Former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has endorsed the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo to take over power in 2023.
Babangida endorsed the Vice President when he was visited by the Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation at his Hilltop residence in Minna, Niger capital, on Thursday.
The elder statesman while speaking during the visit charged Osinbajo to be resilient and contest in the 2023 general elections.
He said, “I know the Vice-president very well. He is a good man. A man who has conviction about Nigeria; a man who can communicate with the country and inspire people. Such a man is a worthy person to work with. We need a good man to lead Nigeria.
“A man who has a passion for this country. Nigeria is a good country; the people of Nigeria are good. You must learn to understand people and constant discussion is key.
“I want to convey my best wishes to the Vice-president through you. And I want you to tell him to stay on the cause. I know it’s not easy but he has the conviction. I wish him the best.”
According to Babangida, he accepted to speak with the group because he knows the Vice President has the quality of a good leader.
The National Convener of the Organisation, Ojo Foluso, in his response to the statement of the former military president said they are happy with IBB’s endorsement.
He said, “We came to consult the Oracle and the Oracle has spoken. General IBB is an oracle because he understands Nigeria.”
He said they would continue to mount pressure on Osibanjo to pick interest in the 2023 race.
National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu on Tuesday said he will consult widely before making a decision on whether to run for the Presidency in 2023.
He made the remark after a closed-door meeting with leaders of the Northern Alliance Committee in Abuja.
“I am not going to turn them down,” he said of voices that have clamoured for his candidacy. “But I will still effectively and widely consult, particularly brainstorm with my friends and find a date to come out openly and tell Nigerians
“But the President is still in office. I don’t want to distract him from all the challenges he might face today. So, don’t muddle the political waters. Consult, make our program known to the people later. And the intention is clear. So you can keep guessing.”
Tuesday’s meeting is seen as part of his consultations towards his 2023 presidential ambitions.
Some South-West politicians, including Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have openly endorsed Tinubu for President.
Former Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, has revealed how the ruling party derived its change slogan.
In his autobiography titled ‘My Participations’, launched in Lagos on Thursday, Akande said the slogan was coined by US media and political consultants, AKPD, for the party in 2013.
Akande said that the consultants were hired by the national leader of APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to help ACP boost its new image and coin messages acceptable to Nigerians.
The former Osun governor claimed that the consultants were hired as part of strategies to remove the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from office in 2015.
He said, “As we were putting the APC together, Bola Tinubu was of the opinion that we must do everything strategically and legally possible to upend the ruling PDP. While other politicians think of their states and possibly geo-political zone, Tinubu has a more holistic view. As far as he is concerned, Nigeria is one constituency. He is always thinking ahead. He is a comprehensive political strategist who does not take anything for granted. It was his strategic mind that changed a routine journey to America into a trip of serious historic implications.
“Howard Jeter, a former Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria, must have become acquitted with Tinubu during his service in Nigeria between 2000 and 2003. Tinubu was governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, during the turbulent early days of Nigeria’s return to democracy when he had to confront the Federal Government of President Obasanjo on several constitutional issues. After Jeter retired from active diplomatic service, he and Tinubu remain friends and the two families became close. Therefore, it was normal for Tinubu to be invited to the wedding of Jeter’s daughter in Maryland slated for April 2013,
“Tinubu wanted me to come along to honour Jeter whom he described as a great friend of Africa. Howard Jeter also served as Ambassador to Botswana and later as Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs under President Bill Clinton. He said we would use the opportunity of our visit to do other things that would benefit our proposed party and our country. I have known Tinubu to be a wonderful strategic political thinker and I suspected he was thinking ahead. Indeed, he had other things on his plate beyond the wedding of Jeter’s daughter.
“To convince me, Akande wrote that Tinubu asked if he knew how it was possible for Barrack Obama, an African-American politician, to win the American Presidency twice in such a major white populated country like the USA.
“I had no idea. He convinced me that we should use the occasion of the wedding to interact with the gathering of African Americans to find out how. I conceded to him and we flew to America to honour the Jeters. We arrived in the USA on April 5, 2013 and checked into Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC. The wedding ceremonies were on April 6. We exploited the occasion to have extensive consultations with some of our Nigerian and American friends. Among those we met were Professor Segun Gbadegesin, a brilliant teacher of philosophy at the famous Howard University in Maryland, and Ladi Delano among others. We reviewed our mission in America with them in the hotel.
