The governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, has announced Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, as Director-General of his campaign ahead of the 2027 election.
The appointment was disclosed at an expanded meeting of the campaign council, presided by Hamzat on Wednesday.
THISDAY gathered that the choice of Obanikoro had been pre-approved by President Bola Tinubu before it was made public by the candidate himself at a recent meeting of the council.
The choice of Obanikoro, sources within the council disclosed, was informed by the fact that he was a veteran politician and election general, who had been tested at different times.
Apart from the fact that his choice apparently had the approval of the president, THISDAY also gathered that no member of the council had an objection, as they all described the former senator for Lagos Central as a man they could work with.
Considered one of the most experienced politicians in the state, with several offices – elective and appointive – to his credit, his choice was said to have been carefully made.
A former chairman of Lagos Island Local Government, Obanikoro was appointed Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture in Lagos in 1999 by then Governor Bola Tinubu, and served for four years before he was elected senator.
After his appointment as High Commissioner to Ghana, which followed his defeat as a governorship candidate in Lagos on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Obanikoro had also been appointed junior minister twice.
He was first Minister of State for Defence and later Minister of State for Foreign Affairs under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
A grounded Lagos politician and former elected secretary of the Justice Forum, with name recognition, Obanikoro is believed to come to his latest appointment with a bag full of experience, competence, and capacity, enough to lead the party to electoral victory in the state.