The APC’s 2027 Lagos governorship race took a decisive turn on Thursday as Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, popularly known as “Jandor,” withdrew from the contest barely days after purchasing his nomination forms.
Addressing a gathering of media personnel, party faithful of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, and scores of supporters at the Liberty House, Adeniyi Jones Secretariat in Ikeja, Adediran cited President Bola Tinubu’s endorsement of incumbent Deputy Governor Dr. Obafemi Hamzat as the defining factor behind his swift exit from the race.
Adediran’s withdrawal is as striking for its speed as it is for its political undertones. Sources close to the aspirant confirm that within hours of his procuring his nomination forms, a move widely interpreted as a declaration of serious intent, back-channel developments had already begun to close the door on his ambitions.
“Within hours after I purchased my nomination forms, there were developments, including a meeting involving the president and the deputy governor,” Adediran told journalists, his tone measured but unmistakably resigned.
That meeting, it soon emerged, culminated in President Tinubu throwing his full weight behind Dr. Hamzat, a signal that carried enormous weight in a state where the president’s political influence has historically been the ultimate arbiter of electoral outcomes.
In what many political observers will read as a calculated act of deference, Adediran invoked a prior commitment to presidential alignment as the basis for stepping aside.
“Based on my earlier position that I will align with the direction of the president, I have decided to withdraw from the race,” he declared, effectively subordinating personal ambition to party loyalty or, at the very least, to the political realities of contesting in the APC’s Lagos stronghold against a candidate bearing the president’s imprimatur.
The statement, brief as it was, spoke volumes. It signalled that Adediran, a man who had previously contested the Lagos governorship on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform in 2023 before returning to the APC fold, understood the limits of mounting a challenge against the will of the party’s most powerful figure.
With Adediran’s exit, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, a two-term deputy governor who has served quietly but steadily under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, now stands as the clear favorite for the APC’s governorship ticket ahead of the 2027 polls.
Tinubu’s backing, widely seen as the closest thing to a coronation within Lagos APC politics, has historically been sufficient to determine the outcome of internal party contests. For many in the party, the president’s endorsement is not merely a preference; it is a directive.
Jandor’s announcement leaves questions hanging over the Lagos4Lagos Movement, the political platform he helped galvanize, which has long positioned itself as a reformist voice within Lagos politics. Whether the movement will throw its organizational weight behind Hamzat, seek new representation, or simply dissipate remains to be seen.
For now, the 2027 Lagos governorship race within the APC appears to have found its anointed candidate, not through a primary, but through the quiet, familiar choreography of presidential preference.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Dr. Olajide Adediran (Jandor) has withdrawn from the 2027 Lagos APC governorship race, and the reason is simple: President Tinubu backed someone else.
Within hours of purchasing his nomination forms, Adediran learned that the president had endorsed incumbent Deputy Governor Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, and true to his word to align with the president’s direction, he stepped aside.
