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In 2014, Akinwumi Ambode was single-handedly picked by the elders of Lagos APC and made the governor of Lagos State on a platter. With the support of Jagaban, he won the election against all odds.
Ambode was picked against the wish of Babatunde Fashola, because Obafemi Hamzat was his primary choice. However, the will of the elders prevailed, and Ambode eventually flew the flag of the Party.
Few months into his administration, Ambode started misbehaving and got intoxicated by power. He began berating and rolling back the beautiful and laudable projects of Fashola.
We thought we had seen it all. Ambode began to distort the master plan of the “Lagos Project” – a lofty project he inherited from Fashola and his predecessor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Moving forward, former Governor Ambode became a principal antagonist of all the elders of the Party, including the members of the GAC who made him the governor of the State.
I remember, vividly, when a friend, who was among the power brokers of Lagos, called me and highlighted the misdemeanors of Ambode to me. I was among the first people to raise the alarm.
Ambode’s supporters then, who were also beclouded by the crumbs trickling into their mouths, started wailing that I was just making a mountain out of a molehill. I was just looking at them.
The situation degenerated to the extent that Ambode and his followers became open enemies of the elders of the APC in Lagos. Asiwaju was not even spared in their onslaughts.
Asiwaju was called all sorts of unprintable names. Many of his staunch loyalists were sidelined from relevance. The GAC members were denied access to him. There were occasions where they were humiliated.
Some of his followers started shouting “NO MORE BABA SO PE” (Meaning: Say No To Godfathers). Oh, you think we will quickly forget? We are not suffering from political amnesia, please!
Then, Ambode and his people coined a slogan, if I may recollect, “power belongs to the people”. They sold this obnoxious idea to the credulous minds among them to keep chanting.
They inaugurated some phoney projects in order to curry “the favours of the masses” – the masses who were not there at the first instance. Ambode became an emergency lover of the masses.
Their campaigns of calumny against Asiwaju and his loyalists did not stop there. They moved some steps further: Ambode descended heavily on Sanwoolu, his would-be successor.
I watched a live programme, orchestrated then by Ambode’s “friend and strategist” (Dele Momodu), where he was demarketing the flag bearer of his party, Babajide Sanwoolu.
We need not go back to the content of that inglorious and shameful programme. It was the lowest of the low for Ambode and his people. If they had succeeded in demarketing APC, what would they have come to meet today?
Some of you easily forget the past. However, the past sticks into some of us memories like super glue: we don’t easily forget. If you do good, we won’t forget. If you do the opposite, we won’t forget.
Bringing Ambode back to the seat of power is like the proverbial ageku ejo ti n’ṣoro bi agbọn. He is only coming back to take his own pound of flesh from his perceived enemies in his first term.
Mr Obafemi Hamzat was patient when Ambode was picked as the governor. He never misbehaved. He took his fate with utmost equanimity and worked with the preferred candidate of the Party.
It is now time for him to reap the lush fruits of his patience, loyalty and respect for party supremacy. The time has come for KOH to lick the honey of his trust in Asiwaju and other GAC members.
Femi Hamzat is a brilliant and smart politician – a well-cultured prince. He deserves to be the next governor of Lagos State – the Centre of Excellence. God bless Lagos State.
