Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon sounds like a man spoiling for war as 2015 elections draws near. The Senator sounds like a man who is unwilling to step down for anyone this time around. He seem very confident that on a free and fair primaries, devoid of any mago-mago, he can stand anyone and even beat anyone. The man is talking tough on this election and he seem ready and all fired up for it.
In a recent interview, GOS spoke about his ambition and why Bola Ahmed Tinubu has no right to stop him from contesting the election. In his words ” I know how we got to where we are. If in 2007, you said “you can’t go now; let’s allow this person – you will have the opportunity next time”. You want to call me now – so what are you going to tell me? That I have to wait again! You put my life on hold? You cannot. You need to tell me what is wrong with me that makes me unsuitable for that position for a second time. And what makes that person so suitable that I need to sacrifice myself again. No!.”
If you think that is too much an insult to a man who is supposed to be GOS’s political godfather and his party’s leader then you will be amazed when you hear that GOS also accused Tinubu of organising Kangaroo election. In his words “I know how we got to where we are, you don’t conduct a kangaroo primary; just like what was done in 2007, allocating votes saying somebody scored this and that. I just laughed it off after I’d seen my name in the 4th position with others. So let it be free; fair and everybody knows their lot.” GOS, also spoke on the aspiration of Akinwunmi Ambode, the fact that he is an academician and the allegation that he had been endorsed as the party’s choice. Hear what he had to say.
According to GOS, “If they want to sell a person forcibly as they are doing; that’s their approach. They put him in your face every time.” GOS, went on to say that in as much as Ambode is a career civil servant they are not mates in terms of achievement. Hear him “If I had been a civil servant, I’m not sure if I will be his contemporary, I will rather be his senior.” He went on to say “In my own chosen field, I’ve proven myself so you access me from my chosen field. You also access him on his chosen field because he’s been a career civil servant. At a point in time, I chose to be a politician-public servant.
If now you want to access our capability in any other way; that will be a thing that cannot be arranged. We are talking of administration, because at the end of the day, governance is about administration and we cannot now say there is a correlation between your academic pursue and administration. It hasn’t been proven that the more degrees you have the better administrator you are. So everything they have been brandishing is absolute nonsense, it cannot stand in any context.
We know for sure that Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, didn’t go to Oxford, or Cambridge, he attended University of Benin. So if we say that BRF performed, it’s not about the accumulated degrees. Unless you say Asiwaju didn’t perform or he says so himself and then, he needs somebody to perform better than him because I don’t know whether Asiwaju has a 2nd degree. He has a 1st degree like BRF, none afterwards.
If We will go further, I’m not sure that Alhaji L.K Jakande has a degree and right now Lagos history cannot be complete without mentioning Alhaji Jakande. If the information given is right, Baba Awolowo acquired most of his degrees in Nigeria and no one is yet to beat his record from those mentioned above because he had lots of his firsts in Nigeria that cuts across all sectors.
Interestingly, this discredit of Ambode’s academic achievements has however been tagged by a lot of people as GOS’s way of shying away from the fact that he does not in any way come close to Ambode in terms of qualification.
As the saying goes, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Are these signs of cracks in the unity of the ruling party in Lagos state..are there other aspirants who are also willing to ignore a consensus canditate and fight it out in the party primaries…Obviously it is yet unclear at this time who will be that party flag bearer for APC in Lagos, however it seem AMBODE is the favored one to get it. 