Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the Convener of Lagos4Lagos Movement, within the Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that the time is up for any form of godfatherism in Lagos politics.
Jandor who made this declaration after his group presentation to the appeal committee in Lagos on Thursday, said 2023 would be the turn of Lagos to reject dictatorship, irrespective of the present status quo. The people will always win if they come together. Now, we are together.
The Vice-chairman of Lagos4Lagos movement, Prince Sunday Ajayi, who led the team to present petitions before the appeal committee, expressed confidence that the committee will do the needful based on the evidence they presented, which include: the list of all the 9065 ward executives across the State, videos of the sensitization program before the congress and all the videos during the affirmation submitted to the committee.
Adediran said “the activities of Lagos4Lagos Movement are not in any way contradictory to the party, rather we are building it by bringing more members on board. Is the party opposed to us having a group or movement that is adding value to its membership in the State? I am of the APC and I keep saying that Lagos4Lagos Movement is not an affiliate of APC, it stands alone and has its members across party lines like PDP, APC, Accord Party and other members.
“For the past 20 years, Lagos has been running elitist Government without getting its priorities right. Recently, the Lagos State Government did ground breaking of the Red Line and the governor promised what would happen in another two years. But, the ones started in the last 11 years, where are they?
“What has happened to the Blue Line? Aside from the Ikoyi Link Bridge, how many iconic infrastructures can you point to in the state with the level of our wealth? We boast of running free education, but we still have children hawking on the streets during school hours. Why can’t we make primary school education free and compulsory for all? We make almost N400billion aside the Federal allocation; can you match that with the social amenities in the State?
“In 2023, it is the people that will determine who the candidate will be. If the power that be decided to give the ticket to whoever they want then we will move. We can’t be part of any illegality; that power that be, will not dictate anything. We will go through the primary and not someone saying I am giving you the party ticket.
He continued: “I don’t need to have any relationship with APC national body before I claim the party ticket. I don’t need to cringe before any godfather to win the party’s ticket, we don’t need to have that kind of 2018 scenario, where the chairman electoral committee came to say no election and the next day he was giving a result to announce, because a godfather and national chairman said this is what you need to do. All of those can’t repeat themselves in the party and that is why we supported the just concluded registration/revalidation exercise”.