Scent of victory in Lagos elections

IT is generally admitted in  politics, as with any  competition, that failure is an orphan. In  contradistinction, the smell of victory and the taste  of  success is  known  to  be sweet. In the Lagos State  governorship  election in which  Jimi Agbaje of the PDP  and Akin  Ambode  of the APC  will  lock horns in the election  of April  11,  2015, the  dust of campaign  is clearing  and it is becoming  clear  who  Lagosians will vote for in that historical and crucial  election. Amongst  Lagosians  generally,  it is becoming  obvious  by the day that change is  imminent  in Alausa.

This is a development  that should be worrisome  to the ruling party  in the state for the past 16  years  and that is the APC. Curiously, the APC is advocating  change  in Abuja  and continuity in Alausa. But it has confused  its teeming supporters in the process  of  campaign  all over  Lagos where the slogan is change  ostensibly because the party leaders  have  taken  their victory in  Lagos  for  granted. Inadvertently, they have forgotten that Lagosians  are even more interested  in their  fate in Lagos than  the  person who occupies Aso Rock  in the March 28  elections.

This is  because  of the proverb  they invoke which says when  your house is on fire you put it out first before that of your neighbour. To  Lagosians, the way  the APC  campaign  team  has been conducting its campaign  has  shown clearly  that it lacks  confidence  in  its candidate  Akin  Ambode  who  has been tied  to the apron string of the incumbent  governor of the state, Raji  Fashola  who, although is a lawyer,  is not much  of an articulate person and politician himself. Keen watchers  of Lagos  2015  elections campaigns have seen this lack of confidence in the ability  of Akin Ambode  to say the  correct  things  to win votes  as  the first  sign  that his candidature  is very vulnerable  especially  in a state  where  it has  always  been  taken  for  granted  that whoever  Bola Tinubu picks will  have  a walk  over  to the governor’s  lodge at Alausa.

This has been the trend for the last 16 years but the
emergence  of  Jimi Agbaje  as the PDP  governorship  candidate  has tilted  the pendulum  of power against the APC in  the forthcoming April  11 governorship  elections  in the state. Indeed the worry amongst  the Lagos electorate and  Lagosians  in  general is  not that Agbaje  and the PDP  will claim  Lagos in the governorship  elections but by what  margin of victory.

Again the reason and tell tale  signs  are  there  for  all  to see. The first  is that Lagosians  have  successfully  resented  and resisted the winner-takes-all  attitude  of the Akin Ambode campaign  machinery  which  brought on board  its  own personnel and  shunned Fashola  loyalists  after  the APC  primaries  that gave the party  governorship ticket  to Akin  Ambode. The  Ambode people  forgot that the Fashola  loyalists are still  in power  and wielded enormous power clout  which  they  have  used to highlight Ambode’s in articulation  and  incoherence  of ideas  even  as their leader was forced to campaign  for Ambode  all  over  Lagos.

These loyalists  have  become bona fide fifth  columnists in the APC campaign  machinery and it is not too certain that some of them are not sympathetic to the  emergent and victory-sensing Jimi Agbaje PDP campaign  machinery .

In many instances,  Lagosians  have started seeing  hitherto inaccessible and unavailable powerful  Lagos  State  officials  and even  commissioners showing up at parties  and social  events which they have shunned  with  contempt  in the recent  past. The message  they seem  to be passing  to their surprised  acquaintances
is  that they  are  back  because  the game  is up  and they know for certain  that it cannot be business  as usual in  the corridors of power in  Lagos politics.

This  is  because the Jimi Agbaje PDP  campaign  in Lagos State  has upset the  apple  cart  of power in  Alausa  and a non -member  of the ruling APC  is  poised  to wrest power  from  the  powers  that  be in  the  leadership  of the party in the state. Such  is the scent  of victory amongst Lagosians  and defected APC  supporters  that  they  now  only  pray to  God and for good  health  to see them  through to  April  11 when  they  cast  their  ballot  to seal  Jimi  Agbaje’s  victory  as the next  governor  of  Lagos State,  Insha Allah
• Alao, a public commentator, writes from Lagos.