REMOVED SPEAKER MUDASHIRU Obasa (Agege Constituency 1) of the Lagos State House of Assembly may fail to get back his exalted office, yet, he’s succeeded in forcing an unplanned shift of the House plenary indefinitely, thus sowing tension and confusion among the lawmakers, and splitting the close-knit Governance Advisory Council (GAC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
This comes after new Speaker Mojisola Meranda (Apapa Constituency 1) formally assumed office on Monday, January 27, 2025, amid the majority of the lawmakers chanting: “Madam, continue your work; your work is appealing to us. You are the Speaker, you are the Speaker, you are the Speaker. Speak for Lagos. Continue with your work.”
With Obasa reportedly absent from the Assembly, the lawmakers posed for photographs with Meranda, and accompanied her to the Speaker’s office, “where intense prayers were offered as she settled into her new role.” The plenary was then postponed, “to douse tension in the state.”
The lawmakers’ public rallying for Meranda was a “kick in the groin” for Obasa, whose fate appears sealed since losing power on Monday, January 13, and returning from the United States of America to insist that he remains the Speaker until due process is observed in his removal, in line with the amended 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
READ ALSO:Â FG Backs Local HIV Drug, Test Kit Production as Trump Halts Funding
Welcomed back to town on Saturday, January 25, by hundreds of jubilant supporters at the official residence of the Lagos Speaker in the GRA, Ikeja, Obasa slammed his ouster, in absentia, as unconstitutional.
In an “A luta continua; vitória é certa” (“The struggle continues; victory is certain”)-like mood, Obasa told his supporters: “I’m still the Speaker until the right thing has been done,” and the crowd cheered.
“I am not afraid of being removed. After all, it is not my father’s chieftaincy title. I am representing my people and they have returned me six times. If you want to do anything (remove him), do it well.”
Obasa insinuated that were he present in the Assembly, the lawmakers wouldn’t succeed in removing him as Speaker. He queried: “They did the removal all because I was out of the country. Why did they have to break the chamber and use a fake mace to carry out the removal?
“If they say they don’t want me anymore, that’s fine, but let them follow due process. I still believe I am the Speaker until the right procedure is followed. Lagos is a special place, we cannot denigrate the state.”
Obasa held his ground, as he addressed his 2027 governorship ambition he tactically broached when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu presented the 2025 Budget proposals to the House, thus sparking the instant flurry of activities in the Lagos polity.
READ MORE:Â Before It Becomes ECO-WAS
Saying, “Having ambition to become a governor is not a sin,” Obasa declared: “However, I said on the floor of the House, when the budget was presented, that I had no thoughts of governorship. But that does not mean I am not qualified or that I lack experience; I still maintain that (stand).”
Citing a breach of fair hearing, Obasa claimed he wasn’t given a chance to respond to the charges the House levelled against him, and challenged his colleagues to substantiate the allegations and afford him a chance to respond.
“They (lawmakers) should not discredit an innocent person (Obasa); they should prove their allegations against me. The Lagos State House of Assembly is above the common standard of excellence. I believe in the image of our institution; we must not destroy it and I will never partake in it’s destruction.”
Obasa also criticised the Police for “conniving with the lawmakers” to oust him from power, alleging that besides the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Olanrewaju Olawale Ishola, “leading police officers to invade the Assembly,” over 200 policemen allegedly invaded his private residence in Agege, blocked the gate, and prevented members of his family from going out of the house.
Obasa referenced other Presiding Officers of the Lagos Assembly removed without deployment of the police. “When former Speaker, Rt Hon. Jokotola Pelumi, was removed, he was in the Assembly and we did not invite policemen. When my sister, former Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, was removed, we did not invite the police,” Obasa said.
READ MORE:Â Blow for Suspended Adamawa INEC Commissioner as Court Rejects Bid to Halt Trial
Even with his eyes red, Obasa appreciated members of the GAC and Governor Sanwo-Olu, “who is my brother,” and who “always calls me his younger brother,” and thanked President Tinubu, “who will always be my father.”
Obasa said he’d been with Tinubu from his days in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) under which Tinubu’s elected Senator in the Third Republic, noting that he never expected to be Speaker in 2015, but “Tinubu supported me even when everyone was against me.”
Tinubu’s the acclaimed head of the shadowy and powerful GAC of the Lagos APC, which acts as a clearing house for the party affairs, including elective and appointive positions. But there appears a split in the GAC, as two of its members have criticised Obasa’s ouster as illegal. As reported by The Nation on January 30, a member, Chief M.A. Taiwo, faulted the process of Obasa’s removal, noting that, “The act of the lawmakers is illegal. It shows total disregard and clear disrespect for leadership. The GAC is split over the matter, but we will all defer to our leader, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to resolve the crisis.”
Another GAC member, former Senator Anthony Adefuye, described the removal as illegal, stating, “What he (Obasa) is saying is that he was illegally removed, and the procedure was faulty. I agree with him.”
