2nd term: Sanwo-Olu to consult Lagosians before making decision to run for governor

The Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said that he will consult Lagosians before he can decide whether to run for a second term in office in the 2023 general elections or not.

The governor said this on Friday while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme.

The 56-year-old governor, who assumed office in May 2019, would be completing his first term in office by May 2023, and he is constitutionally permitted to be in office for one more term of four years if the electorate so decide.

Sanwo-Olu had clinched the ticket of the All Progressives Congress for the 2019 governorship election in Lagos defeating the then governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who was in office was just a term.

Ambode, the first governor to stay in office for four years since the return to democracy in 1999, was said to have been kicked out due to intra-party squabbles after APC leader and strong man of Lagos politics, Bola Tinubu, anointed Sanwo-Olu.

It has been reported that Sanwo-Olu backed Tinubu’s presidential ambition on Thursday, saying the ex-governor of Lagos between 1999 and 2007 is the most capable individual to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023.

Asked during the television programme on Friday about his political future and whether he has a plan for a second term as Lagos governor, Sanwo-Olu said, “As we speak, we’ve done two-thirds of our time, about 66 per cent because we count it every day. The field is not open yet; the race has not been declared open but for me, these four years that I have promised my citizens, I put in every bit of my sweat into it.”

Continuing, Sanwo-Olu marked the script of his administration as “doing a very good job”, adding that the citizens would decide whether to allow his cabinet to complete what it started.

“I will ask, I will consult, that is how you get it done, keep your focus on, try and finish very strong. When it is time for us for politicking, we will do it,” he said of the 2023 governorship election in the state.