After enduring conspiracy, taunts, Ambode comes out swinging; says he is best to govern Lagos

By Gboyega Taiwo
After weeks of patiently enduring taunts and intimidation over his desire to seek a second term, Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode, lost his cool on Sunday.

At a world press conference in Lagos, the Governor called on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that governorship primary of the party fixed for Monday, October 1, was free and fair with all members of the party in Lagos allowed to participate.

Governor Ambode, who gave the charge while addressing a world press conference at the Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja, said that since the party had agreed to adopt direct primaries for the governorship candidate to emerge, it was its responsibility to follow due process to ensure that every aspirant gets a fair chance to contest for the ticket in a credible democratic process.

“The party constitution allows us to do direct and indirect primaries. The Lagos State APC has agreed to go with direct primaries and in that wise, it is open to all contestants and so it is very clear that during direct primaries, I am also eligible to participate in the primaries. What we want is a very clean board to allow everybody to partake in it.

“We believe that it is in the greater interest of the party to allow reason to prevail and allow every contestant to come out and show their strength. I believe strongly that it is in the interest of the country that our party should activate as much as possible all the democratic values that our party has always been known for and that is what I stand for,” he said.

Ambode, who emerged Governor of Lagos State in 2015 had indicated his intention to run seek re-re-election but had come up against a formidable opposition determined to frustrate his plans.

At the arrow-head of that opposition is Bola Tinubu, a former governor of the state and the man who since 1999, has called the shots in Lagos. The reason for Tinubu’s opposition to Ambode’s plans is unclear but many allude to stories of Ambode failing to do the bidding of his benefactor. What that bidding is, no one exactly knows as Tinubu himself has kept sealed lips. Behind the scenes, however, he has moved to pull the rug from under Ambode’s feet, creating disaffection toward the governor among party members especially members of the Lagos State House of Assembly with whom Ambode enjoyed a harmonious working relationship until now. He has also reportedly settled for Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a former Commissioner in the state as his choice for the Lagos State Government House in 2019.

As the plot to muscle the Lagos Governor continued, Lagosians and other Nigerians who have noted how in the last three years, Ambode deftly steered Lagos on the path of development, wondered why the leadership of the Lagos State chapter of the APC would collude with selfish politicians to frustrate the plans of a man who aside raising the revenue profile of Lagos State, had brought true change to it through well-articulated policies, which impacted positively on the well-being of Lagosians. Their subtle attempt to disenfranchise members of the party perceived to be loyal to Ambode has come as a surprise to many who see it as rank hypocrisy for a party which prides itself as a gathering of progressives.

Ambode himself is not taking the matter lying down. He expressed concern that with less than 24 hours to the primaries, membership cards were yet to be distributed, while even as an aspirant, he was yet to be given guidelines for the election, adding that it would be an injustice to deny newly registered members of the party the opportunity to exercise their franchise.

“I believe strongly also that the preparations are still ongoing but there are some few things that we still need to iron out and I believe strongly that the chairman of our great party, Comrade Oshiomhole will be able to correct some of these things that we have noticed.

“We are committed progressives; we are committed to the outcome of the primaries; we are committed to the tenets and principles of our great party but what we would not want to accept is to disenfranchise all the millions of people that we have been able to bring into the APC fold just by our performance and so what we heard is that there is a register that is being brought into the state which only includes those who have registered since 2014. What about all the millions of members of APC that we have gotten in from 2015 till date,” he stated adding that:

“I carry my own membership slip anywhere I go and now they say this is the membership slip that I have, I don’t have a membership card and so the question is are they saying me as a Governor I would not be entitled to vote tomorrow? So, the national headquarters and the electoral committee need to make an immediate adjustment to this. All the people that have registered as members of APC should be entitled to vote in the direct primaries; that is how we entrench the democratic values that we are all preaching.

“So, if someone like me can be disenfranchised because I don’t have a card, what happens to ordinary members of APC? We believe strongly that this can be corrected and we allow everybody to come out and exercise their civic duty and civic right to choose who will represent them as the gubernatorial candidate for APC. So, I plead with the NWC, I plead with our party chairman and even all the people that are interested in this whole process that we should do the right thing; we should make the process credible and I believe with God on our side, we would come out triumphant,” Governor Ambode said.

Reaffirming that he was a bonafide member of the APC who believes in the tenets and democratic values of the party, the Governor said his administration’s strides in the last three and half years has won more members into the fold.

The Governor said as the head of government in Lagos State, he has set a pace, which any attempt at altering could have dire consequences on the APC’s chances in the 2019 general elections.

He dismissed the challenge presented by Sanwo-Olu noting that the former Commissioner lacked both experience and the “psychological know-how” to run Lagos. He said giving him the ticket would not only imperil the party’s chances in the state but also have adverse consequences on President Muhammadu Buhari’s chances of a clean sweep of Lagos State.

“Now the truth is this, in the last two or three weeks, they have been putting a lot of campaign of calumny in the social media and also disparaging our personalities and character but we have been extremely humble; we have never responded; we have never abused anybody because we believe that there is always a reason for us to come together as a family. We are one family in APC but now the truth is this, the aspirant they are putting up to compete against us is not a fit and proper person to take this position and they know the fact; this is the truth!,” Ambode stated.

He said party leaders and even party members had been misled to think Sanwo-Olu was a better candidate than him noting that in the last three and half years he (Ambode) had done everything to serve the people selflessly and to serve the poor, a reason most of the projects in Lagos is to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. He noted that the only way out for his administration to continue to do so in the next four years.

In an oblique reference to Sanwo-Olu, who is the only candidate challenging him after the third aspirant, Obafemi Hamzat pulled out of the race, he said:

“This particular aspirant as we all know, you can go and check it, the records are there. This is somebody that has been arrested for spending fake American dollars in a nightclub and he has been detained for months. He is also known that he does not have the competence to do what he is being propelled to do, the records are there in Gbagada General Hospital, the records are there; this is somebody that has gone for rehabilitation before.

“We don’t want to go too far; we don’t want to talk about all the things that we know but what we want is for our leadership to have a rethink because the truth is this, I will not stand here on the mandate of Lagosians and then allow our great party APC to fritter away that opportunity to put in somebody that the opposition will easily take out because of lack of credibility.

He called on leaders of the party to reconsider their position.

“We plead with all our leaders. They should have a rethink; this is not about me but about the greater opportunities that APC stands to better the progress of Lagos and Nigeria,” he said.

The Governor warned against raising tension in the state and stated that he would not fold his arms and watch political thugs disrupt the peace the state has enjoyed in the last three and half years.
He said that security reports available to his government indicate that there is an ongoing recruitment and arming of political thugs to disrupt the tranquil atmosphere of Lagos State, in the guise of holding Primary Elections.

“It has become imperative to put every stakeholder on notice, especially the Federal Government and Security Agencies, to take more than a passing interest in the development in this State that has hitherto been adjudged as the safest city in Africa.

“Consequently, the State Government will do all within its powers in collaboration with relevant security agencies to protect our citizens and insulate them from any condition that may breed insecurity or the breakdown of law and order in the State throughout the Primaries campaign and election periods,” Governor Ambode said.

Calling on Lagosians to remain calm and go about their normal businesses, he warned those planning to cause trouble in the name of politics or under any guise that they would face the full wrath of the law if caught.

“Without being immodest, after three and half years of remarkable performance in bringing growth and development to our dear State, I have humbly expressed my intention to seek re-election in order to consolidate on the giant strides that we have recorded for our dear State and our great party, APC. This is why I once again seek the support of every party member in tomorrow’s primary election. We shall overcome,” he said.

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