Ambode: Can Buhari help him?
BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
No statement was issued after the meeting. The man at the centre of the whole thing, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is also yet to make public what he and President Muhammadu Buhari discussed behind closed doors.
But observers insist that the reason for the consultation by Governor Ambode was the rift between him and the Mandate group led by Bola Tinubu, his godfather. It is now public knowledge that the chances of Ambode seeking a second term in office under the platform of the APC appear threatened.
A similar rift occu ed between ambode’s predecessor , Babatunde Fashola, current minister of power, works and housing on the eve of 2011 election. But Fashola scales through with the intervention of leaders of thought in the state, some of those who also feared that the then governor would be a hit cake for the opposition. Perhaps that is what the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP wants to drive at when it openly invites Ambode to change party platform. This time, Tinubu appears not to be bothered about threat of Ambode running on PDP platform.
Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC has been propped up against Ambode for the governorship election next year. As soon as the rift came to the open, some elders made effort to appeal to Tinubu. Though the godfather did say he had forgiven the governor, he said his followers and supporters appear not to have been yet appeased.
What that means is that Tinubu was not ready to backdown on the issue. Shortly after the initial intervention Sanwo-Olu held a rally that suggested that he has probably been ordained by the powers that be in Lagos state APC to fly the flag of the party next year. Now, that was hardly expected, because Ambode was chosen for the 2015 election by Tinubu, even though Fashola was not keen on his candidacy. In office, Ambode was seen as a loyal and close ally of the national leader of the APC. But things have fallen apart, and the governor is having to seek help from people he believes can prevail on his estranged godfather.
The problem is that Ambode may also have complicated the matter already. A source said that members of the Mandate group are unhappy with the governor for “externalising what is supposed to be a family issue”. According to the source, they believe that the step taken by APC governors who had also reached out to President Buhari shortly before the meeting with Ambode in Aso Villa was orchestrated by the embattled governor.
The governors were said to have sent Rochas Okorocha, APC governors forum chairman to pass their message to the president on why Ambode should be allowed to run for re-election.