Lagos State Governor, Raji Fashola’s successor is expected to be unveiled later in October, and already our reporter gathered that major actors on the scene are ready to go head to head with the national leader of the party, Ahmed Tinubu and Lagos Oba, Rilwanu Akiolu.
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Already the party is torn between religion and zoning, even though it is widely believed that the governorship seat has been zoned to the East senatorial district of the state.
The list of contestants so far include, Akin Ambode, the state’s former Accountant General; speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji; the Works and Infrastructure Commissioner, Mr. Femi Hamzat; former commissioner for health and education under former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dr. Leke Pitan and Muiz Banire.
Others are Senator Ganiyu Olarenwaju Solomon (GOS), currently representing Lagos West senatorial district in the Senate; Senator Bariyu Gbenga Ashafa, the minority leader in the House of Representatives; Hon. Femi Gbajabiamilia, among others.
Findings by the Nigerian Pilot Sunday, however, revealed that while feelers point to the fact that it may not be zoning and religion tearing the party apart, the overbearing influence of the duo of Ahmed Tinubu and Oba Akiolu and their insistence on, Akin Ambode might be the undoing to the party in the end.
According to the national legal adviser of the party, who is also in the contest, he told newsmen at a recent function that the party’s constitution has no place for zoning, adding that it was not only alien to the party but unconstitutional.
Another aspirant, Senator Solomon, who also kicked against the idea, noted that it was the first time in the history of the state that anybody would sit down and say, “We are zoning to this particular person”.
He, however, argued that those behind the decision made a mistake by saying they were zoning to a particular town, this time around, Epe, instead of Lagos East in general, which also boasts of important towns like Ikorodu and others.
Notwithstanding the zoning, Solomon, who is the Senator representing Lagos West, has traced his roots to Ikorodu, where his mother hails from.
Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila representing Surulere federal constituency of the state in the House of Representatives, is also entrenched in the contest and insisting that a level playing field must be found for all the contestants come October, through a democratic process.
Meanwhile the various aspirants remain unshakable to moves by those they regard as their political traducers, the influence and open campaign by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu for Akinwumi Ambode is commonplace.
At a recent book launch in the state, Oba Akilu declared that Ambode would be the next governor of Lagos State and asked other aspirants to go and wait for their turn.
According to the monarch, Ambode is the choice of key leaders in the state, recalling also that that was how he picked Governor Fashola, but that those who disagreed with his choice initially later reconciled and cooperated with him (Fashola).
It is also believed that the traditional ruler might have spoken the mind of the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu is also said to be in support of Ambode’s candidature. He recently mobilised all the 57 local government and LCDA chairmen for towards this cause.
But even as this horse trading plays out, sources close to Alausa government house told this paper that the incumbent, Governor Raji Fashola, is not disposed to the position of his boss.
Just as Gbajabiamila, Ganiyu Solomom, Banire and a host of other contestants have established thriving campaign offices near the seat of government in Alausa, Ikeja to show their unwavering commitment to their individual aspirations.