The rumour started like a Lagos traffic jam: sudden, noisy, impossible to ignore. Social media posts in August declared that Akinwunmi Ambode, the soft-spoken former governor, would contest on the African Democratic Congress ticket. Within hours, the whispers spread faster than suya smoke at dusk.
Except Ambode himself said no. Fake news, he called it, pasting the offending post on his X feed with the digital equivalent of a red stamp. He remains, he insists, loyal to President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress. And yet, the rumour lingers, sticky as palm oil. The question is, will the former Lagos governor get Tinubu’s blessings?
Ambode’s career has always danced between calculation and fate. An accountant who rose through the Lagos civil service, he surprised many by winning the governorship in 2015. But by 2019, he was out, elbowed aside in a family quarrel where Tinubu’s nod mattered more than ballot arithmetic.
In the years since, reconciliation came quietly. By 2023, as Tinubu won the presidency, Ambode resurfaced as an ally, even promising to lead the South-west campaign for his reelection bid. At grassroots voter drives, he urged Lagosians to collect their PVCs, framing democracy as both a duty and a ritual.
Still, his own ambitions peek through. He hints at a desire to reclaim Alausa, speaking of building on past gains, correcting present missteps, and imagining a Lagos that hums more efficiently than the city’s overcrowded danfo buses. Whether those dreams align with Tinubu’s script is another matter.
Loyalty in Lagos politics is rarely simple. Power shifts like the tide at Bar Beach, and even denials cannot fully quash speculation. Could Ambode be positioning himself for a second act? Or is he merely playing the faithful soldier until opportunity knocks louder?
For now, Lagos waits. The city knows that in politics, as in traffic, detours sometimes lead exactly where one was headed all along.
