GOVERNOR Babatunde
Raji Fashola of Lagos State and his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader appear to be locked
in fiercest political battle of their lives over the former’s successor.
Fashola appears to be telling his mentor (Tinubu) that he too has come of age
after about eight years in office and is set to challenge him.
Whether Fashola, who has been dispatching
political issues to 26 Bourdillon Street, the palace of Asiwaju in Ikoyi for
resolution since 2007 will succeed, today will show after the APC
gubernatorial primaries in Lagos. Fashola has since assumption of office
placed higher premium on governance than politics.
But a source who spoke under anonymity confirmed
to yesterday that the taciturn lawyer from Surulere area of Lagos
has changed.
“He is
now ready for politics of 2015. Fashola may not have been playing politics, but
he is deeper now and he understands that only the deep can call to the deep,
and so he is even much deeper, though he has not been making noise as others…,”
was the way one of Fashola’s advisers described the new spirit in Fashola.
The Guardian was told that Tinubu’s henchmen are
not ignorant of the artful devices of Fashola’s men for Alausa 2015 and the
genius of Bourdillon too has been planning strategically to demonstrate that he
has been the founder and funder of the party. As Tinubu’s close ally said
yesterday, “Asiwaju is aware of all the shenanigan and scheming going on in all
the camps for the purpose of getting a successor to Fashola…and he is accepting
all the challenges.”
Specifically, sources confirmed to The Guardian
that Fashola’s men are the powers behind three powerful contenders, namely
Hamzat, Sashore and Tokunbo Wahab, who have been labeled as Plans A, B & C.
Hamzat is generally believed to be Fashola’s first choice. Then the resourceful
governor was told that religion has deeply crept into Lagos politics, a
development that was said to have led to manifestation of Akinwumi Ambode, a
Christian from Epe, hence the Plan B: Sashore, an accomplished lawyer and
former Attorney General of Lagos State. It was learned that the Fashola group
has also prepared another dark horse, Tokunbo Wahab, who is generally believed
to be a candidate that may be acceptable to Tinubu, after all.
But inquiries revealed that Tinubu who was
initially suspected have manifested the former Accountant General of Lagos
State, Ambode with a view to dumping him for a dark horse, has not changed his
mind on Ambode. His (Tinubu’s) men are perfecting their strategy for the
unexpected ambush his boys that have grown up to be men of means.
The war theatre
What appears to be a bruising political war is
in country’s main opposition party, the APC, will begin tomorrow in Lagos. What
watchers of the polity in the state know is that the battle-line has been drawn
between the leader of the APC both in the state and the entire Southwest, and a
co-leader at the national level, Tinubu and Fashola.
But what the polity watchers do not know, and
can only hazard a guess, is the likely consequence(s) of the fight of the
tartans on the fortunes of the APC in the state, which could point the way to a
national political cataclysm for the party. The ruling Peoples’
Democratic Party (PDP) has plotted over the years to take hold of Lagos State;
and since 1999, the desire has been a pipedream.
But any mis-step by the gladiators in the Lagos
APC might hand the PDP that chance of 16 years on a platter. The bone of
contention in the unfolding story is who, between Tinubu and Fashola, has the
upper hand in the struggle for the fillet. Stripped of all ambiguities,
each of them wants to anoint the next governor of Lagos State on the platform
of the APC.
And with the date of the governorship primaries
of the party drawing down to a matter of hours, the intrigues in the “feuding”
camps have reached unprecedented level.
Plans for an APC governor
Initial permutation for the emergence of the
party governor was to choose from a wide field of aspirants spread across the
three senatorial districts of the State. The cry of marginalisation
soon cropped up from the Lagos East, which felt alienated from the scheme of
things in the state polity.
Afraid of the rival PDP using the
marginalisation cry as a campaign tool against it, the APC conceded the slot to
Lagos East. But then, there was another hurdle to cross, as the
work of picking the governor was cut out for the party when the agitation for a
Christian devotee became cacophonous, to the point of threatening to derail the
party, which eventually capitulated.
That was when a dark horse, “totally unknown in
the activities of the party in the state,” came on the scene, a source
told The Guardian. Enter Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, former Accountant
General of Lagos State. Besides being a Christian, which fits into
the gambit of the moment; he is reputed as one of the strategists behind the
jumbo Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) the state government earns monthly.
