Ambode’s woes: Opponents plot to oust him from office

For three and half years governance in Lagos the commercial capital of Nigeria, was running on locomotive. While projects popped-up in hitherto abandoned communities across the state, government activities sailed with ease.

After defeating the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Jimi Agbaje, in the April 12, 2015 governorship election, Ambode hit the ground running. Drawing from his professional background as an accountant and public administrator, the governor left no one in doubt that he is the man the state needed.

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The synergy between Governor Akinwumi Ambode and his godfather, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also brought about massive developmental strides, with the ‘State of Aquatic Splendour’ becoming a toast among its peers, even the Federal Government.

In just few months, Lagos under Ambode became a massive construction yard. Though, new roads were constructed, the focus was on construction of pedestrian bridges and expansion of unmotorable existing roads to make movement easy for residents of the state.

From Ojodu Berger to Agege-Pen Cinema, to Abule-Egba,Badagry, Abesan, Ijaiye-Ojokoro and Epe, it was construction, construction and more construction. In the first quarter of 2018, he commission about 23 rural roads linking Lagos and Ogun states.

In the areas of security, education, health, sports, public welfare and agriculture, the governor was unrelenting. Owing to these visible achievements, the young governor’s second-term was considered a settled matter.

However, the movers and shakers of the All Progressives Party (APC), had a contrary view. For the first time in the history of the nation, a sitting governor would not be getting a return ticket.

Shaken by the largely unforeseen loss, Ambode put up a feeble fight, encouraged by undependable forces in the Presidency, who backed down when faced with a potential damaging rebellion from the Tinubu machinery.

The visibly humbled Ambode, seeing no sense in sustaining the unwinnable fight, quickly threw in the towel by supporting the preferred candidate of his party, BabajideSanwo-Olu, thus putting paid to his second-term ambition.

In the meantime, following Ambode’s loss at the primary elections of the APC, he appeared to have lost interest in ruling while governance stutters. Though, Lagosians now see a new image of Ambode as a governor who is tired and no longer cares the fact is that powerful forces have castrated him. Business Hallmark reliably gathered that the governor is being undermined by forces within his own party and government and that he just a lame duck till hand over in May 29.

Checks by our correspondent around the state suggest that governance has now grounded to a halt while the embattled governor runs around to save his government.  For example, several capital projects have been abandoned.

Some of themajor projects that have been abandoned by contractors are the Agege-Pen Cinema Fly-over, the Oshodi-Abule Egba Bus Rapid Transit Corridor along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and the expansion of the 10-lane Oshodi/Murtala Muhammed International AirportExpress Way.

At the outset of his administration in 2015, Ambode constructed 114 roads, two each in the 57 local councils and Development Areas in the state. A year ago, he embarked on the construction of another 181 roads, three each in the 57 local governments.

Checks however, revealed that work has stopped on all the roads, with contactors claiming they have not been paid to go back to site.

“We have utilized the funds so far released for the construction of this road. So far, we have done only a side of the drainage system. And we are waiting for the state government to release funds for the second phase”, said a contractor in Ijaiye-Ojokoro, who was seen moving out an earth mover used on the road to another site.

Apart from abandoned road projects, the much acclaimed ‘Well-Lit Lagos’, meant to reduce crime by lighting up over 365 streets across the state, is facing challenges. Driving through some of the roads, it was observed that many are now in constant darkness. Some of the roads that are sometimes in darkness, unlike before are Jonathan Coker Street (off Fagba Junction), Yaya Abatan Street in Ogba, and Olaniyi Street in Oko-Oba.

Several roads in the state have also become unmotorable due to back-breaking potholes. Though the governor had mobilized men and machinery to fix the bad portions, the speed which potholes used to disappear on roads in the state has slowed down.

Apart from the abandonment of road projects, huge refuse dumps have literally taken over, and the state appears to have slipped back into the stone-age on refuse culture. From Ogba, to Ikeja, Agege, Iju-Ishaga, Ojodu/Berger, Ikorodu, Obawole, Iyana-Ipaja, Abule-Egba, and many others,the situation is the same. Rotten and foul-smelling wastes, particularly at road junctions, medians, roundabouts and markets, are eyesores to behold each morning.

