From stepping apart for present Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu in 2019 to receiving his main’s backing seven years later, the All Progressives Congress’ candidate within the February, 2027 governorship ballot within the Centre of Excellence, Dr Obafemi Hamzat’s political adventure has come complete circle. Raheem Akingbolu experiences.
There’s a level in each and every political succession when ambition starts to offer strategy to acceptance. In Lagos, that time has an increasing number of become visible round Obafemi Hamzat.
What started as a governorship aspiration has, over a number of months, advanced right into a succession tale marked through endorsements from the Governor he serves, the APC’s senior management buildings, President Bola Tinubu and a widening circle of political stakeholders.
The collection issues. In April 2026, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu publicly recommended his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, for the 2027 governorship. An afternoon later, the Governance Advisory Council, the influential management frame inside the Lagos APC, followed Hamzat as its consensus aspirant. On April 29, Tinubu recommended him, whilst former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode therefore declared his improve.
The method didn’t finish with endorsements. Hamzat submitted his nomination bureaucracy, handed the birthday party’s screening and emerged because the APC’s governorship candidate at its Might 21 number one. Consistent with the end result introduced through the birthday party, he polled 657,917 votes out of 657,974 permitted citizens, whilst his rival, Lanre Jim-Kamal, recorded one vote. Samuel Ajose had withdrawn from the competition ahead of the main.
Taken in combination, the traits display how unexpectedly the succession dialog moved from session to formal birthday party nomination. They don’t, on the other hand, quantity to proof that each and every Lagosian has accredited Hamzat’s candidacy. Fairly, they supply a documented image of rising institutional and political improve inside the governing birthday party, along proceeding efforts to interact wider constituencies.
That difference issues as a result of Hamzat’s political adventure is now being seen towards an excessively explicit ancient backdrop. Since Nigeria’s go back to democratic rule in 1999, no Lagos Deputy Governor has without delay succeeded the Governor below whom she or he served. The place of business has been occupied through Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Olufemi Pedro, Abiodun Ogunleye, Sarah Sosan, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire and Oluranti Adebule, however none moved without delay from the deputy governorship to the governorship.
Hamzat has nonetheless already damaged one necessary trend. His re-election along Sanwo-Olu in 2023 made him the primary Lagos Deputy Governor of the Fourth Republic to safe two complete phrases in place of business. If he completes the present tenure in 2027, he’ll have served 8 consecutive years as deputy governor, a difference no earlier Lagos deputy governor has completed since 1999.
That longevity provides the existing succession debate an peculiar size. Hamzat isn’t drawing near the governorship from outdoor the management or after a short lived spell as deputy. He is trying to transport without delay from the second-highest place of business within the state into the primary, after serving throughout 3 administrations and spending years inside the equipment of Lagos governance.
His political courting with Sanwo-Olu provides every other layer. In September 2018, when each males had been searching for the APC governorship price ticket, Hamzat stepped down and recommended Sanwo-Olu. He stated on the time that he may just vouch for Sanwo-Olu’s integrity and intelligence. He therefore accredited the function of working mate, and their joint price ticket received the 2019 election.
Seven years later, the positions have successfully reversed. Sanwo-Olu is now the sitting Governor and Hamzat is the candidate searching for to prevail him. Extra considerably, the Governor has publicly campaigned for his deputy, describing him as have compatibility and in a position for the accountability and pointing to his revel in and information of Lagos.
In an atmosphere the place succession contests can create pressure between a sitting Governor and an bold deputy, the Sanwo-Olu-Hamzat partnership has introduced a markedly other public image. The 2 have maintained a visibly cooperative courting and are actually showing in combination in improve of Hamzat’s candidacy.
For Hamzat, that courting additionally represents a reversal of political historical past at a private degree. He as soon as surrendered his personal governorship ambition to give a boost to Sanwo-Olu’s candidacy. Lately, Sanwo-Olu is the usage of his political authority to improve Hamzat’s try to take the next move.
Past the Governor, the GAC endorsement used to be every other vital construction. The council introduced that its contributors had agreed to improve Hamzat below a consensus association, whilst its management disclosed that contributors had contributed against the acquisition of his nomination shape.
