By Ishaya Ibrahim
With the Labour Party clinching the majority votes in Lagos State during the February 25 presidential election, the prospect of upstaging the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state seems plausible.
APC strategists are already working overtime to stop any possible upset in their bastion.
Unlike in the past when threats would be issued against persons voting against the ruling party by Musliu Akinsanya, better known as MC Oluomo, he is now begging.
He recently made a Youtube broadcast appealing to Lagosians to vote for the ruling party’s governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Recall that in the 2019 election, the chairman of the PDP in the Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area, Sunday Olaiya, said MC Oluomo, armed with dangerous weapons, conducted the election in the area and wrote the results.
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The APC has also intensified its campaign on electronic and social media, including random phone calls to Lagosians, appealing to them to vote for the ruling party.
This heightened campaign of the APC followed its defeat in Lagos during the presidential election. The Labour Party polled more votes than the APC in the election and suddenly looks good to repeat the feat in the governorship election.
Until the presidential election, the frontrunners for the Lagos governorship poll were thought to be the PDP’s Abdulazeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor and the APC’s Babajide Sanwo-Olu. But after the presidential election, the momentum shifted to the 40-year-old Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party.
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, also known as GRV, is an MIT-trained Architect, an activist and one of the leaders of the EndSARS movement of October 2020. His fellow comrades in the EndSARS struggle, including Adebowale Adedayo popularly known as Debo Macaroni, Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz, Rinu Oduala, and many others are determined to see him through to the Government House in Alausa.
But Lagos strongman, now President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, would not want Lagos to slip out of his hand, especially as his presidential victory is still very much being disputed.
His supporters have launched a ferocious campaign against GRV, alleging that his loyalty is with the Igbo and not the Yoruba, simply because his father is Yoruba, his mother Igbo and his wife Igbo.
A tweet from @TBattalion echoes the sentiment: “My mom came back from her church Igbo women meeting, they told them to vote GRV because ‘Mma ya na nwunye ya wu onye igbo” Meaning his mother and wife are igbos. Yorubas make una dey play ooo. Keep forming ‘I am Yoruba and Obidient…’ .’ GRV will use Lagos for his internship.”
But a chieftain of the Labour Party, Babatunde Olalere Gbadomosi, countered: “Yoruba Diasporans wailing about Igbos in Lagos, & GRV’s Igbo mum can’t endure the same without screaming RACISM in their host country. You live comfortably in the diaspora whilst fanning the embers of hate in Lagos State. Are you not sick like this?”
The ethnic slant the Lagos governorship election has taken makes the outcome unpredictable.