By Emeka Alex Duru
For some, when it rains, it pours. This may explain the present piteous state of the Lagos governor, Akinwunmi Ambode. Last Monday, January 28, the State House of Assembly, raised fears of impeachment moves against him on grounds of gross misconduct and unbudgeted expenditures. 28 out of the 34 members at the session, reportedly moved for his outright impeachment, while six, offered him a soft landing of voluntary resignation. The Speaker, however, intervened, granting him one week to come and present his own side of the case.
This, may, for now, remain the axiomatic hanging fruit for the governor. But those privy to the odds against him, insist that unless sympathetic elders of his All Progressives Congress (APC), intervene in the crisis, the governor may be forced out of Alausa Government House by the lawmakers, in a couple of weeks ahead. That will make a child’s play of the shock he received three months ago, when he was the only governor in his party that was denied a second term ticket. This is where Ambode has found himself.
Four year ago when he was literally thrown on the state, even before the 2015 governorship election, Ambode was packaged as the automatic successor to the then Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.
In a breezy manner that defied decency and courtesy to the voters, the Oba of Lagos, Alhaji Rilwanu Akiolu, who unfolded Ambode, had announced his candidature as the only option to the Lagos electorate. The Oba even went on to threaten Igbo residents in the state that voting another candidate might result in their being drowned in the Lagoons. Not even Fashola was given the chance of input on who would succeed him.
Thus, even when it was apparent that the PDP candidate, Jimi Agbaje had more people-oriented programmes and made better delivery at a televised governorship debate for the contestants, Ambode emerged victorious at the poll. Early in his administration, with flashes of agenda that seemed to free the state from the dictatorial antics of some officials of the previous administration, Ambode seemed focused on delivering a new Lagos. And he was hailed. Some even dubbed him, a “listening governor”, in sharp contrast to the perceived Fashola unyielding stance on issues.
Riding on the crest of the hegemonic political tendencies of Bola Tinubu, erstwhile governor of the state who brought him to office, the assumption was that all was well with Ambode. Even when concerned analysts took critical look at the porous content of the governor’s agenda and the poor delivery, many took it for granted that his second term ticket was assured.
This was particularly considering that the Tinubu political family which has been calling the shots in the state since the commencement of the current dispensation in 1999, has been known for giving the governors on its platform, second term ticket.
It was therefore assumed that the governor was going to fly the flag of the party in 2019. Ambode may have also reasoned so, perhaps.
It however took some unusual developments in the run-up to the governorship primaries of APC, for perceptive analysts to note that the governor was in a tight corner. What initially started as rumour in the social media on the disagreement between him and Tinubu, eventually turned real, when latter gave hints of supporting erstwhile Managing Director, Lagos State Property Development Company (LSPDC), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for the office.
In the mist of the confusion, Ambode was reportedly advised to withdraw from the contest, at least to save face, an option, he turned down, hence the direct primary – in which he was roundly beaten by Sanwo-Olu. The governor has carried on with the experience of that humiliation, ever since. Added to the threat of impeachment before him, Ambode is understandably in huge stress.
What may not be readily established is if the Lagos lawmaker moving against the governor, are doing so on basis of conviction or in furthering the battle against him by Tinubu. But whatever may be the reason for his travails, it is not certain if many will weep for Ambode. His critics for instance, accuse him of vindictiveness and pettiness. They allege, for instance, that on assumption of office, the governor purged the civil service by the retirement of 30 Permanent Secretaries, considered among the best in the service and replacing them with his cronies.
They add that while paying lip service to fiscal federalism advocacy at the Federal level, Ambode withdrew expenditure approval authority hitherto decentralised for ease of administration and became sole approving authority for pedestrian matters like staff training and workshop, road and traffic light maintenance, repair and maintenance of vehicles and payment of contractors.
Calls to the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Habib Aruna on the authenticity or otherwise of the charges against the governor, did not go through. Text messages forwarded to him, were also not attended to, at press time.
Aside the allegations on the governor by the state lawmakers, there is the impression in some parts of the state on his administration lowering the bar of leadership put in place by his predecessor. With hospitals, schools, roads, traffic infrastructure, waste disposal, and water supply in the state, at various levels of neglect and abandonment, it may be difficult for the governor to fall back to the people in his current hour of stress.
He also has a challenge of lacking a proactive image management team. This, more than other short fallings, has worked against him even in his relationship with the leadership of his party and other stakeholders in the state. In fact, the fear in his camp, is that banking on this obvious inadequacy on the part of the governor, his traducers in the legislature may go the full throttle in suffocating him, knowing that only a few will line up for him. “That makes his condition quite miserable. That accounts for why he may further go down the slope”, volunteered an APC chieftain at the party’s Acme Road office, who pleaded not to be mentioned.
If the legislature pushes the case against Ambode through, that will mark another dent on his already troubled political career. Aside having the trauma of not getting his party’s nod for a second term – an unenviable record earlier held by former Anambra governor, Chinweoke Mbadinuju – he will also be the first and perhaps, the only governor to be impeached in the current civilian dispensation, if he does not get the impeachment quashed in the courts.
In this instance, he would be in the same league with Second Republic governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa. In the case of Musa, coming from a minority Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), he had running battles with National Party of Nigeria (NPN) – dominated assembly, over his reform measures. For analysts, Musa went down fighting on principles he considered in the best interest of the Kaduna residents and indigenes. That may not be said of Akinwunmi Ambode, unfortunately.
