…For SANWO-OLU This SATURDAY
After the postponement of the governorship election, the D-day is finally just a few days away. On the 18th of March, 2023, Lagosians will march out in their numbers to go and vote for their choice of governorship candidate. And it is going to be a keenly contested election and without a doubt, a victory for Sanwo-Olu, if he prevails, will be a hard fought one.
The APC wants to reclaim Lagos by outvoting the PDP and Igbos’ Labour Party whose mission is simple and straight forward – ‘take over Lagos from the Yorubas!’ Their long held erroneous belief that ‘Lagos is no man’s land’ really came manifest in this year’s election as the Igbos strove to actualise their ill advised resolve to take over Lagos from their hosts, the Yorubas.
The Labour Party, encouraged by its impressive performance in the just concluded presidential elections where it beat the APC in Lagos, it’s biggest stronghold (though emerging facts are beginning to reveal there were massive rigging by the LP) is determined to repeat the feat again at the governorship election holding this Saturday. The Labour Party’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who was enmeshed in another court tango with another Labour Party member who claimed he was the rightful candidate and the ever loud and boisterous Jandor of the PDP are both trying to push Governor Sanwo-Olu to the limit and become the next governor of Lagos State.
How will the APC be able to bounce back from its defeat in Lagos to the Labour Party to reclaim it’s power base and give governor Sanwo-Olu a resounding victory? According to City People findings, the opposition parties, this time, will meet a united APC in the governorship election unlike during the presidential election where several leaders of the party in Lagos boycotted the presidential elections and instructed their followers to do same. Many of the party leaders at ward level particularly were disenchanted with the party hierarchy. And same for some other members who bought forms for House of Assembly, House of Reps and Senate but were later told to step down for the candidate backed by the party. Hurt and feeling terribly marginalised, they obeyed the directives from the party and allowed the party have its way. But to their utter chagrin, nobody talked about refunding the monies they spent purchasing the forms they bought to vie for the various electoral seats they were vying for before they were informed the party had other plans.
There was also the anger and bitterness of the some of the followers at the various ward levels. A lot of them complained that their leaders are often in the habit of denying them goodies that come from the top hierachy of the party and meant to be shared amongst the followers. But often times, these goodies never get to them. In some few instances that these goodies trickle down to them, what they often get are far smaller from what was actually allotted to them from the top. All of these issues prevented the APC from presenting a united front at the just concluded presidential election. But most, if not all of those problems, have been resolved already, just in time before the governorship election. And the effect of that united front will result in the resounding victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The Tinubu factor also cannot be dismissed. This has greatly re-energised the party leadership and will spur the party to victory. The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, before now, was fully concentrated on winning the presidential election and taking control of the center. Now, that has been done and dusted. He has been able to turn fully to the governorship election and give it his full attention. He is the Master Political strategist. He knows exactly what to do to turn around an impossible looking political situation to a positive one. He was reported to have said that losing Lagos during the presidential election was like losing a battle to win a war. Now, he is back to win both the battle and the war. He has taken charge of the entire strategy meetings. Shrugging off the fatigue from his hectic schedules following his emergence as the President-elect, he held meetings after meetings, resolving existing conflicts within the party leadership across the state and providing direction and guidance in those areas that the party lost to on February 25th. With Tinubu back in the fray, everything is falling into place. Issues that looked impossible to resolve suddenly had solutions to them. The Tinubu factor, without a doubt, has changed the entire complexion of the battle and in the end, the man will prove to all again why he remains the biggest political strategist to come out from this side of the continent.
One of the biggest challenges the APC had at the presidential election, was the volume of Yoruba youths who opted to vote for the Labnour Party’s Peter Obi, joining the bandwagon of the Peter Obi Obidient movement. They voted for Peter Obi. They preferred him to Tinubu whom they described as old, tired and worn out and part of the old order they wanted to banish from the political space into oblivion where they would forever remain silent. It was a big challenge for many Yoruba parents who support APC to convince their children to vote for the APC instead of the Labour Party they all opted for because of Peter Obi. Following the loss of the APC in Lagos State, and the fear that if the trend repeated itself at the governorship election Sanwo-Olu could lose, their parents grew frantic and realised something had to be done. They are already speaking to and educating their kids on the dangers of voting against Sanwo-Olu and allowing a half Igbo and half Yoruba man become governor of Lagos State. So, with many of the Yoruba youths returning to their senses, Labour Party has lost a lot of the votes it got from the youths of Yoruba extraction and this will affect their performance greatly.
It must also be noted that, in fairness to the Yoruba youths, many of them on their own have simply decided to vote for Governor Sanwo-Olu because they couldn’t transfer their dislike for Tinubu to Sanwo-Olu who some of them believe has done fairly well enough trying to identify with the youths and sharing in their dreams and aspirations.
It has been speculated too the turn out of the Igbo youth at the governorship election will not be able to match the sort of turn out they posted at the presidential election. For many of them, Peter Obi was the reason for their Obidient movement and the reason behind their obsession for control of Lagos State. But with Obi falling short of winning the presidential elections and losing to the eventual winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the fire in the bellies of the Obidients appeared to have been greatly diminished by that loss. As it turned out, many of them didn’t bother to come out to vote last Saturday. They just couldn’t transfer the same love they have for Obi to their Labour Party candidate. Peter Obi’s image and personality had great effect on the youths. It galvanised them. It represented, whether accurately or otherwise, their future. It spurred them come out enmasse to vote for the Labour Party. Unfortunately, the party’s governorship candidate does not have that kind of effect on them, so,tmany of them will walk away from him and leave him to his fate. And all of these, of course, will only guarantee Governor Sanwo-Olu’s second term I office.
Lastly, the Lagos APC and the entire Yoruba community in general were terrified by the possibility of a Chinedu becoming the governor of Lagos State. The very thought of that sent shivers running down their spine. They were shocked by the results of the presidential election and have promptly woken up to the reality that they were about to lose their beloved Lagos State to total strangers. Many Yorubas who had their PVCs with them but chose to sit back at home during the presidential elections either because they were overwhelmed with the naira scarcity situation and it’s attendant hardship or they just didn’t want to be bothered about the election, will all troop out in large numbers this time to vote. They don’t want to risk having Labour Party’s Chinedu Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour emerge as governor of Lagos State. It would be such a bitter pill for them to swallow. Everyone of them that stayed back home a couple of weeks and chose not to vote will come out for the governorship election and vote massively for Sanwo-Olu and help the APC reclaim the state it almost lost to the hands of the Igbo who have chosen to turn against their hosts, the Yoruba, who welcomed them with open arms and encouraged them to settle down in Lagos and be all that they ever desired to be. And now that they have become all they ever wanted to be, they have turned to stab in the back the very people who accommodated them in Lagos by trying to take over the land of their hosts, claiming it is a ‘no man’s land!’ Now, the big question is, by the time the election is over and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is retuned elected for his second term, what happens next? What will become the fate of the Igbos in Lagos? Only time can proffer answers to these questions….
– WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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