Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and President Bola Tinubu may be on a collision course over the exclusion of nominees from the President’s Ikeja constituency from his cabinet.
The non-inclusion of a representative from Ikeja, the capital of Lagos State and President Tinubu’s constituency in Sanwo-Olu’s cabinet is being termed as an affront on the personality of the president by keen watchers of Lagos politics.
Ikeja, for several years, has been the base of the president where he casts his vote, just metres away from his late mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji’s house, hence, political leaders in the state are still shocked the governor didn’t pick any cabinet member from the area.
Also, reliable political sources within the state revealed to us that, the exclusion of a nominee from Ikeja from Sanwo-Olu’s cabinet might not be unconnected with the unexpected death of a Governor’s Advisory Council member, Chief (Mrs.) Kemi Nelson. They opined that during her lifetime, Chief Mrs. Nelson commanded so much respect from the governor.
They further revealed that before her demise, Yeye Kemi Nelson, as she was fondly called, had penciled down one of the leaders in the area whom we learnt is well regarded as a good technocrat, for consideration for commissionership in the Sanwo-Olu’s cabinet.
Although, Ojodu and Onigbongbo, the two Local Council Development Areas carved out from Ikeja got commissionership slots each, same cannot be said of Ikeja.
The duo of Governors Advisory Council (GAC) members, Cardinal James Odumbaku a.k.a Baba Eto and Dr. Finnih got commissionership slots for Toke Benson and Ore Finnih, both of whom represent Ojodu and Onigbongbo respectively, leaving out only Ikeja which is President Tinubu’s base.
It would be recalled that recently, the Lagos State House of Assembly and the governor clashed on commissionership nominees which resulted into the former’s refusal to clear 17 out of the 39 commissionership list before the issue was settled by the leadership of the party in the state. Consequently, another 15 candidates were cleared from a fresh 18 nominees forwarded by Governor Sanwo-Olu.
The lawmakers have also rejected the governor’s request to approve fresh 6-nominee list of ( 1 Commissioner and 5 Special Assistants) cabinet members without their names, as only the Commisiioner nominee was forwarded with name. The Lagos Assembly has directed the clerk of the House to write the governor to attach names of all other Cabinet member nominated to the list forwarded to the Assembly on Tuesday 21st of November 2023.
