Tinubu still the ultimate kingmaker ─ and other lessons from the Lagos APC gov primary

MEDIA CHOICES NOT ALWAYS THE REAL HEAVYWEIGHTS

So many people narrowed the governorship primaries to a two-way race between the candidates of the current and former governors of the state. Would it be Ambode? Or would Shasore spoil Tinubu’s party? Was it possible that Fashola had done enough to constitute himself to the nemesis of the very process that heralded his own governorship, ‘substituting’ Tinubu’s favourite with his?

It would be unfair, though, for anyone to blame Shasore for going head to head against Jagaban’s anointed candidate. Since Tinubu successfully used his own governorship machinery to enthrone Fashola eight years ago, Fashola should be able to use his for him as well. Analysts believed that if Shasore failed based on Tinubu’s strong influence in the party, it would be by a narrow margin. How shocked were they by the result! While Ambode coasted to victory with nearly 4,000 votes, Shasore ended up in a distant fifth place, polling just 112 votes of the total 5, 700 votes cast. How not to have a two-way race!

NOT ALL ELECTIONS ARE ELECTIONS

As far back as May, Ambode had received the endorsement of Rilwan Akiolu, the most prominent traditional ruler in the state. Outside the traditional setting, the support of the national leader of the party was also not in doubt, so Ambode was confident of victory. A few days to the election, all the other aspirants were grumbling about the system of indirect delegate voting that was to be adopted at the primaries. The party opted for indirect delegate primaries but the aspirants wanted the direct, which would have made their supporters eligible to vote, unlike indirect where the list of the delegates, as alleged by some party members, was made available to Tinubu and Ambode alone.

It was quite clear right from Onikan stadium, venue of the primaries, that Ambode was the man to beat. His entry into the stadium sent majority of the crowd into a frenzy, shouts of Ambode renting the air. Conversely, the arrival of other candidates was hardly noticeable. Voting was still in progress when he began to receive handshakes of congratulations from delegates. The air was charged with an Ambode victory.

So certain was his victory that some online mediums shockingly began reporting that he had won the primaries and had been declared APC’s governorship candidate! Truly shocking. At about 8am on Friday morning when his victory was officially announced by the party after his vote count was established, it seemed like journalists were only disseminating stale news.

NO ELECTION WITHOUT STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE

Ayodele Fayose it was who popularised the concept of stomach infrastructure with the sharing of bags of rice and money to voters in the lead-up to the Ekiti state governorship election, which he won against Kayode Fayemi, the then incumbent governor. But on Thursday, TheCable spotted two separate groups of delegates sharing cash at the Onikan stadium, venue of the ‘intra-party’ election that produced Ambode as APC’s governorship candidate for 2015.

So, whether it is the PDP in Ekiti or the APC in Lagos, whether it is the PDP governorship primaries that will hold on Monday December 8 or the 2015 election itself, money-sharing remains the core foundation upon which intra-party or inter-party elections are built in Nigeria. Sad, isn’t it?