The general election is inching closer by the day and the major actors are putting finishing touches to their campaign. Though the presidential election will come first, that of the gubernatorial candidates will follow on March 2.
In Lagos, where the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) hold sway, the contest is between the candidate of the ruling party and their main nemesis in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999, have been trying to wrestle control of the state from the hands of the any party that Bola Tinubu belongs to.
Over the years, the party has put forward several formidable candidates in the hope of finally securing the interest of the interest of the majority of Lagosians and overcoming the political hegemony of Tinubu in the state.
However, among all the contestants the PDP has put forward, none has been more consistent than Jimi Agbaje, a veteran contestant, the 2019 elections will be Agbeje’s third try for the politician, though his first try was not under the umbrella of the PDP, Agbaje will give it another go with the party for the second consecutive electoral cycle.
However, unlike his two previous campaign that was issues based which captured the attention of the many education upper middle-class Lagosians, the trained pharmacist turned politician seems to have deviated from the norm and has based his campaign on personality attack rather than addressing problems.
Agbaje main campaign strategy this term looks to be to create a feeling among Lagosians that they are in bondage and they need to liberate themselves from the clutches of Bola Tinubu, Agabje insists that the APC candidate, Jide Sanwo-Olu, is a puppet to the former governor and he will only be accountable to his puppet-master and not Lagosians.
This much was Agbeje’s view on the campaign train recently and it seems to have finally warranted a response from the APC candidate who stated Agbaje was a frustrated candidate who knows he is on his last electoral lap and heading towards the door of political retirement.
In a statement by the Sanwo-Olu campaign, it state’s that the PDP candidate’s reference to the APC flag bearer’s close relationship with Bola Tinubu was a plus, it indicates that Sanwo-Olu has been properly schooled in the art of leadership and governance.
The statement suggested that Agbaje deserves sympathy due to his numerous failures.
“Sanwo-Olu’s private and public experience is not what the likes of Agbaje could buy over a supermarket shelve, and would take them at least two decades of quality experience to place them on the same pedestal like him,” the statement reads.
“Sanwo-Olu described Agbaje’s recent vituperation, where he described him as a puppet to the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as a not only complimentary, but an affirmation of the notion that he is the most experienced for the job, having been properly schooled in the art and science of governance.
“He further reminded Mr Agbaje and his co-travellers in the journey of political ignominy of an incontrovertible fact that he (Mr Sanwo-Olu) has been part of the progressive social, economic and political trajectory of modern Lagos, which started with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and was passed on to the actualized, Mr Babatunde Fashola, who in turn handed over to the incumbent governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, for consolidation,” the statement concluded.
Still, on Sanwo-Olu, the Arewa Community in Lagos State have declared their unreserved support for the APC governorship candidate stating that the body will mobilise its members to support the ruling party’s flag bearer in the March 2 governorship election.
“We, Arewa Community in Lagos State, it is not the first time, not the second time (that we have been supporting the APC). In 2011, we supported (Babatunde) Fashola; in 2015, we supported (Akinwunmi) Ambode and now, it is Sanwo-Olu.
“It is what Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) says that we will do. We, members of the Arewa Community in Lagos State, are Asiwaju’s followers. Anywhere Asiwaju is, that is where we are. We have been following him since the days of the AD),” the group said.
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