The state government seems to have gotten an answer to the waste disposal headache until Ambode introduced the LAWMA-Visionscape-PSP initiative two years ago.

The scheme has, however,failed, partly due to active sabotage by some warring PSP operators, who allegedly dump refuse in public places to strangulate Visionscape.

To worsen the situation, the state House of assembly has proclaimed Visionscape an illegal entity and has stopped the state government from paying for its services. This singular action, it was learnt, has crippled the company and has worsened the refuse situation in the state.

Also, unmannered motorcycle riders, popularly called Okadas, have returned to restricted roads with vengeance.While the Lagos State Road Traffic Law which came into effect on August 2, 2012 restricts the operations of commercial motorcycles on about 475 out of the over 9,000 roads in the state, commercial motorcyclists now ride roughshod over Lagosians on inner roads, major highways and expressways.

The wild motorcycle riders, mostly from the Northern part of the country, also ride against traffic unchallenged.While they constitute potential risk to passengers and other road users, they also contribute to traffic jams which have returned to Lagos streets.

Rather than enforcing the traffic law, the enforcement agencies, especially the police and LASTMA officials, have allowed the motorcyclists to operate by extorting money from them.

BH also observed that work on the various massive bus terminals across the state has stopped. Works at the Agege, Berger and Ojota terminals have practically been suspended.

The Berger and Ojota terminals, it would be recalled, are being built by the state government in its drive to move luxurious bus operators operating from Jibowu, Yaba, Iddo and others from the inner city centres to the outskirt of the state.

The state government had on September 12, 2017 restricted the operation of inter-state buses and vehicles operating along Ikorodu Road from going beyond Ojodu Berger and Ojota Motor Parks.

Ambode had gone ahead to seal the premises of some major commercial transport and courier companies operating in the area for disobeying the directive.

Among the companies sealed were GUO Transport, Chisco Transport, Ifex Express Limited,God Is Good (GIG) and Peace Mass Transport.

 “Henceforth, they will have to go to Ojota and Ojodu Berger, which are the two designated inter-state motor parks. The ones that we have here in Jibowu will have to move”, Ambode had said in in 2017.

However, due to the non-completion of the new terminals, the inter- buses operators dislodged from the Jibowu end of Ikorodu Road have started returning to the spot unmolested. Nearly all the operators are now back on the express road with their buses soliciting for passengers, sometime constituting nuisance to other road users.Traders also displayed their goods to intending passengers unhindered.

Owing largely to the frictions that resulted from last year’s governorship primaries, the state government, for the first time in 10 years, presented the budget on January 3, 2019 to the state House of assembly, days after the fiscal year ended.

The governor, it was learnt, had sent a verbal information to the House that he would be presenting the budget on December 24, 2018, but was rebuffed by the lawmakers who claimed they were on recess.

Unfortunately for the governor, even after the lawmakers resumed from their holidays, the budget proposal of N852.317 billion has not been read by the governor. The House on resumption on January 4, 2019, blamed the governor for the delay, insisting that he must appear before it to present the 2019 budget as required by the law.

This followed the information read on the floor of the House by the Clerk, Mr. Azeez Sanni intimating the lawmakers that his office received a message from Ambode dated Monday, 17 December, 2018, but which he received on Friday, 28th December containing the 2019 budget.

The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who commended the lawmakers for their reaction to the message, stated that this was not the time for resentment, acrimony and agitation, adding that the stake before the lawmakers was beyond 2019. Obasa added that the lawmakers were willing to receive the 2019 budget, saying that this was one of the reasons they were elected into office.

The Speaker, however, said that this must be done properly by the governor in accordance with  Section 121 of the Nigerian Constitution which states that the budget must be presented to the House before the end of a financial year.

“We are ready to receive the budget if it is done properly. We have no resentment, we have no bad blood. Our stake is beyond 2019. What we have here is not even a letter, it is presentation of budget by the governor. The executive headed by the governor must be ready to present the budget and we are ready to receive it,” he said.

