By Ishaya Ibrahim
Hours after announcing his governorship ambition for Lagos State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje has become a top trend on twitter.
Agbaje, was the PDP governorship candidate for the Lagos State governorship contest in 2015. He lost the election to Akinwunmi Ambode with a margin of 152,206 votes.
In the election, Ambode got 811,994 votes while Agbaje came second with 659,788 votes.
Analysts believe that Agbaje’s comeback for the Lagos governorship race after foreclosing the possibility three years ago, is hinged on the possibility that the Lagos All Progressives Congress (APC) may deny Ambode the ticket, making the contest a level one for both the APC and PDP candidates.
It is speculated that the Lagos kingmaker, Bola Tinubu has dumped Ambode and would replace him with Jide Sanwo-Olu.
At the time of writing this report, 3,115 persons were twitting about Jimi Agbaje, making him the second most talked about issues on Tweeter.
The number one trend was Senator Ademola Adeleke. He got 10,600 people tweeting about the Police summon on him for his alleged examination malpractice during the 2017 West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE). Adeleke is the governorship candidate of the PDP in the September 22 governorship election.
@UNCLE_AJALA said: Jimi Agbaje will sleep for over 3 years after losing election, you won’t hear from him, he won’t condemn the policies of opposition, when it’s few days to election, baba will be active.”
Another Tweeter @Rx_Deyholar argued: “Jimi Agbaje will beat Sanwoolu hands down in a debate against Sanwonolu but you people will carry your thumbs and vote for Sanwonolu. Slaves to Bourdilion”
Dr Dípò Awojide tweeting @OgbeniDipo said: “Jimi Agbaje went into hiding for 3 solid years. Today, he wakes up and wants to contest election in 5 months. Shouldn’t he have been criticising Ambode’s policies all this while? Shouldn’t he have been explaining in the last 3 years what he would do if elected to replace Ambode?” he queried.
@iamchinedunwosu said: “ Mr. Jimi Agbaje will just switch off, and then switch on when it is election time. Can we ask this man what has been his contribution in terms of providing a viable opposition against APC misrule in Lagos State since 2015?” he asked.
If Agbaje wants to warm his way into the heart of the people, he may have a lot of explaining to do on the reason he chose to remain quiet for the three and half years after he lost the last election.