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Initially, there were speculations that the NWC might cancel the primaries due to some widely acclaimed political tensions in some certain corners. However, the Lagos State Chairman of the APC, Tunde Balogun, on Tuesday Night went ahead to announce the result, declaring Sanwo-Olu as the acclaimed winner with 970,851 votes while Akinwunmi Ambode had in total, 72,901 from the said exercise.
Once again, the power of incumbency had proven to be nothing, when the will of the people is set in motion. This once again is the beauty of having a direct primaries as against the delegate system in which very few individuals, who most of the times, would have been compromised with financial incentives; decides who leads and who does not for the rest of us.
There had been indications before now as to whether the incumbent Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, would be getting the peoples support and his party’s ticket to proceed on his second term as duly allowed and provided for in the constitution. But it was clearly evident that the odds against him were more than those for his favour.
It all began with a fallout with his political godfather, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was instrumental to his becoming governor in 2015. Ambode had been Bola Tinubu’s political son and protégé, just like the others before him, Babatunde Fashola, Jide Sanwo-Olu and others, to mention a few. What began the quarrel between Ambode and Tinubu has largely been shrouded in secret to the public, but not to some political pundits. Certain political commentators have claimed that Ambode was trying to rubbish Tinubu’s legacies in Lagos State, which in turn did not go down well with the godfather. On another occasion, Ambode himself have countered this narrative by publicly claiming that there was no rift between himself and Tinubu.
In his words, he said “I want you to know that there is no fight anywhere. The national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and my good self we are not in any fight, we are not in any controversy. We are praying to God that the best is yet to come and the best will be what Lagos State deserves and I want you to just continue with your prayers that at this time, God will show His hand and make sure that everything that is of blessing to Lagos State and also blessing of Epe will come to pass.”
But the result of this primary had proven otherwise. Sanwo-Olu, the anointed candidate of Bola Tinubu for the next election eventually emerged as the winner of the primaries, leaving the incumbent governor currently hanging in the air, as his re-election bid has become impossible under the current APC. However, there are a couple of options that governor Ambode can explore going forward.
It is either he resorts to fate by putting his house in order in these few months remaning for him in office as the governor, consilidate on his achievements and tidy up his on-going projects in certain parts of the state, while Babajide Sanwo-Olu enjoys all the moment and the benevolence that the good people of Lagos state had bestowed upon him through this direct primaries exercise that has brought him onboard as the APC flag bearer in the 2019 gubernatorial elections, or, he can chose to decamp to another party, either to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a not-too-formidable opposition in Lagos state, or another party that sure enjoys the goodwill of the people of Lagos.
The options are before him to explore. We, as Nigerians, can only watch and see how this would eventually play out.
