Lagos Assembly crises: New speaker set to emerge

• Obasa’s removal to be commuted to resignation 

By Sunday Ani

The uncertainty over the leadership of the Lagos State House of Assembly may soon be over, as indications have emerged that a new Speaker will soon emerge from Lagos West, the largest senatorial district in the state.

A very prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos, who declined to be named, told TheSun.ng that the instability surrounding who leads the legislature in the state has grave implications for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

He revealed that, even though President Tinubu was not keen on the continuation of Mudashiru Obasa as the Speaker of the Assembly, he is angry he was blindsided by the impeachment.

Our source told TheSun.ng that Obasa’s impeachment will be commuted to resignation, even as the first female Lagos Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, in the new arrangement, will be made to stand down for a balance of power in the state.

Our source said: “The President has a huge responsibility to manage the Lagos Assembly crisis very well; otherwise, it may not only affect his own re-election in 2027, it might as well cause Lagos State, his home base, to slip out of his grip.

“So, there is a need for him to apply wisdom and exercise extreme caution, as opposed to the way he is currently going. He has to show that he is not just a tactician but also a very good strategist. Otherwise, poor handling of the Lagos situation will lead to a grave situation for everybody.”

After several weeks of back and forth and in spite of a subsisting court case over the removal of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, President Bola Tinubu and some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), over the weekend, reached a political solution considered a win-win for all parties.

Sources at the Villa hinted that Tinubu had received many prominent party leaders, including the former APC National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; the former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba; the Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr Dele Alake; and a former commissioner in Lagos State, whose name our source refused to disclose for political reasons.

He said that ahead of the meeting between the President and the party leaders, another prominent Nigerian and nonagenarian from the South-West had also met the President over the Assembly matter and other national concerns, during which he pleaded with the President to consider his request on Lagos as his birthday gift.

It was also gathered that the President met with different people on the Lagos Assembly matter, with each analysing the implications of letting the situation escalate beyond the point it was at that moment, even though some damage had been done.

TheSun.ng learnt that the meeting agreed that Obasa’s removal had come to stay and there was no going back on his speakership, especially as the laws guiding the Assembly were clear about the election and removal of a Speaker.

According to our source, more instructive was the revelation that virtually everyone who had something to say on the Assembly crisis spoke against the leadership of Obasa and his conduct during the period he held sway.

They argued, among other things, that if 37 out of his 39 colleagues stood against him with scathing remarks about his leadership, in addition to the position of the political leaders in the state who also wrote him off, then returning him would be against the tide.

They reckoned that this would be dangerous for the politics in the state and the democratic credentials of the President.

TheSun.ng learnt that it was on the strength of these arguments that the President resolved at the meetings that Obasa’s removal had come to stay, but a plea was made to salvage his political future by giving him a soft landing.

According to our source, a conclusion was reached during the meetings that Obasa’s removal should be quashed and commuted to resignation, in the same way the removal of a former Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Funmi Tejuosho, was converted to resignation.

He said: “Once that was settled, the fate of the current Speaker, Hon. Mojisola Meranda, was next on the agenda, and it was somewhat tricky for the President, the Speaker being a woman.

“While the President wanted the elevation of a woman in the politics of the state, the Speaker coming from the same senatorial district as the Governor—Lagos Central—made it impossible for her to keep her position.

“One of the reasons canvassed in support of that viewpoint was that, if the Governor was elected from Lagos Central and his Deputy from the East, then the largest senatorial district, Lagos West, could not be left out of the power equation on account of the leadership crisis in the Assembly.”

He said the President was so disturbed about the situation that he asked if another woman from Lagos West could be sourced and put forward instead, so that women would not allege discrimination in the power game.

“Unfortunately, the only woman from that part of the state was not only a first-timer but also elected on the platform of a minority party, the Labour Party, making her choice impracticable in view of the power arrangement in the state.

“The meeting concluded that Meranda, too, should resign and stand down from the speakership position and allow someone from Lagos West to occupy the office, just so that none of the three senatorial districts would feel alienated,” he said.

Our source added that Tinubu’s response conveyed the impression that if Obasa was unable to manage and carry his colleagues along to the point that he lost their trust, then the President would not do his job for him.

He said there was also the feeling that Obasa had served as Speaker for over nine years by riding on the coattails of the President, and that was enough compensation for now.

However, the source said the President was angry with the fact that Obasa’s removal caught him unaware, as he was not just the political leader of the party in the state and at the national level but also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He considered being taken off guard in such a situation discourteous, with attendant political implications.

But after several interventions, according to the source, the President looked beyond the failings of the Assembly members and was now interested in moving forward; hence, his disposition gave rise to the solutions collectively arrived at.