As the All Progressives Congress (APC) has fixed its congress for
November, many aspirants have signified interest to vie for the Lagos State
governorship seat.
Perhaps as a result of the number of
aspirants, it is difficult to guess who the party’s flag bearer in the next
election would be. Right now, the state is awash with posters of different
aspirants jostling for the state Governor, Babatunde Fashola’s job. From Lekki
to Ikorodu and Ikeja to Badagry, the pictures of various aspirants adorn the
state.
Despite the strong belief that the
strongman of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has zoned Fashola’s
successor to Lagos East, some aspirants from outside that zone are going about
campaigning, and this might create some problems for the party. The party
would, therefore, have to settle such internal wrangling to be able to emerge
victorious in the February 28 election. Immediately the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu,
announced Akin Ambode as the next governor of Lagos, many things began to
happen.
The APC immediately denied having
officially announced its candidate; the pronouncement by the Oba polarised the
state’s traditional chiefs, and a group within the party protested against what
it termed imposition by the leader of the party. In fact, some aspirants went
ahead to open their campaign offices. It is reported that in a stakeholders’
meeting at the party’s secretariat, Tinubu openly told the gathering that the
governorship position would go to Lagos East, thereby lending credence to the
endorsement of Ambode who hails from Epe, a claim being contested by some
members of the family he claimed to have come from.
Let us now take a look at the strong
aspirants to the governorship seat.
Senator Ganiyu Solomon:
GOS as he is fondly called is
currently representing Lagos West. He was the first to indicate interest to be
governor. He has a huge grassroots support and has since commenced campaign to
actualise his dream. GOS, if not “adequately convinced” to drop his ambition
for another, should the party decide otherwise, is likely going to damn any
consequence and pursue his mandate elsewhere and that will seriously affect the
party.
