By ‘Fisayo Soyombo
Who advised Akinwunmi Ambode to call that press conference — to talk about Sanwo-Olu’s “records of rehabilitation” at Gbagada General Hospital and his arrest for “spending fake US dollars at a night club”? Bad move!
Aside the inappropriateness of publicly fighting dirty, those utterances have gifted Sanwo-Olu an undeserved stage to shine. And boy, did he take it.
On top of immediately earning some sympathy votes off Ambode’s indiscretion, Sanwo-Olu further won himself some new fans with his mature response. His advisers — those who structured the content of that response — are political wizards.
I like how Ambode has refused to step down, though; no one man should be deciding the destinies of millions of Lagosians. But I’d have liked it even more if he begged less — dare Tinubu and fight like a lion; if you win, be happy; if you lose, take it in your stride like a man and move on.
After all, before you were Governor, your life existed. And even if you got a second term, you would give it up after four years.
By the way, who authorized Sanwo-Olu to release that statement? For all its depth of thought, it was ridden with errors of tense and grammar. Too many errors in such a short statement. Is this how you want to run Lagos? No problem if he made these mistakes himself — you don’t have to be a Professor of English to govern — but big problem if he couldn’t find himself a decent media aide to clean up the errors?
No leader possesses every skill required to succeed on the job, but every serious leader arms himself with aides who are strong in his areas of weakness. First signal: Sanwo-Olu, if he becomes Lagos Governor, won’t be thorough.
Whoever wins the APC primary tomorrow, I won’t be too bothered. Ambode is Governor in the first place because Tinubu literally lorded it over Lagos APC pre-2015; if he gets a taste of his own medicine pre-2019, so be it. That said, nobody needs to be told Sanwo-Olu is a puppet: just look intently into his eyes whenever he speaks.
The man who’s richer than the whole of Osun is just about to get richer than the whole of Lagos!