By Bilesanmi Abayomi
The recent APC Lagos East Senatorial District meeting once again exposed an unsettling dimension of our political culture—harassment, intimidation, and bullying masquerading as party supremacy. These practices, regardless of who they target or who benefits from them, deserve unequivocal condemnation.
By every standard of national protocol and political decorum, the lawmaker representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, Hon. Kafilat Adetola Ogbara, ought to have been seated alongside the Senator representing Lagos East, Senator Adetokunbo Mikhail Abiru. Asking a sitting federal legislator to take a back seat was not merely discourteous; it was an embarrassing spectacle that diminished the sanctity of public office and reflected poorly on the party itself.
However, Hon. Ogbara’s experience should not be reduced to a simple tale of victimhood. Politics, much like life, has a long memory. Some of the discreet and overt actions attributed to her in the past—particularly towards perceived opponents—form part of the undercurrents that culminated in the humiliation she endured. One cannot plant yam and expect to harvest cocoyam.
Many APC stakeholders still recall the 2021 Ikosi–Isheri LCDA stakeholders’ meeting, chaired by Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, during preparations for the council chairmanship election. At that meeting, journalists who were duly invited by the organisers were reportedly walked out on—an action widely attributed to Hon. Ogbara. That public display of arrogance sent a troubling message about power, intolerance, and control within party ranks.
What transpired at the Lagos East meeting is therefore not an isolated occurrence. Public humiliation within APC circles did not begin with Hon. Ogbara, and she is not alone in experiencing it. Similar—and in some cases more severe—incidents were witnessed during the tenure of former House of Representatives member, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye. The pattern is familiar, recurring, and deeply corrosive.
If party custodians fail to confront these practices, many of whom appear to have tacitly endorsed them, then more disgraceful spectacles will inevitably follow in the months ahead. Politics may be strategic, but it is also governed by consequences. Call it karma, political retribution, or simple cause and effect: when humiliation becomes a tool, it ultimately consumes both the victim and the system that enables it.
For the APC in Lagos East, the message is unmistakable. Until harassment and internal bullying are addressed decisively, unity will remain a slogan, never a lived reality.