The ruling
party’s national leader says Akinwunmi Ambode has deviated from developmental
blueprint of Lagos, urging primary participant to reject him.
Bola Tinubu has endorsed Jide
Sanwo-Olu as the preferred candidate for the All Progressives Congress in the
upcoming governorship election in Lagos, ending weeks of speculation about
where he stands on the stand-off between the challenger and incumbent governor,
Akinwumi Ambode.
In a statement Sunday evening, Mr
Tinubu said the blueprint of Lagos State, his brainchild between 1999-2007, has
been deviated from by Mr Ambode, calling on APC members in Lagos to reject the
governor at the primaries on Monday.
The statement comes shortly after
Mr Ambode used a televised press conference to launch a barrage of personal
attacks against Mr Sanwo-Olu, ridiculing him as an alleged criminal and mental
health patient before proclaiming him unfit for governor on those grounds.
Mr Sanwo-Olu has not responded to
the attacks, but his aides told PREMIUM TIMES a decision is being made between
holding a counter presser or simply drafting a statement in response.
Mr Sanwo-Olu has served Lagos
State in several capacity, including as commissioner.
He has emerged as the front-runner
for the APC governorship ticket since he purchased his party nomination form
about two weeks ago. He candidacy, which had long been rumoured as the
handiwork of Mr Tinubu, was propelled by the endorsement of 36 out of 40 House
of Assembly members and all the 57 local council chairpersons.
Read Mr Tinubu’s full statement as
sent to PREMIUM TIMES at 5:30 p.m. below:
GOVERNORSHIP
PRIMARY STATEMENT
30th September, 2018
Tomorrow,
our party and the people of Lagos will have an encounter with destiny. We shall
hold our governorship primary.
With the holding of direct
primaries to elect governorship candidates in Lagos and other states, the APC
takes a groundbreaking step toward greater internal democracy and progressive
governance for the benefit of all people.
While our party is young, it has
grown fast and has travelled far in a short time. This speaks well of the
character of you, the party’s rank-and-file members.
What, in other nations, has taken
political parties generations to achieve, we have done in a few brief years. No
other party in Nigeria dare attempt what we have already dedicated ourselves to
do.
I thank and commend all APC
members and all Lagosians who have lent their support to this historic and
humane mission upon which our party has embarked.
We are democrats in the truest
sense of the word. As such, we forever search for what is good and right for
the people. With this ideal as our guide, tomorrow’s primary cannot be shaded
by selfish ambition or the perceived personal grievance between this or that
person. Something much greater waits in the balance. What is at stake is
nothing less than the future of the people of this state and how we can best
maximise our collective destiny.
By resort to direct primaries, the
party places the people’s future soundly in their hands. As democracy would
have it, you shall be the authors of the party’s nomination and hopefully our
next state government.
I trust in the wisdom of the
people and will abide it. However, as a leader of the party and as a former
governor of our beloved and excellent Lagos, I would be remiss if I did not
make a few observations regarding the primary.
My goal is and shall always be a
better Lagos. To this objective, I have dedicated the greater part of my public
life. Roughly 20 years ago, a corps of dedicated and patriotic Lagosians, put
aside personal interests and rivalries, to put their minds and best ideas
together for the good of the state. Out of this collaborative effort, was born
a master plan for economic development that would improve the daily lives of
our people.
Bestowed on me was the honour of a
lifetime when I was elected to be your governor in 1999. My administration faithfully
implemented that plan. The government of my immediate successor, Tunde Fashola,
also honoured this enlightened plan.
Where
state government remained true to that blueprint, positive things happened.
During my tenure and Governor Fashola’s, Lagos state recorded improvements in
all aspects of our collective existence, from public health to public
sanitation, from education to social services, from the administration of
justice to the cleaning of storm and sewage drains. Businesses, large and small,
invested, hired millions of workers and thrived.
All Lagosians were to fully
participate and justly benefit from the social dividends and improvements
wrought by this plan. From the common labourer, to business leaders, to
professionals and our industrious civil service. We all were to be partners in
a monumental but joint enterprise. None was to be alienated. None was to be
left out. And none were to be pushed aside. This is especially true for those
who contributed so much to our development, whether as a business leader who
has invested heavily in Lagos, the homeowner who struggles to pay his fair
share of taxes or as someone employed in the hard work of keeping our streets
and byways clean so that others may go about their daily tasks unimpeded.
I make no pretence that the master
plan is perfect. It can always be fine-tuned. However, whenever a government
departed from this plan without compelling reason, the state and its people
have borne the painful consequence of the improper departure.
To ignore this blueprint for
progress in order to replace it with ad-hoc schemes of a materially inferior
quality contravenes the spirit of progressive governance and of our party. Such
narrowness of perspective does not bring us closer to our appointed
destination; it takes us farther from that destiny.
For reasons unknown to me and most
Lagosians, we have experienced such deviations from enlightened governance
recently.
This trend is that which most
concerns me as the primary nears. We must arrest this trend before irreparable
harm is committed against the people and their future. For the record, let it
be known that I shall vote in this primary because I see it as one of extreme
import to our state and our party. Just as I shall vote, I equally urge all
party members to do so.
We must vote in a manner that
returns Lagos to its better path, the one that promises a just chance for all
to enjoy the fruits of our prosperity. We must always pursue our goal of a
Lagos energised by creative dynamism, tolerance of others, and guided by a
leadership capable of extending a collegial hand to all stakeholders, far and
wide.
I am encouraged by the emergence
of a candidate in this primary who has served the state in senior positions in
my administration, the Fashola administration and even in the current one.
While possessing a wealth of experience and exposure, he is a young man endowed
with superlative vision and commitment. Most importantly, he understands the
importance of the blueprint for development. He esteems it as a reliable and
well-conceived vehicle for the future development of the state. He also knows
the value of reaching out and working with others in order to maximize
development and provide people the best leadership possible.
With people like him at the helm,
the state will write the proper history for itself.
When the final word is given let
it be said that we want all Lagosians to look to the future with the hope and
optimism that our best days remain before us and not behind us.
We walk into this primary strong
and confidently believing in the right course we are to take. We shall emerge
from this primary even stronger and more confident that we have taken that
course by returning Lagos and our party to their finest path.
Signed:
Aswiaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Aswiaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Source: Premium Times
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