2023 Governorship Elections: Why PDP May Still Not Win Lagos with Jandor/Funke Akindele Ticket
Lagos, Nigeria - Since Nigeria's return to civilian governance in 1999, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not won any governorship election in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.
Lagos is the only state in the southwest the party has not governed despite its 16 years of political dominance which ended in 2015.
Source: Facebook
As Nigeria heads into another general election in 2023, the party has been boasting it will displace the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
However, beyond mere political rhetorics, there are no visible signs the PDP can pull off the task of sending the APC packing in Lagos next year.
On the contrary, certain factors have shown that the lead opposition is ready for another defeat in Lagos come 2023. These include:
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Internal crisis: from state to national levels
To defeat the ruling APC in Lagos, the PDP needs to put up a strong united front. Unfortunately for the party, it has remained disunited due to the internal crisis tearing it apart at the national and state levels.
For instance, due to the crisis boggling the PDP at the national level, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, an influential chieftain of the party, openly campaigned against Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the Lagos PDP gubernatorial candidate.
“Any party contesting against APC in Lagos is wasting time. Sanwo-Olu is a super performing Governor," Wike said at the 22nd National Women’s conference organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) in October.
At the state level, Adediran has lost the support of prominent party chieftains, including former PDP deputy national chairman, Chief Bode George, due to his choice of running mate, Funke Akindele, a prolific Nollywood actress.
According to Chief Bode George, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour was prevailed upon to step down for Jandor to have a seamless gubernatorial primary with the agreement he would be the running mate.
Jandor, however, allegedly betrayed the agreement by dumping Gbadebo for Akindele.
This has pitched Jandor against Chief George and some other prominent members of the Lagos PDP.
Instead of carrying other party members along, Jandor, who only recently left the APC to pick the PDP guber ticket, appears to be running a one-man show.
The Labour Party factor in Lagos
Having robbed Rhodes-Vivour of the running mate slot, he moved on to pick the governorship ticket of the Labour Party ahead of the polls.
This will significantly affect the PDP's chances as votes that were supposed to go to the party will be shared with the Labour Party.
A similar scenario happened in the 2022 Governorship election in Ekiti state where Segun Oni left the PDP for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) after losing the party's primary, allegedly under controversial circumstances.
The PDP did not just lose the election, it came a shameful distant third.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu's performance in Lagos
Though the October 2020 EndSARS violence adversely affected Babajide Sanwo-Olu's rating, some landmark achievements, including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the railway project, seem to have made the Lagos governor still popular among voters.
For instance, in November 2022, Anap Foundation released a poll which predicted Sanwo-Olu's re-election in 2023.
The poll, commissioned by Anap Foundation and conducted by NOI Polls, revealed a significant lead by Governor Sanwo-Olu (APC), with Jandor (PDP) and Rhodes-Vivour (Labour Party) both trailing behind distantly.
The report added that Governor Sanwo-Olu’s lead might be unassailable as opposition votes are fragmented, a development which could be considered the direct consequence of the PDP's internal crisis which forced Rhodes-Vivour out of the party.
While 30% of voters proposed to vote for Sanwo-Olu, only 8% proposed to vote for Jandor. As for Rhodes-Vivour, only 4% of voters proposed to vote for him.
This implies that Governor Sanwo-Olu has a 22%-point lead.
The only hope for Jandor and Rhodes-Vivour, according to the poll, is the huge percentage of undecided voters ( 30%) and those who prefer not to reveal their preferred candidate (26%).
Source: UGC
I am not mole for APC, says Jandor
In another report, the Lagos PDP governorship candidate, Jandor, denied being a mole for the APC, saying he was strongly determined to end the ruling party's reign in the state.
He was reacting to speculations that he was planted in the PDP by the APC and that he was close to the ruling party's presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Jandor said it would be illogical for him to be the APC’s mole in PDP and be giving the party ‘headaches’ in his campaigns. He added that though he was in the APC until January 2022, he had not had a one-on-one meeting with Tinubu.
Source: Legit.ng
