Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari was in Lagos to commission the legacy projects of the outgoing Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration, namely, the Oshodi Transport Interchange, the expanded Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road, The Renovated Ayinke House at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, among other signature projects.

Expectedly, the fact that the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, was not present at the occasion, drew comments from many public commentators. When asked why he did not attend the ceremony, Fashola replied that although he had given the Governor his word that he would attend the event, he knew he was not going to deny the Governor his full measure of attention in the spotlight. He would not struggle to scrap of some shine from a day that fully belonged to the Governor. He did not want to be surplus to requirement. He would do like former US President George Bush when former President Barack Obama called to invite him to the press briefing he was going to give to announce that Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man at the time, had finally been killed. President Bush declined the invitation. Fashola said he stayed away, like Bush stayed away.

Like Mordecai, the Jew, stayed away from imposing himself in the background, as godfather, of the unknown young lady, he had guided and whose path had led to the palace in Sushan in Ancient Persia, where she captured the attention of King Xerxes, and became his wife.

In honour-based cultures, acts such as these are common place, not a flash in the pan or something that warrants precious time and space.