Ambode not Agbaje. Why I will Vote for Continuity in Lagos and not Change. -By Oluwafemi Akinfolarin

It’s less than a hundred hours to the governorship elections across Nigeria. Nigerians have already shown remarkable character in voting out an incumbent president for abysmal underperformance for the first time in the history of the country. The elections were a truly historical and remarkable feat that hopefully changes the trajectory of our country. As a result, this past week, I have walked through airport terminals, flourishing my Nigerian passport without shame. I have spoken to friends in Uganda and South Africa, sagely dispensing advice on the democratic principles and how to entrench it in African states.
There is still more to be done because we now have the second leg of our elections, which are as important as the first, and these elections should be treated with the same seriousness, especially the Lagos elections.

I strongly believe that there is no need to change the governing structure of Lagos state at the governorship level; I however believe there might be a need to more properly balance the house of assembly membership to create a less pliant opposition. My choice for governor of Lagos state is Mr. Ambode who is flying the APC flag.

The why is simple. Lagos is the ‘New York’ of Nigeria, a dense behemoth of a city with the largest slice of GDP in the country, a large merchant class, substantial financial services sector, the largest entry points, largest road network, most diverse population base and the largest consumer market in Africa. For 16 years, the engine of transformation in this polyglot place has been Mr. Tinubu and the defining circumstance has been the unfortunate conflict with the Obasanjo led FG which seized state revenue allocation and inadvertently forced the state to look inwards for income generation and new ideas.

For those 16 years, Lagos has never been in lockstep with the government at the federal level; this has made the mega projects required to rapidly transform the state extremely hard to execute. Two examples aptly reflect this: the expansion of the transportation corridor along the Badagry Express way axis (part of the Trans West African Coastal Highway system) via the expansion of the expressway and the construction of a train line to ferry people from and to Lagos Island. With Federal help, the financing for the projects would have been a breeze and successfully executed in the shortest time possible. The Federal and state governments could have chosen to even split the cost. Maybe a 4th Mainland Bridge would have been attempted? Now for the first time, there is a strong possibility of the same government at the centre and in Lagos, if the APC wins the April 11th governorship elections. This possibility is too important to waste on the altar of some illusionary change because the result could dramatically accelerate the growth of the metropolis.

While protest votes are an issue in the Lagos elections; Mr. Fashola had pissed off the Igbo with his deportation of migrants in 2012, Mr. Tinubu has being pissing off residents with his ham fisted imposition of candidates for political offices since 1999, now Oba Akiolu has successfully pissed off the Igbo’s again with his ‘jump in the Lagoon’ statement. While all the issues are significant, they are majorly transient. Fashola treated everyone equally in the deportation saga. He merely deported destitute persons, whom he felt the state could not afford to take care of after removing from the streets. Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Egbira included. Tinubu is now strongly focused on the national stage and won’t have time to micro-manage things in Lagos for much longer while everyone knows the Oba of Lagos is a police trained, first class Oba who shows a severe lack of restraint when making statements. But is that enough to throw away the enormous advances of the last 16 years? No, it simply is not.

The final reason for choosing to vote for Mr. Ambode is funny enough; his opponent, Mr. Agbaje is eloquent, a truly cosmopolitan elite. However, he has three things going against him from my perspective. His managerial experience is underwhelming being built largely around running a midsized pharmacy that hasn’t exhibited any significant growth since being established in 1984 and his chairmanship of the resident pharmaceutical association of Nigeria. And if you tell me that Barack Obama didn’t have significant managerial experience before becoming president of America, I would retort that he however had really good institutions to help him manage the affairs of state. Institutions that we lack in Nigeria. Second, Mr. Agbaje belongs to the PDP, a party that has managed to retard the growth of Nigeria for 16 years, why experiment with the same party in Lagos? Mr. Agbaje even endorsed President Jonathan, stating in an interview that if Jonathan did not win, the militants would go back to the creeks and therefore we should re-elect the aforementioned Jonathan. This is a position clearly divorced from the country’s desire for change.

My final issue with Mr. Agbaje is Mr. Bode George; another of the rehabilitated Jonathanian criminals like Mr. Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa. I would love to see that gentleman go into exile as he promised and thus I will vote for Mr. Ambode to actualise this. Simple.

Oluwafemi Akinfolarin is a Lawyer and he writes in from Lagos.