“Professor Gbadegesin was not comfortable with our merger talk with the CPC and other parties and he kept on expressing his anxiety about our obstinate desire to venture into a strange partnership. We argued that every discovery that constitutes civilisations were based on experimentations. Also, many white American friends of Tinubu visited us during our stay in Washington and other cities. In the end, we accepted that the services of media and political consultants would be required. Quite a few such experts were introduced to us. Tinubu eventually invited a group called AKPD to advise us in Nigeria on how to boost the merger efforts and about the messages the new party should forward for it to be acceptable to Nigerians.”
Akande added that Tinubu single-handedly paid the consultants and also hired them to help set up a popular television station, Television Continental.
He added: “I believe it must have cost him a fortune in dollars to hire them. I know it was not funded by the party then since I was the acting National Chairman. I regarded such funding as Tinubu’s affair in party building and I always told him so. It was immediately after the same USA tour that he also took me round and introduced to me the new television complex, the TVC, as part of his preparations for the ongoing political project. I was secretly musing to myself as to what Bola Tinubu would have done if he was the one vying for the Presidency on the platform of the new party.
“Tinubu again hired and reassigned the media consultants, AKPD, to extend their findings to the rest of Nigeria. In earnest, AKPD began creating a research-based quantitative nationwide survey, organizing message summits with party leadership and stakeholders at various levels, assembling qualitative focus groups with crafted questionnaires, data modulation, party branding and message delivery strategy to the APC 12million registered members and the voters generally from sets of created ‘communication war room.’ By January 2014, AKPD came out with preliminary result forecasts and advices for improvement. The major advices were that APC must keep talking about CHANGE and JOBS.
“They stressed that the largest reason voters would support APC at that time was that they wanted change and APC should continue to say ‘APC means change’ over and over again. When talking about what that change means, they advised that the most important thing to stress is that change means more jobs. All communications on specific policies like education, infrastructure, rural development, fighting corruption, insecurity and so on, should be tied back to how fixing that policy would help to create jobs and would bring Nigerians the change they needed. AKPD stressed that in their polling, voters were telling them that they wanted to hear more of ‘change for jobs’ and APC redoubled its efforts on this message. This is something APC had done effectively and its acceptability had increased tremendously.”
OFormer President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, against openly supporting political office seekers.
Obasanjo gave the advice at an event organised to honour Nteranya Sanginga, director-general of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and his wife, Charlotte, with the chieftaincy title of Aare and Yeye Aare Afurugbin-Ola over the weekend.
The event which held at the palace of the ooni in Ile Ife, Osun state, drew huge personalities and became an opportunity for political engagement towards the 2023 elections.
The Ooni is a known friend of president Muhammadu Buhari and gave his endorsement to the president in 2019.
He also identified with Vice President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, understandably as both share the same ethic affinity.
Obasanjo, whose presentation at the event touched on political issues, advised Ooni and other Yoruba traditional rulers to reduce their open declaration of support for those vying for political offices as that has the potential to also push their subjects into supporting such contestants.
He advised Ooni that as a father to all, politicians will approach the monarch for support, but the best he should do is to “pray for such a person and let him go”.
In his words, “All the sons and daughters of Yorubaland, no matter where they are or their standpoint, will come to meet you. This is expected because you are the father of all,” Obasanjo said.
“Anyone of them who says that he is interested in politics, just pray for him and let them go. Anyone who approaches you and says that he wants to be president or governor, just pray for such a person and let him go.”
According to him, differences in political idea, affiliation, direction and aspirations are reasons while traditional rulers should limit their open support so as not to be seen to be partisan.
It has become a usual practice where office seekers visit traditional rulers for their blessings and often seek their endorsements.
Obasanjo therefore advised: “Don’t direct Yoruba people to support any aspirant, as we don’t all go in the same direction, which is part of our strength in Yorubaland.”
Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande has revealed a political masterclass that happened in 2015.
