By Olusegun Olanrewaju
For Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the return journey to the Governor’s Office in Alausa in 2023 is becoming a route paved with some challenges.
Opposition is rising by the day, especially from the camp of his predecessor in office, Akinwunmi Ambode, whose second term in office was aborted in 2019.
The 57-year-old governor of Lagos is the eleventh helmsman in the state since the outset of the Second Republic in 1979.
And, at the junction of his second term re-election moves, he now has two main ‘other’ candidates to battle within his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s camp.
An associate of Ambode, a former commissioner for energy and mineral resources, Wole Oluwo is breathing fire, while another challenge from within is being spearheaded by another aspirant in a former state permanent secretary, Abdul-Ahmed Mustapha.
Oluwo, a die-hard apostle of former Lagos governor and Sanwo-Olu’s predecessor in office, has sworn to kick the incumbent governor in Lagos out of office in 2023.
Mustapha respects their common godfather and grandmaster of Lagos politics, APC National leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but he says he needs the job badly too.
Like Oluwo, Mustapha also served in the tenure of Ambode as the governor of Lagos. Ambode himself had initially revved up the gubernatorial contest when he postured to be angling for the number one political office in the state.
But subsequent events are suggesting that he might have decided to leave the challenge of dethroning Sanwo-Olu out of the office to his good foot soldiers, despite the reported endorsement of Sanwo-Olu by members of the state APC’s Governance Advisory Committee (GAC), who is roundly being put on the spot for allegedly making some dangerous moves of ‘imposing’ a candidate on the state, a development that had caused bad blood in the party in history.
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*The Oluwo challenge
The emergence of the two aspirants in the APC camp has thrown up what has been styled ‘new permutations’ in the state’s formidable ruling party, which, according to a source, may either make, mar, or ‘alter’ pressure on Sanwo-Olu.
Widely regarded as the face of Ambode’s camp, Oluwo is generally posted as the face of the Ambode camp, which is said to be in sworn rivalry with Sanwo-Olu’s second-term ambition.
Following Oluwo’s earlier declaration of interest to challenge Sanwo-Olu, Mustapha also spoke on his aspiration at a press conference in Lagos last week, where he affirmed his determination to change the narrative in Lagos.
He pledged to prioritise education, healthcare, and infrastructure; the core programmes of the progressive-inclined party, APC, in the Lagos State political firmament.
He said that if elected, Lagosians would see a state that ‘works’.
The aspirant also affirmed that Lagos deserves the best in leadership, which, according to him, the state is presently not having.
“Where Lagos State finds itself now is not different from where the city of New York found itself in the ‘70s. Where are the new ideas we have to table?
“For instance, we need to build new schools, we need to build new hospitals. We need to provide equipment for the new hospitals. We need to build new infrastructure. We want every citizen, irrespective of their background, to be able to become whoever you chose to be,” Mustapha said.
He added, “The government would put in a support system that allows you to be able to achieve the objective, irrespective of your background; whether you are an informal sector participant, whether you are a doctor, whether you are a lawyer, whether you are a student.”
In his own earlier declaration, Oluwo had taken a more defiant posture, saying, “We are the resistance”.
The kinsman and associate of Epe-born Ambode submitted his expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the governorship of Lagos last Thursday,
Oluwo shared photographs of him submitting the APC governorship forms at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.
In a subsequent tweet accompanying photos of him submitting the forms, he said his focus would be on ensuring an ‘all-inclusive Lagos’. “True resistance,” he said, “begins with people confronting pain and doing something to change it!”
*Antecedents
Oluwo had resigned as commissioner in 2018 and accused the leadership of the party of being anti-democratic, concerning the process that saw Sanwo-Olu become the party’s candidate for the 2019 general election.
Meanwhile, the former commissioner will now face off against Sanwo-Olu, who is seeking re-election on the APC platform and has secured the support of several party stakeholders.
In April, the state APC’s Governance Advisory Council (GAC), the highest decision-making body of the party in Lagos, endorsed Sanwo-Olu for the second term in office.
The APC national leader and presidential hopeful on the platform of the APC, Tinubu also endorsed the re-election bid of Sanwo-Olu.
In January, Ambode had asked Nigerian youths to register and get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), ahead of the 2023 polls. He was sending an obvious signal that he was attempting to run again for the office he ceremonially left in 2019, accused of ‘non-performance’.
“After all we have been through, God has been faithful. Thank you for the overwhelming endorsement of our modest contributions to the growth of Lagos,” Ambode had said.
He added, “It can only get better for Lagos, and indeed Nigeria. The youths are coming. The power is in their hands. Go and get your Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) ready.”
