Ismaeel Aleem
The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that it can wrest control of the state, describing the opposition party’s ambitions as “political fantasy” and “wishful thinking”.
In a sharply worded statement issued on Monday, APC state spokesman Seye Oladejo warned that Lagos remains firmly outside the reach of what he termed “emergency parties seeking relevance through laughable headlines”.
“Let it be stated clearly: Lagos is not a laboratory for political apprentices. Lagos is not up for grabs. And Lagos is certainly not a charity project for emergency parties,” Oladejo declared.
The rebuke follows recent assertions by the ADC that it intends to capture Lagos with the “cooperation of citizens”, a prospect the ruling party ridiculed as absurd given the opposition’s historically negligible presence in the state.
Oladejo pointed out that the ADC has consistently failed to demonstrate organisational strength even at the most basic level.
“A party that cannot hold a worthwhile ward meeting is now suddenly seeking citizens’ cooperation to take over a state globally acknowledged as Nigeria’s model for sustained governance, innovation, and leadership,” he said.
The APC spokesman challenged the ADC to first secure its own polling units before entertaining gubernatorial ambitions.
“In 2023 and even before then, the ADC struggled to fill a bus stop with its entire membership,” he noted, adding that the party would be better advised to achieve a quorum at its next internal meeting before contemplating contesting councillorship seats, let alone the governorship of Alausa.
Describing the ADC’s posturing as “a comical attempt to inflate a political balloon with the hot air of wishful thinking”, Oladejo insisted that Lagos, with its over 20 million residents, world-class infrastructure, and sophisticated electorate, could not be overrun by a party “without structures, without ideas, without credible candidates, and without electoral footprints”.
