Funke Akindele Banks on Social Media to Win Lagos

As the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Olajide Adediran, unveiled Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele, as his running mate for the 2023 election, Segun James reports that many have expressed reservations over the strength of the political value she can bring to the ticket

The future of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State hangs on the shoulder of two unlikely people – Olajide Adediran, better known as Jandor, a journalist and media entrepreneur, and Ms. Funke Akindele aka Jenifa, an actress.

From being a journalist with the Lagos Television at the Lagos Government House when Babatunde Fashola was the governor, Adediran defied the odds when he resigned his appointment to become an entrepreneur. In no time, he ventured into politics and proceeded to challenge the status quo within the All Progressives Congress (APC). His audacity shook the party to its foundation as he challenged the leadership of Senator Bola Tinubu within the party in Lagos.

Alleging that the indigenous citizens of Lagos were being marginalised within the party, he set up the Lagos4Lagos as a platform to clamour for the people to be given the opportunity to rule the state. More surprisingly, he offered himself as a candidate in defiance of the party leadership in the state. While he was tolerated at first for what his opponents described as his nuisance value, his movement soon gained traction, a situation which forced the APC leadership to woo him without success.

His growing popularity soon attracted the attention of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been struggling for years in the state. They lured him to the party and practically gave the governorship ticket to him on a platter of gold. And for the first time, the PDP became a force to be reckoned with. From all indications, the party may for the first time give the APC a challenge.

This was the situation when he unveiled Akindele as his running mate last week. Akindele before now has never exhibited any political inclination. The development came a few days after the collapse of Funke Akindele’s marriage to a fellow entertainer, JJC Skillz.

In an advertorial, Adediran announced the choice of the popular ‘Omo Ghetto’ star. According to him, Funke is from Ikorodu in Lagos East Senatorial District like the incumbent Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat and has the overwhelming popularity to garner votes. Akindele also confirmed the nomination, saying she would work assiduously for the party and for Lagos to have a breath of fresh air, even as she announced in the advert that she has dropped Bello, JJC Skillz’s surname from her name.  It was gathered that Funke emerged as a running mate after defeating former governorship aspirant, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour; former Senatorial candidate for Lagos East, Yeye Shobajo, another governorship aspirant, David Kolawole Vaughan known as Dakova and Mr. Teslim Balogun to clinch the slot.

The choice of Akindele has left many observers of political events in Lagos to query her political value. According to them, the fact remains that the APC is fully on ground and that it would take more than comedy to route the party from office.  Until her nomination, Akindele has been apolitical. But how her popularity as an entertainer counts for the PDP politically is still suspect.

But THISDAY gathered that those who settled for Akindele are merely relying not just on her popularity as an actress and a comedian but on her strength on social media. For instance, they pointed out that while she has 20 million followers on Twitter and Instagram, Governor Sanwo-Olu has a little over 1, 000,000 followers and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat has a paltry 600,000. They argued that Akindele’s huge figures would be of immense advantage to the PDP during the election.

But the APC through its Lagos State spokesman, Mr. Seye Oladejo, has described Akindele’s choice as running mate as an unserious decision by the PDP. According to him, “This development underscores the unseriousness of Lagos State PDP. This amounts to trivialising the importance of the forthcoming gubernatorial election by giving political neophytes who have absolutely nothing to bring to the table their electoral tickets.

“It also shows lack of depth in the party as regards quality members to put forward for elections if they could give a member who crossed-carpeted a few days before their primaries the governorship ticket and now went to the make-believe industry to fetch a deputy. The reason for voters’ apathy is, undoubtedly, due to the lack of credible alternatives by the moribund opposition party.

“I was amused to read that the deputy governorship candidate said she was suspending her acting career for the elections whose result is highly predictable. I guess she’s suspending a lot more because she has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons.

“Lagosians will certainly not allow governance to be turned into a needless experiment or a sitcom. Governance is serious business, not a circus.”

However, Adediran has dismissed the APC’s assertion. At the unveiling event which took place in Ikorodu, he explained he chose the actress after a rigorous process.

According to him, “after winning the ticket, I needed somebody who would complement the work that we have done over the years; I needed somebody who shares the same passion with me in advocacy; someone who has been an overseer of her business over the years; someone who can appreciate the pain of the people, who has been managing people within her little space. I reasoned that such a person will be able to connect given an assignment of this nature.

“I discovered that my sister, Funke, who will be the Deputy Governor of Lagos State by the Grace of God in 2023, will complement my efforts. My deputy governor is a youth. She’s 44 years old. We need a breath of fresh air in Lagos because for over 20 years, the state has been in a deplorable condition and we cannot continue like that.”

Adediran disclosed that he consulted widely among stakeholders and party leaders before arriving at his choice. He said he formally declared his intention to vie for the Lagos governorship seat under the PDP soon after he left the APC. He later won the primaries with a landslide victory. He also went down memory lane to trace his humble beginning as a young lad in Mushin where he struggled through dint of hard work to start a career in broadcast journalism before veering off into media consultancy and later as a successful entrepreneur.

He recalled the early moments of his seven-year journey as the leader of the Lagos4Lagos Movement that has transformed into a political behemoth:

“We knew from the onset that we had to be independent and that called for our grassroots mobilisation drive. We created the necessary implosion within the APC to weaken the party’s structure and the result is what we see today.”

He dismissed insinuations that he was in the PDP to hijack the party for the APC, even as he debunked the wild speculation that he would decamp to the APC after winning the governorship election.

He added that until recently in Lagos, politicians, especially members of the APC could be forgiven for underestimating him but those who did when he joined the PDP were vanquished, and he has since stamped his authority as the leader of the party in the state.

Reacting to her choice as running mate, Akindele boasted that her followers on social media, numbering over 20 million, will come out en masse to vote for the party in 2023.

Even though the social media followers’ tally is an aggregate of her fans worldwide, who are not all resident in Lagos and eligible voters,  the mother of two admitted that her social media followers alone could not determine PDP’s victory in Lagos.

Asked how the party would win the 2023 governorship election in Lagos, Akindele said her fans and followers outside Ikorodu would vote for the PDP instead of APC. She added her closeness to the grassroots after over two decades has revealed their pains, stating that it was time to proffer solutions to their problems.

“He (Mr Sanwo-Olu) has the numbers; I have the numbers. I have fans and followers. I’m true to myself. I have over 19 to 20 million fans on social media,” the actress said during a television programme last Thursday.

 “There are a lot of people in the grassroots. Outside of Ikorodu, I have fans at the grassroots level everywhere. I have these fans and followers. I feel their pain. I hear people nag. I watch TV; I feel their pain. I’m going out there to proffer solutions,” she said.

As the race for the most coveted seat of the governor of the richest state in the federation enters a critical stage, will Adediran be able to upset the political heavyweights in Lagos? Will Akindele be able to translate her social media strength to real votes? These are the questions as the 2023 general election draws near.