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje, while speaking on the development, criticized Ambode for the delay in the presentation of the 2019 budget. Agbaje, who said he was not surprised by the development, noted that Lagos residents were bearing the brunt of the “breakdown of democracy” in the ruling All Progressives Congress.

He added that he did not expect any further governance in the state until after May 2019 when a new government would be constituted.

“It is not surprising. I do not expect governance until after May 2019.The governor has become a lame duck. We hear that approvals are now given in other quarters. When democracy collapses in a ruling party, the people bear the brunt,” he said.

For the past 10 years, the Lagos State government had a culture of budget presentation before the fiscal year.The 2018 budget of N1.4trn, for instance, which was the largest ever in the history of the state, was presented by Ambode on December 11, 2017.The 2017 budget of N813bn was also presented by the governor on November 29, 2016.The 2016 budget of N662bn was presented on December 17, 2015.

The governor’s predecessor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, presented the 2015 budget of N489.69bn on November 24, 2014.He presented the 2014 budget of N489.69 in October 2013.

The 2013 budget of N497.277bn was also presented by Fashola in October 2012.The former governor, now minister for power, works and housing, presented the 2012 budget estimate of N485bn on November 14, 2011.The year 2011 budget of N445bn was presented in December 2010.The 2010 budget of N429bn was presented by Fashola in November 2009.

A reliable source in government who did not want his identity disclosed for fear of victimization,

blamed powerful forces outside government who were influencing things for the sluggish state of affairs in the state

“I can tell you without mincing words that there is a lot of interference with governance in Lagos State. Things are not working because the government is being run from outside.

“The governor is struggling to assert himself without much success. All apparatus of power has been unleashed against him. While the state House of assembly is daily harassing and frustrating his policies, the judiciary is not coming to his aids.

“Ambode is daily using his precious time to managecontending forces and interests, and part of the fallout is the delay in the budget. It is unprecedented that the budget is not out by now. It is a pointer to the battle of wits going on within and outside government,” said the concerned source.

While a small number of cabinet members and top civil servants are still loyal to the embattled governor, the majority are said to be loyal to the Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Olatunji Hamzat groups who are now working together. Government officials, it was gathered, always regrouped at the Bourdillon residence of Tinubu immediately after every meeting to brief him of outcomes and also receive directives.

BH also learnt that government business in ministries, departments and agencies have been paralyzed, as heaps of files containing vital decisions gather dust on desks waiting approval.

Investigations also revealed high level mistrust in government, with government appointees and civil servants sharply divided along interest groups fight for relevance within the ruling APC in the state.

One of Ambode’s many sins, it was learnt, was his alleged backing of the governorship candidate of the PDP, Jimi Agbaje. A close ally of the governor, while speaking with BH, alleged that the major reason the 2019 budget has been delayed is the fear that Ambode is funding the PDP campaign and the need to cut him to size by pruning off his sources of funding.

“Some people believe hidden funds to be used in financing the PDP candidate had been padded into the budget and are calling for a thorough screening.

“What they don’t realise is that it is in Ambode’s best interest to promote Sanwo-Olu. It is almost certain that a PDP government will go after him on both his decisions as governor and before then as accountant-general of Lagos”, the source said.

Angered by the inhuman treatment allegedly meted out to his principal, a close ally of the governor, Wale Oluwo, resigned his appointment in November 2018. Oluwo, who was the immediate commissioner for energy and mineral resources in the state, blamed his exit on the hijacking of September 2018 governorship primaries by powerful forces, as well as the constant harassment of the governor and his perceived supporters by party followers.

The former commissioner for energy and mineral resources is now in the opposition PDP.

While the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Habib Haruna, did not answer his calls, the state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Adebowale Akinsanya, assured Lagos residents that Lagos is running and that that the current administration will complete ongoing projects in the state before May 29 hand-over date.

“Most of the difficult parts of the workswe have already done. Overall, we are at about 60 per cent completion stage and right now, we have over 70 major projects ongoing but as you can  seen, work is ongoing,” he said.

As it stands, the vibrancy usually associated with governance in Lagos has ebbed considerably, and may worsen ason-going electioneering and power playcombine to render the governor a lame duck.