The news of the impeachment of the erstwhile Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, wafted around town as a huge surprise. Obasa has been most favoured by the All Progressives Congress (APC) establishment until he crossed the line of strengthening the forbidden Mandate Group (TMG) faction in the name of “building the party” for his 2027 ambition, SHAKIRAT ADUNOLA reports.
The party’s leadership has struggled to eliminate cleavages in the Lagos APC since 2020. At that period, the rivalry between The Mandate Group (TMG) and Justice Forum (JF) had reached a boiling point, threatening the party’s survival.
Sensing the danger ahead, especially between the core loyalists of President Bola Tinubu, who is the leader of the party in the state and former Minister of Internal Affairs and ex-governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, the highest decision-making organ of the party, Governance Advisory Council (GAC) on June 9, 2020, banned all groupings within the party including TMG and JF.
“Yes, it is true; all groups have been dissolved. The decision was taken this afternoon. You are a member of APC and nothing more,” ex-chairman of the party, Tunde Balogun, had confirmed the decision to the newsmen.
Members of the groups are still closely knitted and holding nocturnal meetings without identity tags. But Obasa was not ready to play the ostrich when he began his campaign to mobilise members for the party ahead of 2027 under the aegis of outlawed TMG.
It was gathered that some party leaders warned him against mentioning TMG among party members. Still, instead of listening to them, he allegedly pointed accusing fingers at the party leaders for their hypocrisy and hiding that they also belong to one group.
Party sources said Obasa’s action to strengthen TMG was a reminder of how Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, nearly polarised the party with his Lagos4Lagos Movement. Jandor was pushed out of the party and later became the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections.
Confirming his plan to bring more members into the party through TMG, Obasa, in the presence of the party leaders, when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu presented the 2025 Appropriation Bill, said, “May I use this medium to sensitise us more on the need to build and sustain our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), regarding our focus for 2027. We need to continue to mobilise people just as I do frequently.
“To the blackmailers who have embarked on the mission to distort and redefine our mission, let me state it unequivocally here, we intend to promote our party on the platform of The Mandate Group.
“Also, becoming governor is secondary, it is something that I have not given serious consideration. Nevertheless, that does not mean I am too young or lack experience to run. Whereas those who have been before me are not better off.”
It was gathered that Obasa’s open declaration for TMG exposed him to further attacks by some party leaders who accused him of using his position as the Speaker to favour only TMG members in APC. He was alleged to have taken only avowed TMG members in the House of Assembly to his trip to Atlanta, United States, where they were when he was impeached.
To pave the way for his impeachment, the Progressive Youth Movement of Ikeja had, in December 2024, petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), accusing Obasa of using proxy companies to embezzle funds from the Lagos House of Assembly and violating due process and procurement regulations.
The December 17 petition alleged that the Finance Management Committee had not met officially since the 10th Assembly was inaugurated, allowing Obasa to make unauthorised financial decisions and demanding that the anti-corruption agency investigate Obasa for financial misconduct, breach of public trust, and abuse of office.
Also, the Lagos State Anti-Corruption Coalition had previously petitioned the EFCC to investigate allegations of mismanaging N17 billion earmarked for access gate construction at the Lagos State House of Assembly Complex.
The Progressive Youth Movement (PYM) alleged that the Speaker awarded a N469 million contract for the Construction of the Ikeja Local Government Secretariat to Orgnitek Consult Limited, identifying it as one of the companies used to perpetrate fraudulent activities.
The group also alleged that the Speaker approved N200 million for Thanksgiving at the Lagos State House of Assembly, saying it shouldn’t have cost more than N2 million.
But Obasa dismissed the allegations as “political and nonsensical.”The last straw that broke Carmel’s back was his alleged arrogance to the governor when he was in the Assembly to present the 2025 budget to the lawmakers. Obasa had not only kept the governor and members of his cabinet waiting for about three hours, but party leaders who attended the yearly ritual were also delayed for over four hours.
