How Cold War In Lagos APC Caused Rejection Of Sanwo-olu’s Cabinet Nominees

The recent rejection of 17 commissioner-nominees of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu by the Lagos State House of Assembly was a confirmation of a rumoured cold war going on within the state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), multiple sources have confirmed.

On Wednesday, only 22 of the 39 cabinet nominees presented by Governor Sanwo-Olu to the House of Assembly for screening were confirmed. Seventeen other nominees were rejected by the lawmakers.

The 17 rejected commissioner-nominees included some technocrats who were part of the governor’s administration in the first term and who were adjudged to have performed excellently.

On why some of the governor’s nominees were rejected, Saturday Sun’s investigation and chats with different stakeholders, politicians and some government officials revealed that there is a cold war among political gladiators, power brokers and stakeholders in the state.

Many sources confirmed that the State House of Assembly was only acting on the scripts written by different aggrieved interest groups to pass a message to Governor Sanwo-Olu.

According to some of the sources, the rejection of the governor’s 17 nominees had never happened in the history of the state, but happened due to an alleged ‘I don’t care attitude’ of the governor to some issues affecting party members and various interest groups within and outside the party.

A source within the State House of Assembly who did not want his name in print, said some of the rejected cabinet nominees were not going to be shocked over their rejection because of what had transpired during their screening, adding that majority of them were not in the good books of their constituencies, and neither did they have any cordial relationship with the party or the representatives of their various local governments in the assembly. Some government officials also accused the past cabinet members who were re-nominated again of implementing various anti-human policies during their reign.

The cabinet nominees’ rejection was also attributed to some actions and inactions of some of the former commissioners during the last general elections in the state. Some of the party members across different local government areas, it was gathered, expressed displeasure over the cabinet list submitted by the governor to the assembly, saying that the morale of faithful party members was being killed by rewarding those who did not sow in the party.

A party chieftain in the Ikorodu area said almost all those rejected have no political base and grassroots affiliation but were included in the cabinet list because they were the governor’s friends and associates. He alleged that only few members of the Governors Advisory Council members have input in the list submitted by the governor. When contacted over the issue and the allegation levelled against the governor, Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor Sanwo-Olu, Gboyega Akosile dismissed allegations that the party was ignored by the governor. Akosile said people in the list submitted by his principal to the State House of Assembly were from a pool of people nominated by party members across all the local government areas.

He described Governor Sanwo-Olu as a good party man who understands the mechanism of reward system, equity, fairness and justice. He noted that all the commissioner-nominees were selected based on merit, contribution to party and competence by the governor, his deputy and party members.

Akosile said the governor was shocked that some of his nominees were not confirmed by the House of Assembly, but sounded optimistic that the governor would resolve whatever the issue might be very soon. He said the governor has a cordial relationship with all stakeholders in the state, insisting that the governor would not do anything that would undermine the interest of any stakeholder or group.

“All the rumours being spread over the rejection of the commissioner-nominees by the State House of Assembly are mere imaginations of the peddlers of such rumours. There is no iota of truth in them,” he noted.

The governor’s spokesman assured that everything regarding the issue would be resolved very soon.