After his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and return to All Progressives Congress (APC), the former gubernatorial candidate, Adediran Olajide (AKA Jandor) has again exposed the festering structural sores in the main opposition party ahead of 2027, SEYE OLUMIDE reports.
It is a record that it holds as a badge of its unsure strategies: From 1999, when Nigeria returned to democratic governance, Lagos State was the one state where PDP was unable to produce its governor.
And, except in 2002, when Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe defected from the then-ruling Alliance for Democracy (AD) to PDP, the umbrella party was also unable to produce an elected Senator in any of the three senatorial districts of Lagos State.
Defection gifted the PDP with another consolation ticket in 2004 through Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, who quit Action Congress (AC) to join the PDP. Recall that Ogunlewe and Obanikoro left the ruling party due to irreconcilable differences with President Bola Tinubu, the then-state governor. Both Ogunlewe and Obanikoro are now back in APC.
Litany of errors
PDP’s misfortune in Lagos cannot be blamed on bad luck. Rather, the party has always succumbed to APC and President Bola Tinubu’s well-oiled political machinery due to its constant inability to manage internal contradictions within its structure and its penchant for accommodating strange bedfellows, who end up as moles on the eve of crucial elections.
For instance, in 1999 and 2003, Dapo Sarunmi and Funsho Williams, respectively, flew the PDP flag. Although Tinubu narrowly beat Williams, the PDP was not able to present any formidable candidate thereafter.
Each subsequent flag bearer had either been an ex-member of the ruling party or allegedly imposed by dubious political circumstances. In the case of Dr Ade Dosunmu, a former Director-General of NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency), who contested the 2011 governorship election, he was perceived as a stooge of former Deputy National Chairman of PDP, Olabode George.
In 2007, when Obanikoro ran and lost to Fashola, the fallout fragmented the party along nativity and partisan tendencies. Each affinity not only struggled for recognition by the then PDP’s controlled Federal Government. Obanikoro, a former Nigerian envoy to Ghana, hardly saw eye-to-eye with Chief George until he eventually defected to APC.
Then, four years later, precisely in 2011, although Dosunmu did not parade the baggage of defection from APC, in the eyes of other governorship aspirants, he was Chief George’s stooge. There is no doubt that that perception left the party vulnerable to APC during the electoral contest.
So, as of 2014, it was glaring that the Lagos PDP could not, on its own, settle for a saleable and particularly generally acceptable governorship candidate. This opening made it possible for the party’s national leaders to intervene. And that intervention meant influencing Mr Jimi Agbaje’s entry into the matrix. It was, therefore, not surprising that Agbaje subsequently became the party’s gubernatorial standard bearer in 2015.
But, buoyed by that hazy membership credential, a broad spectrum of Lagos electorate saw in Agbaje an easy candidate to fall before APC’s superpower status. Moreover, aggrieved former aspirants treated him as a total stranger within their fold.
That Agbaje eventually won the controversial PDP governorship primary held at Oregun was a marvel. Disgruntled, his rivals waited for him at the main election, where they took their pound of flesh by working at cross purposes. That underground sabotage advantaged APC as Agbaje lost to Akinwunmi Ambode and APC.
However, while some pundits credited Ambode’s winning to the 2015 APC merger, which they said negatively impacted Agbaje’s chances, by reordering the sequence of the general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) facilitated the bandwagon effect that crippled PDP.
No sooner than the retired General Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner that the result of the gubernatorial polls across the entire Western states fell in line, including Lagos.
Adversity of money-men contenders
Without learning new tricks or making amends in strategic plans, PDP could not find any of its faithful worthy to fly its flag in 2019. The late Senator Kashamu Buruji, who represented Ogun East, and former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Peter Fayose, were drafted by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) to mediate in the pre-election crisis that broke out in the party’s Lagos State chapter. The offshore peacemakers could not fare better, especially after a reconciliation meeting at the Eko Hotel left all crucial issues hanging.
Lagos PDP also failed to reap the window of opportunity created for it by the internal wrangling within APC, which culminated in the loss of a second-term ticket by its incumbent governor, Ambode. Agbaje, who emerged as PDP’s gubernatorial hopeful under troubling circumstances, continued to battle with the spectre of internal strife until he kissed the dust at the feet of a new gubernatorial gladiator, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Stunned by that surprising and agonising loss to a neophyte, immediately after the 2019 poll, Agbaje again recoiled to his shell as he did in 2015. Nothing has been heard of the affable politician within or around the PDP ever since.
As if the devious pattern has become its enduring strategy, in the build-up to the 2023 polls, the Lagos PDP began the search for a competitive, credible and popular candidate to fly its flag from outside the party’s fold. It was this outsourced opportunity that made Adediran a beautiful bride.
