Lagos PDP joins Joe Igbokwe to reject Seyi Tinubu, with state APC saying “Yoruba’s don’t serve a father in politics and serve his succeeding son”
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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“We Yorubas are highly politically educated and have grown beyond that. We do not serve a father as our master and also serve his son as our master.
“The daughter of Obafemi Awolowo sought to become Lagos Governor in the past but failed because of this our stand. Her failure to secure the nomination scattered the party. That was how Michael Otedola became Governor” – Lagos APC member
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Seyi Tinubu is pressing on with testing the waters in his ambition to govern Lagos, newly launching a video campaign highlighting his credentials for the job, in defiance of calls from state All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Joe Igbokwe and state Peoples Democratic Party – who insist he is not fit to rule Nigeria’s richest and most cosmopolitan state.
Seyi, 39, is the first son of Bola Tinubu who Lagos Governor between 1999 and 2007 and became Nigeria’s President in 2023. Tinubu’s wife, Remi, was also a Senator for 12 years representing Lagos Central (2011-2023).
When some friends of Seyi – under the aegis of the Coalition of Nigerian Youth Leaders (CNYL) – flew his kite in the media last week, Igbokwe shot back with the argument that he does not possess the capacity to rule Lagos and warned that he would rubbish his father’s name.
“Who are these faceless people pushing Seyi Tinubu for Lagos Governor? This is a needless distraction.
“To pull PBAT [President Bola Ahmed Tinubu] down is their target. Please allow PBAT to do his very engaging and tasking job. Ruling Lagos is not the job of boys?” Igbokwe wrote on Facebook.
Lagos “will not serve” Seyi, PDP warns
The state PDP has also expressed opposition to the potential candidacy of Seyi as a successor to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu when he runs out his second term in 2027.
Lagos PDP spokesperson Hakeem Amode dismissed the idea, insisting, “Lagos will not serve him [Seyi].”
“Governorship is not a gift,” Amode told The Punch, stressing that Lagosians have already shown their disapproval of the Tinubu political dynasty during the last presidential election by voting against him.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) carried Lagos in the presidential election in 2023 but thugs allegedly hired by the APC openly prevented non-Yorubas and non-APC members from voting in the governorship ballot, with the police looking on without lifting a finger.
Regardless, Amode insisted that many Lagosians rejecting Tinubu in the presidential election is a signal that they would not support his son’s governorship aspiration.
“Yorubas don’t serve a father and his succeeding son,” says APC member
A member of the Lagos APC who spoke anonymously to TheNiche at the weekend also insisted that Seyi cannot be picked to serve as Governor because there is a long queue for the post.
His words: “We Yorubas are highly politically educated and have grown beyond a son having to succeed his father. We do not serve a father as our master and also serve his son as our master.
“The daughter of Obafemi Awolowo sought to become Lagos Governor in the past but failed because of this our stand. Her failure to secure the nomination scattered the party. That was how Michael Otedola became Governor.
“You have to join the queue to become the Governor of Lagos. Those who will become the Governor in the next 10 years have already been chosen. Even the current Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, is not guaranteed to succeed Sanwo-Olu in 2027.
“If [Bola] Tinubu should try impose his son, it will scatter the Lagos APC and that will be the end of the APC in Lagos. You wait and see.”
It is however, public knowledge that when Tinubu was Governor, he replaced his Deputies – moved from Kofoworola Bucknor to Femi Pedro to Abiodun Ogunleye – at will. In the end, his picked his then-Chief of Staff, Babatunde Fashola, to succeed him.
Impact of money politics
What the APC source and others also ignore is the fact Tinubu has a huge bullion van with which he can achieve anything in the highly corrupt Nigerian system. If he decides to impose anyone, including a member of his family, in any post, it is as good as a done deal, particularly in an electoral system in which votes do not count.
Money politics can also play well among the Yorubas despite their opposition to a family political dynasty, the type witnessed in the Kwara of old where Olusola Saraki was succeeded by his son Bukola, and to some of extent, his daughter Gbemisola, before the Saraki dynasty finally collapsed.
Besides, it is not entirely true that Yorubas do not serve a father and also serve his son. They do so with traditional rulers.
That they do serve a traditional ruler and as well serve his son who succeeds him is a potent argument Tinubu can deploy against the opposition when the time comes.
An exceptional opposition in Ibadan in 2019
But it should caution the Tinubu camp that Ibadan indigenes rose up against him in 2019 when he supported a candidate then-Governor Abiola Ajimobi chose to succeed him. It was reported that Tinubu’s largess and pleadings even among APC members did not persuade them.
They stood their ground, blocked rigging in all forms, and ensured Seyin Makinde of the PDP emerged Oyo Governor, to spite Ajimobi who they alleged carried out a chieftaincy reform which downgraded the then-Olubadan, Adetunji Aje-Ogungunniso.
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