Arguably, one of the best performing governors in the last three years, the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode is faced with the ultimate battle of his political life. If he loses, he will be the only incumbent governor to have been denied the opportunity to do a second term among his peers. Across the country, all the incumbent first term governors picked up their party’s ticket for the second term without much trouble. But Ambode is being made to sweat it out to get his with the stakes highly packed against him today.
Ambode is challenging the long standing formidable political hegemony of his godfather, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos (1999-2007) who is against the governor’s re-election bid.
Since leaving office on May 29, 2007, Tinubu has remained a dominant factor in Lagos politics having built a structure that is not only invasive but permeating even to the grassroots. Together with men and women of like minds, bonded in a forceful political ‘machine’ known as the Mandate Group, the former governor has continued to enjoy the rare privilege of having the final word on who becomes the governor of Nigeria’s richest state.
It would also seem a mission impossible to emerge the speaker of the State House of Assembly without the endorsement of the man many like to call Asiwaju. Indeed, most political office holders in the state- senators, members of the federal House of Representatives, chairmen of local governments, including many commissioners in the Ambode-led administration are Tinubu’s loyalists.
It is not uncommon to hear politicians in the state referring to the former governor as ‘Our Leader’ and in many of their political gatherings especially where tough decisions are to be taken, singing the mandate anthem with hands on their chest: “On your mandate we shall stand; Bola on your mandate we shall stand.”
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Many times, party faithful have had to submit to the mandate’s position where arguments arose. In 2007, as Tinubu began to wrap up his eight-year administration, names of several of his political godsons and appointees had come up as possible successor.
The leader had settled for a less known Babatunde Fashola, his Chief of Staff, in what almost tore the then Action Congress (AC) family to shreds, leading to the defection of about 11 strong members, including deputy governor, Femi Pedro, who felt they were better candidates to succeed Tinubu. What followed afterward was realignment, with majority of the members standing with Tinubu to endorse Fashola as the party’s flag bearer. Fashola went ahead to defeat others- including Pedro who contested on the platform of the Labour Party.
In 2015, as it is characteristic of politicians, names had flown across the Lagos APC as Fashola’s successor. Prominent among them; Adeyemi Ikuforiji, then speaker of the State of Assembly; Femi Hamzat, commissioner for works and infrastructure; Supo Shasore, commissioner for justice and attorney-general and Akinwunmi Ambode, a retired permanent secretary and accountant-general of Lagos. Tinubu and the Mandate Group, against the choices of the sitting governor, Fashola, had settled for Ambode, who won in the party primaries and went ahead to defeat his opponents from other political parties in the 2015 general elections, including Jimi Agbaje, of People Democratic Party (PDP).
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Tinubu, the Mandate Group and political forces within APC, have settled for Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a former commissioner in the state, and until recently, managing director of Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) to take over from Ambode.
Barring any last minute changes, the party primary election holds today across the 245 wards and 20 local government areas of Lagos. The primary meant to select the party’s candidate for the 2019 governorship election, has been shifted five times: From Tuesday, September 25, to Saturday, September 29, to Sunday September 30, to Monday, October 1, and today, October 2, 2018.
For party members and the aspirants, it has been intriguing and challenging. For the governor’s support groups, which have held several rallies and pro-Ambode processions since the crisis began, “it is unfair to deny a sitting governor who have done quite well in his first term, the opportunity for a second term.”
Akeem Sulaiman, the director general of the Ambode Campaign Organistion (ACO), points to the Jubilee Bridges at Ajah and Abule-Egba, ongoing construction of world class Oshodi Transport Interchange, Lagos International Airport Road, reconstruction of the Onikan Stadium, construction and rehabilitation of several networks of roads, construction of road laybys to aid better flow of traffic, injection of more buses into the public transportation system. It is to be seen whether the voters in the primary would be persuaded by these achievements
While many of the alleged wrong doings and missteps of Ambode, which have earned him the disapproval of the leadership of the Lagos APC, including alleged ‘non servicing’ of the party have remained in the rumour mills, the statement on Sunday by Bola Tinubu, accusing the governor of deviating from state’s development blue print, is seen as the official grouse of the party against him.
According to Tinubu; “To ignore this blueprint for progress in order to replace it with ad-hoc schemes of a materially inferior quality contravenes the spirit of progressive governance and of our party. Such narrow perspective does not bring us closer to our appointed destination; it takes us farther from that destiny. For reasons unknown to me and most Lagosians, we have experienced such deviations from enlightened governance recently.”
This trend is that which most concerns me as the party primary nears. We must arrest this trend before irreparable harm is committed against the people and their future. For the record, let it be known that I shall vote in this primary because I see it as one of extreme import to our state and our party. Just as I shall vote, I equally urge all party members to do so.”
I thank and commend all APC members and all Lagosians who have lent their support to this historic and humane mission upon which our party has embarked.
We are democrats in the truest sense of the word. As such, we forever search for what is good and right for the people. With this ideal as our guide, the primary cannot be shaded by selfish ambition or the perceived personal grievance between this or that person. Something much greater waits in the balance. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the people of this state and how we can best maximise our collective destiny.
By resort to direct primaries, the party places the people’s future soundly in their hands. As democracy would have it, you shall be the authors of the party’s nomination and hopefully our next state government.
My goal is and shall always be a better Lagos. To this objective, I have dedicated the greater part of my public life. Roughly 20 years ago, a corps of dedicated and patriotic Lagosians, put aside personal interests and rivalries, to put their minds and best ideas together for the good of the state. Out of this collaborative effort, was born a master plan for economic development that would improve the daily lives of our people.
Bestowed on me was the honour of a lifetime when I was elected to be your governor in 1999. My administration faithfully implemented that plan. The government of my immediate successor, Tunde Fashola, also honoured this enlightened plan.
Where state government remained true to that blueprint, positive things happened. During my tenure and Governor Fashola’s, Lagos state recorded improvements in all aspects of our collective existence, from public health to public sanitation, from education to social services, from the administration of justice to the cleaning of storm and sewage drains. Businesses, large and small, invested, hired millions of workers and thrived.”
With these words and his ever loyal Mandate Group within the state APC, Tinubu seems to have foreclosed Ambode’s chances of picking the party’s ticket today.
But the incumbent governor is proving he is not a push over. At world press conference he addressed on Sunday, he said: “Without being immodest, after three and half years of remarkable performance in bringing growth and development to our dear state, I have humbly expressed my intention to seek re-election in order to consolidate on the giant strides that we have recorded for our dear state and our great party, APC. This is why I once again seek the support of every party member in tomorrow’s primary election. We shall overcome,” Ambode while also calling on the national APC and the Federal Government to take more than passing interest in the primary. But will the governor and his supporters truly overcome? Today will tell.
JOSHUA BASSEY
