Following the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy and the proposed election on 20 local governments’ area basis in Lagos state and pending any further Lagos State House of Assembly interpretation and actions on the matter, the following factors have been seen as going to be major decider of who will emerge the next Council Chairman in Ajeromi Ifelodun local government.
The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu factor cannot be swept under carpet as many are thinking that being in Abuja will make him ignore such trifle as who becomes Local government Council chairman in Lagos state, but one thing is certain, what happens in Lagos politics depends on Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s interest, particularly as it relates to 2027, therefore how it plays out depends on his interest. In fact it is said that the quietness, confusion and darkness surrounding the forthcoming local government election is part of the fever from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and now that he is already in Lagos for holidays, this yuletide will fast track plans on this.
Equally important too is the Asiwaju Rabiu Adio Oluwa Factor. For the 2025 Chairmanship tussle, the emergence of the candidate and debacle of other aspirants which is going to be a crescendo would not happen behind him, certainly a lot of things would have been lost especially unquantifiable quantum of money, the leadership factor in Ajeromi Ifelodun being more complex this time around is going to be inexcusable for Prince Rabiu because he is a Badagry Divisional leader as well as a Senatorial leader and in any fallout as there is likely going to be a two divide skirmish that will result to a bang which will produce the candidate , but don’t ask me the persona in the divide, without pretension, a lot of young tusks are eager to be in the shoes of the Apex leader, so it is going to be a skirmish against Baba Rabiu Adio Oluwa on one hand, since he is the Head of the leadership as well as Senatorial head and Member of the of the GAC Group, definitely he is going to be a functional partaker and against some of those ambitious younger tusks, already the bang from Mandate group recently is a sign of what is likely going to pan out. Therefore the Oluwa factor will definitely be prominent as no candidate will emerge without his knowledge.
The caucus factor is perhaps another strong count to who become Ajeromi Ifelodun local government next chairman and the two caucuses in Ajeromi Ifelodun is the revived MANDATE and the refortified JUSTICE FORUM but there’s a peculiarity in this factor because they symbiotically work together, like in Ifelodun where the two is almost interwoven.
But in Ajeromi axis, there’s likely going to be a bang and boom, when the tops of these two groups meet to discuss especially with State leadership intervention, they will form an opinion to determine who is going to be the Chairman and who takes what.
The leadership, the Headship and the instruction is going to help a lot on who is to pick the chairmanship slot as the leadership will sit down and take instruction to decide and agree and every other factor will fall in place.
Another very essential factor is money because in politics money counts because a loser will spend and winner will spend money too but no matter the quantum of money of an aspirant but without leadership sympathy, the aspirant is wasting time. Though it depends on individual aspirant’s vulnerability of how one spends, though some people are adjudged to spend stupidly but the politically nurtured aspirants that follow instruction will not spend unwisely.
POPULARITY FACTOR; this factor has been overspent over the years, but since year 2007- 2008 when Kamaldeen Bayewu emerged, the two most popular aspirants were Engr Tajudeen Ojora aka Etoo and Tajudeen Balogun aka Ariwoko, both had well established political structure but by incident, Bayewu walked out from banking hall and picked the slot because there was an instruction which the leadership followed.
An aspirant can be popular but if not taken the rightful direction, the popularity might not work but somebody might not be known but might be known by the leadership and would be preferred
EXTERNAL LEADERSHIP; Those days seem gone when somebody will come from outside the local government leadership and take the slot but now that Ajeromi has a well defined leadership in the local government , not just a local government leader or Badagry divisional leadership and not just a Lagos West leader but also a GAC member, this leadership is capable of picking a chairmanship candidate for the local government and whatsoever external leadership incursion that will bring an overriding influence to his leadership is going to be sweeping directive from no other than President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who still holds the Lagos political ace.
So external leadership incursion cannot be completely waved off but it depends on the category but would have been overtly possible where we do not have categories like Prince Rabiu Adio Oluwa
20 Local Government arrangement; Ajeromi has been acclaimed a parent local government to Ifelodun.The general mindset of the politicians from Ajeromi axis is that no politician from Ifelodun can come to arm-twist them in the name of contesting over there, and had gone ahead to subscribe to the prediction that the need will not arise as the local Council Development Area will not be shot down but might take a new nomenclature as administrative office mooted by the Lagos Lawmakers, therefore the LCDAs will still retain its full regalia of councilors and supervisors and the same money approval to the LCDAs will still be due to them.
Events in the coming days will elucidate this arrangement as the Lagos Politics ace holder is holidaying in town.
Subscribers to the forgone argue, It is the same thing that happened when Hon Adenekan emerged the first Chairman of the LCDA, SO it may be no contest implying automatic election of the preferred Ifelodun aspirant. However the issue of effort to delineate wards and increase supervisory councilors is still in the pipeline.
