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Complain Of Being Sidelined
A new power bloc has emerged within the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Surulere, breaking the long-standing political calm in what has for two decades been the undisputed fortress of Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The faction, which describes itself as the Surulere APC Justice and Equity Forum, is led by Surulere APC stalwart Rilwan Atobiloye and is made up of ward chairmen, youth leaders, former councillorship aspirants and grassroots mobilizers that makes up Surulere Federal Constituency 1 consisting of six electoral wards with two hundred and fifty eight polling units. The seat is the political base Femi Gbajabiamila held for 20 years before vacating after his appointment as Chief of Staff. He is a veteran lawmaker and a political giant in Surulere who spent two decades representing Surulere I and ultimately served as the 14th Speaker of the House from 2019 to 2023.
The new faction says it is not fighting the party, but fighting what it calls a pattern of selective politics inside the constituency.
In Surulere APC circles, Atobiloye is not a newcomer. He is known as a grassroots organizer who has been with the progressive structure from AC to ACN to APC, with deep networks in the wards. While he has never held elective office at the federal level, party members describe him as a bridge between the old Action Congress foot soldiers and the new generation. Sources close to the group say Atobiloye stepped forward after months of quiet complaints from ward executives who felt their voices were no longer reaching the top.
The immediate trigger, according to the faction, is empowerment. Gbajabiamila has built his Surulere politics around massive empowerment programmes. Over the years he has empowered constituents with new buses, cars, tricycles and motorcycles under the GbajaRide Transportation Initiative in Surulere 1, and most recently hosted a mega programme where about 5,000 residents benefited from an initiative valued over 1 billion naira.
In the 2026 edition, beneficiaries received cash grants, vehicles, and trade support assets valued at about N1.15bn.
Atobiloye’s faction argues that the distribution of those benefits has become skewed. The group alleges that in the last 3 cycles of empowerment, 3 of the 6 wards have consistently received the bulk of slots particularly wards around Gbaja/Stadium, Iponri/Eric Moore, Shitta/Ogunlana Drive while wards in the Ojuelegba,Akinhanmi Cole and Ogunsanya communities get what they call token representation.
They point to the INEC records that show a candidate can win a landslide victory in all six wards that make up Surulere Federal Constituency, yet, they argue, empowerment does not reflect that same six-ward spread. “You cannot win in all six wards on election day and empower in only two or three wards after election,” a member of the faction told City People .
The old guards feel sidelined and it also appears their grievances is more personal and more explosive within the party. Atobiloye’s camp says several politicians who have been with Gbajabiamila since his early House of Representatives days ,ward coordinators who mobilized in 2003, 2007 and 2011, ex-councillors, and local government party officers have been gradually pushed out of the decision-making chain.
According to them, lists for federal appointments, state boards, LGA and LCDA jobs, and even the nomination of beneficiaries for the mega empowerment are now handled by a small circle of aides and loyalists around the Chief of Staff, many of whom do not reside full-time in Surulere.
The faction claims that in the February 2024 bye-election that produced Fuad Laguda as Gbajabiamila’s replacement, where INEC said Laguda won massively in the six wards, it was the old grassroots structure that delivered the votes, but that structure has not been rewarded. They also pointed to the recent displacement of Hon Desmond Elliot from the Lagos House of Assembly which they played a active part by deploying its support base.
Some loyalists of the Chief of Staff however dismissed the new group as an ambition-driven caucus ahead of 2027.
They argue that the empowerment records are public and verifiable, that beneficiaries are nominated through wards, community associations and trade groups, and that the 2026 programme was specifically designed to verify beneficiaries through those structures.
They also point to Gbajabiamila’s continued political relevance in mobilizing Surulere voters for President Tinubu and other APC candidates, as seen at his recent mega empowerment programmes.
For years, dissent in Surulere Federal Constituency 1 was managed quietly. With 2027 approaching, the open call for ward-by-ward audit of empowerment, for inclusion of long-time loyalists, and for a more decentralized leadership style is likely to force a realignment.
Wole Alakija
08055001823
