With a badly fractured opposition, many supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) believe Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has already secured a second term for himself even before the governorship elections. Even some Lagosians who are apolitical believe that it will be an uphill task for the opposition parties, notably the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) to mount a serious challenge against the governor.

For the PDP, winning the governorship election in Lagos has been an elusive task since the return of democratic governance in 1999. Thrice, the party gave the ruling party in Lagos a scare in the 2003, 2007 and 2015 governorship elections. In 2003, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the then Lagos state governor who was seeking reelection on the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) polled a total of 911,613 votes to beat his closest rival, the late Engr. Funsho Williams of the PDP who scored 740,506 votes. In 2007, Babatunde Fashola, candidate of the Action Congress (AC) who was Tinubu’s anointed candidate polled 599,300 votes to defeat PDP’s Musiliu Olatunde Obanikoro who got 383,956 votes.

https://independent.ng/can-a-fractured-opposition-truncate-sanwo-olus-re-election-bid/
The 2011 governorship election was simply a walkover for Fashola who was seeking re-election under the platform of the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Ade Dosunmu even congratulated him before the final results were released. While Fashola won with 1,509,113 votes, Dosunmu came a distant second with 300,450 votes.

Undaunted, the PDP decided to put its house in order and brought in Jimi Agbaje, a former member of the ruling party who parted ways with Tinubu and contested in the 2007 governorship election under the defunct Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA). However at the end of the exercise, Akinwunmi Ambode, the governorship candidate of the APC polled a total of 811,994 votes to beat Agbaje, who had 659,788 votes.

It was a bad outing for Agbaje who again emerged as the PDP candidate in the 2019 governorship election in Lagos state. The PDP was badly polarised then as the state chairman of the party, the late Dr. Adegbola Dominic accused Agbaje of hijacking the monies donated for the campaigns in the state. At the end of the exercise, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu who replaced Ambode as the APC candidate, polled a total of 739,445 votes to beat Agbaje of the PDP who had 206,141 votes.

Jandor/Funke Akindele’s Ticket Unsettles PDP

In January 2022, five PDP governors, Seyi Makinde (Oyo State); Okezie Ikpeazu, (Abia State); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers) alongside the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu attended a rally in Lagos where they received Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran popularly known as Jandor, a highly cerebral philanthropist, media guru and former chieftain of the APC into the PDP. Having been a longstanding member of the APC, the PDP leaders believed that Jandor will use his experience as someone who knows the inner workings of the APC to secure victory for the party.

However, the enthusiasm in the PDP camp appears to have waned due to the fallout between Jandor and Chief Olabode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP who is the apex leader of the party in the state. The disagreement centred on the choice of Jandor’s running mate, Funke Akindele, a Nollywood actress.

According to George, Jandor flouted the agreement to make Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour his running mate. He said Adediran’s decision to pick Akindele as running mate forced Rhodes-Vivour to join the Labour Party as its standard bearer for the Lagos governorship election.

“After their presentation here in my office, we saw that these were the best two we have (Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and Adediran), and we asked him (Adediran) pointedly here, would you work with this man as your deputy, and he said, ‘yes sir,” he said.

“Having paid for the price of the form, for us to have a seamless primary, would you take him to be your running, mate, he answered ‘yes sir”. After that, he came to me to say his mentor, Denrele Ogunsayan asked him to choose a deputy from Ikorodu, a woman. I told him why didn’t tell me at the time. I’m saying this now for history because that was what transpired. I have heard rumours that I am the one sponsoring Gbadebo.

“He (Adediran) reneged on the agreement. I had to call Gbadebo’s father to tell him that this is getting a bit too dangerous. We as leaders did our utmost to ensure that we have a very seamless primary”

Matters got to a head when Governor Wike at a conference organised by the wives of Lagos State officials, said he is in support of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration because he is doing well. He also described Sanwo-Olu as a “friend who will be a second-term governor”.

Things went from bad to worse for the Lagos PDP in October 2022 when about 5,000 members of Lagos4Lagos who are supporters of Jandor defected to the APC. Mr Idowu Daramola, who led the decampees said that the group moved back to APC because the Lead Visioner of Lagos4Lagos Movement, Adediran, disappointed them after moving to PDP.

Daramola, Leader of the Diaspora for Adediran, alleged that Adediran was not also accountable to the diaspora supporters and financiers after contributing towards the cause of the movement. He said that PDP governorship candidate also failed to consult the diaspora members, when choosing Nollywood Actress Ms. Funke Akindele, as his deputy.

Some sources in the PDP also claimed that George has thrown his weight behind Rhode-Vivour, the Labour Party candidate who is the son of his friend. On his part, Jandor however described as false, insinuations that his candidacy was opposed by George,

“Chief Bode George never opposed my candidacy. He is my leader, he wants to see PDP win Lagos. I can assure you, he is on this 100 percent and we are together. We don’t have any issue”.

The decision of Jandor and Rhodes-Vivour to run different campaigns when they could have formed a formidable tag team in the governorship election is seen by many as a huge advantage to Governor Sanwo-Olu, whose party controls the 57 councils in the state and enjoys massive followership at the grassroots level.

While many had thought the governor’s handling of the #EndSARS protest in Lagos in October 2020 might affect his chances of being reelected, the governor has wormed his way into the hearts of the people with many people-oriented projects, the latest being the Blue Rail Line which was inaugurated in December 2022.

Jandor is however optimistic that the PDP will triumph at the end of the day. At a recent rally held in Alimosho LGA, he said “God has chosen that as small as I and my running mate are, we will take over the government house in Lagos state come 2023. God has chosen us to win this election. I know that by the power of God and your support, we shall win.”

Can Rhodes-Vivour Spring A Surprise With Labour Party?

Popularly known as GRV or The Hopeful Nigerian, Rhodes-Vivour is an architect, a businessman and a politician. He had his first degree in Architecture from Nottingham University and a Masters’s degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.

He ventured into politics in 2017 by contesting for chairmanship of Ikeja Local Government under the KOWA party. In 2019, he won the ticket of the PDP to contest the Lagos West Senatorial seat, which he eventually lost to the incumbent senator, Solomon Adeola, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polling 243,516 votes to Adeola’s 323,817. Rhodes-Vivour is a strong believer in Nigeria’s future and he devotes himself to developing fellow young people to take on the mantle of leadership.

Rhodes-Vivour is riding on the popularity being enjoyed by the Labour Party and its supporters called Obidients. However, some of the young people have made it clear that they are only supporting Peter Obi, the presidential candidate and may not vote the LP’s governorship at the state levels. Also, many political analysts in Lagos see Rhodes-Vivour as young, vibrant and charismatic but a greenhorn in politics when it comes to governing a complex state like Lagos. They believe that he lacks a political base, financial power and popularity to challenge APC and PDP in the state.

Analysts believe that except the opposition parties forge an alliance, wresting power from the APC in the 2023 governorship election will continue to remain a pipe-dream.

sanwo olu is contesting against no body

He have no opposition