On Monday October 27, 2014, the Lagos State Government ordered chairmen of the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to vacate their office, following expiration of their three year tenure.
The 57 council bosses assumed office three years ago, exactly on Saturday October 29, 2011.
Although, they were all sworn-in in an elaborate event by the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, not all owe loyalty to the sitting governor.
The reason is simple – Fashola, experts have argued only brought in a few of the chairmen, while the former Governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu brought in 95 percent of all the chairmen.
However, the order for the LG Chairmen and Councilors including supervisors, council secretaries and other political appointees to vacate their offices is therefore seen by pundits as a carefully orchestrated political strategy, most especially with elections around the corner.
The order signed by Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Remy Ibirogba in behalf of the Lagos State Government directed all the chairmen to co-ordinate the exercise and hand over to Council Managers in their respective Local Governments who will take charge of administration until further notice”.
Ibirogba was not specific on when the elections will be held. All he said was that there will be an election when the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) concludes ongoing voter registration, ward re-delineation, and polling both redistribution exercise.
We gathered that the governor took the decision not to hold elections in the local government for several reasons.
According to a source, the governor is weary of the likely consequence of crisis that would arise from conducting an election into councils which will spill over to the general elections in 2015 and very likely to affect the fortunes of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos State.
“You know how the APC goes about local government elections. Of course there will be imposition of candidates for chairmen and councilors. This will generally lead to crisis and what if the opposition like Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wins some Local Governments like it happened in 2011, when they won Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA, Badagry, Epe and some others and the APC in its usual abracadabra decides not to give it to them, that would be another time bomb for the APC in Lagos”, a source told our correspondent, adding that the best thing is for the governor to leave Local Government elections to the governor that would take over from him.
Finance has also been seen as another issue. Analysts are saying that the governor opted to put LG elections on hold so as to conserve funds for the 2015 general elections in a desperate bid to ensure that his candidate in the APC succeeds him.
Sources say Fashola will be very happy if either his Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, or former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Supo Shasore succeeds him as governor even when he has said in public functions that any of the candidates that emerges from the APC camp is capable of doing justice to governance in Lagos State.
But former Accountant General of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode appears be the candidate to beat in APC and seems set to displace his choice candidates.
Ambode is already known as the anointed candidate of the former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ambode has also been anointed by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu. Besides, all the sacked LG chairmen have thrown their weight behind him.
In fact, Chairman of Chairmen, Hon. Sulaimon Akeem and his colleagues and stakeholders seen to be very loyal to Tinubu including the Deputy Governor, Princess Adefulire Orelope were either present or represented at Onikan declaration of Ambode.
The order, coming just few days after the Onikan public declaration by Ambode is seen by some as part of effort to re-pay the chairmen for putting all their arsenals in support of Ambode who resigned from government over issues which are very personal to him.
We gathered that with what has happened, the calculation is that the council managers, who are civil servants, would naturally switch their loyalty to the governor, even when some of the chairmen have been lobbying to be retained as administrators.
Special Assistant to Fashola on Women Ethnic Groups Mobilisation and Empowerment Mrs. Nkechi Chukwueke believes thayt the state governor will have to come up with a logical explanation on why he prefers civil servants.
“If you ask me, it is a party affair but I think the proper thing is for a politician to take over, or better still the vice-chairman pending when an election will take place to elect a new chairman. Of course, the Governor will have his own reason why he wants the civil servants to take over; he is the governor of the state for now and he knows why he opted for civil servants.
“If he puts those reasons on the table and it is logical, it will be considered,” Chukwueke said.
Also speaking on the issue, Publicity Secretary APC, Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe noted that as a tested politician, Fashola cannot take any decision that will impact negatively on the political calculations of Lagos State.
“We stand by the governor in this matter. Because we know that the governor is not going to deceive anybody. He is a governor of integrity, progress and commitment. If you elect somebody into such an exalted office, you need to trust that person”, he noted. But political experts say that if the motive is for his political gain, the governor may have gotten it wrong.
“The ward congresses have already been held and the chairmen all have their men across the 377 wards in the five divisions of Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island, and Epe on October.
And how does he hope to achieve that, where is the political structure he is going to use? Is he going to use the Otunba Henry Ajomale-led Lagos chairman of APC which he did not reckon with as governor”, another source said.
But analysts are saying that unless Tinubu is not available during the primaries which is very unlikely, Fashola will have to put up with Ambode who seem set to come out of the APC primaries.
But there are some who believe Fashola may be toying with the possibility of fielding any of his choice candidates in Labour Party, if Ambode becomes the candidate of APC for the general elections. But how far can he go with LP? Only time will tell.
Contributed by Emmanuel Ukudolo
1 Comment
What is it about this report that is so irritatingly offensive to me,is it the way it was titled or the fact that a governor can just wake up and sack elected local government chairmen???Thjs is why I have never been comfortable with these governors and their stance against local government autonomy.Since they were elected,oncetheir tenure is abou to elapse,the proper thing to do is organize council elections to elect the persons that will succeed them,then they will properly and over to the newly elected chairmen and not this scam Fashola and his co-travelling state governors are currently doing.Imagine if the president just refused to conduct state governorship elections and decides to sack the incumbent governors once their tenures expire and replace them with state managers????.This is a scam calculated to give Fashola some form of political relevance or point since I understand that nearly all the chairmen of all the local government areas and LCDAs in Lagos all attended the Onikan Stadium formal declaration of Akinwunmi Ambode to run for the office of Lagos governor in the forthcoming elections