither of the two has a faecal-free anus in plaint of Asiwaju's experience of perfidious heists, at least to the extent of Tinubu's indignation for the Lagos Assembly's gang of heretics against the Lagos progressives' creed. The second is that it is very clear that Bisi Yusuf actually struggled to attain this power, and I do not think I have any cause to think the same can be sincerely said of any of the feuding duo. The latter is especially the thrust of this essay anyway.

In Maslow's Pyramid of human needs, 'Transcendence' is the oeak of it all and it comes after 'Self -actualisationan. Some ideologues tend to see the self-actualisation as the most feasible in attainment after 'Esteem'. Transcendence is truly a rare case to find in a life time. The contemporary Nigerian State is really blessed to have one in the current President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To the extent of his new status as now the weilder of power in the Alimosho progressives, Bisi Yusuf has reached the latter phase, most especially as deemed affirmatively with the confinement of a GAC crown to irrelevance. It was a long journey for him though, but rode on thrust of his attainment of Self-esteem by which he denounced the leadership of Aregbe for dragging his dignity before Enilolobo. He would later go ahead to reject the GAC authority of Joke Orelope in political seniority she could not earn. Saying this is laying bare the fact. It is not any script of hagiography.

With Maslow's guide, we may want to look at Bisi's path to power in the light of his struggle for it. When he chose to part ways with the Oranmiyan Dynasty, it must have been born out of disaffection from what he found as disconnecting with his need of self-actualisation. We may want to begin with his decline of the offer of redundancy in Executive Vice Chairman for the relevant Office of the SLG by the hegemonic body of his organic political origin -- Oranmiyan House -- in the last 2021 local government elections. History is a bridge connecting the past to the present and here we seem to have it valuable for inspirational lesson in Maslow's hierarchy of human needs in life.

With the Dynasty's prevarications about his request, he opted for open contest in the 2021 local government election, apparently carving out his own political niche out of his erstwhile camp of the Oranmiyan House. Thus his battle line to be drawn with the 'Oranmiyan Dynasty'. Please mark this noted difference in the use of 'Oranmiyan House' and 'Oranmiyan Dynasty'. This is applied by R. A. Jimoh in his coming book: "Once a girl-child". Moving on is to say that he lost the battle he personally called for. That he lost in the election even without the honour of victory for the councillor of his Ward in Ayobo/Ipaja would yet be nothing daunted for him and his new camp. His path to divine connection was to come when Asiwaju had cause to reprimand him against his rebellious conduct against the leadership of Speaker Mudashiru Obasa in the State House of Assembly. This was at the Bourdillon meeting Asiwaju convened for a personal and direct interactions with the Alimosho elders and leaders. Discerning minds have concluded on that rendezvous as the ultimate hours of Asiwaju's parting of ways with his otherwise political heartthrob -- the Oranmiyan Symbol -- about the year 2021. Well, my personal reading of it was rather an opportunity Asiwaju offered the latter to retrace his step. But Aregbe unfortunately frittered away. Anyway, this is off the track of this discourse but relevant enough to help us connect the dots of Bisi's path to power. As Steve Job would advise, it keeps man on the track of race to glory when he occasionally pauses to connect the dots of his history.

Back to connecting the dots of Bisi's path to grace, the 45:55% power sharing would yet come as a blow to dash the boat of his political niche against the rock. Undoubtedly, that should suffice for him to look on in forlorn hope of survival for his political camp. This writer once described his fate in that as conclusive on him becoming a "political free radical". To survive, he would to seek affinity with either of the two power holding camps -- the ASM or BATCO (Oranmiyan Dynasty) -- imperatively. But he yet had his attained esteem to guide him in his choice of affinity. How did he move?

READ THE CONCLUDING PART IN THE SPECIAL EDITION OF CIVICS WEEKLY PUBLICATION FOR THE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN OF THE YEAR, HON KUNLE SANYAOLU OLOWOOPEJO (CCY'24).