Chief Tunde Temionu, a chieftain of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who has handled the Publicity Secretariat of the party in the Lagos East Senatorial District for the past four years, spoke on the implications of the outcome of Ekiti State governorship elections to the party. He also expressed optimism on the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun State and the challenges facing the Lagos chapter of the party over the search for the successor of the outgoing governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola in 2015. SEYE OLUMIDE reports.

With the present political waves in Lagos State, many aspirants are hell-bent on grabbing the APC party ticket for the 2015 governorship election, would there be a level playing ground?

First of all, I wish all the aspirants the best of luck. And I also want to remind them that two persons cannot simultaneously occupy the potential vacancy. And I also believe that as Nigerians, all the aspirants are eligible.

In this circumstance therefore, destiny has a very important role to play. For example, Nigerians voted for the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief MKO Abiola in the 1993 Presidential election to become our president, but God said “NO”. That should be enough lessons for us. Human beings conduct primaries, but God picks a governor, period.

These aspirants must not be dissatisfied with the party and its leadership. Party governorship tickets are not meant for disloyal aspirants. One thing that I am very sure of is that the Lagos APC will conduct party primaries where all the aspirants will test their popularity at the party level.
So, aspirants who have all it takes to win the primary need not panic and should be able to trust their party leadership for free and fair primaries.
Some of the aspirants appear to have preferred being anointed by the leadership of the party instead of going through the primary?

Well, that may be the wish of those aspirants. But my leaders have not told me of arrangements to anoint any aspirant. In all the meetings that I was privileged to attend, the information was that the party’s candidate would emerge through a democratically conducted primary election. That all the aspirants are still on the field soliciting party members’ support is a clear indication that no one has been anointed. While determined aspirants are working hard to become more popular within the party, to enable them to achieve their objectives, some are reacting to rumours and anointed son.

What is your advice to those aspirants who were hell bent on getting the party’s ticket otherwise they would do in Lagos what Bamidele did in Ekiti?

It is not possible for the primary to simultaneously favour all the aspirants. But it is possible for some people or a mole to have won the contract to destroy the APC in Lagos State. Do it the Bamidele way and get the same result as Bamidele!

Should destiny take its course, in this regard, what do you think would be the likely reaction of aspirants like of the former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan; the former Commissioner for Rural Development, Dr.Tola Kasali; the current Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji; the current serving Senator representing the East Senatorial District, Alhaji Bariyu Asafa; the current LIRB boss, Mr. Tunde Fowler; the current Commissioner for Works, Dr. Obafemi Kadir Hamzat; the current serving senator representing the West Senatorial District, Senator Ganiyu Solomon; and the former Accountant General of the State, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode?

Your have asked an interesting and fact-finding question. Evidently, apart from Mr. Akinwumi Ambode and Mr. Tunde Fowler, all the aspirants are beneficiaries of the party. They had one time or another enjoyed the blessing and support of the party leadership.

By virtue of their positions, they are all leaders of the party. And as men of honour and stakeholders, who are fully aware that the party does not belong to one person or a group of persons, they are like people living in glass houses, who must not throw stones. Although you cannot take human beings for granted, they are all party loyalists and positive people who are not supposed to be thinking only of what the party can do for them, but what they also can do for the party.

Are you saying that all of these aspirants are thinking the same way as you?

No, I am looking at the matter from the angle of good minds, and the way things should be if we sincerely put the party first, and join hands with other leaders to build a united, strong and formidable party.

How would you assess these individuals, their eligibility and other qualities?

No doubt, I know some of them to an extent. Subjectively, by all standards they are all qualified to be governor. For instance, I know Dr. Tola Kasali to be a reliable party builder in the East Senatorial District. No matter how smooth or rough the political situation might be, he can never be a party to the destruction of the APC that he contributed immensely to its growth in Lagos East.

He loves the party. We both worked together with other senatorial leaders to nurture the party in the east for the past four years. Moreover, this is not his first attempt at the governorship ticket. Whichever way it happens this time, as a good Muslim, he will accept the will of Allah. He is not a violent person. I wish him well.

Dr. Leke Pitan is a self-satisfied person. He has never been identified with political violence or anti-party activities. As an elitist politician, it will take him only a short while to completely blend with the grassroots. Thereafter, the sky is his limit. Like other aspirants who have benefited from the party’s leadership style, all things being equal, he has the right to benefit again.

