Finally, it is the end of the road for Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. His bid to return to office in 2019 as the Governor of Lagos State, considered to be the commercial centre of Nigeria, has been scuttled. The lid was placed on his fate on Wednesday when the election panel set up by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, APC, made a U-turn and declared Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the party’s governorship candidate.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Clement Ebri, who chairs the NWC panel, sang a different tune from the one it had earlier sung describing the Tuesday primary conducted by the Lagos State chapter of the APC as illegal.
In its new tune, Ebri said his panel agreed with the Mr. Tunji Balogun-led executive of the party in the state over the figures given: Sanwo-Olu polled 970,851 votes to defeat Ambode who polled 72,901 votes.
A couple of months back, no one, except, perhaps some insiders would have thought Ambode would suffer his present fate. To almost every ordinary person in Lagos, Ambode is the dynamic governor who has changed the face of Lagos for the better. Many believe that his performance dwarfed that of his predecessor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola. They, therefore, believe that his second term was a given.
His godfather, on whose back he rode to State House, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, appeared to be pleased with his actions and inactions. At different times, Tinubu, who is the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had openly lauded Ambode, declaring that he had been doing a good job.
There were actually many things to point to as the good work of Ambode which would make his return a done deal.
But suddenly, a couple of weeks back, events started to take a new dimension. Unlike the expected situation where it would be a united house, all backing Ambode as the sole candidate, surprises began to spring up.
The door for the purchase of the form for the governorship ticket of the party soon open and former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, showed interest. It would be recalled that Hamzat slugged it out with Ambode in 2014 for the governorship ticket of the party. He was, however, floored. He was being suspected to be the game changer this time around.
Almost the same time, Babajide Sanwo-Olu declared his interest to contest for the governorship position of the state as he obtained the nomination form to that effect.
With his emergence, story of his being the anointed candidate of the national leader of the APC, Tinubu, went viral. Sanwo-Olu was the Managing Director of Lagos State Property Development Council (LSDPC).
Sanwo-Olu has been in government for many years and on different occasions served as Special Adviser to former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mr. Femi Pedro, as well as Tinubu. He also worked under Fashola, SAN as the Commissioner for Establishment. That was in 2007.
More than ever, the truth about the uncertainty of the fate of Ambode became pronounced. Different stories of the many sins of Ambode became open secrets. Definitely, there were forces against his ouster. He had become estranged with Tinubu and hence, so to speak, offended the gods.
Frightened like never, he was said to have appealed to Tinubu to have a rethink and allow him the grace to run for another term, but that was to no avail. He was also said to have called on President Muhammad Buhari to intervene, and it was obvious that did not work.
By the day, the otherwise unknown Sanwo-Olu gradually started gaining prominence. In no time, he became a household name, and everybody saw him as the pain in the neck of Ambode. He became the toast of APC.
With the initial tacit approval of his candidacy by Tinubu, the support Sanwo-Olu enjoyed has been overwhelming such that Ambode must have been amazed. All the relevant groups within and outside the party identified with him and it had since promised to be a sure victory over Ambode.
But what could have been the sins of the governor that made a second term a taboo for him? There were different reasons given. While some claim that he was being punished because he was behind the uncovering of the alleged tax evasion of Alpha Beta, a consultancy firm said to be owned by Tinubu, to the tune of N100 billion, others blame his travail on his alleged high-handedness and sheer distancing himself from party members. In fact, he was said to be self-centred.
Tinubu’s comment on the crisis gave vent to the claim in part. He described Ambode as not being a good party man in one instance, and in another, he said that he unnecessarily departed from the template laid down for the development of the state.
According to him, if urgent steps were not taken, the state and its people might suffer.
His words: “To ignore this blueprint for progress in order to replace it with ad-hoc schemes of a materially inferior quality contravenes the spirit of progressive governance and of our party. Such narrowness of perspective does not bring us closer to our appointed destination; it takes us farther from that destiny.
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“For reasons unknown to me and most Lagosians, we have experienced such deviations from enlightened governance recently…
“We must arrest this trend before irreparable harm is committed against the people and their future. For the record, let it be known that I shall vote in this primary because I see it as one of extreme import to our state and our party. Just as I shall vote, I equally urge all party members to do so.”
He did not stop at that. In obvious reference to Sanwo-Olu, Tinubu said: “I am encouraged by the emergence of a candidate in this primary who has served the state in senior positions in my administration, the Fashola administration and even in the current one. While possessing a wealth of experience and exposure, he is a young man endowed with superlative vision and commitment.”
There are some policies of the government under Ambode that have also worked against him. One of such is the issue of the payment of Land Use Charge for 2018 in which an increment of 400% was announced.
As the day of the primary election came nearer, some last minutes damning moves were made to scuttle his ambition. For instance, Hamzat who was in the race stepped down and urged his followers to support Sanwo-Olu. That certainly was a major setback for Ambode.
“After due consultation with my numerous supporters and in deference to the wise counsel of those I consider my political mentors, I resolved to step down from the governorship race.
“Apart from the fact that I can vouch for his personal integrity, great humility and extraordinary intelligence, Sanwo-Olu is someone I have had close interaction with in the past,” Hamzat said.
Similarly, some 36 legislators out of the 40 in the House of Assembly declared their support for Sanwo-Olu against Ambode.
The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, led the legislators in the campaign against Ambode.
Ambode did not go down without a fight. Infact, he fought dirty. At a press conference he addressed on Sunday, he labelled Sanwo-Olu mentally unstable and a criminal.
“This particular aspirant is someone who has been arrested for spending fake dollars in a nightclub in America, and he was detained for months.
“He doesn’t have the competence to do what he is being propelled to do. This is somebody that has gone for rehabilitation before. The records are there at the Gbagada General Hospital. We don’t want to go so far. Our leadership should have a rethink,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu has since denied the allegation and said that Ambode, upon deep reflection, would regret his action.
Ambode did not rest on his oars. He still prevailed on President Buhari to intervene, but Tinubu was unyielding.
The situation led to the constitution of a panel by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party. The panel was led by Chief Clement Ebri to oversee the primary which was postponed for many times.
Despite the delay and controversy, the primary held on Tuesday. A loser and a winner emerged. Ambode lost to Sanwo-Olu. While Sanwo-Olu polled 970,851 votes, Ambode polled 72,901 votes.
Although there was an initial rejection of the exercise by the Ebri-led panel, the result was later accepted and Sanwo-Olu emerged as the candidate of the APC in Lagos State.
In perhaps what must have shocked many in Lagos or those following the development in the state, Ambode addressed a press conference on Wednesday. Guess what? He accepted defeat and called on all to support Sanwo-Olu.
“Dear Lagosians, APC is a great party and the interests of our beloved State must always supercede that of any person or group. It is in this regard that I wholeheartedly congratulate the winner of the Lagos State APC Primaries, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and urge all Lagosians to immediately support our party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 elections and work for the success of our dear party,” he said.
Although many, following his allegation of crime and mental ill-health against Sanwo-Olu, had thought that he would harp on the claims after all else must have failed, with his acceptance of defeat, the controversy and fight may be over afterall.
Except some interested persons or group who have held that the allegations against Sanwo-Olu deserved to be probed decide to take up the case and do justice to it, it would not be out of place to say Ambode’s second term ambition is as dead as a dodo.