Jandor, as he is popularly called, mounted a stalwart campaign within APC, denouncing its close-circuit style of choosing candidates. And leveraging his Lagos4Lagos movement, he mobilised the Lagos electorate to participatory consciousness. It did not take long before the doors of Lagos PDP were flung open to admit the group into its fold. Like other highflyers before him, Jandor successfully swayed prominent PDP leaders in Abuja, including a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; PDP governors to his side. They rallied around to get the buy-in of Chief George and other state chieftains of the party.
Although it was evident that Jandor could not scale through PDP’s screening process, his perceived popularity, which was enhanced by his Lagos4Lagos campaign, made the godfathers insist on fielding him. They saw in him a capable Lagos boy who could untangle Tinubu’s political web in the state.
But, like a youth who suddenly won a lottery, Jandor ran into problems with the same PDP leaders that favoured him. He compounded his woes by insisting on being his own man, particularly in taking serious party decisions. For instance, his choice of Funke Akindele over the likes of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, Yeye Adenike Shobanjo and David Kolawole Vaughan, pitted him against the strong pillars of Lagos PDP.
Wistful voices, way forward
Looking back on the tough luck that befell the PDP in Lagos State, some party stakeholders expressed sadness over the inability to build cohesion and discipline among the party faithful.
Babatunde Gbadamosi told The Guardian how Akindele tried to woo him from PDP to APC, saying it was surprising to hear that she was chosen as Jandor’s running mate.
“Not long after Jandor became PDP flag bearer, he started seeing himself as leader, and changed candidates’ list in Abuja, replacing the names of loyal party faithful with those of his cronies. Jandor’s Lagos4Lagos movement was used to undermine the party’s established structure. He silenced voices of dissent, asking those displaced to go to court,” Gbadamosi stated.
Was Jandor planted in the PDP to strategically weaken the party and then return to APC? Many party faithful believe that to be the case, especially after his meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Villa, some days after quitting PDP.
In a bid to put the past behind them, notable elders have been trying to chart the way forward.
They include Chief Olabode George; former minister Abimbola Ogunkelu, former BoT member; Aduke Maina; the state Chairman, Philip Aivoji; Captain Tunji Shelle (rtd), Ramoni Owokoniran, Niran Adeniji; members of the reconciliation committee and state exco.
However, Shelle declared that until the President is ready to allow democracy to play along the constitutional path, “it will be very difficult to take Lagos from APC.”
He stated: “Previous elections were won by APC because the party is in control of Lagos wealth. If Tinubu could have successfully controlled Lagos election since 2003, how much more now that he is the president. I doubt anything different will happen in Lagos come 2027.
“We will not give up, but let us not deceive ourselves. This state is in a serious political mess. Disgruntled members of the ruling APC are also lamenting.”
Also, former Lagos East Senatorial candidate Babatunde Gbadamosi, in a WhatsApp message, noted that “Jandor was just another in a long line of Tinubu’s double agents, who have emerged as PDP gubernatorial candidates. The only jobs they had were to warehouse the tickets, waffle a bit, and do a bit of political theatre.
“I did warn about Jandor’s manifest emptiness and clear lack of purpose, and his pick for deputy governor confirmed my position. Since I appointed Funkẹ Akindele as Amen Estate Ambassador in 2015, she worked assiduously to get me to defect to the APC. Her appointment confirmed that it was an APC ticket dressed in PDP colours.”
But, the convener of Reset Lagos PDP, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, held a divergent view, saying that after Jandor, Lagos PDP must have learnt its lessons. Pearse, a Public Affairs analyst and member, Board of Governors Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI), said unless PDP leaders realise the danger of supporting a stranger with its governorship ticket, “similar fate awaits us in 2027.”
“Lagos State PDP has been taught a bitter lesson by Jandor. When Obanikoro got the governorship ticket in 2007, he won about 30 per cent of the votes cast. Jimi Agbaje scored 42 per cent in 2015 and 21 per cent in 2019. Jandor’s disgraceful performance has taught us a great lesson.
“Lagos PDP members now understand more than ever before that imposition of candidates by leaders is unacceptable. We are convinced that especially supporting strangers for elective offices is counterproductive; thanks to Jandor.”
Segun Adewale, aka Aeroland, who is a PDP leader in the Alimoso area, described it as a possible waste of time and resources for anybody trying to contest on the PDP platform in Lagos as long as some APC moles are still doing the bidding of the ruling party in PDP.
Differing from Adewale, a chieftain from Lagos East, Balogun Rotimi, regretted that since 2003, when Funsho Williams narrowly lost to APC, and how he was allegedly murdered before the 2007 poll, “the ruling party adopted a strategy of sponsoring mercenaries into PDP every four years to destabilise us. What our leaders need to do is to ensure that no stranger retakes the party ticket.”
