Following a chain of disappointments—from loss of a second-term ticket to humiliation by state legislature to a let-down in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet appointment— Lagos ex-Gov Akinwunmi Ambode is expected to have been frustrated.
Many also expect him to part ways, fast, with the ruling APC and its southwest hammerman Bola Tinubu.
So the stories heating up the media that Ambode has defected to the PDP won’t surprise many—even though such a move, if anything, is belated.
The National Daily reported that losers in the state’ opposition party are already reaching across to the APC; some are actually hopping in to the ruling party.
Board chairmen and other un-elective public offices remain a strong motivation for many of these cross-carpetings at the state and federal levels. They want to take their chances in the APC.
And as things stand now, Ambode might not be entirely hopeless if he keeps his head down in his party. He stands better chances.
Which is why many analysts will consider the his defection badly timed or absolutely impossible.
But to put the speculators out of their misery, the former governor himself has spoken.
Habib Aruna, his spokesman, in a statement Monday night said any information of his principal leaving the ruling party was “totally untrue”.
He appealed to the public to disregard mischievous bloggers and fake newsmongers and their sponsors.
“The news is fake. The former governor is firmly a member of APC, working in his own capacity to see that the progressive ideas and the next level agenda of President Buhari succeed,” he said.
What Ambode can do in his personal capacity as a loner, for now, is best left to imagination.
The two ministerial slots for Lagos have been snagged up by former Gov. Babatunde Fashola and former Speaker Olorunnibe Mamoora.