Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
An Open Response to Tokunbo Wahab
Dear Mr. Tokunbo Wahab,
I read your response to a fellow Lagosian:
“The attention you seek, trust me, you will not get it. Quite simply, you are not worth the time or engagement.”
Ordinarily, I would have ignored it. But because those words came from the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources in Lagos State, they deserve scrutiny.
You see, sir, the problem is not whether you choose to engage a critic or not. The problem is the mindset revealed by your response.
As a public servant, you are not merely Tokunbo Wahab the individual. You are a representative of a government sustained by the taxes, sacrifices, and trust of millions of Lagosians. Therefore, when you tell a citizen that he is “not worth the time or engagement,” you inadvertently diminish the very people whose resources fund the office you occupy.
No Lagosian is beneath engagement.
No citizen is too insignificant to deserve respect.
No taxpayer is unworthy of acknowledgment from those entrusted with public authority.
You may disagree with criticism. You may reject accusations. You may even decide that a particular conversation is not worth your participation. Those are entirely your prerogatives. What should never happen is for a public official to communicate in a manner that suggests contempt for the citizens he serves.
That is not leadership.
That is not accountability.
And it is certainly not the democratic culture that Lagos should aspire to promote.
As Commissioner for Environment, you oversee matters that directly affect the daily lives of millions of people. Flooding, waste management, sanitation, drainage infrastructure, and environmental sustainability are not abstract policy discussions. They are realities experienced by ordinary Lagosians every single day.
When citizens raise concerns, ask difficult questions, or criticize government performance, they are not necessarily seeking attention. More often than not, they are seeking answers.
The danger of power is that it sometimes creates the illusion that criticism is an annoyance rather than a democratic necessity. Public office can become so consuming that those who occupy it begin to mistake authority for superiority.
That is precisely why Lord Acton’s warning has endured through generations:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Corruption is not always financial. Sometimes it manifests in attitude. Sometimes it reveals itself through arrogance, dismissiveness, and an apparent belief that public accountability is optional.
Mr. Wahab, the citizens of Lagos do not work for you.
You work for them.
Your office exists because the public exists.
Your authority derives from the people.
Your responsibility is owed to the people.
That is the social contract upon which every democratic government rests.
The measure of leadership is not how one responds to applause. It is how one responds to criticism. Respect is easiest when people agree with us. Character is revealed when they do not.
I therefore urge you, not as an adversary but as a concerned citizen, to reflect on the implications of your words. Public officials must be held to a higher standard because their conduct shapes public confidence in government institutions.
Long after titles have changed and offices have been vacated, what will remain is the record of how those entrusted with power treated the people they were privileged to serve.
Power corrupts.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Humility, accountability, and respect for citizens remain the only enduring antidotes.
✌️
@Riddwane@Riddwane Can you see that their is no form of ỌMỌLUABI left in you. If for nothing, @BOGbadams is old enough to be your uncle.
I expected you to speak to issues and not bring in personal family issues. You are supposed to be emotionally intelligent, but the revers is the case.
@shextian@tokunbo_wahab I cannot keep repeating myself.
Go and watch the 2019 Lagos State Governorship Debate on The Platform on YouTube.
I gave Sanwo-Olu everything he needed to know. I cannot force anyone to follow my advice.
Dear Àbúrò @tokunbo_wahab,
I have come to accept the bitter truth - that you have chosen to drag your heritage into the cesspit of APC criminality.
If you had any sense, you would understand that the position of Commissioner for Environment was just a small step up from Special Adviser for Drainage - ask Joe Igbokwe. Ọ̀we ni wọ́n fi pa fún ẹ, but you didn't get it.
Your clearly obvious lack of capacity to carry out your duties - unless you think your duties are simply to destroy, demolish, obstruct and dance naked in the market square of social media - would be enough to warrant the resignation of a decent man in normal climes.
However, I accept that Lagos State is definitely not the best of climes at the moment, and you have clearly thrown any last vestige of decency you had out the window of crass APC opportunism.
All we can do at this point is wallow in the muck that you and your fellow @OfficialAPCNg Death Cult members have transformed Lagos State into with your shameful incompetence.
While I have your attention, tell your owners the following:
1. Return the Assessment and Collection of Tenement Rates to the LGAs as mandated under the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, so that they can recover the financial capacity to carry out their duties, including 2 below.
2. Return Waste Management to the LGAs as mandated under the 4th Schedule of the Constitution. The ministry you currently superintend can concern itself with matters like air and water quality monitoring and other subsidiary matters.
There are other things I would like to suggest, but I have to respect your short attention span and keep it relatively simple enough for a man of your limited comprehension powers to digest easily.
Kind Regards,
B. O. Gbadamosi
Owning Up to Leadership Failures and Political Responsibility
This morning, I listened to the British Prime Minister’s speech announcing his planned resignation in July. As a keen observer of global politics, my primary interest lies in examining what successful nations do right and the structural factors that cause others to lag or struggle with governance and development.
The Prime Minister’s planned resignation comes amid mounting public frustration over a stagnant economy, a worsening cost-of-living crisis, and a perceived failure to honour key campaign pledges.
Looking inward in our dear country, we can recall our own situation. Before 2015, our President on several occasions championed the call for the then President Goodluck Jonathan to resign over economic hardship and insecurity affecting Nigerians. During the Chibok school kidnapping incident, he demanded the immediate resignation of President Jonathan, arguing that the government had failed in its most fundamental duty of protecting lives.
During the 2023 election campaign, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made several promises, including improved electricity supply. He also challenged the electorate not to vote for him for a second term if he failed to deliver on those commitments—particularly in providing stable power, fighting corruption, and improving the welfare of Nigerians.
At present, however, these conditions have worsened. Electricity supply remains unreliable, insecurity has intensified in many areas, including kidnappings, and economic hardship has deepened rather than eased. Similar concerns are reflected across other critical sectors such as security, infrastructure, transportation, and anti-corruption efforts, all of which have regressed. We are in the worst possible condition.
I, therefore, join Nigerians of goodwill in calling for the resignation of the President over monumental failure in governance. Such a gesture would help enthrone a political culture rooted in accountability and responsibility, rather than further entrenching impunity. It would also send a powerful message that public office is a sacred trust, not an entitlement, and help build a society in which future leaders understand that failure carries consequences. Only by ending the culture of impunity can we secure a better future for the society our children will inherit in a New Nigeria that is possible. -PO
@DrKalu_ Shey Na una carry una mumu hand vote Nwifuru. Una even carry una mumu head enter hot sun during him second Term campaign..una go suffer. I wonder why you guys can't open your eyes and see what Alex Otti is doing in Abia and demand same from your Nwifuru thief