Governor Ambode in serious dilemma as he loses party ticket

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode officially has just eight months to spend in office, following confirmation that he lost his party’s primary election on Tuesday.

The NWC, on Wednesday, corroborated the Chairman of the APC in Lagos, Tunde Balogun’s results that Sanwo-Olu amassed a total of 970,851 votes compared to Ambode’s 72,901 votes.

It is safe to say that the Governor would now be contemplating his next move after failing to get party members on his side.

However, the current situation leaves him in serious dilemma.

The governor has, party shenanigans aside, divided opinions on his performance ratings. Many Lagos residents are, however, of the opinion that he could do better to consolidate on his projects and correct his mistakes on his second coming.

Most of the paltry number of votes he was able to garner in the primary election were from Epe, his constituency where he has been hailed for executing transformation works.

Ambode has actually been patting himself on the back for a job well done so far, and APC party leader Bola Tinubu affirmed on Tuesday that his ouster was not solely based on bad performance.

The opposition party, PDP is desperately in need of a worthy candidate to challenge Sanwo-Olu in the 2019 poll, with only Jimi Agbaje, a 2015 gubernatorial candidate, currently being the party’s most viable candidate. It is expected that the party’s leaders would, by now, be falling over themselves over Ambode’s availability.

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But for Ambode, that would be a very murky water to swim in, as he would incur even more wrath from his party if he switches allegiance before the end of his tenure. It is worth noting that he also doesn’t have members of the state House of Assembly on his side. 36 out of 40 of them had expressed their solidarity with Sanwo-Olu in the lead up to the primary election. He could be impeached.

A party member told Newsroom that that possibility (of Ambode getting impeached) is “high”.

“As it is, he is in no man’s land and he knows it,” the member who sought anonymity told us.

The next election isn’t until February 2019 and Ambode’s next move remains to be seen, whether he’ll take the defeat in his stride and ride out his tenure, or damn all consequences and pitch his tent with opposition party in order to have another shot at being governor.