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*Defiant note
As an acolyte and foot soldier of Ambode of a sort, Oluwo has been firing, on all cylinders, darts against Sanwo-Olu, and invariably, Tinubu.
In fact, in an instant, he said, “I don’t need Tinubu’s anointing to defeat Sanwo-Olu”. In an interview with a leading national daily, he accused the incumbent state governor that Lagosians are not impressed with the governor’s performance, vowing to unseat the incumbent in the coming 2023 election.
Recalling his experience in the private sector, aside from being an ex-government appointee, Oluwo said he had been preparing himself to serve the state since 2006.
“And part of that preparation at that time was that I went to Epe local government to contest for the House of Representatives seat, but I did not contest.
“In 2007, I emerged as the deputy governorship candidate of the ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party) with Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi. So, by and large, I am not new to politics.
“I have been in the political arena since 2006 now. I have been around for more than 15 years.”
In 2007 Oluwo recalls that he contested for the post of deputy governorship candidate on the platform of ANPP, which, at the time, was the second-largest party in Nigeria, with now President Muhammadu Buhari as a candidate.
He was appointed as a commissioner in 2015 before joining the AC (Action Congress) after the 2007 election.
He was there when the party transformed into the ACN (Action Congress of Nigeria), before the merger, in 2014, with others, to form the APC. Oluwohe was a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, resigned from appointment as commissioner in December 2018, and left the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
“But I’m back to the APC now. I was away for three years and two months,” he says.
Expressing confidence in the leadership of Akinwunmi Ambode Campaign Organisation (AMCO) he professes the goal of ‘overthrowing’ the Sanwo-Olu administration in Lagos.
“I’m going to focus on five major things. I’m going to focus on improving the security of Lagos because we are a coastal state, and we don’t have enough security around the coastal areas.
“I am going to focus on the security of the state, and it will involve neighbourhood security, marine security, and hinterland security in areas like Epe, Ikorodu, Badagry, Ibeju-Lekki, and Ojo.
“We have to be very careful in these days of kidnapping and banditry. We cannot afford to neglect those areas because if any kidnapping will embarrass Lagos State this time around, it may likely come from those hinterlands.
“I am going to be very strong on hinterland security and I will also make sure that there is a complete overhaul of the security architecture in a way that our people can feel safe and secure.”
According to Oluwo, his second plank of the target is energy. “I am going to focus on the major areas of energy; one is electricity. I must increase the electricity supply in Lagos. Lagos must generate its electricity to power the state.
Petroleum Resources. “The second leg of that has to do with petroleum products and I will put the federal authorities under pressure to ensure that we don’t run out of petroleum products.
“I don’t want to see those queues that we have every time. The third one is renewables. We need to start introducing renewables to our energy means and the fourth one, of course, is gas. We have enough gas in Lagos that can power us for the next 200 years, but nobody is tapping this potential.
“The third point in infrastructure and the major one is transportation; goods and people must move at very fast speed. Anyone that is not focusing on transportation is not going to help Lagos. People spend hours in traffic commuting to and fro, but I am going to see that I reduce that tremendously.
“Also, the health sector and the social service will be focused on. The Smart City Project will also be a focus of my government. We will not be a serious government without focusing on the Smart City Project.
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“So, there is no way that you will say only this man (Sanwo-Olu) will be governor. No, people must compete. AMCO is not fighting anybody.
*Support base
Oluwo says, “I have the support of the people of Lagos. Governor Sanwo-Olu’s performance in the last three years is nothing to write home about. People want that change, and they need the liberty to articulate that change and have it delivered through the ballot box.
“It’s not about us, or AMCO, but about the people of Lagos State.”
Asked to rate the performance of his mentor, Ambode, with Sanwo-Olu, Oluwo said, “You can’t rate them; there is a clear difference between light and darkness. Let them (Sanwo-Olu’s government) come and show us what they have achieved.
“Government is a continuum, of course. I don’t have any problem with Sanwo-Olu but if the performance of Governor Sanwo-Olu had matched that of Governor Babatunde Fashola and Governor Ambode, there wouldn’t be a call from Lagosians for better representation; Sanwo-Olu would have been the sole candidate when he picked the form, but the people are saying, no; we cannot have Ambode who performed very well and you say he is not qualified for the second term and Sanwo-Olu, who has done nothing, and you say he is qualified for the second term? Who does that?”
On the issue of shared responsibility to the grandmaster of Lagos politics, Tinubu, the ex-commissioner-turned governorship aspirant has a shocker.
