…As LAGOS Governorship Race Hots Up
The name Olajide Adeniran may not immediately strike a meaningful chord, but Jandor readily does. He is the governorship candidate the PDP in Lagos and he, along with his running mate, celebrated actress, Funke Akindele, are set to give incumbent governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu a good run for his money come next year’s gubernatorial elections. And he does seem extremely prepared for the huge task ahead of him. Jandor is young, dynamic, engaging, and has shown sufficient zeal and commitment to the Jandor for governor project. He truly does have this self belief in himself and in his capability to shock Lagosians by creating a big upset at the polls come next year with a resounding victory over Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat. To this end, he has kick-started a powerful campaign that has shown his intense desire and hunger to occupy the most exalted office in the state and end APC 24 year reign in Lagos. But the question many have been asking is, will this be possible? Does Jandor possess the political muscle, intelligence, structure and wherewithal to dismantle the political base of the Jagaban, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
Indeed, this is a tall order, not just for Jandor and his camp, but for anyone wishing to unseat the APC in Lagos. This is because the APC, in the last 24 years or so, have been able to achieve so much in the state, thereby giving it such a strong hold on the country’s commercial capital such that it will be difficult, if not totally impossible, for any other party to convince the electorates to ignore the party at the polls. And from the look of things, Jandor and his running mate, Funke Akindele, may not prove to be any different. City People spoke to a Lagos based political pundit who knows a lot about Lagos politics and understands it like the back of his hand. Not a big fan of the APC himself (he is miffed the party has been in power in Lagos for too long) but he admits it would take a lot for the opposition to defeat and unseat the APC. And for a number of reasons, he does not think that if that will happen now, if it will happen at all. And we asked him why.
“The reasons are there for everyone to see,” he’d begun. “For starters, where will he get the funding from to execute a massive campaign that will rock the APC and sway voters to the PDP? Where will he get the war chest to match what is available to the incumbent governor Sanwo-Olu? Apart from Rivers State, I do not know any other state that can match Lagos State in terms of political war chests. Don’t forget that the two out of the three heavy weights that supported him at the start are no longer with him, and I’m talking about governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. These two gentlemen opened the vaults for him to enable him set up the necessary structure that will give the APC a good fight. But today, owing to the internal crisis between Atiku and Wike, the two governors are no longer with him. And as for Atiku, it is clear to see he has enough on his plate already, he needs every dime he can get to stop the Jagaban train from running him over. Coming to Jandor’s rescue at this time will certainly be the last thing on his mind, because if truth be told, he needs help too!”
He continued: “In my own opinion, I align with thousands of others who also think that the choice of actress, Funke Akindele, is a wrong one. And this is simple. Let’s face it, Jandor himself is lightweight enough as an opposition to Sanwo-Olu. He does not have that intimidating political clout nor does he have the political base to cause APC or Sanwo –Olu any sleepless night. And then you now make an actress your running mate? How does that work? What is her electoral value? What experience does she have in politics? Even the Jandor, what experience does he have? Has he ever contested and won any election before? I simply can’t see how these two can perform any magic. Remember Jimi Agbaje tried a couple of times too and failed. Yet, he was a much stronger opposition to the APC than Jandor. Forget all these talks about Funke bringing in her millions of fans on social media to vote for her. These people don’t know that politics does not work that way. Social media and politics are not the same thing. What’s worse is that very few are taking the Jandor/Funke combination serious because they can’t understand how picking an actress as your running mate guarantees anyone that you’re truly prepared for the humongous task of running the affairs of a massive state like Lagos. Frankly speaking, it doesn’t. If anything, with all due respect to the creative industry, it only shows that you have no idea what you’re up against!”
