By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
All is well in Lagos. Fuel queues are shorter, public power supply is improving in places. Yet not all residents are sleeping easy.
All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwarts in Nigeria’s jewel state are splitting hairs over appointments in the boards of government agencies which they say Governor Akinwumi Ambode should have made months ago.
Especially aggrieved are those who provided funding and those involved in the leg walk to ensure the APC retained control of Lagos.
The norm in Nigeria is for political parties which control state or federal power to share board appointments to party loyalists as pay back for their contribution to election victory.
After much expectation that the appointments ought to have been completed by now, given the fact that Akinwunmi would clock one year in office on May 29, party members are becoming apprehensive.
Some are plotting to throw a spanner in the works of governance over whispers that some names on the list of potential appointees are being replaced with individuals who contributed little to the victory of the APC in the 2015 election other than being the lackeys of “the big players in the party’’.
Those who expressed their grievances to TheNiche said there is no reason why board appointments should be delayed till now if there is nothing up the sleeve of the government.
Plan B being sketched
It was learnt that some are already making plans to shock the party in case their names are dropped.
One of the tools they intend to use is to expose sleaze in the party leadership, cause disaffection among members, then quit the APC for a plan B for which negotiations are in top gear.
“There is no reason why board appointments should be delayed till now. It shows there is a hidden agenda our party wants to run with, and I can assure that the move will work against the party,’’ said one aggrieved member who did not want his name in print.
Tampering with the list
Impeccable sources told TheNiche that the list of board appointments has been compiled but that critical negotiations are still on for the final copy before the announcement.
“Ambode is a nice man, I hope he has not been changed by the allure of power. He has to watch it before he makes a false start that would drown him,” another APC member warned.
“We are aware that the list is already compiled but the sound bite we are getting is that the names are being tampered with, and many replaced with the names of some people that we know did nothing concrete to elevate our party or enhance its victory at the polls.
“We are watching. We have already had a meeting on the issue and we are through with plan B. Let the governor exercise caution or his action may spark a grave danger for our party.”
Lagos is not alone in the threat as APC members who anticipated federal appointments as ambassadors or board members seem to be disillusioned, too.
