As if the Boston University Biosafety level-4 laboratory wasn’t contentious enough, the recent announcement that former Medical Campus Director of External Affairs Egobudike Ezedi is running for City Councilor-At-Large raises eyebrows not only on campus but throughout the entire city as well. Once an unmistakable supporter of the biolab, Ezedi is now, four years after his departure from BU, claiming that he didn’t wish to partake in any endeavor at the biolab that couldn’t promise 100 percent safety, putting his opposition of the project at the front-and-center of his campaign.

The lab, which will harbor some of the most lethal pathogens known to science, will be located in the South End of the city and has produced mixed reactions from the public. While it adds a competitive and very necessary new dimension to BU’s research repertoire, it also presents a possible immediate danger to the metropolitan area. Ezedi’s unexpected move adds to the dissonance between the pro and con camps because it calls into question both the administration of the biolab project and the integrity of the operations within it. If a former BU-affiliated key proponent of the lab now has doubts regarding its safety and forms a political platform advertising these doubts, it puts civilian voters who could potentially be affected by the dangers of the lab in a precarious position ‘- both as voters and as citizens of the city where the lab is being located.

But as Ezedi’s concerns shift from science to politics, civilian audiences will also take issue with his political integrity. Whether he changed his position on the lab because of moral convictions or to gain public favor becomes the forefront of his campaign and may complicate his platform. After all, placing the biolab in a high-traffic metropolitan area is a bold way of corroborating its safety, such that if it weren’t a completely safe system, it never would have even been considered for that location. Ezedi’s claims that the project isn’t unequivocally safe aren’t any surprise to the public, and don’t actually change the plans for the lab in any way, so his campaign can’t be bolstered by them. Making motions to change the outcome of the biolab would serve as legitimate political tactics for him, but without any actual action, Ezedi is more likely to come out looking like just an actor.