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By Biyi Samuel
The purported move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to replace Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State with his head of service, Alhaji Hakeem Muri Okunola, thereby restricting his administration to just one term, is by every definition a dangerous and unwise political move by the leadership of the party in Lagos.
This move is causing apprehension and patently perilous presumption that Lagos is safe for APC to win in the 2023 elections. It is obvious that APC’s political stranglehold on Lagos is fast loosening up its erstwhile tightness, giving way to random movements of even former stalwarts and dependable allies. The Lagos4Lagos Movement is an obvious example.
Statistically, Lagos APC must be down to close to 55 per cent of its former political strength. Of this low following, there are those who on the surface are in but who, definitely, do not wish the party well.
Members of the Lagos4Lagos Movement in the Lagos chapter of the APC recently moved en mass to the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The group, which held parallel ward, local government and state congresses with the main body of APC in Lagos, said its decision to join forces with the PDP, in the presence of former Senate President Bukola Saraki and three sitting senators from Kogi and Kwara states, was after exhausting all options to make the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) address the anomalies in the aftermath of the congresses.
The convener of the group, AbdulAzeez Adediran and his team, were later received by PDP chieftains in Lagos after wide consultations among group members and some key stakeholders. The available option to make good show on the ballot for the 2023 governorship election in Lagos must jettison the APC platform.
Like it or hate it, the reception and movement is in tandem with the plans of some notable leaders of the PDP in Lagos State who have been very opposed to the success and dominance of the APC in the state in the last 23 years.
It is not news that leaders like former Governors Babatunde Fashola, Akinwunmi Ambode, who himself was given only one term in a similar manner, and former legal adviser of the party, Mr. Muiz Banire, are today not completely in the party.
Also, the division and schism that the presidential aspiration of the national leader of the party will still bring about is difficult to calculate or imagine.
The obvious summation from all of the above is that Lagos APC is not sitting comfortably, as far as being assured of victory is concerned. Therefore, any attempt to destabilise the apple cart may cause the opposition to cart away victory in Lagos.
Though no man is indispensable, unless extraordinary situations emerge, it is unreasonable to dispense of a winning team.
It is administratively unwise and politically incorrect to disrupt the administration of Sanwo-Olu who has become the poster boy or the flagship of APC’s administration not just in Lagos but nationally.
The argument may be made that this same infamous act of the leadership of APC in Lagos was used to cut short Ambode’s tenure and replace him with Sanwo-Olu. Yes, this is true, but, in fact, it was wrong then and it is wrong still.
If a political party prides itself in applying wrongful and unjust practices in selecting its principal officers, at one point, that same act will become a painfully regrettable one.
Besides, the very act itself is essentially a gamble. Like all gambles, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Can Lagos APC afford to gamble and lose in this season?
It is sad enough that the presidential ambition of the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is being resisted even within the APC. But if he loses out of the presidential race and Lagos is also lost to the opposition, then it’s game over for this generation of APC leaders and followers.
A word is enough for the wise, and Lagos APC should allow sleeping dogs to lie. The dangerous suggestion that this unnecessary proposed change is for religious reasons should never be allowed to disrupt the unique and enviable unity and peaceful religious accord that has existed in the state and the entire southwest of Nigeria from time immemorial.
We must in the interest of all perish this thought and focus on real issues that can never divide us. The unassailable fact is that Governor Sanwo-Olu is presently the best-performing governor in the country even across party lines. A look at his strides in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure and health are evident in this regard.
He has made Lagos to be second to none in terms of project execution and administrative performance, not even the Federal Government can push him aside in this regard.
Lagos deserves the best of the best. God has divinely provided this in the person of this humble, unassuming and yet avidly assiduous man, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. All Lagosians should come together to support this governor to do more.
• Samuel, a public affairs commentator, resides in Lagos
