EXCLUSIVE: Former Lagos SSG, Tunji Bello’s Desperate Moves To Get Commissionership Position In Lagos

Mr. Tunji Bello started off as a lawyer and a journalist, but that would later give way to his involvement in governance as he got close to the godfather of South West politics, whose influence has also extended to the whole Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

As at today, Bola Tinubu is regarded as the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and he wields much influence in many states of the federation and at the national level

Bello found his way to the top echelon of the society based on his closeness to Asiwaju Tinubu as he was appointed to head a government agency before being promoted to the position of a commissioner.

He was part of those that set up Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation newspaper.

Tunji was later appointed as the Managing Director of Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, (LASSA), and he later served as Commissioner for Environment in the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration.

He was appointed Secretary to State Government by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in 2015, a position he held till the end of the adminstration. 

There are insinuations that Bello is desperate to be appointed Commissioner for the Environment in the government of the incumbent Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwoolu as he allegedly considered the ministry juicy and attractive.

“We don’t know why he’s so desperate to return to this particular ministry, what is it that he left unfinished in the ministry that he’s going back to take?

Sources stated that Bello’s greatest political goal is to become the Executive Governor of Lagos State.

He was reportedly pained that someone like Ambode was the choice of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the exalted position.

From inception of the Ambode administration we gathered that Tunji Bello bombarded Tinubu’s residence with alleged tales of “official recklessness and abuse of office” on the part of Governor Ambode, and that he once threatened to resign.

He reportedly told Tinubu that Ambode gave out contracts meant for his office to the commissioners.

Many people believed that Tunji Bello is overambitious and that his latest write up against former governor Akinwunmi Ambode barely 24 hours after the end of his tenure was done in bad taste.

Some observers raised concern over what they termed inordinate ambition of Tunji Bello, who has been a commissioner and Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and that is now lobbying to be appointed a commissioner.

They wondered why Bello would write against ex-governor Akinwunmi Ambode with whom he worked till Wednesday May 28, 2019 without any open rancour or disagreement.

Leaders of the APC were then urged to “give others a chance rather than allowing a Tunji Bello to continue to stay in the corridors of power when he had nothing to offer.”

There are insinuations that Mr. Tunji Bello performed below expectation as commissioner for the Environment unlike Dr. Muiz Banire, who they said turned the place around in his days in the ministry from 2007 to 2011 under former governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.

It was also alleged that “Tunji Bello performed poorly as SSG.”

In a statement he entitled ‘Time to say good bye to colleagues on this platform,’ Bello wrote:

“The exit bell has sounded and it is time to say good bye to colleagues. We must seriously thank our Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode for bringing all of us together in the last four years.

“We must praise him for the successful strides in bringing Lagos to the present level. All the accomplishments and success stories of this administration should go to him.

“We should be happy too because we are directly or indirectly part of that success stories being his lieutenants. We should be happy for the opportunity provided and experience gained. It is not what you can buy on the shelf even if you have all the money. We should also be happy and thankful to God for seeing us to the end.

“Yet as we depart on our individual sojourn, we must never forget to learn from our glaring weaknesses and failures. Since we are all part of the success stories we must also share in the weaknesses and failures.

“Our main drawback is our government’s inability to apply enough emotional intelligence in the administration of the state. Emotional intelligence includes interpersonal skills, interpersonal relationship, humility, respect for the well established mores of governance, disregard for the accomplishments of others. The belief that our way is the best without considering other options in a democratic setting, absence of wider consultations, distance from the governed, lack of effective communication skill or amateurish display of government acts and political immaturity, deliberate and open alienation of other.”

Tunji Bello reportedly supervised the media unit of the Babajide Olushola Sanwoolu Campaign Organization, (BOSCO).

He allegedly determined which project was awarded and which one did not.

It was further revealed that Tunji used his contacts from his days as Commissioner for Environment to sabotage Visionscape Sanitation Services, instigating these firms not to cooperate with Visionscape.

Bello was said to have allotted 28 waste evacuation detail contracts in Lagos; but he deployed only one truck, to cover these details, yet collects 28 truck payments from Lagos State Waste Management Agency LAWMA.

There are reports that Bello had serious altercations with Babatunde Raji Fashola who accused him pointedly to stop scheming, and that he was among the cabal that occasioned the media blackout of Fashola’s post tenure book launch.

A source however, said that a former colleague of Mr. Tunji Bello in his reaction to Bello’s “vituperations” urged the people to bear with him.

He reportedly stated in his reaction that Mr. Tunji Bello did not mean it the way people took it and that the social media should be blamed for the whole drama.

People however, disagreed with this, and they stated that “why did Tunji Bello write the message in the first instance if it was not meant for the public. Was it meant for Ambode, Tinubu or President Muhammadu Buhari,” adding that “posterity would judge the likes of Tunji Bello, who destroy others to build themselves.”