By Ehichioya Ezomon
A man shouldn’t embark on a race he knows he won’t be able to finish. That’s what Governor Akinwunmi Ambode did these past weeks. He left till the very end a decision that could have saved face, and avoided unnecessary bad blood. His restitution, by conceding defeat at the primaries, congratulating Jide Sanwo-Olu and urging support for his election, was too little, too late.
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When Sanwo-Olu sprang like a bolt from the blue, Lagosians, and the larger Nigerian society thought it was a huge September joke. But when those that matter in Lagos APC started to declare their support, and lined behind him, the populace began to take notice.
And it didn’t take time for Governor Ambode to realise that his second term ambition was cut out for him, as the decks seemed stacked against him. Thus, he needed to appease the “powers” that brought him to his present station in life.
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With bended knees, he moved round Lagos, and from there to Osogbo, to Abuja and back to Lagos. No headway, while the support for Sanwo-Olu grew in leaps and bounds, developing into a movement capable of quaking the state’s political terrain. That’s when the governor should have quit the race.
However, many concerned Nigerians held out hope that an Ambode second term was still achievable. One was among those optimists, who decided to write the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to have a rethink about replacing him with Sanwo-Olu.
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Dated September 25, and routed through one of Tinubu’s aides, Oshodi, who acknowledged receipt of the missive, my plea was to find a common ground, a “compromise” that would ensure continuity of Ambode’s administration till 2023. Below is an abridged version of the letter.
“Coming down to the issue of the Governorship Primaries in Lagos, many people expected that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode would get the APC ticket on a platter. But as recent events have shown, that may not be possible. The Mandate Group and allied bodies that you head or have influence over have all the aces, which they want or have vowed to play for Mr. Sanwo-Olu.
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“Nonetheless, due to current fluidity in the polity, taking the Osun governorship poll as one of such uncertainties, you may have to realign your position in the Lagos primaries. Look thoroughly at Governor Ambode, and you would see a crest-fallen… and sober personality different from his usual boisterous attitude.
“So, for the Lagos APC to go into the 2019 elections as one family, may I suggest that a “COMPROMISE” be worked out in which Ambode will get the guber ticket, while Sanwo-Olu will pair as his running mate… In this agreement, Sanwo-Olu will not just be a Deputy Governor, but should be assigned major portfolios that impact on the good people of Lagos, and the APC members in particular.
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“Sir, I know you have the power, and the political will to bring into fruition my suggestion(s) above. The arrangement can be effected in the next 24 hours, before the primaries. Do not throw away the baby (Ambode) with the bathwater… Give him a second chance to prove his remorseful self for all Lagosians to see. There’s always a tomorrow, and other avenues to hold a political recalcitrant to account!”
I wouldn’t know if the Asiwaju gave any cognisance to this “letter” pleading Ambode’s cause, as events moved in rapidity in the next few days, culminating in the governor addressing a press conference to lay very damaging allegations against Sanwo-Olu and the leadership of the APC in Lagos.
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Perhaps, Ambode had concluded he stood no chance. If it were a battle of the brawn, he could come tops. But this is politics, which is like magic – an advanced trick. The more you look, the less you see! And only the adept can master its intricacies to get results.
So, the governor played his last card. He issued a threat to unleash security agents on “trouble makers,” who may want to disrupt the primaries. Waow! A ruling government couldn’t be more brazen against opposition elements!
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The operative words in the definition of “waow” by the Urban Dictionary are amusement, embarrassing, stupid, amazing and dumb – all perfectly capturing Governor Ambode’s press conference on the Lagos APC primaries that finally held and dumped him from contesting in the 2019 elections.
Yet, the victim of his “attacks,” Sanwo-Olu, assumed the position of a pacifist, refusing to go into the gutter with the governor. According to him: “Many things he (Ambode) said were beneath the dignity of our people and the exalted office he now holds. Perhaps, the tension and anxiety of the moment got the better of him.
“If given a chance at cooler reflection of what he said, I am sure he would regret his descent into such low conduct. In this vein, I forgive him and hope he regains his balance and proper comportment no matter the outcome of tomorrow’s contest.”
Sanwo-Olu’s demeanour reminds one of the immortal words of former United States First Lady, Michele Obama, in a speech endorsing the presidential nomination of the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25, 2016.
The essence of Mrs. Obama’s “rousing and emotional appeal” to Democrats was that when others lose their heads, we should keep ours, which lesson, she said, she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, instilled in their daughters. She said: “… we explain (to them) that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is: when they go low, we go high.”
The upper Sunday, Asiwaju Tinubu, who had remained taciturn in the brewing controversy, declared his backing for Sanwo-Olu, in whom he said he had found a worthy successor to Ambode that he accused specifically of deviating from the 20-year-old Lagos State Development Master Plan.
That was the end of the game for the governor. The rest is history, from which other politically-ambitious persons should learn from – perhaps, a lesson that Ambode learned quite late!
* Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.