In his autobiography titled “My Participations,” launched in Lagos on Thursday, Akande said the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, had to convince former President Olusegun Obasanjo before he supported the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
He said Tinubu had to tell Obasanjo to speak to Buhari about his views about the latter’s ambition, adding that some Northern elites opposed Buhari’s presidential ambition.
Akande said, “When the party was ready and we were going around to all the leaders, someone reminded us that we had not seen Obasanjo and (former Head of State, Ibrahim) Babangida, and asked them to join us.
“We also met Obasanjo and asked him to join us. He said he would not join us but that he had his sympathy for us. He said he had decided not to join any political party since he left the Peoples Democratic Party.
“Behind the scene, however, I understood he was pressurising some of our leaders not to use Buhari as our candidate. It got to a point when Bola Tinubu had to confront him thus: ‘It is not fair sending me to Buhari. Buhari was a soldier and he was one of your junior officers in the army. Why don’t you call Buhari and let him know how you feel about his intention to be President?’
“I don’t know whether Obasanjo stopped at it. From the start, he did not want Buhari to be President.”
Akande disclosed that a Northern leader also met with the former Governor of Osun state and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, to persuade him to prevail on the APC leaders to drop Buhari.
He, however, said the APC decided to present Buhari as its flagbearer given his charisma and the support he had receved in his previous attempts.
He said: “It was apparent from the start that Buhari would be our choice for president. That was one of the bases for the merger. However, there were pressures from the elites, especially from the North, including royal fathers, piling pressure on us not to allow Buhari be our presidential candidate.
“A prominent aristocratic leader from the North stayed several nights in Osogbo, persuading Governor Aregbesola to prevail on us not to field Buhari. He threatened that if we did, there would be trouble in the North.
“Buhari had been losing elections before because he had no structure to harness his support and transform it into votes.
“Now through the APC, we had created a formidable structure for him; bigger and better than that of any other party in Nigerian history.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has appreciated the former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande, for his contribution in unseating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
The Nigerian leader submitted that Akande was steadfast in his quest in ensuring that APC takes over power from the then ruling party, PDP in 2015.
He stated that Akande helped fuse together different parties that became APC in 2013 and dislodge PDP from governance.
Buhari made this known on Thursday in Lagos at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos during the public presentation of the autobiography of Akande titled, “My Participations.”
He asserted that Akande’s vision for APC and his leadership qualities made him the unanimous choice as the first Chairman of the ruling party, describing Akande as a reliable and trustworthy politician.
Buhari in a statement issued by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, said: “My first personal contact with Chief Akande was, if I recall correctly, in 2006 when preliminary consultations were coming to fruition for a grand coalition to unseat the PDP Government.
”Those efforts eventually came to nothing. Neither he, nor I, nor many of our friends and associates gave up as, in Chief Akande’s words: “the country was going down and down under PDP” (p.396 of My Participations).
”Chief Akande was in the thick of further attempts in 2011 and 2014 to fuse together different groups and dislodge PDP from governance.
”The key to his thinking which coincides with mine is that Nigeria can only be successfully managed by alliances between major groups.
”Although we failed in 2011, by persistence and knowledge that PDP was driving the country towards disaster, several major parties were able to finally coalesce into APC in 2014.
”Chief Akande was unanimously chosen as the first Chairman of this great coalition.
”Throughout the difficult negotiations, I found Akande truthful, steady and always with an eye to the ultimate goal.
”In or out of office, he has retained his inflexible integrity. On p.400 of his book, he wrote: ‘I never gave to or demanded bribe from anyone all my life.’ A perfect gentleman. A perfect public officer.”
A group of young Nigerians under the aegis of Yahaya Bello Network (YBN) on Tuesday appealed to Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to run in the 2023 Presidential race to enable the country achieve desired peace and robust economic development.
The group, composed of young people from the North-west and North-central zones of the country, besieged the state capital Lokoja in a town hall meeting.
The National Chairman of YBN and the convener of the town hall meeting, Abdulamart Mai Kwasherwa, from Kano State said the Network was out to ensure actualisation of “Not Too Young To Rule” Act and as well to appeal to Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the 2023 President race as the youngest contestant.
Mai Kwasherwa noted that the governor had proved his mettle as a capable leader in Kogi and also has the capacity to lead the country to the promised land.