From a paltry N600 million that the Tinubu
administration met in 1999, the revenue moved up to N10 billion on the eve of
that government, and ballooned to an average of N27 billion monthly, as the
Fashola regime is winding down, thus standing Lagos out as, perhaps, the only
state in Nigeria that can withstand the adverse effect of the dwindling revenue
returns from the Federation Account.
Indeed, during the then President Olusegun
Obasanjo-led administration (199-2007), Lagos withstood the illegal withholding
of the allocations to its local governments on account of its creation of
additional 37 councils to the constitutionally recognised 20.
These two possessions — being a Christian and an
economic planner, in addition to having worked across the local governments in
the state during his service years — recommended Ambode to Tinubu in particular
and others who control the levers of power in the state.
Recall the “open endorsement” of the pick by the
revered Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, at a time people were still asking,
“Ambode who” when the name first appeared in the media in connection with the
Lagos governorship. Now, it is no longer who is Ambode, but how to thwart the
efforts of the Tinubu camp from presenting and crowning him as the governor of
Lagos State in 2015.
Reportedly spearheading this new frontier
is Fashola, who has a ‘Plan B’ in the person of Shasore. Shasore’s
resumé, putting in a good word for him to Fashola, is his experience in working
with the three arms of government — executive, legislature and judiciary — in
the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes of the
government.
His is also a strong advocate for conferring on
Lagos State a “special status” as the economic nerve centre of the country even
when Nigeria is driven by petro-dollar from oil and gas from the Niger Delta
(South-South geopolitical zone) of the country.
Fashola’ s challenge of Tinubu’s suzerainty
Tinubu, undoubtedly a political tactician of
repute in today’s Nigeria, almost got his fingers burnt in 2007 when he settled
on and presented Fashola as the governorship candidate of the defunct Action
Congress (AC), which metamorphosed into Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
Fashola, Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, was never in
the governorship reckoning, at least in the eyes of those party men and women
that stood by, and fought with Tinubu in the political battles to win Lagos
State in 1999 and retain it in 2003 for the ‘Progressives.’
These individuals, popularly referred to as
‘Tinubu Boys’, had positioned themselves for the governor’s seat before Tinubu
launched Fashola. However, as Chief of Staff, Fashola was part of
Tinubu’s inner cycle, and he knew the workings of the government and, more
importantly, had the ears of his Oga better than the politicians
angling for the position of governor.
Yet, “these politicians would not take this
crap,” to quote a source, “and decided on a gang-up, which failed to fly.” “In
the end, many of the aggrieved governorship aspirants returned and begged for
forgiveness and compensation with other elective or appointive positions, which
they got,” the source said. “The few, who decided to quit the fold
and tried their luck in the field against Tinubu’s candidates, lost out
woefully.”
Pundits were surprised in the run-up to the 2011
elections that Fashola had issues with his benefactor, and wanted to carve a
niche for himself in the state political arena. It was at a time
his public rating was on the high as a result of the developmental strides his
government had made in just a few years.
When the reported acrimony between Tinubu and
Fashola got to the zenith, a section of the state allegedly urged the governor
to damn the consequences and seek alternative platform for a second term in
office. This was when the story broke that Tinubu had put in motion an
impeachment plot, using members of the State House of Assembly.
Although the Assembly denied the alleged moves
even as it repeatedly queried some of the actions and expenditures of the
Fashola administration, some groups went to court, seeking to sanction the
governor over accusation of misappropriation and mismanagement of state funds.
But when the chips were down between Tinubu, a
tactical politician and Fashola, a technocrat, who, time without number, had
dished politics, and was often quoted as asking people to take their political
matters to Tinubu, the latter won the day. “Fashola practically had
to beg Tinubu. Tinubu accepted because the who-is-who in the state, including
traditional rulers, were involved in the pleading to temper (political) justice
with mercy,” a source said.
“But there was a caveat: Fashola must henceforth
be of good behaviour, and should not be heard, talk less of being seen to
challenge Tinubu’s political wisdom of the Asiwaju. “That was
how Fashola got the chance of a second term in office, which he will complete
in May 2015.”
.
