-By Austen Akhagbeme:
Up until the presidential elections of February 25th, politics and politicking in Lagos has an unwritten but coded formula that drags both the actors and the people towards a particular outcome championed by a particular species of the ruling elite since 1999.
Before now, the political challenge has always been a relatively easy Marathon race where the baton is passed to a known and predetermined winner who will gladly breast the tape to the admiration of the power broker and his adherents.
Presently and just recently, the LP has changed the dynamics. Away from the known and the familiar, politics in Lagos is becoming increasingly unpredictable, blurry and humbling. The reason the incumbent and his main challenger are hitting the streets on foot, canvassing for relevance.
Even though it looks like a three-horse race, it is truly a two-horse race with a fierce pendulum-like capacity to swing either way. And this is interestingly chancy.
The incumbent governor Sanwo-Olu is a scion of the old order, a predetermined baton holder and a thorough representative and representation of the political atmosphere that the Labour Party and her teeming supporters want to change.
To them, it is not a herculean task having defeated other political parties in the state at the last presidential election. History was made and history can be repeated. With the youthful but vivacious Gbadebo Rhodes- Vivour, Governor Sanwo-olu and his APC goons are having a sleepless night.
To them, it must never be heard that the “true owners” of Lagos fell and gasped for breath under the political whiplash of an “obscure” candidate from an “obscure” party, the second time. This may be the reason the Igbo- Yoruba hate card is being vigorously brandished to turn a well-known Lagos family of four-century history into a rude boy from across the Niger.
Politics is a funny game; a dirty one at that. The capacity and temerity to deliver the goodies of democracy and democratisation to the suffocating citizens of Lagos outside the godfather influence are being jettisoned to pursue the ego and whimsical ambition of one political clique to remain in power forever.
May the obvious sympathy and altruistic desire of the people for a change as represented by the political tsunami that gave victory to the LP in the Presidential election in Lagos state remain in office before, during and after the upcoming gubernatorial election.
- Austen Akhagbeme is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online
