Lagos APC aspirant Samuel Ajose launched a fierce attack on moves to install Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat through a consensus arrangement, warning that no such process is valid without the consent of all aspirants.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Ajose did not mince words. He described the unfolding process as constitutionally deficient, politically motivated, and, in a phrase that will likely echo through Lagos political circles for weeks, a “kangaroo endorsement.”
The intervention came within hours of the APC’s powerful Governance Advisory Council (GAC) formally adopting Hamzat as its consensus governorship candidate for the 2027 election at a closed-door meeting held at Lagos House, Marina.
The GAC, the highest decision-making organ of the APC in Lagos, endorsed Hamzat as its consensus candidate at a meeting chaired by GAC leader Prince Tajudeen Olusi, with the council also agreeing to purchase the governorship nomination form, priced at ₦50 million for Hamzat as a sign of full support for his bid.
The gesture was as symbolic as it was financial: in Lagos politics, where money and machinery go hand in hand, paying a candidate’s form fee is an unmistakable declaration of intent.
Earlier on Monday, Governor Sanwo-Olu had expressed public support for his deputy’s ambition. The political symbolism of a sitting governor openly endorsing his deputy, especially within the tightly structured Lagos APC, carries enormous weight in a state where succession is rarely left to chance.
Yet, the GAC clarified that despite the consensus, the party would still conduct primaries for all positions in line with party guidelines in order to provide a level playing field for all aspirants. It is a caveat that Ajose, for one, clearly does not find reassuring.
Ajose’s response was direct and unsparing. He challenged the logic of bypassing a democratic primary process, arguing that the party’s own constitution demands nothing less.
“We understand what consensus means,” he said. “Consensus says that every aspirant who has picked the party and nomination form must consent to it. We don’t know why Hamzat is scared of going into the primaries. If you are big, you have the popularity, the networks, and the grassroots support, so let’s go into the primaries. Why is everybody scared of the primaries? Everybody must go into the primaries; that is what the Constitution says.”
Ajose questioned why Hamzat was allegedly avoiding a direct contest through the party’s primary election, arguing that every aspirant should be allowed to test their popularity through a transparent process.
It is a populist argument and a constitutionally grounded one, but in Lagos, where the APC’s internal architecture has historically favoured managed succession over open contest, it is also a challenge to decades of political tradition.
The most politically explosive element of Ajose’s remarks was his assertion that the endorsement wave surrounding Hamzat does not carry the blessing of President Bola Tinubu and that the president himself is being pressured into accepting a fait accompli.
Ajose alleged that the current push for a consensus candidate does not reflect the position of the party’s national leadership, insisting that attempts were being made to impose a predetermined outcome. In his view, some actors are attempting to pressure the president into accepting it.
“I don’t think our president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is giving in to what they are doing,” he said bluntly. “What they are just trying to do is to coerce him into making a decision, and I don’t think that decision will stand.”
He went further, setting out what he believes a legitimate presidential consensus process would look like: one in which Tinubu convenes all aspirants, deliberates collectively with them, and only then leads the party towards a unified candidate. The process he is seeing, he insists, bears no resemblance to that.
He characterized the endorsement gatherings as chaotic and non-transparent, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the process, noting: “What we are seeing are different kinds of kangaroo endorsements; some of the people that were there did not even know what they were going for, and they just found themselves in an endorsement show without their consent.”
The incumbent deputy governor, for his part, has not been idle. Hamzat has, in recent days, intensified consultations with key stakeholders, including the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, as part of efforts to consolidate support for his governorship ambition.
Hamzat has served as Lagos deputy governor since 2019, and supporters argue that his proximity to government, first under Tinubu’s political tutelage and now alongside Sanwo-Olu, makes him uniquely positioned to offer continuity.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, in endorsing his deputy, recalled that he and Hamzat used to sit next to each other in former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s cabinet, reflecting on their long political journey together over seven years.
Other serious aspirants for the Lagos APC governorship ticket include former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Speaker of the State House of Assembly Mudashiru Obasa, Chief of Staff to Governor Sanwo-Olu Tayo Ayinde, Senator representing Lagos East Tokunbo Abiru, and Jide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor.
Ajose, popularly known as SMA, is from the Badagry division of the state and has been active in promoting Tinubu’s second-term bid, staging a rally at the Nigeria Police College, Ikeja, that reportedly attracted over 20,000 persons across 57 local council areas in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission has scheduled governorship elections for February 6, 2027, with political parties expected to conduct their primaries between April and May 2026, with candidates to emerge by the end of May.
Whether Ajose’s rebellion, or those of any other aspirants who refuse to step aside, is enough to crack that machine remains to be seen.
The GAC has spoken. The governor has spoken. Much of the apparatus has spoken. But as Ajose made clear on Tuesday, the aspirants themselves have not, and in his reading of the party constitution, that is the only voice that ultimately counts.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
A Lagos APC governorship aspirant, Samuel Ajose, has thrown down a clear constitutional challenge: a consensus candidate is only valid if every aspirant consents to it, and so far, they have not.
Behind the scenes, the party’s most powerful body, the GAC, the sitting governor, and key presidential allies are all rallying around Deputy Governor Hamzat, effectively attempting to settle the 2027 race before it begins.
Ajose’s pushback, branding the process a “kangaroo endorsement” and accusing party actors of pressuring President Tinubu, signals that not everyone is willing to stand aside quietly.