“Many elders have led this country but we are yet to reach our destination in terms of development and this time around we want a young and dynamic leader in the person of Governor Yahaya Bello to contest the presidential election so that inject new knowledge and ideology into the governance of the country” he stated.
The convener of the meeting who said that God had blessed the people of Kogi State for giving them a leader in Governor Bello noted that the leadership style of the governor is very rare in the country.
“God has blessed this state with a pragmatic, detribalised leader and the youngest governor in Nigeria. I have never seen a leader that cares so much about the welfare of youths and women.
“He has the largest number of youths in his government far more than any other state Governor in this country and this is the type of a leader we want as president who will weave the six geopolitical zones together for the purpose of unity and prosperity” he said.
Kwasherwa also commended Governor Bello’s stance on the Covid-19 and efforts in securing the state.
“There was massive insecurity in the state before he took the mantle of leadership and today due to his tireless effort and commitment to security issues, Kogi is one of the safest states in the country.”
The Chief of Staff, Abdulkarim Jamiu Asuku, who represented the governor at the occasion lauded the effort of members of YBN for organising the town hall meeting in Lokoja , Kogi State.
He noted that going by fairness, equity and justice , the North-central zone since 1999 has never tasted the position of Vice President and President, stressing that 2023 ought to be for the zone without any eyebrow from other geopolitical zones.
The Chief of Staff however told the multitude of the youth that at appropriate time the people’s governor will make his intention known and he assured them that Governor Bello he knows will not disappoint the youth.
“His Excellency Governor Yahaya Bello feel your concern toward the leadership of this country, the governor will soon make his position known to Nigerians” he assured.
Also speaking, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello, Kogi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said history was being made in Nigerian political terrain with the youths now taking their destiny in the hands to support one of their own to move the country to the next level of development.
The APC Chairman said that Yahaya Bello presidency would ensure adequate reward for hard work, excellence and dedication adding that the country’s leadership over the years had lacked a good rewarding system.
Hon. Ahmed Mohammed, Deputy Speaker, Kogi State House of Assembly commended the convener of YBN for the evolution of the group cutting across states in Nigeria.
“Our priority as Kogites is to see Governor Yahaya Bello becoming the next President of Nigeria because of the quality leadership in him which he has demonstrated in Kogi State.
“With him at the helm of affairs of this country, the Nigerian dream will come true. Our body language, thinking and dream is Yahaya Bello and our dreams shall come true and become a reality.” he prayed .
Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Dr Folashade Arike Ayoade described the aspiration of Governor Yahaya Bello as timely in view of the prevailing challenges assailing the country.
However, the town hall meeting also featured the inauguration of the Kogi State executive council of the YBN.
In a move to save his presidential ambition, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is set to meet Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje over the crisis rocking the party in Kano State.
Tinubu had on Sunday met with Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, whose camp has been having a running battle with Ganduje over the control of the party structures in the state.
The former Lagos State governor singled out the leaders of the warring factions in Kano for reconciliation at a time when the just concluded congresses of the party had triggered a crisis in 13 states.
The meeting between Tinubu and Shekarau had raised dust in Kano, regarded as the votes’ bank of the ruling party.
The congresses had polarised APC in the state into two with the governor’s camp being chaired by Abdullahi Abbas while Shekarau’s faction has Ahmadu Haruna Danzago as chairman.
The crisis reached its crescendo last Tuesday when an FCT high court gave a judgement upholding the parallel congress held by the Shekarau-led faction and voided the Governor Ganduje faction.
The battle between the camps assumed a violent posture on Thursday when thugs torched the campaign office of Senator Jibrin I. Barau. A petition has since been written to the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, indicting top shots in the governor’s camp including its chairman.
The camp loyal to Governor Ganduje led by Abbas had denied sponsoring the attacks.
Why Tinubu wants Kano crisis resolved
A stalwart of the party told Daily Trust that Tinubu waded into the matter as part of plans to advance his yet to be declared presidential ambition. The former Lagos State governor has been romancing with Ganduje since after the 2019 general elections.
Tinubu had last month visited an elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, in Kano, where he sought for the northern leader’s support towards the actualisation of his presidential ambition. Previously, clerics in Kano State had endorsed Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
The source said internal wrangling rocking the party in Kano State would affect Tinubu’s ambition, hence his intervention.
