Indications emerged on Monday night that the last may not have been heard about the speakership tussle plaguing the Lagos State House of Assembly in the aftermath of the removal of Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa on January 13, 2025 and his immediate replacement with Rt. Hon. Mojisola Lasbat Meranda.
At a meeting held between members of the Governor’s Advisory Council, GAC, and legislators of the state House of Assembly in Marina on Monday, Theliberationnews reliably gathered that members of the state legislature present vehemently turned down presidential request for a political solution to the logjam.
The message from President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, was delivered to the meeting by revered elder statesman, Prince Tajudeen Olusi. But one after the other, some ranking lawmakers stood up to oppose the president’s proposal that the Assembly should allow Obasa to return to his speakership position after Meranda, according to the plan, must have resigned.
Honourables Rasheed Shabi, Kehinde Joseph, Abiodun Mustainu Tobun, Gbolahan Yishau and Ege Olusegun Adebisi randomly spoke against the president’s request that Obasa should be allowed to return for a brief period consequent upon which he would then resign in tandem with the presidential arrangement.
The ranking legislators that claimed to have spoken on behalf of other members of the Assembly rejected the move. Meranda opted not to resign in tandem with the resolve of his colleagues. They also, without solicitation, offered to commute the removal of Obasa into resignation. Surprisingly too, legislators from Lagos West in the Assembly for no reasonable reason, laughably chose to forgo zoning of the Speakership position to their zone.
Prince Olusi beckoned on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to say something or at least talk to the lawmakers to consider the president’s proposal but he opted to remain silent. This according to observers is indicative of Sanwo-Olu’s concurrence with the lawmakers position rejecting the president’s proposal for ending the leadership logjam.
The chairman of the GAC who also presided over the meeting at that moment asked if the lawmakers were ready to do a written resolution to be signed by all of them for onward transmission to the president in Abuja. They all agreed to do the letter which was purportedly signed by all members present.
What the lawmakers did and the governor’s silence at the meeting in response to President Tinubu’s request is believed by political observers to be quite evasive and novel.
Most observers see the attitude of the lawmakers and the governor to the president’s request as portending serious threat to the hitherto enjoyed cohesion by the progressive political family under President Tinubu’s democratic patriarchy in Lagos State.
Theliberationnews samples opinions of people who preferred not to be named but believed that an interesting times lie ahead in Lagos State politics with the belligerent attitude of the lawmakers and the curious silence of Sanwo-Olu to the president’s request. The GAC has a lot of work to do if indeed the interest of President Tinubu truly matters to them.
