Not surprisingly, the just concluded primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Lagos State to select chairmanship and councillorship candidates for the local government elections slated for July 12 have been highly competitive and uproariously contentious in many instances. Critics of the party would readily attribute this to what they perceive to be a tendency within the party to impose candidates, stifle free intra-party contestation and promote the dictatorship of an emergent party oligarchy. That may not necessarily be the case. Rather, intra-party contests for the emergence of candidates to fly the party’s flag in elections in Lagos State are always fiercely fought because those who succeed would almost invariably go on to win the general elections.
Thus, the primaries can be described as the election proper. And this is not limited to Lagos State, especially with regard to local government elections. There is hardly any state where the party in power does not go on to win 100 per cent of local government chairmanship and councillorship seats, given the control exercised by state governments over members of the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), electoral umpires that they constitute and administer. In the Lagos APC local government primaries, 432 out of 470 aspirants, who submitted nomination forms, were cleared to contest for the 57 Chairmanship seats across 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs). This is apart from the thousands of others who competed to emerge as the party’s councillorship candidates in the 377 wards in the state, represented by a councillor each.
It was no doubt a Herculean challenge for the electoral committee. Headed by respected Senior lawyer, Mr Babatunde Ogala (SAN), with wide acceptability across the various partisan groups within the APC in the state, the electoral committee was no doubt carefully selected. In the same vein, the Appeal committee to handle grievances arising from the primaries is headed by another respected lawyer, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN), who is the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in Lagos State and he is assisted by four other reputable members. The appeal committee no doubt has its work cut out for it, as no less than 100 petitions arising from the chairmanship contest are reportedly pending before it.
The number of petitions by aspirants dissatisfied with the primaries can certainly not be blamed on the incompetence or deliberate violations of the rules by the electoral committee, as understandably alleged by most of the aggrieved aspirants. There is no outcome of the contest that would not have elicited vehement protests in such a hotly fought intra-party exercise. This was obviously why the party leadership and stakeholders strongly pushed for the emergence of the candidates through consensus arrangements to reduce the incidence of bitterness and fractionalization that would arise from competitive primaries.
However, this appeal for wisdom and caution through the adoption of a conciliatory, consensual method of selecting candidates fell largely on deaf ears, and this is understandable. The consensus approach would no doubt have favoured more the entrenched, pro-status quo forces in the party and was thus opposed by the younger and more impatient elements pressing for radical change.
Consequently, only four LCDAs – Iba, Ijede, Lekki and Otto-Awori – opted for the emergence of the chairmanship candidates through consensus with delegates later affirming the choices for each of the LCDAS. With the exception of Yaba and Mainland Local Government Councils, which did not hold primaries, about 1,530 delegates voted for chairmanship candidates in the remaining 55 local government and LCDAs, which saw 27 delegates voting to elect candidates in each of the councils through indirect primaries.
The forthcoming local government elections are very critical to the APC in Lagos State, especially against the background of the last presidential election in the state, where the party’s organisational lethargy and grassroots complacency were largely responsible for its worst electoral performance since the inception of this political dispensation in 1999. True, its control of the LASIEC can easily be utilised to manufacture an overwhelming victory for the party as happens in local government polls in virtually all states. But the APC needs a true and credible measure of its grassroots electoral strength in preparation for the critical 2027 state and national elections.
In this regard, the party cannot afford the festering of otherwise avoidable intra-party fissions that can drive sizable numbers of its membership into the fold of the opposition or breed grassroots apathy that can prove electorally costly in contests mediated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The party must therefore balance the need to reward its eminent leaders who have rendered selfless service to the party and the state over the years, through the sponsorship of their nominees to appointive and elective positions, with the no less important imperative of not denying hardworking and dedicated party members who may have no prominent connections their right to also hold such offices.
Again, the APC in Lagos State must ensure that it balances the requirements of democracy with the equally important criterion of according the right place to merit and demonstrated competence in the emergence of candidates for public office, especially at the local government level, where there is a dire need for accelerated development. It is at the grassroots that the war against poverty can be most effectively and concretely waged with positive results. But the objective of the President Tinubu administration in pursuing the attainment of financial autonomy for the local government councils can only be realised if the best, brightest and most experienced hands are engaged to run the affairs of the councils.
It is thus difficult to understand, for instance, how an aspirant for Chairmanship of Ojokoro LCDA like Hon. Mobolaji Sanusi, could have reportedly scored only two out of 27 delegates’ votes in a council where he had been recommended by no less than 12 reputable residents of the area, most of them former public office holders, as the most suitable consensus candidate. Prior to his appointment as Managing Director of the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LAASA), a position in which he served with demonstrable competence and exemplary integrity for four years, Sanusi had practised as a lawyer and respected journalist for over three decades without blemish.
In addition to being a successful businessman, he has also been actively involved in campaigns for the ACN and now APC in Lagos and at the national levels in all elections over the last two decades. Although he has accepted the outcome of the primaries with grace and equanimity and pledged his continued loyalty to the APC and President Tinubu, Sanusi is certainly the kind of candidate that should be encouraged by any progressive political party.
Some of the petitions appear to be rather frivolous and unserious. For instance, a full-page advertorial against the outcome of the primaries in Alimosho Federal Constituency alleged grave irregularities in six local councils but was signed by only one person supposedly resident in Ipaja. One would have expected known names in each of these councils to have endorsed the petition. It appeared to be just a case of one power bloc protesting against being outwitted by another bloc without necessarily possessing superior democratic credentials.
In Agege and Orile-Agege, the Presidential Council of the APC in the area alleged that “The political climate in Agege and Orile-Agege is uniquely troubling. For over a decade, a carefully orchestrated structure was dominated by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt.Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has monopolized power. He exercises unchecked power over local government executives and ward officers who, by design, form the voting delegation in primaries…The implication is clear -any primary process steered under such influence cannot, by any objective measure, produce a fair or credible outcome”. This is not a tenable or convincing excuse. Building and sustaining an enduring political structure cannot be a crime. Those who want to dislodge the current structure in the area must build their own, especially if they claim to enjoy popular grassroots support.
Petitioners in Ikosi-Isheri claim that the elected Chairmanship candidate, Samiat Bada, had served as Vice-chairman for five years and another six years as Chairman before winning the recent primary to contest the forthcoming election. But has she violated any law in contesting again, even though she had previously held office for a considerable length of time? But in Yaba LCDA, the son of a prominent chieftain of the party who reportedly currently represents Shomolu/Bariga Local Government on the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) is being allegedly imposed on Yaba, without any emotional, political or other ties to the council. The propriety of this, if true, should bother party leaders.
•Written by Segun Ayobolu
