A lot has been said about the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the literature remains inexhaustible.
Akinwunmi is constructed by some as a failure and by constrast, he is also deconstructed by others as a successful infrastructure builder.
Without much ado, many of his works on physical infrastructure adone the landscape . By the same token his failing is also glaring.
However , in the history of Lagos State only two governors have successfully completed a two term tenure , namely , Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his successor in title , Babatunde Raji Fashola (S.A.N.)
Alhaji Lateef Jakande was elected for a second term in office but the second term was truncated by the military take over of government on the 31st December, 1983.
As a result ,he used only three months of his second term in office.
In his own case ,Sir Michael Otedola did not even finish his first term in office as the dubious political transistion to civil rule of the military dictator , General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida , was cancelled by the coup of General Sanni Abacha.
This coup was the aftermath of the cancellation of the presidential polls of the 12th June , 1993 and the surreptitious installation of Ernerst Sonekan as the interim president.
While the cases of Jakande and Otedola were created by the military junta that uprooted the Constitutional order that of Ambode was simply a palace coup by the party hierarchy who saw his actions as an heresy of the established order.
Now that Ambode is no longer the governor ; it remains to be seen how prosterity will adjudge him and his vision and projects he successfully embarked upon while in office and a tenant at the government house.
It is on record that he expanded the Airport Road , constructed the Oshodi Abule Egba bus lanes ,public schools amongst many other things that he did.
However ,he was ineffective in the enforcement of public laws , traffic laws , sanitation all of which creates orderliness in the society.
It seems, however ,that his attempt to supplant the waste management system was the last straw the broke the camel’s back as the new system threw out of employment thousands of party faithfuls who used the waste management of the state as a political patronage.
On the whole , while , Akinwunmi , was aggressive in the creation of infrastructure ,he was lacking in soft skills .His relationship with Party leaders was not cordial.
So the time to pay him back with his own coins came when he sought for a second term in office. They simply , shifted their loyalty and support to their annointed candidate , Olushola Sanwo Olu,which caused Akinwunmi’s defeat at the primary thereby robbing him of the party’s ticket.
Speaking for myself , I will rather argue, that history will be kind to Ambode as his infrastructural undertakings remains largely imperishable notwithstanding the present views of his traducers which appear unkind.
