The founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has faulted Kaduna Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s comments on defeating godfatherism in Lagos.
El-Rufai had said that a political candidate could defeat a godfather in Lagos like in any other place by reaching the electorates directly.
The governor added that he applied the method in Kaduna and was able to “retire” many godfathers.
However, many associates of National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had accused el-Rufai of subtly insulting him.
But after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari penultimate week, el-Rufai told State House correspondents that he had no apologies for the comment, saying that anyone was free to interpret it as they saw fit.
Weighing in on the controversy generated by the comment, Akande, a known ally of Tinubu, told Saturday Sun that el-Rufai is a beneficiary of a system he now condemns.
He added that what had been “euphemistically negated as godfatherism” was mentorship, which he said was necessary for a greenhorn to succeed in any profession.
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Akande said, “It is not about defending Tinubu or responding to el-Rufai’s statement about defeating godfatherism, I am defending common sense. You just don’t wake up one day and say you want to become a politician; you would need people who are more experienced to mentor you. El-Rufai learnt from some mentors, if you want to grow, you must learn.”
He added, “You are free not to join any political party. You are free to contest as an independent candidate.
“It is fraudulent, however, for you to join and win elections on the platform of a political party and subsequently form another group to override your political parties’ injunctions.
“Your legacy, by so doing, will belong to those of the selfish leadership. Like most learners serve article-ship before qualifying as Accountants; and like most lawyers serve tutelage before being professionally competent, so must a university lecturer seek mentor-ships before rising to professorship.
“ In the same manner, the lower the hierarchy of a political party member, the more mentorships he required to rise from mere canvasser, to ward organizer, to party officer and to election candidature within his chosen political party.
“It is these political mentor-ships that are being presently euphemistically negated as “godfatherism” by the neo-money politicians struggling to use money to hijack influence from political parties whose ideology they do not care to respect.
“And that was why the Sixth National Assembly ignorantly promulgated the nonsensical theories of “internal democracy” into the Electoral Act of 2010 which now results in big-money politics to the present day Nigeria.”
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