President Bola Tinubu has officially, on Wednesday thrown his full weight behind Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, endorsing him as the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) consensus governorship candidate for the 2027general elections.
The presidential seal of approval came during a high-profile courtesy visit by members of the State Governance Advisory Council (GAC) to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, a gathering that political watchers say was as much a formality as it was a carefully choreographed signal to the entire Lagos political establishment that the succession question has been decisively settled.
For anyone familiar with Lagos politics, Tinubu’s endorsement carries a weight that transcends mere party procedure. As the undisputed architect of the APC’s dominance in Lagos — a political machine he built over more than two decades — the President’s word on matters of succession is widely regarded as the final authority.
By personally receiving the GAC delegation and publicly affirming Hamzat as the party’s consensus pick, Tinubu has effectively shut the door on any would-be challengers within the party, signaling that internal dissent on this particular matter will not be entertained.
“This endorsement is not just political theatre,” said one Lagos-based political analyst who asked not to be named. “When Tinubu speaks on Lagos, the party listens. Hamzat is, for all intents and purposes, the governor-in-waiting.”
Wednesday’s presidential endorsement follows swiftly on the heels of a declaration made just two days earlier by incumbent Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who on Monday publicly named Hamzat as his preferred successor, a move that itself carried enormous political significance.
The announcement came after a closed-door meeting at Lagos House, Marina, where Hamzat formally declared his intention to contest the governorship before an audience of State Executive Council members and key party leaders.
The carefully sequenced nature of the events, first the governor’s endorsement, then the President’s suggests a meticulously coordinated transition strategy designed to present a united front and forestall any factional maneuvering within the party.
Sanwo-Olu, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, appears determined to shape the contours of his succession, and his alignment with the President on Hamzat’s candidacy underscores the remarkable cohesion at the top of Lagos APC’s leadership hierarchy.
Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, an engineer and longtime Lagos APC stalwart, has served as Deputy Governor since 2019, working closely alongside Sanwo-Olu through two terms of governance that navigated the state through the COVID-19 pandemic, the turbulent #EndSARS protests of 2020, and an ambitious infrastructure agenda.
A former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure and a two-time governorship aspirant himself, Hamzat brings to the race a profile that combines technical expertise with deep-rooted party loyalty, qualities that appear to have commended him both to the outgoing governor and to the President.
His formal declaration before party executives earlier this week was described by attendees as confident and assured, projecting the demeanour of a man who had long prepared for this moment.
With both the sitting governor and the President now firmly in his corner, Hamzat’s path to the APC governorship ticket appears, by every political calculation, unobstructed. The party is expected to formalise the consensus arrangement through its internal processes in the coming months ahead of the 2027 election cycle.
For the opposition , chiefly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, which made modest inroads in Lagos during the 2023 elections, the unified APC front represents a formidable challenge.
Whether they can field a credible candidate capable of breaking the APC’s stranglehold on the state remains, for now, an open question.
What is no longer in question, however, is who the ruling party intends to present to Lagos voters.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The political future of Lagos State has, for all practical purposes, been decided.
With President Bola Tinubu and outgoing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu firmly backing Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat as the APC’s consensus governorship candidate, the 2027 Lagos governorship race is less a contest than a coronation in the making.