“Tinubu’s interest in all of these is the number of votes that can come from Kano. A good politician cannot play with the number of votes from the state. Lagos and Kano are central to any politician’s presidential ambition. Combined votes from the two states are over two million and that is why Kano was determinant of the 2015 and 2019 elections,” the source who is close to Ganduje and Shekarau said, pleading not to be named.
Another source said power brokers in the APC including a section at the centre and some governors who are allegedly averse to the Tinubu’s presidential ambition, are fuelling the feud.
“You know some powerful personalities in Abuja have reservations on Tinubu’s presidential ambition, thus they see this as an opportunity to advance their course by decimating the camp of Ganduje,” the source said.
The upcoming meeting between Asiwaju and Ganduje
Contacted, the Kano State Commissioner of Information, Muhammad Garba, said Governor Ganduje was also invited by the national leader of the party for the peace parley.
In a phone interview, he said; “Tinubu invited the two groups, both Malam Shekarau and Kano State governor to the reconciliation meeting. Asiwaju decided to hear from Malam first and subsequently hear from the governor and if there is any reason for reconciliation, then they take it from there.
“If you look at it politically and historically, there is always a contest or struggle for power after a second term. It happens during Shekarau and Kwankwaso.
“But at the end of the day, whether they are reconciled or not, the election will be conducted and Allah decides whoever emerges as governor, senator and what have you.”
Also Monday, the Kano State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Lawan Musa, told Daily Trust that a notice of appeal has been filed against last week’s judgment that recognised the ward congress of Shekarau’s faction.
He added that they have also filed a motion for stay of execution and other motions, which he said they believe will tilt the tide in their favour.
Shekarau met Asiwaju without our consent – G-7 sources
Sources in the camp told our reporters that Shekarau went to the meeting without the blessing of other members of his camp.
Operating under the G-7, the Shekarau’s camp has Senator Barau (Kano North), Rep Shaaban Sharada, Nasiru Auduwa, Tijjani Abdulkadir Jobe, Haruna Isa Dederi, among others as key members.
One of the sources said the former governor was yet to brief them on the outcome of his meeting with the APC national leader.
“As far as we are concerned, the meeting was personal and not for our group because he went there without our permission and since he returned, nobody has been briefed.
“What I can tell you is that nobody can handover Kano to anyone come 2023. The state is bigger than anybody,” one of the sources said.
He emphasized that the crisis rocking the APC in Kano was “to solely free the party and open it up to all in the state. As it is now, many people are being side-lined. They are practicing politics of exclusivity and it is not good for our democracy”.
Another source said they would meet today. “There is the possibility of asking Shekarau to tell the world that he went to Lagos on his own,” he said.
A member of the Governor Ganduje faction, Engineer Ramat Ungogo, said the meeting was a sign that the governor’s side is winning in the ongoing crisis.
Ungogo, who is the Chairman of Ungogo LGA, said if Tinubu had invited Ganduje, it would have been interpreted as though “father and son are combining to deal with Shekarau”.
Tinubu’s media aide, Mr Tunde Rahman, pledged to call our correspondent when his comment was sought on why his boss was interested in Kano.
He was yet to call up till the time of going to press last night.
The national leadership of the APC yesterday insisted that the congresses attended by its delegation were authentic. The party also said it was yet to receive and study the recent High Court judgment recognising Shekarau’s faction as legitimate in the state.
Speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, said the party did not send parallel state congress committees to the state.
“We are responsible leaders of the party and we won’t like to comment on a judgment that we haven’t seen.
“All I can tell you now is that we are going to apply for a certified true copy of the judgment. We haven’t seen it. We need to study the judgement.
“We didn’t give letters to two committees! How could we have done that? We won’t put fire in our own house. We know the people we gave the official letter to go to Kano and conduct the official assignment. That is the team we will accord recognition to,” he said.
In a separate interview, Barrister Auwal Ibrahim, who led the team that conducted the congress which produced the displaced Abdullahi Abass as chairman, told newsmen that the congress attended by Governor Ganduje was the authentic congresses.
There was no comment from Shekarau’s camp as the number of his media aide, Dr Sule Ya’u Sule was not going through.