But one thing I am sure of is, his medical consulting room cannot disappoint him. A good contestant must be propelled by variable outcomes. Should the worst happen, he is magnanimous enough to think of the other side of the coin, moreover, clinical exigencies will not give him time for an unproductive project against the party.

The Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Ikuforiji, is a seasoned politician and the number three citizen of this state. By virtue of his position, he is a member of the party’s supreme apex caucus in the state. Should there be the need for the caucus to take a decision on any pending matter in the state, including the governorship race, he (Mr. Speaker) would certainly be a part of such a decision. He has that edge over other aspirants.

As an astute leader and principal stakeholder, his continuous and positive contributions to the political growth of the party in Lagos East will remain indelible in the senatorial archives. In a similar vein, his leadership qualities and administrative values are reflected in the state legislative accomplishment.

As a pathfinder and a lucky politician, he is the first speaker to have contested elections in a sequence, from the East and the West senatorial districts. That was seen as a special dispensation, not an imposition.
His administration also established the first Assembly Commission in Lagos State. All of these are clear proof of a builder. Notwithstanding, all of these notable achievements could not have been possible without the support of the party leadership. Above all, with all of these progressive inputs of his, and all he has gained from the party’s leadership style, he cannot destroy the house he built because of any odd reason.

Senator Asafa is a gentleman to the core. His constituency projects and support for the grassroots were an additional value to the achievement of the leadership of Lagos East. Destiny catapulted him as former Permanent Secretary of Lands to the political arena and he became the serving senator of the district. He is a fast learner, magnanimous and kind. His political advancement was not a solo effort.

He is a jolly good fellow and among those who benefited from the same leadership style. I do not see it possible for him to over react should there be a temporary delay in his political ambition, because he is not a do or die politician. Above all, he is not an ingrate who would bite the political fingers that fed him.

Although I am not that close to Tunde Fowler, from my observation and what people say about him, he is neither a difficult person nor an enemy of progress. The way he propels himself, his figure and vigour depict the gentleman in him, different from a typical Nigerian politician. I was invited to his daughter’s wedding recently; the takeaway pack he gave me comprised a book entitled Self-Improvement by John C. Maxwell. I have read Leadership Gold and the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by the same author.

But the book he gave me added to my understanding of leadership, and his action gave me an insight into the stuff that he was made of. From all indications, such a man signifies his intention because he is confident of his leadership qualities and administrative capability. Certainly, politics is a vocation; it will take some time for a political leader to stage a dangerous mutiny. If the primary does not favour him, he has nothing to lose. After all, he is still the boss at LIRS. Although he will need to work more on the grassroots, with him, mutinous harm is not envisaged.

The Commissioner for Works, Dr. Hamzat, is another man that I have respect for. Although he is not a loud politician, he has a solid progressive political background. Not that we are very close. But on the few occasions that we spoke one-on-one, even without his wearing beads, his posture signified nobility, his approaches and princely disposition reflected the blue blood in him.

Evidently, by inheritance, he is a principal stakeholder in the party. His siblings are also in government on the platform of the APC in Lagos State. The fact that his father, an honourable commissioner in Alhaji Lateef Jakande’s cabinet, and who is now The Olu of Afoowa-Shagade, Ogun State, Oba Mufutau Hamzat, is also one of the most reliable pillars of the APC in Lagos State. The monarch not only commands respect within and outside the party, he is a man of honour and one of the trustees of the party in the state. Moreover, based on Dr. Kadir Obafemi Hamzat’s political root, and all the chains of benefits, he is not among those who can destroy the party, come rain or shine.

It seems Senator Ganiyu Solomon has a different approach to the issue…
How do you mean?
While many of the aspirants mentioned have been circumspect in their utterances and actions, Solomon has been on the offensive and warned that the party might lose Lagos if it refused to organise free, fair and transparent primaries to pick candidates. A group called the New Lagos Movement (NLM) headed by Mr. Niyi Akinsiju has also implored the APC national Chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun, to urgently address what he described as problems currently facing the party.

Yes, due to inordinate ambition and the wrong approach, the aspiration of those who are perfidious to the party may be destroyed. Certainly, the party leadership will not fold its arms for vandals and political rascals to take over the party. I am not convinced that the NLM boss outburst had the approval of Solomon! Such a threat and vituperation was not expected of a senator, who is also a party leader or his emissary. The way I understand Akinsiju, in the first place, the Senator’s threat was on the grounds that Tinubu did not anoint him. And secondly, that Asiwaju had anointed a godson for the governorship race.

