Party in dilemma over recalcitrant Alimosho factions that continue to hold parallel Ward Meetings
By Razaq Adedeji Jimoh
IT could have possibly escaped the minds of many Lagos All Progressives Congress (APC) members that the State Executives led by Hon (Apostle) Cornelius Ojelabi had clocked six months in office. Perhaps that informed the decision of State Working Committee (SWC) to take stocks of its service delivery through a stakeholders meeting held on September 14, 2022, the supposed due date. The State Executive Committee was inaugurated on March 14 this year.
The stakeholders meeting had the party candidates for the coming general elections as well as the LGA/LCDA party Chairmen in attendance, where audience was given to everyone to express him/herself. Reports from each of the three Senatorial Districts were also presented, which turned out to be the required parameters usable for the evaluation of the six-month millage of the party administration by the state leadership.
Amidst the excellent performance of 84% returned as the final verdict, it is unfortunate that as at this past Sunday, October 16, 2022, Alimosho yet continued with the running of parallel ward meetings along the factional cleavages the state leadership had tried to bridge thus far.
While this essay was originally scheduled for publication on that date, it must be acknowledged as a matter of “divine time”, that the news of Her excellency, Hon (Dr.) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire’s induction into the prestigious Lagos political ‘Hall of fame’ – the Governance Advisory Council – would come to steal the show of unfolding events from Alimosho corridor in the ‘Progressives Cave’ at the time. this literally pushed this piece to this obvious auspicious date. Adefulire’s another steps up the ladder of her political career had undoubtedly come to count as one of the success stories to be told about the new emerging leadership of Alimosho APC with Chief Sunday Babatunde Aboyade as the new visage of the party. Therefore, the 6 months’ mileage in the prospective 4-year tenure of the State Exco’s performance is intended to be evaluated on premise of the political updates in the Federal Constituency. Two things make this to be the right variable. The one is that Chief Aboyade who is the Vice-Chairman, Lagos West Senatorial District comes from this Federal Consttuency. His reports covered half of the entire 20 local governments in the state. Lagos West comprises of ten local governments. The second reason is that from the events of the stakeholders’ forum, Alimsoho was about the only local government that was yet to have her internal wrangling resolved as at the September 14th. These two rightly give a good stead to make the assessment on the case study of the Lagos West Senatorial District Reports”.
From that report, Chief Aboyade observed that “Out of the 28 LG/LCDAs in the Lagos west Senatorial District, 27 submitted reports of their activities while one LGA (Agege) failed to submit report”. Using the conduct of LGA/LCDA party meetings and the expected harmony of peace between the LGA/LCDA party and council chairman as the yardstick for successful activities, the report listed 19 LGA/LCDAs as recording a success story. The Oto Awori that failed to do its meeting was said to have given the excuse of spontaneous insecurity that broke out in its area from a rift between two communities’ monarchs. The six LG/LCDAs of Alimosho were reported to be the recalcitrant sustaining their disharmony.
What then could be the implication of this report when put in statistical data for success evaluation? The 20 LGs/LCDAs, Oto Awori inclusive, that returned the successful reconciliation of the party factions by the Ojelabi’s State Exco team represents 20 of the 28 (20/28 x 100) LGs/LCDAs in percentage under review. The result is 71.42%, which makes it an excellent grade scored in the Lagos West. But the evaluation is on the whole state.
As this writer gathered from reliable sources close to the party’s State Secretariat, the Lagos East and Lagos Central are said to be at peace now as consequential to the purported reconciliation efforts. To give a chance for unsung dissatisfactions in some quarters of these districts, we may play safe to reduce their respective due of 100% each to 90%. Now taking the cumulative average of the three Senatorial Districts together thus:
71.42% + 90% +90% /3 = 251.42/3 =83.80% approximated to 84%
By interpretation, it means the successes recorded in other senatorial districts have a rather upgrading impact on the whole assessment. It is therefore empirically proven that the half-year report of year one (Q2Y1) assessment reports of the Ojelabi/Sanwo-Olu State Leadership of the Lagos APC is an excellent performance in the area of entrenching peace within the party. This should also be regarded as a proof of the conclusion of the Abdullahi Adamu led National Reconciliation Committee, which affirmed that the State had no rifts for the committee to address because the Governor was actually carrying everybody along.
However, what then can we get to hold for a possible view as the prospect of sustaining this excellency to the terminal year (Q4Y4)? That is where the parameter of ‘party discipline’ comes into play in the assessment variables. The factor to apply here is the imperative of giving due punishment where such is established to be the cause of sustained trouble in the concerned LGs/LCDAs. Speaking to this, there should be no presence to referencing Alimsoho LGA and its five LCDAs. The purported Aboyade’s reports also have materials in stock for the right assessment.
The report, which apparently feared to have leaked to the ‘indicted’ people before the date also read for the part: “It is highly recommended that the issues presented in the reports should be quickly addressed to place the party in good stead, going into the 2023 General Elections. On the issue of Alimosho, special attention should be paid to the constituency as there are reports that the Mainstream Group are planning to replicate what played out in Osun State by working against the party during the next election. LGA/LCDAs that reported no issue should be urged to continue the trend”.
