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Degrading the Office of Governor
By Anthony Opara
The recent events in the All Progressive Congress (APC) regarding the election of the next Governor of Lagos State has thrown up issues which can be seen as the continuing degradation of the office of the Governor in the country, Before now we saw an attempt by an individual to illegally remove a state Governor as we saw with the kidnapping of Governor Chris Ngige when he was Governor of Anambra State by an individual Chris Ubah who claimed he rigged him into office and when he didn’t play by the agreement sought to remove him and install his Deputy in his pace. The coup failed as the Governor reached out to Radio Nigeria which blew the whistle and saved the Governor from illegal removal. This same individual with the support of the seat of power in Abuja practically took over the state and became the defacto Governor. It was the court that saved further degradation of the office when Ngige was removed and Peter Obi was installed as the man that actually won the election and for eight years Obi restored the dignity to the office.
in Lagos, Governor Akinwunmi is being stopped from going for a second term in office by the Mandate group led by a former two term Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Rather than allow the Governor first choice in the ticket the elders of the party endorsed another person, a Commissioner in the administration Samwo-Olu thus throwing open the contest for the party’s ticket. in Lagos it is believed that whosoever picks the APC ticket will likely win the election as the party is in control of the state. The so called infractions of Governor Ambode are not in plain sight but heard in innuendos of his running a government devoid of the input of party elders. He has been accused of not carrying them along in the administration of the state and hence the elders decided that he should step aside.
what is galling in the whole affair is what can be seen as the degradation of the office of Governor of a state. A Governor is the number citizen of a state but in this case it appears that Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to be the defacto Governor while Ambode acts as a pupert, takes orders from Tinubus on all matters. This however did not start in this run up to the 2019 elections. It started with the manner in which Ambode a career civil servent was imposed on the state above other candidates by the same Tinubu”s political machinery. Imagine a sitting Governor begging an individual for support to enable him pick ticket to run for another term in office. Ambode is by no stretch the worst performing Governor in Nigeria when you have the likes of Bello of Kogi State and Rochas Okoroha of Imo state but he is seeding everybody including his wife to beg a former Governor for support. When did we come to this sorry pass. Who did Tinubu beg when he ran for second term, who was his godfather when he was Governor of Lagos State. The seeds of the current powerlessness of a sitting Governor was sown when Tinubu tried to stop Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN from running for second term. Party elders knew that the APC might lose Lagos state if Fashola was not in the race or moved to another party so Tinubu was prevailed upon to let the man be. The rest is history. This was probably because Fashola developmental strides in the state was all there for all to see and an attempt to deny him another term could spell doom but even at that Fashola maintained the dignity of the office and did not go around begging party leaders in Abuja and in Lagos. He stood aloof until sanity prevailed. Clearly Ambode has continued in the developmental stride of earlier administrations of Tinubu and Fashola. The only area he seemed to have faltered would be in the area of controlling the refuse of dirty bins littering all over the state. He replaced the PSP put in place by the Fashola administration and replaced them with Visionscape , a company that appear to be incompetent in management of the environment in a big city state like Lagos. POlitical Commentator Ekundayo Awe say this may be the main issue rather than the pedestrian talk of his not picking someone’s phone call.
Other commentators like Bolade Olowookere accused Ambode of not giving credit to the Fashola years but was working as someone who wanted to erase Fashola’s footprint in a state he Fashola governed for eight years, a task that was impossible from Bolade’s point of view. Governor Ambode should stop further degradation of the office of the Governor of a state. Can any so called godfather try this with a man like Rochas. Jim Nwobodo tried it with DR Nnamani, former Enugu Governor and was the worse for it. Let Ambode go for broke and confront godfatherism in the Lagos state. Since it a direct primary he should approach party members at the wards and get their support rather than cowering before a man like him. There should be life after Alausa and he will not die if he puts his political career on the line. Even if he reconciles with the Jagaban he has told everybody that even if he wins the election he will be dejure Governor whilst Tinubu wields the main power. Even Sanwoolu has shown the kind of Givernor he will be, one that will be taking orders from Bourdillion in Ikoyi and whatever good comes out of his administration will be attributed to Tinubu. Enough of this nonsense.
Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode
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