Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is out and could be down in weeks.OMOLEYE TIMILEHIN points out his options.
Except miracles happen, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode will walk away on May
29, 2019 with unenviable records. He will be the first sitting governor
in the South-Western part of the country since the return of democracy
in 1999, to be beaten to a second term ticket. He will also be the third
in the entire country, following in the footsteps of the late Mala
Kachalla of Borno State and Chinwoke Mbadinuju of Anambra State.
The
trio fell to the machinations of the political powers and forces that
raised them, but the duo before the Epe-born accountant-made-governor,
could be luckier, considering that they were allowed to complete their
single term.
Kachalla even sought a second term mandate on the
platform of the then Alliance for Democracy (AD) but beaten to a distant
third position as the incumbent. Mbadinuju was offered a senatorial or
ministerial portfolio, by his nemesis, which he turned down.
Sunday
Tribune can also reveal that Ambode too got, at least, an alternative
offer when the clouds began gathering. At a meeting of the Governor’s
Advisory Council (GAC) which usually holds in the Bourdillion home of
his now-adversarial godfather, Bola Tinubu, the governor was offered
senatorial ticket for Lagos East, in exchange for a drop-out from the
governorship primaries, so that he would not walk away empty-handed. He
declined the offer.
Another unconfirmed report says there were
also other soft-landing propositions, but he would not go down quietly
and without a fight.
He fought and lost, and despite a
humiliating surrender, feelers from the political circles in the state,
suggest the battle isn’t over for him.
Though he allegedly
surrendered and agreed to walk away after the completion of his single
term, in order to stave off possible impeachment by the House of
Assembly which is committed to seeing his back, the skies over him, are
reportedly not as whiter and clearer as he would have desired, to have a
smooth sail to May 29.
Sunday Tribune checks showed that the
unabated moves to terminate his tenure before the next year general
election, are still as alive as when the battle to stop his second term
began.
Two conclusions are reportedly driving the renewed
agitation by hawks in the camp of his embittered godfather, to fire him,
through impeachment.
It was learnt that his association with
the factional state executive council headed by Lagos politics
strongman, Fouad Oki, during the struggle for the party ticket with the
new candidate Jide Sanwo-Olu, didn’t go down well with the other side,
though in the thick of the contest, Sanwo-Olu too, through his campaign
Director-General, Tayo Ayinde, sought cooperation from the same leading
factional elements like Oki and Muiz Banire, the immediate past National
Legal Adviser of the party.
The governor’s concession could also
be deemed to be too ‘easy’ for comfort. In some circles, it is being
viewed as a bait for his traducers to let down their guard, considering
the sweat and blood that went into the gruelling ticket duel.
“The thinking is that as long as he has access to state funds, he can do a lot of damage” a source reasoned.
Ambode
can be said to be a victim of his lack of tact when the going was good
between him and his godfather, with the outgoing governor said to always
be willing to take up any semblance of battle his godfather was facing
then, regardless of whether the owner of the battle, wanted to fight or
not.
Most of the non-aligned political enemies he made, Sunday
Tribune was told, were from battles that had nothing to do with him but
his godfather, who is now waging same war against him.
A few days
back, a political enemy of the governor told a Sunday Tribune source
that he long foresaw his pitiable end, but that not many took him
serious then.
Having helped his godfather fight his battles
beyond what the owner envisaged when they were chummy together, sources
on both sides, refused to dismiss the possibility that the governor’s
enemies would never believe he was ready to walk away peaceably until
they walk him away, on their terms.
“Akin (Governor Ambode) will
have to take his own the way it has come. But I can tell you their (his
traducers) own too will come” a bigwig who is neutral in the fight, told
Sunday Tribune on Thursday.
The State House of Assembly had
publicly denied considering impeaching the governor and many political
watchers in the state, doubted if the Tinubu camp would go for what
would seem an overkill, but Sunday Tribune findings showed that the
Bourdillion group isn’t leaving anything to chance.
