2023: Issues as PDP moves confronts APC in Lagos

The 2023 politicking in Lagos State is taking a new trajectory. The actors are at it again, and like the previous electioneering years, they have expressed determination to change the status quo. But talk is cheap, as analysts would say. The electorate would ultimately decide whether they are tired of the status quo since 1999 […]

The 2023 politicking in Lagos State is taking a new trajectory. The actors are at it again, and like the previous electioneering years, they have expressed determination to change the status quo. But talk is cheap, as analysts would say. The electorate would ultimately decide whether they are tired of the status quo since 1999 or not.

 Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) across the country, over the weekend, stormed Lagos State for a grand reception of the convener of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, Abdulazeez Adejare, popularly known as Jandor, who is seen as the beautiful bride of the opposition. He was seen as the biggest catch in a state dominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

That Jandor was a member of the ruling establishment in the state makes him a valuable asset to the opposition; and they are conscious of guarding him jealously in their determination to dislodge the ruling party. 

From 1999 till date, the former governor of the state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been in control of the state. Even after leaving the office in 2007, it is clear to every discerning observer that he has been a political kingmaker in the state’s political landscape. 

Every aspirant in the state only needs the blessing of the Bourdillon’s Lord to win an election. Now, the kingmaker, who has declared interest to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, is facing home challenge.

This, however, may not be entirely new to Asiwaju as he has always faced challenges since 1999. In fact, he was widely hailed for standing tall in the face of federal adversaries. He fought the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to a standstill. 

During the latter days of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, he also defeated the opposition PDP despite enjoying maximum federal support. 

But a new dimension is being introduced into the politics of the state. The opposition PDP has vowed to end the reign of the APC in the state; and they are bolstered by the rancorous congresses in ruling party. While the party may not agree that all is now well in the Centre of Excellence, it is crystal clear that there are thousands of members who are disgruntled with the outcome of the primaries, and they had the gut to even conduct parallel congresses in the state. 

 This, analysts believe, is a bad omen for the state and a signal for the renewed confidence the PDP is exuding. 

Jandor’s declaration for the PDP was the culmination of his year-long struggle and challenge to the establishment. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had barely settled down when he indicated interest to contest the governorship of the state. This was seen as an affront on the establishment, and Jandor quite understood the enormity of the ‘crime’ he had committed and was ready to face the consequences. 

He did not, however, wait to be sanctioned for anti-party activities, so he quit the party immediately after the congresses as its national leadership shunned him and his group to ratify the congresses conducted by the Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu- backed leadership.

When he eventually left, the APC did not waste time to dismiss his defection as good riddance. The Lagos APC spokesman, Seye Oladejo, even tagged him a mole in the party all along.

Irrespective of what the APC thinks about him, Jandor’s ceremonial entry into the PDP has given the opposition the impetus to actualise its dream of ruling the state after suffering consistent defeat from the ruling party.

Apart from members of the PDP in the state who have expressed determination to end Tinubu’s hegemony, other leaders across the country also hope for a day the party would win the governorship election in the state. The massive presence of PDP leaders, including six governors, at the official reception of Jandor speaks volumes about the seriousness of the opposition to take over Lagos State.

Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Okezie Ikpeazu, (Abia); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Dr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Nyesome Wike (Rivers) were among the dignitaries who stormed Lagos for Jandor.

But will the day ever come when the opposition would occupy the Alausa Government House? Many analysts would want to see it as a tall dream, considering the wide popularity and presence of the APC across the 20 local governments and the 37 local council development areas of the state.

However, the discontent among members of the APC provides a veritable platform for the opposition to latch on by wooing some of the aggrieved members to work against the party and pave way for the victory of the opposition in the coming election. This is one major lacuna the opposition can explore and deploy appropriately

“We declare no more slavery in Lagos. By this time next year, we will celebrate a PDP governor in the state,” the national chairman of the PDP, Dr Iyorchia Ayu said at the grand reception organised for Jandor.

While Ayu claimed that Jandor’s entrance into the PDP had reunited the party in the state, this may be far from true as various tendencies within the party are still working at cross-purposes. This is the reason the state chapter is yet to have a substantive executive after the botched congress of October 2021.

Many believe that the Lagos PDP as presently constituted lacks the requisite coherence and unity to demystify the ruling party; hence it requires unity of purpose and members dropping their ambitions and ego to work for the party.

A former deputy chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George, was conscious of this when he charged members of the party to work together for success in the 2023 elections.

“We welcome Mr Adediran and his followers who have decided to abandon the sinking and blighted ship of the APC for a renewed, energised, invigorated, forward-looking PDP. Let it be known by all and sundry that the strength of all political parties resides precisely in their population. The more the merrier. A good political party does not turn people away. It embraces everyone who can contribute to the progress of the party,” he said.

George, who is the PDP leader in the state, also declared that the party was ready to send away the ruling APC in 2023.

Speaking on why he dumped the APC, Jandor reiterated that he wanted to win election for the PDP, saying he was not coming to be a plague.

He disclosed that he decided to join the PDP because the ruling APC was “hell-bent on continuing in their old ways of suppressing popular choices of the people as strongly indicated again in the last ward, local government and state congresses, where earlier scripted names ahead of the process were selected into office with impunity.

“We at the Lagos4Lagos Movement decided to leave the ruling APC and join the PDP, a move we believe will subject our aspirations to make Lagos work for all, to the wishes of the generality of Lagosians as against subjecting it to the mood of an individual,” he added.  

But the ruling party is undaunted by the renewed vigour of the opposition. The spokesman of the APC, Seye Oladejo, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the party would not be distracted “by the departure of a group that has a reputation of rabble-rousing, having emerged from nowhere in recent times.”

Speaking on the move by the opposition to dislodge the status quo, a political scientist, Dr Kayode Esuola, observed that it is not going to be easy to defeat the ruling party.

“It is not impossible for the opposition to take over Lagos, but it depends on who would form the party.

“The feasibility of the APC defeating the PDP was initially dull in 2014, but by the time certain political heavyweights moved to form and join the APC, a party that once boasted of ruling the country for 50 years collapsed like a pack of cards.

“This is not to say that it will come easy because the current APC’s strategy is what I call ‘Putting Lagos in progress,’ in which case the government embarks on so many infrastructures that the people look forward to. Behaviourally, people looking forward are more likely to ignore the opposition because of the fear of truncating the infrastructure drives.

“However, the Nigerian politics has always been elite-driven, to the tune of 60 per cent. If there is an elite gang-up like that of anti-PDP in 2014, the APC-Tinubu hegemony, so-called, can as well collapse. In all these, Fashola, Ambode and Osinbajo are critical deciders,” he said.