It Will Certainly Be Sanwo-Olu Again – Jesutega Onokpasa

It is truly astonishing what Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has recorded, by way of verifiable achievements for Lagosians, and, by extension all the Nigerians who regularly travel there for business or pleasure, in his first term.

What is probably more astonishing is the quite mindless pretense of the PDP gubernatorial candidate for the state, Olajide Adediran, AKA “Jandor”, that the Governor “has no projects” and cannot “boast of any achievements”!

I was truly perplexed, months ago, watching the young man arrogantly spewing fiction after fiction in a lame attempt to denigrate Mr. Sanwo-Olu on Arise Tv, without any pushback from the anchors, as journalistic ethics demand.

It was therefore quite a relief when the very next day, Gbenga Omotoso, the state’s Commissioner for Information, stormed the studio with a most intimidating scorecard of ascertainable achievements of the Sanwo-Olu administration.

If Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has any problem at all regarding achievements, it would be how to simplistically communicate them for the average citizen to immediately apprehend.

The man is an achiever per excellence and it is most infuriating for some complete nonstarter like Adediran to be canvassing otherwise.

In education, health, waste disposal, security, infrastructure, transportation and a myriad other sectors, Governor Sanwo-Olu has not only acquitted himself, he has done so with distinction.

Funny enough, it is actually Mr. Adediran, who likes to go by the appellation of “Doctor” yet immediately comes across to truly intellectually astute people as somewhat rustic and, quite frankly, rather coarse, that actually has absolutely no achievements to speak of or to speak for him!

Adediran wants to “drive ‘agberos’ from Lagos yet manages to readily cut the picture of an ‘agbero’ kind of character, himself, as soon as he opens his mouth and loses himself in vituperative excess as he usually does.

He claims to be an aboriginal Lagosian yet the entirety of his campaign logic is the relentless thrashing of his natal home as a bastion of waste, beggars and destitution.

Hearing him speak is akin to being confronted by an utter clown attempting to scam you into believing the Lagos you see and know is nothing but a total mirage.

Indeed, the young man’s campaign strategy is a most unconscionable insult to the entirety of Lagosians.

Mr. “Jandor” actually only ends up cutting the picture of a badly brought up young man with no genuine regard for either elders or his own age mates he has been trying to convince he represents.

Where he is not disparaging his incoming President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ultimate source of what little prominence he can boast of today (for if there had been no Tinubu, there would not have been a Fashola, therefore no “Jandor”), he is to be found sparing with the very same Tunde Fashola but for whom no one would ever had heard of a “Jandor”.

Otherwise, he is calling his state party leader, Chief Bode George, a liar or dumping an intellectually sound material as running mate for a temperamental woman who threw her husband into the streets!

You really can’t make this stuff up.

For some reason, I suspect the combined IQ of “Jandor” and his drama queen of a running mate could well be encapsulated in something the size of a pack of condoms.

Conversely, the combined neural power of Mr. Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy, Mr. Femi Hamzat, probably makes for the most cerebral gubernatorial team in our country today.

Mr. “Jandor” has clearly been misadvised that his best bet to steal a position he is miserably unqualified and woefully unsuited for is to keep happing on “N50 billion”, in a manner that reminds one of a song called “One One B”, beloved of “Yahoo Boys” and OBIdients.

On the contrary, what his fixation on the figure has earned him is widespread suspicion amongst Lagosians that a ridiculous wannabe just wants to con them into handing him and his girlfriend their treasury “to flex”!

While former Governor Fashola has already pointed out that being his former cameraman does not qualify Mr. Adediran to become a Governor, truth is, the young man is going into battle purportedly to capture Lagos from an incumbent with nothing but the goodwill of a terribly fractured party as all the backup he has to showcase.

A raging storm and powerhouse of his own party came unsolicited to Lagos to endorse Mr. Sanwo-Olu.

His party leader has made it abundantly clear he wouldn’t be voting for him!

Lagosians know their political onions very well – that’s why they’ve been voting progressive since the advent of the present republic.

They will be retaining Jide Sanwo-Olu in his job because he has done a good job.

“Jandor”, perhaps fittingly for his moniker, is really only a joker and is clearly going absolutely nowhere.

Thankfully, he is young and, hopefully, will learn from the experience of losing miserably on March, the 11th.

Onokpasa, a lawyer and member, All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, writes from Abuja.