As the 2015 general elections are
less than one year away,
aspirants who are already jostling
for the tickets of the All
Progressives Congress and the
Peoples Democratic Party in
Lagos State, expect a tough
battle ahead, Fisayo Falodi
reports
The Lagos State chapter of the
All Progressives Congress and its
major opposition, the Peoples
Democratic Party will soon pick
their respective candidates for the
2015 governorship poll in the state.
The PDP, no doubt, is keen to
break the jinx of its persistent
failure to rule Lagos State since
the beginning of the current
Republic in 1999. The PDP
Chairman in the state, Capt
Tunji Shelle, reiterated the
party’s determination to win the
next governorship poll shortly
after the PDP candidate, Mr.
Ayodele Fayose, defeated
Governor Koyode Fayemi of the
APC in the June 21
governorship election in Ekiti
State.
Shelle was quoted as saying that
if PDP could win in Ekiti, the
party could also repeat the feat in
other South-West states.
But the APC Chairman,
Otunba Oladele Ajomale,
dismissed the claim. He believes
that the APC can still retain
Lagos State beyond 2015 as a
result of its victory in the August
9 governorship election in Osun
State.
The two parties have, however,
adopted various strategies to
approach the next election with
agility and formidable spirit.
While the PDP has united all
its aggrieved members in
preparation for the poll, the
APC, has started holding
meetings with members of
relevant associations who may
have felt aggrieved by some of the
party’s policies. Such associations
include the National Union of
Road Transport Workers.
The party may have also
prevailed on Governor
Babatunde Fashola to slash the
fees payable by students of the
Lagos State University, Ojo, to
N25, 000 from between N185,
000 and N300, 000 after many
protests by the students and the
university’s academic workers
had failed to make the governor
rescind on the initial increment.
Aspirants eyeing the governorship
ticket on APC platform are Dr.
Leke Pitan, Senator Ganiyu
Olanrewaju Solomon, Mr.
Akinwunmi Ambode and
Adeyemi Ikuforiji, while
Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Mr.
Jimi Agbaje, Dr. Ade Dosunmu
and Mr. Deji Doherty are
seeking the governorship ticket
under the PDP.
Analysts, who are very familiar
with the political landscape of
Lagos, believe all the aspirants
are strong individuals who are
capable of shaping the direction of
parties’ primaries and the main
election in 2015. To them, the
battle for the soul of Lagos by the
aspirants will not be an easy one.
Leke Pitan
Dr. Adeleke Pitan, born on
January 14, 1956, was appointed
Commissioner for Education
between April 2006 and June
2007 and Commissioner for
Health between June 1999 and
March 2006 by former governor
of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu.
He was Chief Medical Director
of Mayowa Hospital, Lagos,
between 1985 and 1999. Pitan is
also a winner of the National
Merit Awards of the Nigerian
Medical Association and the
General and Private Medical
Practitioners of Nigeria,
respectively. He is a member of
the Lagos Island Club and the
Pivot Club, Epe, Lagos.
The former commissioner, who
declared his ambition to govern
the state during a recent
interactive session with journalists
in Lagos, expressed confidence in
the APC to win all the elective
positions in the state next year.
Describing himself as a tested and
trusted loyalist, he said he was
asked by the party members and
leaders to offer himself for the
governorship position.
Ganiyu Solomon
Popularly called GOS, Senator
Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon
believes that he is the best
candidate for the governorship
position based on his experience
as a businessman and a former
chairman of the Mushin Local
Government Area.
GOS, who was born on
December 19, 1959, was first
elected to the Lagos State House
of Assembly under the defunct
Democratic Party of Nigeria in
1998 during the regime of the late
Head of State, Gen. Sani
Abacha, but he had yet to be
sworn in before Abacha died.
The political scientist was elected
Senator on the platform of the
defunct Action Congress to
represent Lagos West on May
29, 2007 before the party merged
with others to form APC.
“I have the experience and I am
convinced that I will take the
state further from where it is
now,” GOS said.
Akinwunmi Ambode
Akinwunmi Ambode is an
Accountant, an administrator and
a public finance management
expert. He is currently the Chief
Executive Officer, Brandsmiths
Consulting Limited – a public
finance and management
consulting firm with specific focus
on the Nigerian public sector.
Ambode was speculated to have
been endorsed by the APC
National Leader, Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu, and the Oba of Lagos,
Oba Rilwan Akiolu, as
Fashola’s successor.
The retired permanent secretary
was born on June 14, 1963 in
Epe, and was said to have
contributed to the successes
recorded by the current
administration as he assisted to
formulate and implement the
policies that stood Lagos out.
He was particularly said to have
designed the template that
increased the revenue generation
from N600m to over N10bn
monthly.
Ambode retired from civil service
in 2012 to set up his firm which is
currently consulting for
government at all levels.
Adeyemi Ikuforiji
The Lagos State House of
Assembly Speaker could be
described as one of Tinubu’s god-
sons. Ikuforiji’s political career
started in 1978. His experience as
the Secretary-General of the
National Union of Nigerian
Students followed by his election
as the President of the National
Union of Nigerian Students in
Romania between 1980 and 1981
sparked his interest in politics.
Ikuforiji won election under the
defunct Alliance for Democracy
to represent Epe Constituency 1
in 2003 and later became the
Speaker of the House in 2005.
He was returned to represent
Epe Constituency II in 2007.
The lawmaker has the reputation
of serving as a Speaker for four
consecutive terms.
He is facing criminal charges by
the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission.
Musiliu Obanikoro
The Minister of State for
Defence was born in Lagos
Island and studied at Texas
Southern University, Houston,
Texas, United States.
He returned to Nigeria in 1989 to
begin his political career as he
was appointed Caretaker
Committee Chairman of
Surulere Local Government. He
also served in the administration
of former Lagos State Governor
Michael Otedola as Director of
the Lagos State Bulk
Purchasing Corporation.
Between 1999 and 2003, he
served as Commissioner for
Home Affairs/Culture in Lagos
State before he contested the
2003 general elections on the
platform of the defunct AD to
represent Lagos Central in the
Senate.
While in the Senate, he dumped
the AD for the PDP on whose
platform he contested the 2007
governorship election in Lagos
State, but lost to Fashola.
The late President, Alhaji Umar
Musa Yar’Adua appointed him as
Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana
in 2007.
Obanikoro’s ambition to rule
Lagos has not waned since then as
he has been criticising the current
administration for non-
performance.
Jimi Agbaje
Another notable figure seeking to
contest the governorship poll in
Lagos is Mr. Joseph Olujimi
Kolawole Agbaje.
The pharmacist dumped the
defunct AC to contest for the
governorship election in 2003 as a
result of some irreconcilable
differences with the latter. His
recent defection to the PDP has
been celebrated as a welcome
development by many people.
Though Agbaje had met with
Jonathan over what some people
have described as the moves by
the Federal Government to
present a formidable and strong
candidate to challenge whoever
APC might present, he still needs
to convince Obanikoro, who has
never hidden his ambition to be
governor of the state.
Ade Dosunmu
Ade Dosunmu, who lost to
Fashola in 2011, is also interested
in contesting the forthcoming poll.
Though he has not been prominent
in PDP unlike Obanikoro,
Dosunmu was reported to have
said that he was still interested in
“rescuing the people of Lagos
State from the present hardship
that has been inflicted on them
through very harsh economic
policies; and very harsh
environment.”
Deji Doherty
The PDP chieftain is a
household name in Lagos State
politics.
Doherty, who had contested for
the governorship poll three times,
expressed his optimism to get the
PDP ticket in October during
the party’s primary.
He became the Acting Chairman
of the PDP Caretaker
Committee in the South-West
last year.
Described as a PDP loyalist,
he has shunned entreaties to dump
the party for the ruling APC.
The aspirants, according to
analysts, should brace for a
serious battle that is sure to
produce the strongest candidates
for each of the political parties in
the forthcoming 2015 governorship
poll in the state.

