Lagos Celebrates Jimi Agbaje After Election Results.

                                                                          'Jimi  Agbaje

It was the late political icon, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who said, on being found guilty of treasonable felony years back in Nigeria’s dark political history, that: “It is not life that matters but the courage you put into it.” That surely must be one of the reasons why some Lagosians have decided to make a folk hero of Jimi Agbaje the PDP candidate in the last governorship elections of April 11 who lost to declared winner, Akin Ambode of the APC.

The talk of the town in informed circles in the state especially at Alausa is that the PDP candidate has carved a niche for himself as the hero of the guber elections in the state. The talk is that even though he lost the elections despite controversial returns from INEC in some areas, the facts on the ground showed clearly that he gave the APC, the established party in the state for the past sixteen years a run for its money and gargantuan financial arsenal.

Indeed, Jimi Agbaje’s performance and credibility with the electorate in Lagos state has had tongue wagging that big heads will roll in government circles and the higher echelon of the APC on how an outsider to government which campaigned for Akin Ambode in  the state can perform so woefully while the PDP stole the thunder of campaign for so long and so effortlessly. Moreso, when this feat came about without any forceful disposition or intimidation which has been the tactics of the ruling party to make voters play ball and keep the government and its party members in power for so long.

Some shrewd politicians and elders in the state have attributed Agbaje’s winning attitude and soft sell to his upbringing and family orientation which is that of a man with a family that is well to do and has a name to protect. With such background, it was difficult  to see him in politics at all,  not to talk of formidably taking on the established politicians in the violent rough and tumble of Lagos politics and almost defeating them without joining them in their infamous trickery and deceit  of the masses to claim and be in power by all and any means. 

Undoubtedly, the  defeated PDP guber candidate gave APC leaders the jitters such that the Lion  of  Bourdillon Bola Tinubu was said to be almost in tears to persuade party faithful to let bygones be bygones so that Lagos will not be lost to an outsider so  soon after realizing the unbelievable dream of calling the shots for the Buhari government. Some  are even speculating that the highly politically precocious APC leader and brain box may soon reach out to JK Agbaje in the new dispensation in the state or at  Federal  level  as  he was really dazed or dazzled by how Agbaje could  have performed so well at the campaigns that he almost overturned political stakes in the state for the APC as presently constituted in its pyrrhic  guber  victory of April 11 2015.

One thing is certain in Lagos politics and it is that it can no longer be business as usual for handpicking candidates for public offices which was the bane of the APC primaries and overall selection strategy. The incredible performance of the PDP candidate Jimi Agbaje at the polls has surely seen to that. In addition, Agbaje’s suave and dignified political challenge has changed the political landscape in Lagos in terms of recruitment of real and potential politicians or office seekers in the state. Agbaje has shown that decent men and women can participate in politics and make a difference by raising the bar in terms of respect for the rule of law and respect for the integrity of political competition and participation.

JK Agbaje may not have won the election even though his party is going to court to contest the results but he has won the hearts of Lagosians with his fine outing and formidable posture and performance against the APC in the state. He remains the poster boy and darling of Lagosians well after his election posters might have disappeared from our collective view as we ponder ruefully at what could have been the light at the end of a dark tunnel for Lagosians had the  election result  been different.

Courtesy - Babatope Adewale