The man was not done yet. “Let’s be honest with ourselves, PDP is even much weaker now than it was years ago when it challenged APC with Jimi Agbaje as its flag bearer. That was why they came close to creating an upset at the polls back then. But, quite frankly, I do not see that happening now. Not with the internal wrangling going on in the PDP. Of course the party has never produced a united front going into elections against the APC, but it is much worse this time. We have seen Bode George showing clearly that he is not behind Jandor because the choice of Funke Akindele as running mate was clearly not a party decision. Bode George and other leaders of the party had a different running mate in mind, but Jandor and a section of the party’s leadership also felt Funke would be a much stronger running mate, going by the legion of fans she has on social media. And again, I ask, do they really think social media fans and actual voters are the same thing? So, if the leaders of the party in Lagos are divided over the choice of Funke and are keeping both Jandor and his running mate at arm’s length, how then do they hope or plan to dislodge Sanwo-Olu from the governor’s office?” And remember only a few days ago, there was a defection of 5,000 PDP members to the APC. These were people loyal to Jandor.
We asked him if there was any possibility an upset could happen. “It will take a huge miracle for that to happen,” he said pointedly. “See, Lagos is the political power base of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. You take Lagos from him then you have literally stripped him naked. And he won’t fold his hands and watch that happen. This is why he works hard to ensure that every governor that Lagos has had have been incredibly brilliant and hardworking individuals. They have kept his legacies alive and continued one after the other the transformation of Lagos agenda started by Jagaban. Like I said, I may not be a big fan of Tinubu myself, but only a fool will say he has not done anything in Lagos. It’s there for all to see. So, this is the biggest challenge before Jandor and those that will come after him. How can you pull down the Tinubu political Empire in Lagos? The man has structures everywhere in Lagos. He has powerful disciples who themselves have become leaders in their own right and who understand what it is and what it takes to keep the political Empire of Asiwaju intact. I repeat, it will take a big miracle to pull down Asiwaju’s power base and I don’t see Jandor getting anywhere near doing that. Permit me to say even a battalion of Jandor does not have what it takes to pull this off.”
“And lastly, it would’ve been easier for Jandor to even get anywhere close to defeating Sanwo-Olu if the incumbent governor was doing badly. But he certainly has done well. Even though Covid-19 and the Endsars protest jointly deal a huge blow on the Governor, like it did with other states, grounding things to a halt, slowing down works on infrastructure, road construction and the sort, the governor and his team have since emerged a more formidable force, working at a great speed to make up for lost time. Lagos state was the worst hit during the Endsars saga. It suffered the heaviest blows in terms of destruction of government structures and properties, decimating both public and private institutions in their wake. But the Lagos state government stunned everyone with its prompt recovery, giving the situation the exact instant response it required. It has since started rebuilding, making the state a much stronger and safer entity. How would Lagos have fared under such circumstances if a man with absolutely no experience like Jandor was at the helm of affairs? I shudder to think of the total state of chaos and collapse we would’ve been faced with.”
“Running a state like Lagos with thousands of foreigners, Nigerians and non Nigerians from outside the country pouring into the state every hour and straining it’s existing infrastructure, is no tea party. For those who think it’s a walk in the park, ask Sanwo-Olu to tell you about his Covid-19 and Endsars experience. If he wasn’t the mentally tough man that he is and also having had some chunk of experience from his years in the public sector, he would’ve been thoroughly overwhelmed and possibly ridiculed by these two catastrophic incidents. But the gentleman rose above all of those challenges and quietly went about his task of rebuilding the state and entrenching it firmly as the state to beat in the entire country. Take it or leave it, Sanwo-Olu showed courage in those very difficult days. He showed tenacity. He showed resilience. He showed focus. Indeed, it must be said that he showed the spirit of Lagos that dwells inside everyone of us, particularly those of us who were either born in Lagos or have spent a large chunk of our years here in the state. With his pretty decent performance in Lagos, it is only fair enough to say Sanwo-Olu has done well, and another term of four years is certainly looking good for him, I do not see Jandor or anyone for that matter stopping that from happening.”
-WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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