For the state
executive that dumped the governor for Tinubu, mum has been the
password since Ambode was muscled out of the race. Getting any of the
officials to speak on the future of the governor in the party, is like
getting the dumb to pronounce the longest word in the dictionary. The
refusal to comment could actually mean not knowing, but even those who
know aren’t talking.
Sunday Tribune was told by a top party
analyst that President Muhammadu Buhari, regardless of how Ambode ends
in Lagos, could make him a big threat to Tinubu in 2019 by offering him a
ministerial position that would make his adversaries in Lagos, green
with envy.
This possibility is reasoned as the most likely
possibility the governor would not be thrown out before May 29. The
Babatunde Fashola experience must still be fresh in the minds of members
of the Tinubu camp.
Though he, leading other South-West rebels,
could not dislodge Tinubu and his own in Osun and at least in Lagos, for
now, the BRF gang did substantial damage to Tinubu’s political
interests in Ondo and Ekiti States. And since it doesn’t look like
Buhari would be dumping BRF anytime soon, the combination of both,
Fashola and Ambode as ex-governors, could be too devastating for the
Lagos Lords.
An associate of the man who would soon be governor,
Sanwo-Olu told Sunday Tribune that the Tinubu camp was very mindful of
what Buhari could and would likely do to possibly undermine Tinubu,
after winning the second and final term in office, especially with the
way the party’s National Leader rebuffed both his direct and emissaries’
pleas, to allow Ambode a second term in office.
Tinubu’s alleged
involvement in the crises rocking Imo, Ondo and Ogun primaries in which
his men are having the upper hand, particularly in Ogun State where
Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Buhari’s closest ally in the South-West, had
been given a bloodied nose, is also said not to be going unnoticed by
the president.
A party enthusiast says Tinubu should be worried
that Buhari persuaded his closest ally, Amosun, to allow Tinubu have a
runaway victory in his backyard. The worried source said the president
was allowing Tinubu to make a lot of enemies for himself in his backyard
to get him toasted, an easy job, after the 2019 poll.
“He can’t
continue rubbishing this president without Abuja fighting at the
appropriate time. If he (Tinubu) wanted to impeach Ambode, the president
despite his warm disposition towards the governor, can even tell the
governor to resign and walk away. But there is no way, there won’t be a
blow back. The form is what is not known now” the party source said.
Months
before Sanwo-Olu was eventually unveiled as Bourdillion choice, some
political calculations were made known to Sunday Tribune. Three persons
were said to have been locked in a tense meeting with Tinubu at his
home. Two of them were well-known billionaires and the third an
influential lobbyist. A proposal from Tinubu reportedly went to one of
them to replace Ambode on the party’s ticket.
He reasoned that
as a bosom friend of the governor, he should not be seen reaping from
his ‘misfortune’. Seyi, Tinubu’s son, was reportedly tipped as the
billionaire’s running mate. There were no commitments.
Suddenly,
the billionaire friend was heavily linked with another governorship
project. It was taken to be Ambode’s agenda. By the time, corruption
allegations were flying against the godfather, the governor was
pointedly accused of being battle ready.
The second billionaire
friend of the governor, who was also at the said meeting, met a party
chieftain from Lagos in Abuja recently and complained that “people like
you, turned one man to what he is today” referring to Tinubu and his
total institutional control of the state.
Now, that his
governor-friend has been disgraced, the question is if he too, will join
in the fight to demolish the godfather, despite their relationship too?
But
the more critical issue is if the governor himself is willing to fight,
at least, to end the dominance of his erstwhile godfather. His friend
is no longer in contention for any major ticket, but the suspicion
lingers that he might get into anti-candidate mode like others before
him, who are beefing with the godfather.
Will Ambode,
acknowledged, as the captain of the class of current governors, turn a
rebel, to undermine at least in Lagos, the platform that made him? Every
eye is trained on Lagos, as Nigerians await the gladiators’ next moves.