www.punchng.com/news/aspirants-in-battle-mood-for-lagos-governorship-tickets/

Ambode be looking like
"I got this"

APC has Lagos locked down since 1999. No hope for PDP here as they will always come 2nd best.

Ambode will surely emerge and he will win Cos' he's from epe local government and its epe's turn he is a good leader just sit down and watch he will win convoncely in Lagos.

The original Lagos boy!!

Musliu Obanikoro all the way

PassingShot: APC has Lagos locked down since 1999. No hope for PDP here as they will always come 2nd best.

if pdp present agbaje,d election race go hot gan o

do u expect me to read all these?

Johnnyessence: Ambode will surely emerge and he will win Cos' he's from epe local government and its epe's turn he is a good leader just sit down and watch he will win convoncely in Lagos.

Ambode is the man not because he's from Epe but because he's an astute Administrator, Tested, trusted and has delivered. I am so confident that Wunmi Ambode will outshine Fashola's performance just as Fashola outshined Asiwaju. That is the beauty of Governance. Not the Medicres of the pdp

No hope for pdp in Lagos

IN JAY-KAY WE BELIEVE

ambode will surely wins convincely Cos' he is also a Christian not only that his record shows credibility.

No matter how credible jimi agbaje might be, lagosians are happy with APC and their party's ideology for now and would want continuity which can only be provided by those that laid the foundation. PDP should try another state cos lagosians are very enlightened to make a terrible mistake of voting for them.