APC, LAGOS COUNCIL CHAIRMEN, 2023 AND BEYOND
By Owolabi ‘Ajimomuya’ Oseni
Publish by Borderless Media
The emergence of all the 57 Council Chairmen in Lagos State from the ruling All Progressives Congress clearing the polls throughout the wards in the economy capital of Nigeria is not the usual win for the APC but a huge determinant for the 2023 polls.
The July 24, 2021 Local Government Election in Lagos State was an extraordinary one and I make bold to let all Nigerians realise that the 57 Council Chairmen that emerged are the luckiest as their victory is a huge sign of successful successors of the big brothers, fathers and grandfathers of Lagos politics, including the generalissimo who is never tired of building leaders of leaders.
Checking the list of Council Chairmen, Commissioners and House of Assembly members in Lagos since 1999, I will tell the key players in today’s Nigeria’s politics across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In my journey of knowledge through Ijebuland to Okun boundaries in Ondo, Edo and Isanlu the politics and politicians there are interested in Lagos State. From Benin, Ekpoma, Akoko-Edo to Agbo, Asaba and crossing the Niger bridge to Onitsha, you hear people talking about their family or relatives having properties in Papa Ajao, Ojuelegba, Aguda or Vetho in Badagry. I’m not trying to take you through geography but it’s important to know that Lagos State has the highest concentration of Nigerian.
During one of my EMTAN (Educational and Media Technology Association of Nigeria) conferences, traveling three hours from Jos after I left Kafancha and Vom, going through Payam to Pankshin, I realised how beautifully God has blessed this country with people, language, culture and vegetation but politics and religions contaminated it all, yet I found the love of Lagos even in Geidam and Sheidam. All thanks to my Veteran Educational and Media Technologist, Professor Segun Abifarin, a University of Jos lecturer who took me beyond Federal College of Education, Pankshin. Despite all the printers around the City of Jos, they all still prefered printers in our own Somolu.
Interestingly, they all want their politicians to be like Lagos State trained politicians just like in the case of many other states where their government and politics is run by correct men who always have their political education and families in Lagos.
Where am I going? If the ruling All Progressives Congress leaders are sincere in winning and ruling more in 2023 and beyond, they must see their party a fish that must be taken care from the head. We all know that if the head of a fish get spoilt, the whole body gets sour, even to the fins and scales. I deliberately use fish as an example, not because my late Maami was a fish seller but fish is our main food in Lagos and Lagos, undoubtedly, is the ‘head’ of Nigerian ‘fish’, not only economically but politically too.
The party should strengthen the Lagos State chapter more, through the grassroots managers and handlers. The grassroots soldiers and mouthpiece, if strengthening politically, will do the needful winning that most assumed tilapias that can’t mobilize crayfishes and crabs in their neighbourhood but prefer to destroy the fingerlings, denying them growth and success.
Grassroots? That’s the root and headquarters of politics as it is known to be local. If you are still wondering about the much accolades I’m giving ‘common’ Local Government Chairmen, as Senator Bukola Saraki (former Nigerian Senate President), Comrade Adams Oshiomole (a former Governor of Edo State and former National Chairman of APC) and my Epe-Lagos born former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. They will tell you what humble brother, Hon. Oyewole Babafemi Diya (former House of Representatives member, representing Somolu Federal Constituency) told me. Hon. Diya, in 2018 at his Odogbolu hometown, said all his colleagues that can’t return to National Assembly got their misfortune from their Council Chairmen, Hon. Abdul Hamed Salawu (Council Chairman of Somolu Local Government) was there then. In 2019, both Diya and Salawu surely realised that Diya was not just saying the truth but a verifiable fact.
It was not an easy journey for Governor Adegboyega Oyetola when he contested in September 2018. Shuttling between Ila-Orangun, Ile-Ife, Ilesa and Osogbo as an accredited local observer, I realised how the local government Chairmen can determine the fate of who becomes the Governor of their state. The areas where APC met hard nuts are the territories of Council Chairmen who are secret and open loyalists of Senator Iyiola Ajani Omisore. They protected their territory for their ‘leader’ and for the first time in Osun, a rerun of the election was held before APC was declared winner. Before the winning, reconciliation, negotiation and consultation were held across the area where the Council Chairmen were not left out. If you are legislator who still wish to recontest in 2023 and still having loggerhead with your council Chairmen, you need a reconciliation now, not tomorrow.
Lagos State is virtually the smallest state in Nigeria by size but the capability and capacity of Eko is enormous in resources. A state that is capable of housing almost all politicians in Nigeria, they must have something to do in Lagos. They can do without Abuja, not Lagos. When my result oriented former Governor Raji Fashola said ‘Eko o ni baje’ (Lagos shall not be destroyed), all Nigerians agreed. Yes, all Nigerians agreed to the extent that my journey from Jebba to Mokwa, Patigi, Kutigi through Lapai, Bida which took me to Minna, my dear Polo playing brother, Alhaji Muhammed Babangida who love to call me ‘Lagos boy’, greeted me with ‘Eko o ni baje’, and I usually answered him with ‘O baje ti’ (It will never be destroyed).
As part of my schedule as the Chairman of Conference57 CPS, my tour to Aradagun, Ojokoro, Igando-Ikotun, Igando-Oja, Igbooye, Badore, Baiyeku, Ojuwoye and Isale gangan has shown me how richly beautiful and influential Lagos bred politicians are. They are not just politically influential, they are socially involved and business oriented beging their state and country, Nigeria.
I don’t know if I’m the only one observing that other states are religiously following the Hon. Kolade Alabi’s led ALGON on local governments election. The Lagos trained lawyer had insisted that all states must hold local election to enable them have a substantial Local Government Chairmen. In fact, he has the backing of the presidency and that’s a huge headache to most state Governor’s. The backing Hon. Kolade Alabi’s led ALGON is getting from the presidency is a plus mark for our local governments as “babies are now receiving their food directly into their mouth” without having loss-in-transmission from the “feeder”.
It is time, especially during this APC Congress brouhaha, that the leadership of the party should strengthen the Council Chairmen, the grassroots managers as their tenure surpasses 2023. The present Local Government administration in Lagos State will elapse in July 2025 and the present Congress going on is all about 2023. Politics is said to be about who gets what where and when. These green pen holders will determine who becomes the state and federal lawmakers, governor and God knows what.
© IG @ajimomuyasomolu
