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Abiru Family: The ‘Recurring Decimal’ In Lagos State Politics By Bayo Osiyemi
I have searched into the record books of Lagos politics but no family seems to have the record of the Abiru family in the whole of Lagos State.
Time was when the names of Dosunmu
and Shitta- Bey were dominant in the political firmament of the state.
In the Second Republic, Wahab Dosunmu became a federal minister of works under Shehu Shagari’s Federal Government while his elder brother, Lateef, was a top shot in the opposition Unity Party of Nigeria as well as chairman of Eko Hotels Ltd.
About the same time two Jabita brothers from the Shitta-Bey lineage became Senator (Sikiru Ayodeji) and member of the House of Representatives (Rasheed Adewale) in the Second Republic from the same party, the UPN. That was then.
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Today, the Abiru family of Ikorodu has upstaged them, fuelling speculation that they may be aiming for the record of the George Bush family in the United States of America.
Over there, George Herbert Walker Bush, the father emerged in the 70s as the 41st President of America; to be followed after a short interregnum by his son, George Walker Bush who moved from being the 46th Governor of the State of Texas to become the 43rd President of the USA after Bill Clinton.
In the Second Republic under Lateef Jakande’s governorship, aristocratic Mubasiru Akanbi Olatunji Abiru from Ikorodu, the father, led the way to emerge a Senator of the Federal Republic from Lagos East, after Adeyiga Ajayi from Agbowa on Epe Division.
Abiru Senior moved on to become a high court judge during which period he headed an armed robbery and firearms tribunal before he passed on to immortality.
Rotimi Abdullateef, the fifth in the family, who is currently in his 4th term as ranking member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, picked up the political gauntlet from where his father left, with Abeeb Adewale pursuing law like his father until he was called to the Bench years back from where he was promoted to a judge of the Court of Appeal.
The eldest of the Abirus, Akeem Gbolahan and the next in line, Kazeem Kayode also distinguished themselves in taxation and banking before retirement, trailed by the third in line, Mukail Adetokunbo Omoniyi who rose to the top in banking as the managing director of Polaris Bank from where he has just stepped down to pursue politics on a full-time basis.
Sharing the same initials of M.A.O as their father, Tokunbo, having emerged the candidate of the APC to contest the senatorial bye-election in Lagos East, looks good to succeed late Senator Bayo ‘Pepper’ Osinowo and assume the Red Chamber seat vacated by his late father in 1983.
His anticipated victory at the coming polls will make the Abiru family the undisputed recurring decimal in Lagos politics.
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