A political analyst, Jide Ojo, has weighed it on the impeachment of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Mr. Ojo described Obasa’s deposement as a loss for the state due to the politician’s vast legislative experience.
“It’s a personal loss for Honorable Obasa,” Ojo said during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today. “Genuinely I feel sorry for him. I wish things were not this way because we need experienced hands and you know in the Assembly you always lose about 70 to 80 percent at every election.”
Mr. Ojo also said Obasa may have been removed due to flagrant disrespect of party processes.
Read excerpts from Mr. Ojo’s interview below. The excerpts have been edited for clarity.
On why Obasa was removed
Indeed this is politics at its peak and I’m not surprised. Incidentally, the former speaker Mudashiru Obasa is someone I’ve had the opportunity to interact with in the last four years since the time of Covid. I’ve had the privilege to be among the resource persons that build the capacity of State Houses of Assembly, and we’ve done that a number of times for Lagos and several other state Houses of Assembly. And it’s on that count that I happened to have interfaced and interacted with him. I see a man who is very self assured, who is very competent, who is very firm and who is in control of the Assembly. But you see, on social media, most allusions are to the fact that he was disrespectful to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in the way he carried himself during the budget presentation exercise, particularly when he made that slight remark that “I’m not too young or inexperienced to be the governor of the state. I’m more qualified than some of those people who are there”. So, it’s presumed to be a slight remark at a sitting governor.
Incidentally, as a Speaker of the House of Assembly or deputy speaker, you do not have immunity. So, as you rightly pointed out, you are first among equals, and you are just there at the expense, at the grace of your members, and as the elder statesman who is on this panel with me have said, I don’t know what may have come, what may have prompted Honorable Mudashiru Obasa to behave the way he did, because if what he was alleged to have done – keeping the governor waiting for several hours, keeping the party leaders waiting, and no apologies, no nothing, and then the president even weighing in and you are showing some measure of stubbornness and recalcitrance – then those the gods wants to destroy they first make mad.
So I believe this may have been a kind of self-inflicted ‘own-goal’. If he wants to be a governor, it’s a legitimate aspiration, in fact what I heard a couple of years ago was that he wanted to go to the Senate in the 2023 elections; he didn’t want to stay again (in the House) having served six terms. And his deputy then, Honorable Wasiu Eshilokun Sanni, got tickets to represent one of the senatorial districts; he’s now a member of the Nigerian senate. And what I heard from the grapevine was that he (Obasa) also was angling at that time to go to the Senate, and maybe a kind of mediation was found out – look, don’t go, two of you, both deputy speaker and Speaker, cannot both go to the Senate about the same time, you retain your seats, which was a kind of negotiation.
Recall that, you know, speakership and deputy speakership is based on zoning, you may not necessarily be the most competent person in the Assembly; but if the zoning formula favours you, it narrows down to you. I don’t know if you get my analogy, because usually our politics is politics of ‘political office sharing’, so the governor is from a particular senatorial district, the deputy governor is from another senatorial district, then the speaker, who is the number three in the ranking order, will be from the third senatorial district; so that it is balanced. So you are just privileged; you are first among equals.
On the implication of Obasa’s removal?
Well, the implication is that an experienced lawmaker has been relieved of his position and the remaining period between now and 2027 would be quite humbling for the former Speaker because we see him as an ordinary member of the Assembly, and just imagine, it is like a demotion of sorts. So you have held power for that length of time and all of a sudden you are walking into the Assembly, nobody stands for you.
And he achieved a lot for the Lagos State House of Assembly. He is well experienced, very versatile, and knowledgeable. In fact, in the forum of speakers, his voice is well respected.
It’s a personal loss for Honorable Obasa. Genuinely I feel sorry for him. I wish things were not this way because we need experienced hands and you know in the Assembly you always lose about 70 to 80 percent at every election.
On the role of GAC in Obasa’s impeachment
The Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) were the ones that denied Ambode a second term. Even Asiwaju (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu) pleaded with the GAC but they said no. In fact that’s something (the GAC) that the rest of Nigeria should learn, particularly in terms of leadership recruitment, from Lagos. The GAC elders are the brain box that has guided the APC from the days of AD to AC to ACN. They have not lost the governorship seat, not for once, because of their robustness and proactiveness.