Suffice it to say that he (Solomon) was aware that Tinubu had that political anointing oil with him. The Senator should also know that the anointing environment is fenced with absolute loyalty and admission is for calm, humane, and courtly party members.

What he is threatening Tinubu to do for him is what he is indicting Tinubu for doing for another person. If for him, it is just; but for another person, it is unjust. A person who wants to be anointed by intimidation is like a baptismal applicant who chooses to disobey baptismal instructions from the priest or his baptismal godfather.

Since baptism is the prerequisite for the admission of Christians into heaven, such an applicant may remain unbaptized, and a semi-Christian. Consequently, he will have problems with admission into the Kingdom of God.

Some reasons why Senator Solomon must not throw stones in a glasshouse are: evidently, he rode on the coattails of Asiwaju as an anointed son to become a council chairman, and thereafter, to the House of Representatives, and to the Senate for the first and second terms. Solomon did well as a legislator, thanks to positive godfatherism. Records have it that about the last four party tickets that Solomon got were synonymous with carrying placard. His encounter with Senator Afikuyomi was a melodrama.

Violence or intimidation could be used to get party tickets in lower primaries but no responsible party leadership will succumb to blackmail of any kind in the case of a gubernatorial ticket. In this cautious and sensitive circumstance, as the leadership of the party is shopping for a formidable and marketable candidate, it is synonymous with antiparty activities for any party member to be vituperative, unruly, or attempt to cause disunity in the party. Above all, Solomon has not been identified with ingrate.

With all that he had benefited from the party leadership style, now that he is on top, he is supposed to work hand in glove with the leadership of the party to fight common enemies and correct usual internal human errors to enable the party to excel, mould and sustain a solid political platform for the unborn progressives. A child, who naively breaks his mother’s cooking pot because of a late breakfast, will be denied lunch and dinner. Good leaders build, they don’t destroy.

Most of the aspirants seem to be irked because the party leadership is already showing special interest in Ambode, whom they said is not a politician but a technocrat and money engineer who might not be able to cope as governor?

Like I said about all other aspirants, Ambode is a special stuff. The people you mention do not understand that his financial expertise and technocracy add value to his eligibility. His twenty-seven years as a professional accountant and civil service career was grassroots oriented. So by virtue of his job, he has been a non-registered practising politician for many years. But now that he is formally registered to practise politics, his political sophistication and broad grassroots coordination skills have taken aback those who did not see him as a politician before now, and made him formidable, and a challenge to his opponents.

What do you mean by ‘non-registered practising politician’, and how does that reflect in his (Ambode’s) aspiration?

A person whose day-to-day job functions are connected with politicians, but who is not directly involved in politics as a result of his job, and in accordance with the law of the land, is a non-registered practising politician. For instance, Ambode had worked as council treasurer in virtually all the 20 existing local government councils in Lagos State. And when we say local government, we mean the grassroots.

Thereafter, he proceeded to the state in the same capacity but at a more advanced level. He became Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance. He was the sitting Accountant-General of the state during the 2007 and 2011 governorship elections, and was able to effectively curtail the excesses of politicians. Wise men know what that means,

Ambode’s case is like that of a team-player-craftsman who had gone round all the sections of a construction project, became a supervisor, and headed the project. Should he eventually become the project manager, definitely, the project is in safe hands.

Now, to your second question, Ambode’s antecedents reflect very positively on his aspiration. As a journalist, go to town and find out for yourself. You will observe that his friends, colleagues and well-wishers have formed many campaign groups awaiting his party ticket.


It’s being alleged that he is not an indigene of Lagos?

That is a trivial issue. Unless those who doubt his indigene status want to as well doubt the status of the Olisa of Epe, Chief Korede Kareem Alaolu who in his public statement said “Ambode is by all rights and privileges a native of Epe and Ajagonobe extraction and therefore, he is a descendant of Ajagonobe family.”


Therefore, many people see it as tantamount to being a busybody, or being Catholic more than the Pope to say that Ambode is not a member of the Ajagonobe family in Epe.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/features/policy-a-politics/173866-lagos-apc-has-no-plan-to-anoint-any-candidate

By Seye Olumide