By Ismail Mudashir, Saawua Terzungwe (Abuja) & Clement A. Oloyede (Kano)
In less than 14 months to the 2023 general elections, contesting political parties within and outside the ruling APC are already devising their plot to either remain in power or unseat the ruling cabal, former Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode has been tipped as one of the key assets that will be used by a set of strong APC stakeholders in the bid to consolidate themselves in power beyond 2023.
Ambode who has been away from the media since his exit as the executive Governor of Lagos State, has been getting mentions and has been linked with the serving APC caretaker chairman and governor of Yobe, Mai Mallam Buni at the central in recent times.
The Epe-born accountant is the first democratically-elected single-term governor in the history of the state, losing his second term party nomination to the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, after falling out with Tinubu, who railroaded him into the position in the first place, in 2015.
By political calculations, especially in Lagos State, the privilege for re-election is not always based on good performance, otherwise, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode would be serving his second tenure now as the executive Governor.
A source within the APC hinted that though Ambode is still hugely popular in his native Epe, it is doubtful if he would want to sit down with the Tinubu political family again, for any form of “business” in the light of how he was treated in the build-up to 2019 poll.
Despite maintaining a low profile, Ambode is reportedly being worked into the equation as a way of compensating his governorship loss, and remaining silent in the face or persecution in Lagos. Ambode has become another emerging, quiet-spoken, demonstrably effective, and subtle political personality from the southern zone.
The fact that he has been off the radar made it easy for him to operate unnoticed. Sources confided Ambode has been going in and out of Abuja power house since the past 6 months without giving clue to the media. It is said that his close relationship with the current APC caretaker chairman, Governor Mai Mallam Buni is so cordial that they hardly spend a week without seeing each other.
Recall that the APC, had three parallel congresses with one of the factions led by Akinwunmi Ambode in the end Mala Buni, recognised Ambode’s faction and his list of executives which is part of a coup and ongoing efforts to weaken the influence of the National Leader of the party. Top sources revealed that Ambode’s faction was sponsored by Buni, who is the Chairman, Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee so as to weaken Asiwaju in his perceived stronghold.
And of course, one of the key members of this faction, the Lagos4Lagos convener Abdul Azzez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor is reported to be in close contact with Ambode. Ambode himself has not publicly said that he is running for any political post either at the state or federal level, but his footsoldiers are making deft moves behind the scene, in preparation for the right time for their principal to male a grand entry. Ambode has demonstrated that he is a personality and leader not swayed by extraneous emotionalism and parochial cant. This footing, many speculate, put him on a collision course with Tinubu. Let’s quickly juggle our memory as to what transpired that led to his fallout with the power that be in Lagos. Ambode who was reportedly to have gone out of line with Tinubu’s vision for Lagos, which is wrought in iron blasted in a furnace at his Bourdillon fortitude. As the lines are blurred between his plans for the future of Lagos and his personal interest that can bring, or that may be perceived to bring, direct or indirect benefits to him, Tinubu has reserved to himself the right to determine who is taking Lagos in the direction of the common good.
Ambode, it was also reported, refused to “bribe” Lagos legislators, and turned down the proposition to concession the Fourth Mainland Bridge to a construction company linked to Asiwaju. He divided the tax return that was solely consessioned to Alpha Beta, revoked the contract for the redevelopment of Falomo Shopping Centre and banned Vehicle Inspection Officers from Lagos roads. The straw that reportedly broke the camel’s back was ridding Lagos of the menace of ‘area boys’ operating as members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), and relieving Lagos State Waste Management, LAWMA off their duty, while launching Vison Scape to do the same job.
By consequence, Akinwunmi got a bitter taste of Politics in a skewed governorship primary, in which the odds were highly stacked against him. Hemmed in on all sides by turncoats and obstacles that his teaming army of supporters could not fight. He watched his own deputy governor brandished his ballot paper and cast her vote for his opponent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Eventually, in an emotion laden broadcast in October 2018, Ambode conceded defeat. Stated: “The interest of our beloved state must always supersede that of any person or group,” Mr Ambode said. Though he criticised the primaries, alleging violence, electoral malpractices; and that he and his supporters were disenfranchised, he has remained in the APC.
