They do not belong to the same political party. As a matter of fact, they are chieftains of Nigeria’s main political parties that are also always in rivalry. They probably also do not have the same political temperament. Not only that, the road to office for the two of them do not bear the same surface. For one, it was almost so very smooth, but for the other, it was like a war. And that is not because of the distance between the two states that the two of them have the opportunity to govern.
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But there is something they have in common: it is the passion for service. And in the pursuit of that passion, they have to also demonstrate the ability to manage resources, human and material. Truly, the two states of Rivers and Lagos have the grace of the blessings of huge accruable resources, but they also have huge challenges on the need to provide development projects for their subjects.
Now, aside from having to fulfill their campaign promises, each of Governors Akinwumi Ambode and Nyesom Wike of Lagos and Rivers respectively have the challenge of beating the records of their predecessors and touching areas that past administrations may not have been able to touch. So they have every reason to work hard. In the case of Wike, he had to prove to the people of Rivers State that his main objective of fighting tooth and nail to win the state from Chibuike Amaechi’s All Progressives Congress, APC was not just to take power for power sake. He needed to walk the talk with the promise from his inauguration to embark on Operation Zero Potholes programme. In Lagos, Ambode had the challenge of beating the record of Babatunde Fashola, his immediate predecessor and Bola Tinubu, who ruled before Fashola and is also the national leader of his party. So the Lagos angle is one that gives a lot of challenge: the man is conscious of being watched by the party, the electorate, the opposition, past governors in the state, including Lateef Jakande, who in his time was Nigeria’s action governor and the political benefactor, Tinubu, who started the race for the recent great works in the state. So, while he started by lighting up Lagos, then to the ambitious construction works.
Nineteen months down the line, the two governors have left a mark. The people have a verdict, so is the opposition.
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