…How He Allegedly Stepped on Big Toes
By Oguwike Nwachuku
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s bid to return to Lagos State Government House next year may be a pipe dream.
A key figure in the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos said Ambode’s ambition to retain power in 2019 will “indeed be a tall order”.
The source confided in TheNiche that “no doubt, Ambode will put up a great fight” but that “the web of opposition against his retaining the office of the richest state in Nigeria is huge.”
Unknown to Ambode, records of his failings have been carefully kept for over three years by those who played a vital role in his election in 2015 but no longer have access to him.
TheNiche learnt that Ambode, contrary to the expectation of those who helped him to power, is running a one-man show, with a few “new comers” to the Lagos Progressive family who have caged him and diverted his eyes from “the real stakeholders” in the state.
Ambode has allegedly so alienated those who helped him become Governor that he neither takes their calls nor replies their text messages.
Apart from council chairmen who had complained bitterly about the development, almost all Lagos federal and state lawmakers have reportedly expressed disappointment about how Ambode treats them. They got the ear of the lord of the manor – the strong man in Bourdillon.
It was the same complaint, TheNiche gathered, that caused the resignation of some Commissioners which the government was said to have made to look like they were asked to go.
Unknown to many Lagosians, before now, Commissioners during the governorship of Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola could award contracts in their ministries worth up to N3 million, it was further revealed.
Other heads of state agencies and departments also exercised some level of authority but all of that are said to gone to the winds with the coming of Ambode.
“Do you think it is normal for a Commissioner not to award contract of at least N1 million in Lagos? What a Governor will ignore the calls and SMS of key players who helped him to ascend power?” the source wondered.
“What a Governor will not seek advice from the people that are superior to him politically in Lagos just because he is calling the shots? Do you think it is by accident that virtually all the streets and roads in Lagos are impassable because Ambode is everything?”
It was learnt that Ambode has surrounded himself with political neophytes and aides who tell him what to do for their own selfish interest.
“You are a senior journalist in Nigeria who lives in Lagos, when last did you try to speak with the governor or any of those his now powerful aides and they took your call?”
Our source, who has the ear of Tinubu, said the APC national leader may not change the decision of the majority to drop Ambode.
He asked: “Do you think Tinubu’s own political future is not important to him? To us, the choice is Asiwaju’s to make, but I can assure you that it will be a costly gamble to give Ambode the ticket to re-contest the governorship of Lagos State.”
On the reported intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and the Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Akiolu II, the source said Tinubu will always consider the bigger picture in the interest of the larger community.
TheNiche contacted Ambode’s Chief Press Secretary, Habib Aruna, on several occasions but he did not take calls to his telephone line or respond to SMS messages.
News broke on Tuesday, September 11 that a three-time Lagos Commissioner and boss of Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSDPC), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had obtained the governorship nomination forms, in a bid to take over Ambode’s job.
Sanwo-Olu did about 24 hours after Ambode announced his intention to seek re-election.
There was a frenzy in the media immediately Sanwo-Olu announced his intention, with analysts insinuating that Tinubu has dumped Ambode he helped elect in 2015.
Sanwo-Olu has submitted his forms alongside Ambode and both men await their fate at the APC primary.
All the 57 local government area and community development area chairmen are said to be waiting to crown Sanwo-Olu at the primary.
They reportedly met earlier in the week to take a position on Ambode and to work as a group to install his replacement.
When Sanwo-Olu submitted his forms in Abuja on Wednesday at the APC national secretariat, he played up his credential as worthy to occupy the Governor’s Office.
His words: “Why am I in the race? I’m sure I am 53 years old but more importantly, in the last almost 30 years, I had spent 16 years in the private sector and 11 in the public service.
“Of course, I have been a three-time Commissioner. I have been a two-time special adviser, I have been director in the biggest corporations in the state. I have served over three Governors.
“So, I have wide range of experience and I have a dream to obviously contribute a lot more. As a Lagosian and a ‘son of the soil’, I will just be able to let our people get to where they know that governance is all about people.
“It is about what we expect, it is about what will go back to them, improve the course of life, course of security, and there are lot of other things we are going to be rolling out.
“But why especially is to give my number of years’ of experience, the pedigree from the private sector and from the public sector. I think it is appropriate for me now when people who are not-too-young are with us and put that aspiration in place.”
Tinubu has been instrumental to the election of his successors since he left office in 2007.
He insisted on Fashola succeeding him just as he masterminded the election of Ambode despite the fact that Fashola sponsored someone else.
The joke within Tinubu’s circle, TheNiche learnt, is that Ambode should have learnt from what befall Fashola’s candidate in 2015.