Top politicians in Lagos state have some advice for those hoping to succeed Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (YAYI) as the Senator for Lagos West.
With over 20 years of experience as a state and federal legislator in Lagos, the federal lawmaker has decided to run for senator in Ogun State in 2023.
As a result of the situation, the seat occupied by the 52-year-old politician popularly known as YAYI has become empty, and several of his party members in Lagos have expressed interest.
News making the rounds is that, all things being equal, Obanikoro will be the inheritor of that senate seat, dispelling every notion that this seat could be empty.
Loyalists to the APC’s top echelon claim that Musiliu Obanikoro, the former Senator for Lagos Central from 2003 to 2007, already has Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s blessing.
At the time, Obanikoro was a founding member of the Asiwaju political dynasty until defecting to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) after persistent advances from then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo enticed Obanikoro to join the PDP in order to weaken Lagos State Governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political backbone.
But, rather than weakening Tinubu’s political power, the rivalry bolstered it, as he championed the transformation of his regional party, Alliance for Democracy (AD), into the more national-oriented Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and later the All Progressives Congress (APC), which ended Obasanjo’s PDP’s 16-year rule.
Obanikoro, the younger, ran on the APC platform and won the 2019 election, becoming a member of the Federal House of Representatives from Lagos.
Insiders claim that regardless of whether Babajide Obanikoro runs for re-election or not, his father is in pole position to succeed Senator Adeola Yayi as the APC’s candidate in 2023 if all other factors stay equal.
This allegation contradicts reports that Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, is targeting the same senatorial seat in 2023.
