The administration of Akinwunmi Ambode, the 5th elected governor of Lagos State has come to an end, what remains to be seen is what issues if any will rise up with a new man at the helm of affairs. It is also not news that Mr Ambode lost his bid for re-election by not even winning his party’s ticket losing it to the current governor Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Power overwhelmed the governor, the office of the governor seems to be bigger than him, and he completely detached himself from the strong political party structure. A party that has been in power in Lagos since 1999 is not the kind that you ride on and ignore. You may ignore the man who brought you in from obscurity, but to survive, you need to be an exceptional performer and keep your party structure happy. Ambode did not read the handover notes of Governor Babatunde Fashola. If he had, he would not be facing the political battle of his life. The people stood with his predecessor, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, even when the body language of his godfather was hostile, and then the mighty Tinubu knew moving against Fashola would have been political suicide for him.
Unfortunately for Ambode, all those who could have stood with him, he belittled them, humiliated some and felt like he could do without them, There were instances where the governor would call for a meeting with state executives, have them wait for him and still call off such meetings with little off handed apology. A statement credited to his erstwhile SSG Tunji Bellow seen as Ambode’s right hand man in the administration is a pointer to what his administration was all about “Our main drawback is our government’s inability to apply enough emotional intelligence in the administration of the state. Emotional intelligence includes interpersonal skills, interpersonal relationship, humility, respect for the well-established mores of governance, disregard for the accomplishments of others. The belief that our way is the best without considering other options in a democratic setting, absence of wider consultations, distance from the governed, lack of effective communication skill or amateurish display of government acts and political immaturity, deliberate and open alienation of others” What can be more damning. For every progress Ambode made with road construction in inner city Lagos and futuristic projects such as the Murtala Muhammed Airport road and bus terminals, he undid with unpopular policies that targeted the very poor. The quality of roads became worse under his administration; Pensioners went for years without being paid a kobo.
The Lagos civil service is an extension of the party structure. If you come in as a governor, you are not expected to rock the boat or ‘change the template’ and it is a structure mostly servicing a few against the majority. Hardly would you find a Lagos State civil servant who is not a card-carrying member of the APC. Particularly for the Alausa based civil servants, what happens in Alausa always remain in Alausa.
Yoruba and especially Lagosians do not like governors or political appointees who are perceived as ‘arrogant’ or cannot be reached, They believe you hold whatever office as a privilege and that they all worked hard to put you, the least they expect from you is to be reachable and that in my opinion is not too much to ask. Instead, He ran a one man show; Folks that helped him get into office could no longer reach him. He treated those that managed to reach him with disdain.
For every progress Ambode made with road construction in inner city Lagos and futuristic projects such as the Murtala Muhammed Airport road and bus terminals, he undid with unpopular policies that targeted the very poor. It was as if he was in a race to undo some of Tinubu and Fashola’s projects. They say if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Ambode was aloof, arrogant and believed his idea was the best thing, There were many times at cabinet meetings where collective decisions were made only for him to wake up the next morning and do something totally different from what was agreed upon, he relegated his commissioners/ perm secretaries, their inputs and expertise were more often ignored…it is on record that he has the largest turn-over of both perm secs and commissioners of any administration in Lagos ever, deeply unpopular with Civil Servants. The influence of the governor is far reaching and many civil servants were summarily dismissed from service on minor infractions and over sight, particularly telling was the case of an Engineer in the state Ministry of Works and Infrastructure who was close to retirement but the governor had dismissed for giving out removed roofing sheets from a renovation project in one of the state’s secondary school. He was said to have even given the worn out sheets to labourers and the agriculture teacher who wanted to use them to cover the schools poultry. The anguish was said to have killed the man less than 2 months after being dismissed from the civil service. While he was quite popular in his adopted hometown of Epe, the generality of Lagosians were not passionate supporters of him, for a governor who curbed the excesses of LASTMA and the state’s VIO, he also made policies that were seen as anti-poor. Members of Otodo-Gbame community took protests to his office for about a week straight, not once did he or any top official of the state come out to address them, this was insensitive and further alienated from the down trodden. For a governor to lose support from his own party that put him up as a candidate less than four years ago says a lot.

He forgot he needs the political class (a larger percentage happen to work in public service) to secure the primary ticket to face off opposition’s candidates in the general election. He put the cart before the horse and found out, it was an unwise decision.

You're getting something wrong. Tinubu never remove ambode it was the party elders who did Left for asiwaju bola tinubu amode will still be governor but the party elders kicked against him and even threatening to work against Ambode should asiwaju force him to leave

ClassicMG:
You're getting something wrong. Tinubu never remove ambode it was the party elders who did Left for asiwaju bola tinubu amode will still be governor but the party elders kicked against him and even threatening to work against Ambode should asiwaju force him to leave

and you believe that

ClassicMG:
You're getting something wrong. Tinubu never remove ambode it was the party elders who did Left for asiwaju bola tinubu amode will still be governor but the party elders kicked against him and even threatening to work against Ambode should asiwaju force him to leave

no where in my write up did i write that...every insider knows it wasnt a Tinubu thing, Majority of party members didn't want him no more.