APC Chieftain, Hon. TAJUDEEN AJIDE
During the last 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi achieved an unprecedented feat when he defeated the eventual winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu right in his biggest and impenetrable stronghold, Lagos. Enjoying a huge following and support from the both the youth demography and his kinsmen from the south east, Peter Obi, contesting under the platform of the Labour Party, stunned the nation when he secured 582,454 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Bola Tinubu of the APC, who scored 572, 606 votes. It was an Obi victory nobody saw coming. The defeat not only left the APC embarrassed, it also reportedly angered the APC standard bearer, Bola Tinubu, at the time. Concerted efforts had to be made by the Lagos APC to ensure that a repeat of wht happened during the presidential election did not happen during the governorship election. Sanwo-Olu coasted home to victory with the Labour Party contender, Gbadebo Rhodes coming a distant second.
Thought the 2027 presidential election is still some two years away, many of the top political parties have already hit the ground running, gearing up for the ‘mother of all elections’. The APC in Lagos has begun to prepare in earnest, trying to ensure that what happened in 2023 does not repeat itself. One of Lagos APC chieftains who was very involved in the deliberate effort by the party to stop the Labour Party from defeating the incumbent governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is Honourable Tajudeen Ajide, a respected Surulere politician and immediate past chairman of Surulere local government.
It is no exaggeration to describe him as one of the most popular politicians in Surulere today. This is because he has paid his dues. His political accomplishments and popularity transcends beyond Surulere. He operates within the top leadership of the party in Lagos State. He also enjoys very cordial relationship with President Bola Tinubu. Years ago when he was attacked and left for dead by an unknown assailant, President Tinubu did not abandon him. He stood by him all through his recuperation period. And he will always tell anyone who cares to listen that he will be eternally grateful to Asiwaju. They have maintained a close relationship ever since.
But those who know him closely know that beyond his relationship with the President, he is an incredibly hard working man. This is why any mention of his name within the political circle in Lagos will always elicit positive reactions. And this is because while he served as Chairman of Surulere local government, Hon. Tajudeen Ajide was simply phenomenal. His tenure as administrator of one of Lagos State’s biggest and most cosmopolitan local governments was an incredible success. He has since taken on more sensitive responsibilities within the Surulere political circuit. He is regarded as one of the political leaders in Surulere owing to his legacies. This is why people respect him.
We asked him what his thoughts were regarding the 2027 election, does he think there will be a repeat of wht happened in 2023 when the Labour Party defeated the APC in Lagos, Asiwaju’s strongest base? He, expectedly, does not think so.”It cannot happen again because I think the party took a lot of things for granted back then. Wee took the electorates for granted. We took ou supporters for granted. And maybe we also underestimated the population of the Igbos in Lagos. Like I said, we took a lot of things for granted. That was why we had to quickly begin to make amends and do the right thing by going from ward to ward the last time to sensitise our people and open their eyes to the danger of allowing any party outside of APC to rule Lagos state. We took very firm decisions and the result showed in the governorship election. Governor Sanwo-Olu won convincingly, ” Honourable Ajide noted with pride.
But what did he think was responsible for this? Hon Ajide explained that it’s a combination of several factors. “Obi played both the ethnic and religious cards and he did so effectively well. There is an incredibly high population of Igbos in Lagos and of course they all lined up behind Obi. He used that to his advantage. And he alo used the Muslim-Muslim of the APC to campaign aginst the party. So, a lot of churches uged their members to vote for him. The youths also voted for him because they felt he was younger than Tinubu and they say they no longer want the old genertion of leaders to lead the country,” he explained.
So, what has changed now? What will make 2027 any different, we asked him? “Well, for starters, the Christian tendency that helped Obi win states like Lagos, Edo, Delta and the sort has diminished greatly. And all the narratives he sold to Christians about the Muslim-Muslim ticket has been seen to be false. Nobody has made the faintest attempt to Islamise Nigeria, Christians have not been marginalised in any way. And for God’s sake, the wife of the President is an ordained pastor. There are dozens of Christians in this administration that are holding top positions, so what was all the noise about? And besides, everyone can see that the President’s economic reforms have slowly started to yield results, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. So, a lot has changed from that time. But as a party, we are not going to relax. We are already making plans to begin early what we did the last time, to stop a repeat of the APC losing in Lagos. We will go from ward to ward, door to door, to campaign and talk to people. That defeat won’t happen again!” the very passionate administrator said confidently.
A lot of Nigerians are worried that they are yet to feel the impact of the Tinubu administration, wht does he think could be responsible? Is he confident things will take a turn for the better soon/ Hon. Ajide responded promptly: “Let me be honest with you, most of the personel in President Tinubu’s government have not taken up responsibilities as large and as overwhelming as this before. Many of them are still grappling with the enormity of the task in front of them. I do not envy them at all, this is not a good time to be in government. Governance has never been this tough. So, I think that, apart from the myriads of problems the government met on the ground, particularly the already comatose economy, a lot of the ministers too have not been overwhelmed by the enormity of the work before them. But, thankfully, some of them have started to find their footing, so there are positive signs that things will really begin to pick up soon. “
“There are also a lot of saboteurs within the government, those who want the government to fail. They are friends of the opposition. But many trust Asiwaju’s abilities to see through things like this. Asiwaju at the beginning operated an open door policy. He needs to continue with that policy because that is the only way he can get diverse opinions and reports of the true situation in the country. He needs to allow more people who are not in his camp or party to have continued access to him. He was doing this at a time and I think he needs to continue in that light.”
Honourable Ajide has no doubt that the President has taken the right economic decisions. He believes the government is on the right path and Nigerians only need to be patient to see the reforms yield dividends. “Anybody who is not being mischievous, who is not playing politics, who is informed, will see that the President is working round the clock to take us out of the woods. He has taken some tough economic decisions that should begin to yield dividends very soon. But, lets be honest with ourselves, the situation on ground is overwhelming. The country’s treasury has been totally and systematically decimated by past administrations such that it will take God himself to comedown from heaven to perform the miracle that Nigerians want Tinubu to perform in eight months. See the way trillions of naira have been printed and stolen, see how they have hoarded millions of dollars, all of these will have had their adverse effect on the nation’s economy.”
“But of course, the man on the street does not want to hear all these stories. He is not interested. As far as the masses are concerned, they voted for Asiwaju because they believed he is capable of turning things around. How he does that magic, they don’t want to know, they just need him to get the job done. That’s the mindset of the man on the streets and I can tell you the president is well aware of the frustrations of masses and he is working tirelessly to see that things begin to change for the better in the shortest possible time.”
–WALE LAWAL (08037209290)
