Tinubu won’t stop me from challenging Ambode —Sanwo-Olu

A governorship aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr Jide Sanwo-Olu, has dismissed suggestions that the party’s national leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, might ask him to step down from the race.

He described Tinubu as a democrat who is set to allow the choice of the people to emerge at the party’s direct primary scheduled to hold next week.

Sanwo-Olu, who will be contesting the party’s primary against the incumbent governor, Akinwumi Ambode and another aspirant, Dr Femi Hamzat, a former Commissioner for Works, said this on Friday in Lagos while fielding questions from journalists ahead of his formal declaration for the race on Sunday at Ikeja Police College.

“Your question is if my national leader asks me to back down, what will I do? You see, I really don’t know which side of the divide you want us to stay.

“Sometimes, people will say this man (Tinubu) is imposing and that he is not allowing aspirants to come out; that there is no internal democracy but this man (Tinubu) is a democrat, he will allow democracy to rule and thrive,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu, who said as a real Lagosian, he had what it takes to govern Lagos State and make it better, based on his private and public experiences spanning over three decades, noted that his aspiration to become the next governor of the state had nothing to do with an individual, describing the “movement” the party was championing in the state and led by Tinubu as participatory democracy.

ALSO READ: Court orders WAEC to produce ledger of Sen Adeleke’s result

“My aspiration has nothing to do with an individual. My national leader is my national leader. He is our national leader. His passion is about Nigeria and not Lagos alone. The movement we have started is participatory democracy and so, there is no basis for it.

“He (Tinubu), being a democrat, will allow the process to go on without any rancour. On September 25, by the grace of God the entire APC delegate will vote for Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the governorship candidate to represent them in the 2019 general election,” he said.

He promised to run an all-inclusive, participatory government if elected as the next governor of the state, saying that he would governor of entire Lagos.

The aspirant, who is believed to enjoy Tinubu’s backing, acknowledged that running a good government might come with challenges but he would put together a team that would make his government more participatory.

“To say that it is not going to be a tough challenge is not true. It certainly is. I have faced lots of difficult things and I know that I get inspired with challenges because challenges bring about opportunities.

“I am not going to tell myself that it is going to be a tea party but we are going to roll up our sleeves. We are going to put up a team that is visionary; that will have the interest of the people at heart; that will keep an open-door policy; that will listen very well; they will talk less and listen more. That is what governance is,” he said.

According to him, failure of leadership is not occasioned by its not listening but by not taking action. “They say leadership fails because people don’t listen, but leadership fails because it fails to take action,” he asserted

Speaking on the massive push that he is ambition is enjoying from the Mandate Group, a movement within the APC, Sanwo-Olu said: “Mandate is not a political party, it is not only Mandate that we are pushing, it is assumed that you have to come out from a particular house, territory.

“I will not be a governor for Lagos Island or Lagos Central; I will be governor for entire Lagos State. We will ensure we have a participatory government, we will ensure that we listen to you, so that you are included in the things we want to do differently for the people,” he declared