Lagos LG polls: Believe in party leaders’ judgment, Obasa urges APC aspirants

Ahead of the July 12 Local council polls in Lagos, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashir Obasa has urged all stakeholders in Agege and Orile-Agege, particularly APC aspirants in the recently held chairmanship primaries, to be tolerant and have firm belief in the judgment of the party leaders.

Obasa, who spoke on Sunday during a stakeholders’ meeting held at Central Primary School in Agege, Lagos, declared that all the aspirants are qualified for the chairmanship seat but noted that everybody cannot be a leader at the same time.

He therefore urged the aggrieved among them to sheathe their swords, avoid conflict, and learn to trust the decision and judgment of the party and its leaders.

He said, “We thank our members that we have resolved local govt issues. There is none of the aspirants that was not qualified for the position, but we must also realise that this isn’t a family title. It’s an elective government position that is procedural and guided by law.

The law says only one person can occupy the position at a given time. So, if the aspirants are dissatisfied, they are entitled to that, but there should be a limit to their anger.

To those who are unable to get it this time, I urge them to keep their anger within the party and not allow it to go beyond that. What happened isn’t the first of its kind. It has happened countless numbers of times. I was also a victim, just like some of us here.

But you must learn to exercise patience and have confidence in the process. You must believe in the judgment of our leaders. Everybody is qualified to be a leader, but not all of us can be a leader. Learn to trust the party and its leaders. We must not fight them. If we want to appeal, let’s start now.”

He observed that the forthcoming local government polls are a litmus test on the 2027 general election, reason all hands must be on deck to attain victory.

He added, “We must reach out to others. Let’s make them understand the need to come back. If they didn’t get it today, it will be their turn tomorrow. We must work together. We cannot do it alone. This isn’t the ultimate. We are very interested in the 2027 election. But we will use this to measure what will happen in 2027. This isn’t about the chairmanship and councillorship election; it goes beyond that. Our target is 2027. So, let’s bring everybody out to vote.

If we can increase the number of votes we had in 2023 during this local poll, then we can rest. We must bring everybody together, and the journey starts now. We must learn to tolerate one another. We must intensify our efforts and reach out to members of the community to come out to vote.”

Speaking on unity and cohesion among members of the party in the council areas, Chairman, Agege Local Government Area, Hon. Ganiyu Edunjobi, said there are no aggrieved members in Agege, noting that all members are one and a united family.

He said, “We have only one APC in Agege. I don’t understand what you meant by disunity. All I understand is that during election period, many people aspire to the positions. There is nothing wrong with that. About 20 or 40 people can aspire for just one seat, but after the primary, we must bring ourselves together as one to support the party’s candidate.

We have the crowd. These are party members. They came out of their desire, nobody forced them. All of these people you are seeing are from Agege. They are here for sensitisation. We want them to go back to their various homes and reach out to others on the need to come out to vote on July 12. There are no aggrieved politicians in Agege. We are one united family.”

His counterpart in Orile-Agege LCDA, Hon. Johnson Babatunde, described the gathering as a solidarity and declaration of support to the party candidates.

He urged the winners at the primaries to be humble in victory while urging the losers to be sportsmanlike in defeat.

He said, “It’s a solidarity with our candidates in Agege local government and Orile-Agege LCDA. In Agege, our chairmanship candidate is Hon. Tunde Azeez while the vice-chairmanship candidate is Abdul-Ganiu Obasa. In Orile-Agege, we have Akinola Idowu as the chairman and Wale Fayemi as the vice-chairman. We are here in solidarity and to declare our support that we are solidly behind them. You can see the number of people that are here, that shows we have popular candidates on the ballot.”

Member representing Agege Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. (Dr) Wale Ahmed, described the gathering as an APC event to mobilise and sensitise the masses on the need to vote for the candidates of the party.

He stated, “The leadership of the party has successfully chosen candidates for the forthcoming local government polls. We are here to motivate and energise the people towards the July 12 local government elections.”

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