As he bid the state farewell on the eve of his exit as governor, Ambode looked back at his administration. “A few of our policies might have been unpopular but these were decisions taken with the best interest of our state in mind. With the benefit of hindsight, maybe we could have done some things differently but our intention was always clear, for the good of Lagos,” he retorted.
After all said, it will be a delicate decision that can make or mar Ambode’s political future. His prominence within the party in Lagos and his newfound romance with powers that be in Aso Rock is not in doubt, but just as stated earlier, Ambode is man that cannot be predicted.
A fresh crisis is brewing in the ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) over the ambition of former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari come 2023.
Tinubu who is yet to formally declare his interest in the presidential race has, however, been making consultations and visiting prominent Nigerians to seek their support.
Recall elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, who Tinubu recently visited in Abuja, disclosed that the APC national leader informed him of his presidential ambition and asked for his support.
Speaking exclusively with Daily Independent in Abuja, Senator Rufai Hanga, pioneer national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and APC chieftain, who recently dumped the ruling party, said there is a split among the APC governors on the issue of the presidential flagbearer of the party.
According to him, while some governors in the party have settled for one of them as presidential candidate with a serving minister in President Buhari’s administration as running mate, other governors are rooting for Tinubu, saying they should rally round him for all he has done for the party.
He said, “We have about three to four factions and it is next to impossibility to bring them together. There are governors in the party who have carved their own niche somewhere and are not ready to go with other governors.
“In fact, just three days ago, some governors sat and I heard it from very strong authority that they met and anointed one of them as presidential candidate. They have chosen his running mate from among one of the serving ministers. They are willing to go it all hog and are determined that there is no going back.
“There are other governors who are not willing to hear all that. These governors are all out for Asiwaju Tinubu. These ones are saying that it is unfortunate Asiwaju badly despite all he has done for the party. They are telling their colleague governors not to bite the finger that fed them. So, there is division among the APC governors right no won the issue of 2023”.
Hanga, who said the APC is technically non-existent, added that there is no way the party will survive an implosion especially with the crises in almost 13 states owing to the fall-out of the congresses.
“There is a neutral group that has come out and say they have sacked Buni and they have a new national chairman. So, under this kind of confusion, how do you expect this party to survive at this material time? We are in December now.
“In fact, APC to me is technically non-existent for now going by the Supreme Court judgment on Ondo governorship election. Yes, they have allowed Ondo to go away with the governorship but if you go by the judgment of all the seven judges, they all concurred that it was wrong for a governor to be the party chairman.
“If it is wrong and unconstitutional for him to be the governor and party chairman at the same time, it means what ever action he takes or must have taken is null and void. Anything done by him is illegal. The court will nullify anything he has done.
“To me, APC is a goner. That is why I have decided to call it quit. They keep on shifting their national convention from now till February. By June or July, you should have all gotten your candidates nominated but the APC wants to do national convention in February.
“In more than 13 states now, they have more than three leaderships all claiming to be in control of the party. How can they do a convention with parallel leaderships inmost of the states? From the time they had their congresses in the states till now, they should have resolved it but up till now, they are not able to do so. By February, they will still have some lingering problems”, he said.
The cracks among the APC governors was evident at the weekend when Governor KayodeI Fayemi of Ekiti and Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State both addressed Ahmadu Haruna Zago (Danzago), who belongs to Ibrahim Shekarau faction as Kano APC state chairman.
Two factions of the party in the state had conducted parallel congresses on October 18 but the party endorsed the one conducted by the loyalists of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State.
The Shekarau’s faction had elected Danzago as chairman while Ganduje’s camp elected Abdullahi Abbas.
The National Appeal Committee set up by the APC later recognised Abbas as the chairman of the party in the state.
Not satisfied with the decision of the party, the faction led by a former governor of the state, who is now a senator, Ibrahim Shekarau, headed to the court, asking for the nullification of the congresses at the ward, local government areas, and state levels conducted by the rival faction and uphold its own.
In his ruling, the judge, Hamza Muazu, granted there quests and upheld the congresses conducted by the Shekarau faction.
The judge also made an order restraining the Ganduje faction from appointing a new executive.
Credible sources said the recognition given to Danzago by Fayemi and Badaru was to spite Governor Ganduje, whose candidate was removed by the court.