It was also “recommended that the party should find a way of addressing the issue of slow responses to the party directives on the part of LGA (Council) chairmen; most of them don’t respond to directives at the appropriate time”.
The implication of all this is to challenge the party’s will to enforce discipline required to strengthen the bond of cohesion sustainably till last quarter of year four. However, the truth is that the party had achieved the cause for stability when the state leadership enthroned the justice of equity with the recognition of every faction pulling the party fabrics apart. The content of justice here inferred was the sharing of the party stakes among the warring factions where they existed.
Such was the clear mending of the cracks in the party walls that made it difficult for the Senator Abdullahi Adamu led National Reconciliation Committee to acknowledge any rifts within the Lagos APC when it visited the state about the last quarter of 2021. “I am happy and I speak for the members of this Committee. There are no petitions. We are all members of a family. There is no strain and no complaint of anything regarding the relationship between the major stakeholders. This is encouraging and this kind of state of affairs does not just come by accident. It goes to show the extent to which His Excellency and his team have been able to manage the party's affairs in the state; how they have been able to advance the interests of the very complex party membership in Lagos”, Adamu, who is now the National Chairman said. The leadership would therefore not be helping itself if it continues with indulgence of the yet disgruntled factions to hold the party to ransom.
Taking the Alimosho in reference for case study, it should be inconceivable that the BATCO-Mandate faction, which the Aboyade reports referred to as “Mainstream Group”, would yet sustain the path of ‘A-No-Go-Gree’ despite the 55% majority stake it is holding in the sharing formula, even though the reality on ground does not suggest it holds the majority of party membership any longer. The empirical material for this may be discerned in the fact that its opposition factions that have now united into Joke Orelope’s leadership identity fielded the greater number of aspirants in the last primary elections.
Beyond the direct threat of the Mainstream’s possibility of electoral sabotage in 2023 as alleged in the report, the feasibility of causing collateral damage of poor electoral outing from sustained disunity within the party into the election is yet guaranteed if not checked in time.
It is particularly worthy of note that despite the revelation given in the reports to the faces of indicted party on the September 14 stakeholders meeting, it is well informing by the full investigation of this essayist that the leadership of BATCO-Mandate never came home to make amends or made any pretense to such to date. As of Yesterday, Sunday, September 16, all the wards in Egbe-Idimu LCDA held parallel meetings along the fault line of the factional caucuses, the cause of which could only be traced to the LGA Party Chairman Alhaji Akibu Soliu. It gives no other meaning than extreme contempt for the state leadership and the party unity.
I particularly note the part, at the stakeholder meeting, where the State Chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, put the lies to the face of Alhaji Soliu. When the latter appeared emboldened to give apparent false report of harmony in his Council Area, Sources said the State Chairman was apt to confront him with a counter report purported to have been written by the Egbe-Idimu Party Secretary, which contradicted him. That alone ought to suffice for Alhaji Soliu to make amend when he returned home.
But his BATCO-Mandate faction would not see any basis to reason that the state leadership directives denote the supremacy of the party. Likewise, the Alhaji Soliu does not seem to see it rightly that his actions and inactions that have continued to direct party faithful in his group against efforts at uniting the party boarders directly on his extreme disdain for the state leadership. This is not to preclude that fact the group’s leader, Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo, should be the more culprit because Alhaji Soliu as his stooge would not have taken actions and decisions that would run contrary to his leader’s decisions.
It may be sensible to overlook the allegation of potential election sabotage raised in the Aboyade’s report because the BATCO-Mandate faction also holds a bigger stake with its House of Representatives and Lagos Assembly, Alimosho Constituency 02, candidates in the election, but it should also be rational to see the perpetration of disunity in the party as a riddle to unravel about suspicion of the sabotage. This is being said against the backdrop that for about three weeks long, the Vice-Chairman, Lagos West, Chief Aboyade had led a team of party officials from Alimosho to embark on extensive reconciliation meetings with both factions as another approach to the needful harmonisation for unity. The team comprised of the six LGA/LCDA party chairmen and the APC Zonal Organizing Secretary, Alhaji Lateef Ibiroba. Those visited included Head of the BATCO-Mandate, Alhaji Abdullahi Enilolobo. It is unfortunate that the efforts would yet seem to be in vain by the outcome of the purported continued parallel Ward Meetings of this past Sunday.
We should not shy away from the fact that Alhaji Enilolobo holds the ace to solution of the more cherrished and anticipated Alimosho Progressives' unity. This is not by consideration of his indisposable relevance today, but a view of simply having the audacious authority to command the party chairmen of his group to resume meeting in accordance with the list of authentic Excos from the State. It is not known for how long they intend to sustain the pretense to falsehoods that only their members make all the Exco list.
The state leadership would therefore be putting itself in good stead by enthroning discipline in gradual process of mild actions while it is yet a perfect wisdom to look at the cultural shock of wielding the big stick at this crucial time of approaching elections. This is when the future performances can be brighter and better than today’s. Above all this, I also acknowledge the fact of a biblical axiom that says
Ibukun ni fun agba egbe na to fi ogbon se May God continue to guide you all - the Sanwo-Olu/Ojalabi Team.
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