Ahead of the February 3rd House of Representatives bye-election for the Surulere 1 federal constituency seat, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been called upon to prevail on his Chief of Staff, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, to steer clear of alleged moves to impose his preferred choice, Mr Faud Laguda, on the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A group, the Progressives for Surulere (P4S) warned risk losing to the seat to opposition political parties if Gbajabiamila is allowed to have his way at the party primaries scheduled to take place at the weekend.
P4S in a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Mr. Akin Jones Oladimeji also frowned at the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abass for allegedly working in cahoots with Gbajabiamila to impose a candidate on the party.
The group which is rooting for the candidacy of either Mr Kabir Caesar Lawal or Abdul Raheem argued that the development ran contrary to the ideals of not only the APC, by President Tinubu who is an advocate of a level playing field for aspirants jostling for the seat.
Justifying their claim, the P4S noted: “Everyone knows how we virtually lost both the House of Assembly and House of Reps elections in Surulere 2 Federal constituency to opposition before getting them back after onerous efforts; it took full blast support from Asiwaju to coalesce divided camps to work together and we only managed to win with some margin of votes and now he wants to impose a far less popular candidate.
“Everything that APC stands for – progressive ideals, hope for the masses, social justice, morality in politics and departure from impunity – are all being called into question when both the former and current Speakers took turns in showing bias publicly even before the APC primaries in Surulere 1 Federal Constituency; besides, can anyone from Lagos go to Speaker Abbas’ constituency in Zaria and do such in a race meant for people at the grassroots and must these two respected personalities toy with the idea of such imposition in an area where the ENDSARS protest against impunity drew so much vibrant support?
“Just few days ago, Honourable Gbajabiamila also brought two traditional rulers from outside our constituency to come and tell our people what to do while he publicly unleashed thinly-veiled threats and intimidation against Honourable Kabir Caesar Lawal whose crime is that he differed against Gbaja’s overreaching and self-centred order not to contest in this election.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu, the Governor ‘s Advisory Council (GAC), former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola who is a resident of Surulere and other APC elders in Lagos State have honourably distanced themselves from any form of manipulation in Surulere 1 APC Reps primary and even, President Bola Tinubu visited Surulere without dabbling into the planned primary but Honourable Gbajabiamila is perceived instead, as pushing or intimidating some office holders, including Honourable Desmond Elliott towards drawing the ire of the populace by backing someone they never rated to be worthy.
“Besides, Honourable Gbajabiamila can never be the Asiwaju of Surulere because there is no moral justification for imposing the wrong candidate or adding to further division within Surulere APC in ways that can only benefit the opposition in the area; his candidate unashamedly runs his own campaign from the APC LGA office in Surulere, solely relying on the push from his master.
“This same Chief of Staff is said to have imposed the council chairman, picked all the nine ward councillors and overlooked numerous APC stalwarts’ years of sacrifice in Surulere to nominate a lady who was one of the nine imposed councillors in Surulere to represent the area in the state cabinet; it was a decision that further deepened discontentment, especially as he also secured a cabinet position for his sister who is not a party person; while his brother is holding another top government position in Abuja, his brother in-law is heading NEPZA, his sister is Special Adviser in Lagos state among others – all without recourse to our party members in Surulere.
“The opposition started jubilating immediately Gbajabiamila came public few days ago, in a video that is now viral, to confirm suspected clandestine imposition moves that were already causing anxiety over feeble and degenerating hold of APC in Surulere and we feel very saddened that Speaker Tajudeen Abbas also publicly expressed bias for the aspirant whom his predecessor is trying to impose.
“Already, the opposition support groups and members are jubilant over being handed an opportunity for electoral victory on a platter of gold because they, like everyone else, can easily feel the pulse of Surulere people about Gbajabiamila and his candidate.
“Must anyone who genuinely believes in progressive politics and democratic norms resort to the imposition of a candidate said to be a serving civil servant and who unashamedly presently runs his campaign from Surulere APC LGA office while other aspirants run their campaign from their respective bases while the impunity and skewed advantages over other aspirants in the race appear to be inspiring mass reaction?
“It is now particularly worrisome that our dear Honourable Chief of Staff may now be perceived as the proverbial greedy hunter who carries an elephant on his head, with national responsibilities but prefers to spend time using his toe to dig for cricket meat by causing anxieties through being preoccupied with an agenda in one out of Nigeria’s 774 local government councils.
“As the APC begins the screening of aspirants today (Thursday), we respectfully urge the Chief of Staff to uphold the honour and respect that we all reserve for all illustrious persons from Surulere, by allowing the true spirit of democracy to prevail rather than pursuing the imposition of an unpopular candidate that may only improve chances for the opposition and put to question, the credibility of our President’s administration as well as our party’s progressive ideals.
“At this point, with a Chief of Staff’s unprecedented fixation on a House of Representatives primary at the expense of pressing national issues, even after being known to be thoroughly focused on sharing the limelight with his boss, many wonder whether he is just throwing around his weight with eyes fixed on a seat much bigger than his present office; he even stayed back in Surulere after his boss had left to resume work in Abuja but reason must prevail.”