Tinubu’s endorsement adopted virtually straight away. The President’s backing positioned Hamzat’s candidacy inside the broader political structure of the Lagos APC, whilst the following improve expressed through Ambode additional widened the circle of outstanding figures publicly related together with his bid.
There have been additionally indicators of improve past the formal endorsement construction. Hamzat launched into consultations with senior birthday party figures and stakeholders forward of the birthday party’s governorship variety, reflecting an effort to consolidate past the preliminary endorsements.
The withdrawal of Samuel Ajose equipped every other indication of ways the interior contest used to be evolving. Ajose, one of the crucial APC aspirants, withdrew ahead of the main and sponsored Hamzat, contributing to the consolidation that preceded the formal nomination.
Hamzat’s credentials have additionally been central to the narrative. He received a BSc in Agricultural Engineering from the College of Ibadan in 1986, an MSc in Crop Processing Engineering in 1988 and a PhD in Machine Procedure Engineering from Cranfield College in the UK in 1992. Earlier than changing into deputy governor, he constructed revel in in each the personal sector and public carrier.
His public-service file has stretched throughout other stages of Lagos politics. He served as Commissioner for Science and Era from 2005 and used to be retained below the management of Babatunde Fashola. In 2011, he become Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, a place he held till 2015. He later served as Particular Adviser on technical issues to Fashola when the latter become Minister of Energy, Works and Housing.
That institutional revel in has develop into the most important a part of the argument complex through his supporters. Hamzat has spent years inside the coverage and administrative buildings of Lagos, shifting from commissioner to deputy governor and in the end changing into the governing birthday party’s candidate for the state’s easiest optionally available place of business.
That profile must no longer be puzzled with common public acceptance. Lagos stays politically complicated, with other pursuits, communities and opposition events in a position to presenting competing interpretations of the state’s file and its long run. Opposition politicians have additionally raised questions on facets of Hamzat’s candidacy. Such claims stay a part of the political contest and must be outstanding from established information about his eligibility.
What may also be established is that the governing birthday party’s interior procedure has produced a transparent result. Hamzat is now not simply an aspirant searching for popularity. He’s the APC’s nominated candidate for the 2027 Lagos governorship election, following a procedure that moved from session and endorsement to screening and a proper number one.
The symbolism of that development is tricky to split from the occasions of 2019. Seven years in the past, Hamzat stood apart for Sanwo-Olu after taking flight from the governorship contest. In 2026, Sanwo-Olu stood beside Hamzat as his main, publicly recommended his ambition and supported his emergence because the APC candidate.
It’s this peculiar political symmetry that provides the existing succession debate a lot of its ancient weight. Hamzat has already completed one thing no earlier Lagos Deputy Governor of the Fourth Republic has completed through securing two complete phrases. He’s now searching for to move a moment barrier that has remained intact since 1999.
The wider importance lies in what his candidacy represents for the Lagos succession device. For greater than twenty years, the deputy governorship has been the most important place, however it has no longer served as a right away path to the governorship. Hamzat’s emergence has reopened the query of whether or not that trend is everlasting or whether or not it may be altered.
His rising acceptance, subsequently, is very best understood no longer merely as a number of endorsements however as a convergence of relationships constructed over a few years. His carrier below other administrations, his partnership with Sanwo-Olu, his status inside the APC management construction and his engagement with stakeholders have all develop into a part of the narrative surrounding his candidacy.
But the ancient importance must no longer difficult to understand the democratic procedure forward. Endorsements, consensus preparations and birthday party primaries resolve the candidate who carries a birthday party’s banner. The governorship itself is in the long run made up our minds on the election through citizens.
For now, on the other hand, the information mark an peculiar second in Lagos political historical past. A Deputy Governor who as soon as stepped apart to improve the person who become his main is now the governing birthday party’s candidate searching for to prevail him. He’s additionally the primary Lagos Deputy Governor of the Fourth Republic to safe two complete phrases and the primary serving deputy since 1999 to emerge because the governing birthday party’s candidate searching for direct succession to his main.
The outdated barrier stays. What has modified is that, for the primary time since 1999, a Lagos Deputy Governor approaches it with documented backing from his main, the governing birthday party’s senior buildings and a widening community of stakeholders.
Whether or not that political opening turns into a ancient transition is a query the citizens will solution come February, 2027.