In this season of party primaries to select candidates to contest elective positions in the forthcoming general elections, it is customary to witness controversies, acrimony and outright mudslinging in the course of such emotive political process. But no one ever expected the level to which things eventually degenerated in the Lagos APC.
The reasons for that state of affairs however are not unexpected. For some time, there had been rumoUrs of a misunderstanding between the incumbent Governor, Ambode and the APC National leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The rumour mills adduced myriads of reasons for this misunderstanding between a godfather and his godson.
In matters of that nature, many pundits are readily available in beer parlours, motor parks, free readers at news-stands and such odd places propounding outlandish theories as to the root causes of the feud.
Some said the feud arose between the duo because the Governor stopped some agreed percentage of the State revenue that goes to Tinubu’s personal accounts and hence the reason why the latter wanted the incumbent out.
Others said it was because the Asiwaju always wanted to single-handedly dictate who the Lagos Governor because of his greed for power. Some still gave other reasons, which are too numerous to list here as reasons why Tinubu shifted his support from Ambode to someone else.
But before the latest political maneuverings, Mr Akinwumi Ambode himself, some six months ago or so, had made the move to save his job probably because he realised that some surprises were in the offing for him in his party nominations that were to come.
In that move, virtually all the 57 local government areas in Lagos had held public rallies in support of the Governor for a second term in office.
Coupled with what has been generally regarded as the Governor’s sterling performance, nearly every public observer thought Ambode’s nomination by his party and subsequent second term in office was a done deal.
What was however baffling was the fact that throughout the time of the Ambode solidarity rallies and all kinds of fake news generated by the on-line social media and various rumour mills, mum was the word from Jagaban himself.
Because of that silence, all the Tinubu haters were having a field day lambasting him for refusing to adopt Ambode as the party’s candidate for Lagos.
Some of them urged Ambode to decamp to another party and contest on the platform of that party. They were cock sure if he did, he would win and disgrace Tinubu!
The man was called many unprintable names because of his refusal to accede to their agitation to endorse their performing Governor for second term.
In all this, one cannot but sympathise with Asiwaju’s position in this matter. Previously, his political opponents had always accused him of single-handedly imposing candidates on the party. They accused him of imposing Fashola, they said same thing about Ambode’s first coming.
Now that the man is saying that the selection of party candidates be left entirely to the party members in a direct primary process, his traducers also find fault with that. What else do Asiwaju bashers want?
One important lesson that can be drawn from this political saga is that any politician that wants to achieve success in that calling must think, analyse and formulate sound principles for his political actions. Once he is satisfied that his principles are sound, he should stick with them and be resolute in the pursuit of the political objectives based on them.
That is what Tinubu has done in this matter. The indirect primaries method of selecting party candidates had become a bane of our political system and hence the earlier it was abandoned the better for our country and all concerned.
The method is too prone to manipulation and corruption by people who hold temporary powers and are not concerned with the growth and development of the party that brought them to power in the first place.
Perhaps this is why Jagaban is pioneering the clamour for the adoption of the direct primaries method which was eventually adopted in Lagos some days ago.
Going by the level of desperation exhibited by Akinwumi Ambode these few days, especially his press conference before the primaries, it would probably have been difficult to unseat him if the indirect primaries method had been used despite the desire of the generality of the party membership.
This brings me to a few comments about Governor Akinwumi Ambode himself as a person. Such a vibrant, brilliant, dashing and like-able personality! In the last three and half years or so he mesmerised Lagosians with his apparently good performance. Minus his inability to be a team player, he would have gone down as one of the best governors of Lagos.
The position of a state governor is a highly sensitive position in which the occupant needs to carefully consider the feelings and idiosyncrasies of every segments of the state populace and even his party members and leadership. He would on many occasions be called upon to deal with complex interrelationships, and at all times he must strike a balance if he is to succeed. Unfortunately, that is what Governor Ambode could not achieve.
However, I am personally impressed by the humility and gallantry he demonstrated at the end of it all when he accepted his party’s verdict and congratulated his successful challenger, Mr Jide Sanwo-Olu.
By this singular act of commitment and loyalty to his party, he has shamed all the Tinubu and APC haters who had thought that with this Ambode episode, the Jagaban has met his comeuppance.
But the young Governor is more sensible than they all are. He knew that a brighter future awaits him in Nigeria politics and that in a short time, another opportunity shall knock on his door given his all-round brilliance.
I hope all the fake political pundits who had predicted the the downfall of the APC and Tinubu after the Lagos gubernatorial primaries will forever bury their dumb heads in shame.