And, when the governor and his entourage arrived at the chamber, many had expected the Speaker to curtsy by announcing his presence and accord him the respect his office deserves, but that was not to be. Instead, the Speaker ignored, and ordered the session to continue the discussions on how the “Celebration of 2024 Men’s Day” went in the state.
A few minutes later, the governor presented the budget proposal in an atmosphere that was far from welcoming. Obama’s disposition to the governor was a fallout of an impression that the governor is favourably disposed to the aspiration of the deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, to succeed him in 2027.
This development angered GAC members and party leaders who believed that Obasa had crossed the red line. However, some lawmakers, who were also not pleased with how he treated the governor, went to the Lagos House in Marina to apologise to Sanwo-Olu, who told them he had bent backwards to satisfy the lawmakers.
Assembly source said: “When they visited Governor Sanwo-Olu at Marina after the budget presentation without the Speaker, the governor revealed to them how much he has released to the Assembly since 2023, which was over N33 billion, which legislators claimed they were not aware of. This made them angry that the governor whom the Speaker had been instigating them to fight was releasing funds for the Assembly.”
GAC presented the accumulation of his sins to President Tinubu when he was in Lagos for the last vacation in December. The President, who had tried to save his job, was overwhelmed by evidence from the leaders who described Obasa’s action as “toxic” to the development of the party.
But one of the staunch members of GAC and former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) during the late Lateef Jakande era, Pa Olorunfunmi Bashorun, in an interview with The Guardian, exonerated the apex ruling body of the party for masterminding Obasa’s impeachment. He said the council was unaware of the impeachment until legislators met with them at the Government House Marina on Tuesday.
He said: “The lawmakers met us to explain reasons behind their actions, and some of the things they said cannot be disclosed to the public.” He disclosed that lawmakers told the GAC members how Obasa had encouraged divide-and-rule within the Assembly to the extent that each of the lawmakers, apart from not being free with one another, also became suspicious of one another because of Obasa.
The octogenarian, also a Commissioner for Education in the Second Republic, disclosed how the aggrieved lawmakers detailed how Obasa instigated them to be defiant to the governor. This, he said, culminated in the shabby manner the Assembly treated the governor and his team during the last budget presentation, when they had to delay the governor for more than three hours.
He also disclosed how the lawmakers confessed that it was Obasa, who purchased dark goggle glasses for them to wear during the plenary on the day the budget was presented to embarrass the governor.
The octogenarian said that the GAC members, who were present at the plenary during the budget presentation, knew nothing about what was going on in the Assembly, “but we were quick to notice some of the shenanigans that took place during the budget presentation.”
He said: “Another reason they advanced for the impeachment was that the former Speaker, aside from his arrogance, also had his core loyalists with whom he collaborated to suppress other colleague legislators. We were told how he took some of his loyalists to Atlanta in the USA.”
Bashorun, a former deputy director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said: “During one of our interactions with him, we made the lawmakers understand that it was the party that put them where they are and despite their independence as stipulated in the Constitution, they owe it as a right to carry the party along before making any law. But the former Speaker was never ready to do that according to what his colleagues told us,” he said.
Another party chieftain, Fouad Oki, also expressed displeasure with Obasa, saying he overreached himself, forgetting that he was just a leader among equals in the Assembly.
Oki said that while the impeachment didn’t come as a surprise but was overdue, “every right-thinking member of the party saw Obasa’s ordeal coming.” Oki had earlier raised the alarm in December last year, calling the attention of Lagos citizens to what he described as the troubling refusal of the Lagos Assembly to consider the names of members nominated for the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) by the Executive Arm of government. This process has been delayed since June 2024.
In the argument advanced, Oki said the refusal and delay is not just an inconvenience but a clear violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act of 2022. He alleged that one of Obasa’s inordinate ambitions was to make laws that would empower the Assembly to appoint a chairman for the LASIEC.
The last may not have been heard about Obasa’s ordeal as there are moves by his Agege Constituency 1, to recall him if he refuses to return to the Assembly to clear himself of various allegations of financial inappropriateness against him and petitions at the EFCC.(Guardian)
