By Bashir Adefaka
President Muhammadu Buhari may have decided to personally intervene in the Lagos political impasse caused by intrigues between Governor Akinwumi Ambode and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) believed to be dancing to the beat of the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The President, it was learned on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, met behind closed door with Governor Ambode barely 24 hours after yet another reconciliation meeting stakeholders held with both Ambode and Tinubu in Abuja on Wednesday failed as the Leader refused to shift ground.
He had last Saturday ordered his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, to take charge of a reconciliatory meeting with the duo as, The DEFENDER gathered, the President had confidence the vice president could easily broker peace and put the matters to test.
With Asiwaju insisting on disallowing Ambode his second term and considering the strategic position of Lagos to the chances of APC in the coming general elections, The DEFENDER learned that President Buhari could not afford to repeat the same mistake of neutrality that made Bukola Saraki grow wings now difficult to cut by APC, hence the Thursday interventionist meeting with the governor.
It was however not clear as at the time of filing this story what the intention Mr. President would be carrying to meet with Ambode But the intervention was expected to be the final before Ambode himself would begin to deploy arsenals for his Plan B.
Sources close to Lagos political corridor told The DEFENDER that like Tinubu camp is planning and scheming, so the Abuja Boys headed by Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) is also not relenting. Ambode, now estranged from Asiwaju camp and living like bird without feathers in harmattan weather, however finds himself between the two camps and may decide to team up with the Fashola group in event the Buhari intervention does not effect any positive development.
The new dimension to the issue is the angle of some retired Generals who are indigenes of Lagos now gearing up to come in to work with the Fashola group using the weapons of the Ibile, marginalised Lagos indigenes, to save Ambode from the political demolition that is steering him in the face by his godfather.
The Generals believe that Ambode, in spite of everything, is loved by Lagosians and that, since the problem he has is just misunderstanding between him and some unsettled politicians withing the APC, the governor will get his second term whichever way he gets to contesting the election.
The Plan B is not bothered about the power of impeachment with which the godfather, according to some aggrieved Lagosians, cowed then Governor Fashola and Ambode.
They are concerned about President Buhari and how any last minute betrayal like suffered by Nuhu Ribadu would not come to them by surprise.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the governor would be updating the president at Thursday’s meeting on latest political development within the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State.
The governor’s political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the leadership of the APC in Lagos State were alleged to have mounted pressure on Ambode, to drop his second term bid.
Tinubu, who is alleged to have endorsed Ambode’s opponent within the APC, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had refused to back Ambode’s second term ambition despite pleas by concerned individuals and several socio- political groups from within and outside Lagos state.
NAN, however, gathered that governors under the platform of APC, who met on Wednesday night in Abuja, had on behalf of Ambode, sought the intervention of President Buhari in the APC crisis in Lagos state.
NAN reports that the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Gov. Rochas Okorocha, delivered the governors’ message to the president few minutes before his meeting with Ambode.
According to a NAN’s source, the president might end the tussle between Ambode and the Mandate Group, led by the APC National leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He further said that the president may also meet with other APC stakeholders in Lagos State within the week as part of efforts toward resolving the rift.
