Members of a campaign support organization, the Sanwo-Olu for Governor Again, SAFOGA, has said that former governor of Lagos State and current Minister of Works and Housing Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, is on the same page with it on the issue of the Lagos State governorship election, coming up on March 11, 2023, asserting that “there is no vacancy yet at the Government House, Alausa.”
The group’s Public Relation Officer, PRO, Comrade Adekunle Adeosun, in a press release in Lagos on Saturday, while reacting to the minister’s reported declaration that anybody wishing or aspiring to be the governor, especially in Lagos State, can never be a cameraman, who has not gone through the political furnace to garner leadership experience.
A popular on-line publication, ‘The Nigerian XpressWorking’ had quoted the minister as saying that “working as my cameraman does not qualify you as governor,” insinuating that the minister was referring to the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State, Dr. AbdulAzeez Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor.
Fashola, according to the publication, made the remarks at the launch of ‘Eko Oni Baje’ 10,000 foot soldiers held in Lagos for Tinubu/Shettima candidacy and Sanwo-Olu/Hamzat re-election bid, quoting him as further explaining that Jandor was ‘filming’ him when he was governor as one of his cameramen, but he thinks that qualifies him to become governor.
Fashola posited that the task of governing Lagos requires experience, adding that he gained the experience while serving as the Chief of Staff, CoS, during Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, from 2023 to 2007, revealing also that the incumbent governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was one of the cabinet members at the time and has also gained experience in governance before becoming governor.
Adeosun, who commended the Works and Housing Minister for hitting the nail appropriatelte on the head said, “The submission of BRF is in line with what we have been telling all other political parties in Lagos State, not to waste their time, energy and resources on fielding a governorship candidate for the coming March 11 election, because there is no vacancy yet at the state seat of power.
Adeosun insisted that as things stand now in the state, “it is crystal clear that there is no alternative to Sanwo-Olu for the job, because he has been doing well to the satisfaction and the admiration of the generality of the people of the state.”
He pointed out further that “the fact still remains that the good people of the state are not ready to discard an angel like Sanwo-Olu for an unknown non-starter.”
Adeosun therefore joined Fashola to urge party faithful not to hand the state over to anyone who does not have prior experience in governance as Fashola and Sanwo-Olu had, assuring that “our mobilisation efforts would give Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat a second term tenure on March 11 by the grace of God.”
