Ganiyu Egunjobi, the Executive Chairman of Lagos State’s Agege Local Government Area, has endorsed the candidature of the son of Lagos Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa for chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the next council elections, saying the young man “deserves to succeed me.”
In an interview with a few journalists, Egunjobi addressed the growing issue that surrounded the APC primaries on May 10. He denied accusations of imposition and defended the validity of the process that generated candidates from all local government area.
“I think the reactions in those quarters where they are shouting ‘imposition’ is in the character of politicians in our clime,” Vanguard quoted him as saying on Friday.
“I’m sure if the results had gone their way, they would be lavishing praise on the electoral process. The election committee put up a good show and should be commended, same with the leadership of the party in the state.”
Tensions had risen after a protest in Agege and Orile-Agege by some APC members who accused Speaker Obasa of planting loyalists and family members, including his son (Abdulganiyu), as flagbearers in the upcoming July 12 council elections.
Egunjobi, however, called the protest a sham organised by political desperadoes.
“I watched the video of the so-called protest, and I was amazed to see those who led it. A political neophyte, who is a charge-and-bail lawyer, anchored it.
“For your information, this man until recently was gushing about the Speaker, thinking singing the praise of Obasa would get him the party chairmanship ticket for Orile-Agege,” he said.
He went on to say that some of the resentful candidates, such as Bukola Sofidiya and Sola Osolana, had only rejoined the party just before the primaries and did not have the constitutional or moral right to contest.
“We know some of their paymasters in the persons of a certain serving senator from Ogun State and a three-time House of Assembly member in our area, to mention but a few,” he hinted, without naming names.
Addressing the controversy surrounding the nomination of Obasa’s son, who is apparently running as a vice-chairmanship candidate in Agege, Egunjobi defended the Speaker’s son as eminently qualified, drawing analogies between political dynasties in the United States and Nigeria.
“This is someone that is well-read, a PhD student for that matter, who has been touching lives in Agege long before now. In fact, he deserves to succeed me.
“People blabbing ‘imposition’ in respect of the Speaker’s son’s matter are not fair to the young man and Agege,” he declared.
Highlighting his own tenure, which ends in about two months, Egunjobi reeled out achievements including the construction of roads, health centres, public school infrastructure, vocational training, youth empowerment programmes, and local job creation.
“We built a CBT centre for JAMB candidates, upgraded our vocational training institute, and even created a deradicalisation programme for louts post-EndSARS,” he said.
“Over 700 staff, including security personnel under ‘Paramole’, are on our payroll, receiving stipends to maintain peace and order.”
When asked about the perennial Awori versus non-indigene divide in Agege politics, the chairman responded with a rebuke of identity politics.
“We are all born and bred in Agege. Come to think of it, no Awori person in Agege is more Agege than me. The dichotomy doesn’t hold water and is inconsequential,” he concluded.
