Rethinking the Lagos Assembly impasse

The January 13, 2025 removal of the Lagos State House of Assembly speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, came out of the blue. He was on holidays when the putsch took place. On his return, he has quibbled about the legality and semantics of the removal, insisting that during and immediately after the process some people used the words removal and impeachment interchangeably to describe what was done to him. It is true that some reports described his removal as impeachment, but it is equally true that the Assembly described his ouster as removal. Regardless of his book knowledge or his conviction, there is no semantic stalemate regarding his removal. His colleagues, all 32 of them out of 40, knew what to call the process that led to his exit, and they are comfortable and adamant about it. They deserve the support of everyone.

There are indications that in one form or the other the Governance (or Governor’s) Advisory Council (GAC) was involved in the removal, perhaps even sanctioning it. The Council may be an extra-constitutional body, but it has remained influential since it was set up under the Bola Tinubu governorship.

Soon after Hon. Obasa was unhorsed, his successor, Mojisola Meranda, visited the GAC and received their blessing. Their assent as well as the visit should have been more nuanced, lest many analysts begin to squirm over the role of the Council, even believing erroneously that it was behind the putsch.

But since the mistake was made, both the GAC and the Assembly have battled to sustain the action the state’s lawmakers took against Mr Obasa. It has turned out that a few members of the GAC, perhaps three or four out of about 24 have balked at the former speaker’s removal, but regardless of the stridency of their voices and protests, they have been unable to give traction to their reservations.

There are speculations about All Progressives Congress (APC) hierarchs wanting to return Mr Obasa to his seat, but no one is sure the rumours are not just amateur name-dropping or red herring.

The procedure adopted by the lawmakers to remove Hon. Obasa was democratic. His removal over alleged financial misappropriation, misconduct, and high-handedness cannot be downplayed. Indeed, the lawmakers could even remove him if they happened to take a dislike to him at any time and at any point.

It is unclear what role the GAC played in the removal beyond merely assenting it. If the party and its hierarchs begin to nitpick over such removals, ignoring the sensibilities of the lawmakers, and overplaying their hands, they risk alienating the rank and file. Worse, they risk becoming accessory to the many alleged misdemeanours of errant officials.

Hon. Obasa was in his tenth year as speaker; he had become complacent, imperious and garrulous. For these and other reasons, his colleagues got tired of his tyranny and wanted him out. The removal may upset the political permutations of the party, but they would be courting disfavor, if not disaster, to insist on reinstating him. If the removal blindsided them, they must find intelligent and democratic ways of closing ranks and regaining control of the party and the legislature.

Hon. Obasa makes it hard for party leaders and members to defend or back him. Regardless of his misunderstanding with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his response to the governor’s budget presentation on November 21 exhibited poor judgement and a lack of grace and understanding. He was not only mortifyingly indecorous, he was also bombastic and boastful. How he managed to hold down the speakership position for so long must remain a mystery.

It is uncertain whether party leaders looked deeper than the surface of his leadership; but the near unanimity of opinion against him by most of his colleagues, past and present, speaks to the poor choice they made of him when they first elected him speaker nearly 10 years ago. It is possible the GAC had been uncomfortable with him for some time, perhaps after recognising his limitations; but they were probably too noble to force the matter. His colleagues, therefore, had to endure him.

The GAC and the party must now move beyond Hon. Obasa. Their speakership choices have not always been flawless, as evidenced by their election and sustenance of the former speaker. It is, however, time for them to begin seeking ways to match the election of their legislative officials with a clear vision, in fact grander vision, of the dizzying heights where they hope to take and put Lagos. If their vision of Lagos remains lackluster and pedestrian, then they could continue electing principal officers who cannot transcend the ordinariness of their collective aspirations.

Lagos has attracted an incredible influx of people from other parts of the country, many of them young but ethically unmoored. The state, therefore, needs men and women in key positions who can think fast and loftily on behalf of the state, without sacrificing the interests of the indigenes. So far, Lagos has not quite transcended its amorphousness; and Hon. Obasa was simply incapably of embodying the hopes and aspirations of a new, bigger, more modern, and cosmopolitan megacity.

It is disturbing that the GAC and the party have hemmed and hawed over a fairly straightforward matter. Mr Sanwo-Olu himself has kept discretely silent so as not to be accused of having a hand in the removal of his combative nemesis. The problem with Hon. Obasa, however, is not just his politics, as fairly ineffective as that was, nor even his serial indiscretions, as mortifying as they were, nor yet his mistreatment of his colleagues, which was enough to earn him a place in the guillotine, nor even the suspicion that his successor could be overwhelmed by the speaker’s office.

What ailed the former speaker so profoundly is what all these damning attributes say of his person and his judgement, in short what they say of his lack of leadership character. That cannot be remedied by any reinstatement, no matter how temporary it is designed to give him a soft landing.

And from all indications, given his age and the level he has attained in politics, not to talk of the undignified and ignoble way he has handled his removal, it would be a mistake to give him any kind considerations when he does not even know what that means.