Asked whether he has gotten the Jagaban’s support to contest, he said, “No, I don’t, I don’t need it; I need the support of God and the people.
On his relationship with Tinubu, he admits, perhaps on a respectful note, “I have never been close to Asiwaju, but I respect him as a leader in the party and as a former governor of Lagos. But that won’t take away our right to political contest as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the constitution of the APC.
Concerning their relationships with Sanwo-Olu, he said, “He is a friend and there is nothing personal between us. He is running an administration and I belong to the former administration. That is why I tried throughout the three years not to talk about his administration to give the government a chance to prove itself.
“I am a Lagosian and I am a stakeholder. If he is doing well, it is a good thing and if he is not doing well, I should be able to say it. I am freeborn and nobody can stop me from speaking my mind. He (Sanwo-Olu) has not done well and some people are pushing him for another term despite that he has not done well?”
In short, a summary of Oluwo’s governorship ambition may be put thus: that the ANCO APC group is ready to dislodge the Governor’s Advisory Council from holding the APC Lagos’ levers of power.
He also took upon the GAC over the endorsements of Sanwo-Olu and his deputy: “I do not know whether GAC was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) because it looks like an NGO to me, and there is nothing wrong in having an NGO.
*Mustapha’s challenge
Unlike the all-out combative nature of Oluwo, however, Mustapha appears to be treading a middle course.
Despite Tinubu’s endorsement of Sanwo-Olu for a second term, as well as that of his GAC, Mustapha too has been screened by the relevant panel to contest for the APC gubernatorial ticket in Lagos.
Like Oluwo, the ex-permanent secretary too has unfolded his programmes in the race towards the Alausa government office.
He said though the GAC, which is the apex leadership organ of Lagos APC, had endorsed Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, for a second term, such an endorsement cannot prevent him from joining the race.
Mustapha said he will focus on the accelerated implementation of the Master Plan developed by Tinubu, “which has been followed by his successors”.
The gubernatorial aspirant, a permanent secretary in the defunct Akinwunmi Ambode administration, also promised to focus on transportation, housing, education, health care, power generation, and security in the “Centre of Excellence.”
Mustapha said he had been screened by the APC Screening Panel in Abuja, and that he had not informed Tinubu about his ambition to run.
However, he said Tinubu is a believer in superior argument and always receptive to ideas, adding that his new vision and policy distinction will further serve the camp of the leader in his bid to lead the state.
Mustapha stressed, ”No discussion with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. But, I am an Asiwaju disciple.”
A report sums up the situation better, “his entry into the race implies that Governor Sanwo-Olu’s, former commissioner, Wale Oluwo and Mustapha may square up at the primary.”
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Party faithful who reacted to Mustapha’s aspiration said they will not go against the position of GAC on Sanwo-Olu’s re-election bid in the spirit of party supremacy, discipline, fidelity, and cohesion.
Mustapha told reporters in Lagos that being a democrat, the APC National Leader eyeing the presidency had clarified that all elective officers were open for interested party members to contest.
He, however, refuted the allegation that he and Oluwo were being instigated by former Governor Ambode to contest, saying his allegiance is to the party.
Mustapha said:” I have a relationship with all party leaders; Asiwaju Tinubu, Fashola, and Ambode. I was appointed permanent secretary by Ambode. I worked under the current governor for two years before I left.
“My allegiance is to the party. The last thing I will do is to allow myself to be used to disrupt or destroy any good work.”
Noting that Lagos is working, the aspirant said the tempo should be sustained and improved upon.
He said, “We need more schools, hospitals, roads. We need ideas that will lead to incredible growth. The idea we are espousing in Lagos will not be different from what our leader will be doing at the centre.
“We need a Healthcare Fund that will attract mandatory contributions from organisations and the lottery. We will build bio-medical centres with tools and personnel. We will create Lagos School Construction Fund, Lagos School Construction Authority, to be funded through the Consolidated Fund.
“IPP started by Tinubu should be improved upon across the state. We will turn to the informal sector and build hubs for artisans. There will be mandatory employment allowance; 60 per cent of salary, to those who may lose their jobs.”
Mustapha, who said a Fourth Mainland Bridge is a possible project, added that “the funding model has to be worked out.”
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On transportation, he said simultaneous development of rail, water, and road transportation will ease intra-state traveling.
The aspirant also said local government should be assisted to increase its internally generated revenue and respond to the needs of local areas through speedy and effective service delivery.
Mustapha said he will promote transparency and accountability if voted into office.
He added: “I will render accounts every month.”
As it is, watchers believe it would be a fierce battle among the three gladiators wrestling for office from the same party.
