The Lagos State House of Assembly speakership brouhaha has been finally resolved by President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, on Wednesday when all members of the House visited him in Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Contrary to the erroneous mindsets of some aggrieved members of the Assembly Wednesday morning at the airport that the president would direct them to remove or tell Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa to resign, nothing of such came up as the body language and spoken words of the president exemplified his reposed confidence in Obasa and also people of Agege, and his unwavering resolve that other lawmakers must be prepared to work with him in moving the legislative body forward.
From the chartered aircraft that airlifted the lawmakers from Ikeja airport to the Presidential Wing of the Abuja airport where fleet of vehicles including luxurious armored coaster bus awaited them, they were accorded presidential treatment down to the Presidential Villa.
On getting to Aso-Rock, they never waited for thirty minutes before the president joined them and immediately commenced the meeting which lasted for almost two hours. In attendance were Hon. James Faleke who brokered the meeting, and Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, the All Progressives Congress (APC) party chairman in Lagos State, among other few presidential aides.
The president expressed his displeasure at how the lawmakers went about the contentiously controversial removal of Rt. Hon. Obasa as Speaker of the House.
The president was particularly irked that Honorable Gbolahan Yishawu who represents his area of residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, was aware of the plot but chose not to inform him or even close members of his cabinet from Lagos about it.
Yishawu defended himself when given the floor to speak by stating that the recruiter of the legislative coup, a member of the House from Lagos West currently holding a principal position in the Assembly and working with a very powerful figure that heads the executive arm of government as main sponsor, lied to them that the president was in the know of their clandestine plot. He said immediately the president’s name was mentioned, it became a fait accompli for majority of them to join the legislative coup bandwagon. Nevertheless, the president said he had forgiven Ishawu but that he should be more circumspect next time. Other experienced members of the assembly got knocks for their roles in the illegal removal of Obasa.
Theliberationnews gathered that the president subsequently told Obasa to apologize to fellow lawmakers after which he informed them to be prepared to work with the speaker. He told the speaker to use his second chance very well. Going forward, the president said he would not be pleased to hear any brouhaha from the Assembly again. Ojelabi broached the issue of the upcoming local government council elections around July when the floor was yielded for him even though that issue cannot be well dissected at such an occasion.
The presidential meeting with the lawmakers ended on a convivial note. Hopefully the tempestuous three months of legislative bickering in Lagos state this 2025 is now a thing of the past with the president’s personal intervention.