Shasore, Ambode deny link to ‘godfathers’
but…
From the goings-on in the state polity,
Fashola “may not have abandoned his desire to stand up as a man, politically,
and challenge his godfather in the appointment of his successor in office.” After
all, it was Tinubu, as governor, who determined his successor. “So, why can’t
Fashola do the same?” An aide of the
governor queried.
The aide affirmed the quarrel over the
presentation of a governorship candidate for the Lagos APC, and the claim that
Fashola was behind the drafting of Shasore into the fray. The aide
stopped short of admitting that the Fashola camp was responsible for the media
blitz, which the Shasore campaign organisation has embarked on in the past week
for the aspirant.
“Where do you think Shasore, though a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, got the money, running into tens of millions, to place
those adverts in the newspapers?” he said.
Interestingly, as if to confirm the link of the
aspirant to the Fashola camp, the Shasore campaign organises in the Alausa area
of Ikeja, the seat of government in the State. But the aspirant has
denied such connection to Fashola or any other drumbeater, for that matter,
insisting on his qualification for the job of governor based on his experience,
capacity and passion to serve the people of Lagos State.
As he told a group of journalists the other day,
“I don’t have a political godfather. But in several capacities that I have
served in public service in Lagos State, I have reasons to deal with the length
and breadth of stakeholders in this state.
“As Commissioner for Justice, I actually
belonged to the government; as the Attorney General, I actually belonged to the
public, sometimes giving government advice that they don’t want to hear. So,
this situation is unique in the sense that I have to deal with several
stakeholders. “I don’t have a godfather who is sponsoring me. I
believe that I have all-round acceptability. The disadvantage of having a
godfather is that you suddenly lose acceptability across the board.”
On being allegedly persuaded to run, Shasore
said: “This is all news to me. I took the decision to participate in this
process a while ago and I do remember the story of what you just said in the
newspapers. “There was nothing like anyone trying to convince me. I’m
convinced; it’s a strong desire; I feel a strong pool to offer myself; it’s
just an offer.
“So, in order to help out, that’s why I’m
stepping out this time to take Lagos to the next level.” If
Shasore, coming into the race late, could deny a political benefactor edging
him on in the race, Ambode may not succeed in that direction.
On the day he was introduced to the
media, as part of the damage control arising from speculations surrounding
the governorship; a retinue of Tinubu aides accompanied him, and they made
no bones about hiding the hand and heart of the party leader in the governor
project. An all-round financial accountant and management expert in
his own right, he had no political experience in its true sense before he was
drafted.
The session with the press was a
sharing-of-ideas kind of parley: The aspirant giving his bio-data, his
reach/connections, and readiness for the office of governor; and the newsmen
quizzing him on some alleged grey areas during his career in the Lagos State
Government, whether he was from the “right zone” of the state for the
governor’s position, if he was an “indigene” of Lagos and his “faith” and what
he might do to make him actualise his dream.
In the end, the pressmen got away with the
impression that this was another core professional, like incumbent Fashola,
who’s not the typical politician. Still, there was a critical
assignment to be done: that of publicly proclaiming Ambode as the “choice” of
the stakeholders in the state.
Final showdown
Today is D-Day for the test of political
power between the Tinubu camp and the Fashola bloc.
The governorship primaries are through the
collegiate system, according to the guidelines issued by the national
headquarters of the APC. The Electoral College comprises of 12 principal
officers of the Ward Executive Committee from the chairman, vice-chairman,
secretary, women leader, youth leader, organising secretary, treasurer, legal
adviser, publicity secretary, welfare secretary, auditor and financial
secretary.
The delegates shall also include all members of
the Local Government Executive Committee from the Local Government Areas in the
state; all members of the State Executive Committee; all members of the
National Executive Committee from the state; all members of the Board of
Trustees and National Caucus from the state; all elected persons from the state
and all other statutory delegates to the National Convention.
Members, going by the guidelines, shall vote by
secret ballot at the state capital and the winner announced accordingly. This
is simply on paper, but in practice, other aspirants, including that or those
coming from the Fashola camp, feel the guidelines are skewed in favour of the
Tinubu group.
Meaning the outcome of the primaries is already
foretold: Going the way of the National Leader and his protégée, Ambode.
“Unless, of course,
handled to the satisfaction of all potential aggrieved aspirants, the ripple
effect of such an eventuality cannot be imagined in this season of the PDP
plotting to take over Lagos and the entire Southwest,” a source noted last
night.
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