Meanwhile, former Lagos Speaker and ex-Minister of State for Health, and Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Olorunnibe Mamora, faults Obasa’s claim that his removal flouts the 1999 Constitution, saying that only the removal of President, Vice President, Governor and Deputy Governor is specified therein, and the procedure to effect the removal.
In an interview with Vanguard on January 25, Mamora, who was Speaker from 1999 to 2003, and Senator from 2003 to 2011, said Obasa’s removal was constitutional, clarifying that though impeachment and removal are used interchangeably, the removal of Principal Officers of the Senate, House of Representatives, and State House of Assembly requires only the support of two-thirds of members to succeed.
Mamora’s words: “Let me correct the impression. I have heard people say this in media discourse. If you look at the Constitution, you would not find impeachment. What you find is removal. There is a difference between removal and impeachment.
“Impeachment connotes bringing allegations of wrongdoing formally and presenting (them) before an offending public officer. But allegation does not necessarily amount to guilt. It only says that these are the allegations that have been brought formally, which the officer has to respond to; that is impeachment.
Recalling how former United States President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House but the conviction was defeated in the Senate over his sex affair with Monica Lewinsky, Mamora explains that allegations brought through impeachment may not necessarily lead to removal, adding, “If you are now convicted on the basis of allegations and a kind of sentence is passed, then it may lead to removal.”
“It (Constitution) does not even say you should explain. It is just a simple process, because the Speaker is just first among equals. That is why the process for removal of the Speaker or Senate President is different from the removal of Mr. Governor, Deputy Governor or President, or Vice President,” Mamora says.
“Because, in the case of the Governor, it is the whole state that voted to put him in office; that is why the procedure for his or her removal is a complex process. The allegations must be supported by one-third to be brought and served notice on the holder of the office, wait for his or her response, set up a panel, the report comes back to the House and the House comes with a two-thirds majority of the members. So, you see it’s a complex process.
“The removal of a Speaker in the House of Assembly or the National Assembly Speaker or Senate President is simple. Once members bring a motion that is supported by two-thirds of members, then the Speaker vacates the seat; that’s all.”
“The Constitution does not even say you should state the allegations. It only says if you have the support of not less than two-thirds majority of the members, in support of the motion for the removal of the Speaker, and the Speaker vacates. It does not even say you should confront him with the allegations.
“Obasa was impeached and removed because there was presentation of allegations against him. And it was on the basis of the allegations that the House decided to remove him.”
Mamora adds: “We need to get it clear. What we do here is that we use the words, impeachment and removal, inter-changeably, as (if) they are the same. I need to correct that.
“There could be impeachment without removal. The Constitution, under Section 92, sub-section two or thereabout, talks of removal; that the Speaker shall vacate if a motion is presented, supported by two-thirds of members. That’s all.
“So, allegations were presented against Obasa and on that basis, the members went ahead to remove him in consonance with the Section 92 of the Constitution. So, the removal of Obasa is constitutional.”
Presented with a seeming fait accompli, shouldn’t Obasa rethink and retool his strategy, and give peace a chance in the Assembly and the entire Lagos State? This poser comes on the back of a statement by the majority of the House members on January 27, decrying Obasa’s alleged sabre-rattling, capable of heating up the polity.
Vowing to stand by Meranda as the new Speaker, a statement by Ogundipe Olukayode (Oshodi-Isolo Constituency II), on behalf of members, urged Obasa to shelve his bellicose stance and toe the path of “Peace we want in Lagos and Peace we will achieve.”
READ ALSO:Â NDLEA Rescues Man After Removing 57 Deadly Cocaine Pellets from His Body
The statement partly reads: “It is imperative to clarify that over 2/3 of the members of the Lagos State House of Assembly are solidly united behind the new Speaker, Rt Hon. Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, therefore we stood by the decision taken on the 13th of January where Rt Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa was impeached and we shall defend our positions to the latter.
“The position of the House remains the same and nothing has changed. The position being canvassed by former Speaker, Rt Hon. Obasa, is uncalled for and unparliamentary.
“The majority of members elected Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker for the 10th Assembly and we also, at the said Plenary, took the majority decision to remove him and stand by the new Speaker. So, nothing has changed.
“All members were elected from their various constituencies across the state and we all have the inalienable rights under the necessary Statutory orders to remove their Principal Officers, including the Speaker.
“I (we) therefore appeal to the former Speaker to toe the line of peace and harmony as being followed by others, as the current intransigent posture will heat up the polity and not augur well. Any attempt to heat up the polity will be resisted by the majority of distinguished members who unanimously elected Rt Hon. Meranda,” the statement said.
Will Obasa heed this timely warning, even if he wants to bid for Governor and square up against Seyi Tinubu, who remains taciturn about his alleged aspiration to date? Let Obasa’s political case not be like the dog’s which refused to listen to its master’s whistle
