Ambode must wake up, finish strong. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State came into power on May 29, 2015 with so much expectation hinged on his shoulders. His coming to power was not made easy because of the huge footprints left by his predecessor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN). Fashola was a super governor for the two terms of eight years he spent in office.
He was rated very highly owing to the grip he had on Lagos through the enforcement of several laws that brought back sanity into a rather chaotic city. Such was Fashola’s high intensity performance that many thought that his successor would have a very tough time matching his efforts or even making visible changes that could be equated with what Fashola did in Lagos.
Ambode came in and had a delay in taking off. But when he eventually took off after about three months of initial delays, Lagosians were ecstatic, feeling that another super governor had come into the saddle. Soon, the Fashola effect was in distant memory, with the streets of Lagos coming alive with street lights, road works and a glut of infrastructural developments that made it seem that Lagos had got it right the second time after the tenure of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the progenitor of both Fashola and Ambode. But the momentum seems to have gone out of Ambode since he lost his bid for a second term in office. The streets have become dark at night again.
Roads have become death traps while the unwanted Lagos traffic has resurfaced again. Add that to the return of drivers, motorcyclists and tricyclists on one way, the answer is a chaotic city. Lagos is back to the pre- Fashola days, where everybody was a law onto himself. We are pained that Ambode seemed to have been overwhelmed by the loss of the governorship ticket to Babajide Sanwo-Olu. We are pained also that the governor was consumed by the power play within his All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State. We believe very strongly that Ambode did not perform so poorly to be denied the ticket. Rather, it was his inability to play the politics of the party by pleasing some key stakeholders that cost him the ticket.
We sympathise with him, knowing that he may have been shocked beyond measure that a state he worked so hard for in the past three years did not find him worthy of a second term ticket. We know how deeply hurt he is, but we assert very strongly that Lagos cannot stop working because the governor is not returning. It is more than three months after he lost the ticket and less than five months to the end of his tenure. We do not believe that the governor should remain in shock while Lagos grinds to a halt. Up till now, for instance, the 2019 budget of the state has not been presented to the House of Assembly. Although, there have been arguments on the government’s side that the budget has been sent to the House, the Assembly insists that the governor does the right thing – lay it on the table as is customary.
There are also a whole lot of projects that appear to be heading to the abandoned list. Granted that government is a continuum, we believe that whoever that succeeds Ambode on May 29 this year would be able to complete the projects just as President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is completing those left by the government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before him. But we wonder why all the state enforcement agencies seem to have relaxed over the poor state of roads, the traffic and the blatant disobedience of road rules in the state. Can those ones wait for Ambode’s successor? We doubt that Lagos can continue to deteriorate the way it is doing between now and May 29, when a new momentum would be injected with the new government in place.
There is no doubt that Ambode did well as a governor of Lagos State. We dare say that many governors who did not deliver 10 per cent of what Ambode did in Lagos got their return tickets in other states. But Ambode himself knows the peculiarity of the politics of the state. We therefore demand that the governor wake up and face the reality that is in front of him. He must finish strong. He must accomplish all he can now for the sake of posterity. There is no doubting the fact that the harm has been done. He has lost the ticket already. It is irretrievable as at now.
That is the reality he would have to live with. It is gratifying to see the governor talk about the release of about 820 buses into the state’s transportation system soon. That is the spirit and what is expected of him. We wish to let Ambode know that his not getting a second term is not the end of the world. It was also not caused by ordinary Lagosians, who wish him well while the romance lasted. They do not deserve to bear the burden of his disappointment in the system that removed him. We, therefore, advise the governor to return to work and finish his tenure very strongly in his own interest and good name.
