*Photo: Prof Kehinde Yusuf*
The primary purpose of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) is to make laws for the smooth running of the government for the benefit of the people. It is not clear how much of that has been done in the last eight weeks. But you can’t but notice the one-per-day theatrics of that legislature. And how did it all start?
The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Right Honourable Mudashiru Obasa, had gone on vacation in the United States. While away, reminiscent of how the Nigerian military used to execute coups d’état, disaffected members of the House of Assembly, without consulting major stakeholders in the politics and governance of the state, impeached and replaced him with Honourable Mojisola Meranda.
When Obasa returned from the United States, believing that he had actually not been impeached, he endeavoured to take back his position as the Speaker of the House on 27 February, 2025. Since Meranda and her supporters had been digging in, they resisted Obasa’s move. And that was where the drama started, with even the Nigeria Police Force being dragged in. It therefore became necessary for the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) to intervene.
GAC, by the way, is a body of eminent personalities with vast political and cognate experience set up by then-Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu to provide guidance to whoever is the governor and to maintain the stability of the ruling party in Lagos State.
Exonerating the GAC of any responsibility for the crisis, its Chair, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, was quoted by Leadership newspaper, in a 3 March, 2025 report, titled “Count GAC out of crisis rocking Lagos Assembly – Olusi,” to have stated: “Members of the GAC are not part of the Lagos State House of Assembly to allegedly be behind the removal of Obasa. It can’t be true. We read it also that morning. The lawmakers carried it out without consulting the party and those of us in the GAC. … The lawmakers have no absolute power to remove and install their leaders. Nobody can become a member of the House of Assembly unless sponsored by a political party, and the sponsors are the inspectors.”
This position of the GAC Chair is consistent with Section 106(d) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended which states that “Subject to the provisions of section 107 of this Constitution, a person shall be qualified for election as a member of a House of Assembly if … he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that party.” The position also coheres with Section 29(1) of the 2022 Electoral Act which provides thus: “Every political party shall, not later than 180 days before the date appointed for a general election under this Act, submit to the Commission, in the prescribed Forms, the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections, who must have emerged from valid primaries conducted by the political party.”
Moreover, the position of the GAC Chair is in agreement with the following provisions of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the INEC Website at (https://www.inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/APC-Constitution.pdf) Article 7(iv-v) of the APC constitution states two of the objectives of the party as follows: “(iv) To sponsor eligible candidates and canvass for votes for election into all elective offices in all tiers of government. (v) To consciously pursue the implementation of the policies and programmes of the Party, through those of its members that are appointed or elected into government, legislative houses and Boards throughout the Federation.”
In addition, Article 21 (A)(ii) of the APC Constitution states: “Offences against the Party shall include the following: … Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule or disrepute.”
The contemptuous action of the legislators to remove Right Honourable Mudashiru Obasa as the Speaker of the LSHA and replace him with the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Mojisola Meranda, through subterfuge, thus seemed to have had a tinge of treachery about it. The action was probably motivated by a desire to hand the GAC a fait accompli which would be difficult to reverse without earning the members of that distinguished body some bad press. But the legislators probably forgot that the members of GAC were not spring chicken as far as political maneuvering was concerned. The legislators also seemed not to have been aware of the English proverb, “Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom.”
Meanwhile, the drama continued, and as in every theatre, especially where contradictory emotions are evoked by the respective actors, the audience of the LSHA drama have been varied in their response, with some applauding and some condemning. This audience has been composed of newspaper columnists, opinion writers, electronic media analysts, social media commentators and sundry experts. And those who were gladdened by Obasa’s tribulations had been most resourceful in terms of logical fallacies and propaganda.
These fallacies ranged from false analogies (such as comparing the situation in the LSHA to the crisis in Rivers State) to red herrings (such as ignoring the lawful role of political parties to guide their respective legislators on critical issues and then magnifying the point that it was with a majority of votes in the LSHA that Obasa was removed). In fact, some have been agonsing over the GAC resolution of the crisis.
Those who have been arguing that the GAC intervention undermines the independence of the legislature, and democracy at large, need to be reminded that while the legislature does indeed have independence with respect to the executive and judicial arms of government, they have less independence with respect to the party that nominated and sponsored them for elections. Legislators who discountenance party supremacy are therefore inexcusably delusional, because we do not yet have independent candidates in Nigeria.
That is why it is partys’ names and logos that appear on ballot papers, and not candidates’. In effect, the platform on which the legislators stand belongs to the party, and party leaders have the moral duty to stop it from being weakened. Should the platform collapse, the individual legislators have the escape route of defection to other parties. The legislators are thus like what is picturesquely described, in Yoruba, as “Igi dá, eye fò” (‘Birds that fly away as the twig breaks.’)
It is for this reason that political parties have their respective party caucuses in Houses of Assembly to prevent members’ legislative actions from jeopardising overall party interests. Incidentally, the election of Meranda (who is from Lagos Central like Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu) on 13 January, 2025 created rumpus outside the House of Assembly, because it upset the geopolitical balance that the GAC had ensured with regard to the distribution of party and government leadership positions as a means of maintaining the stability of the party. The impeachment of Obasa (who is from Lagos West) therefore led to grumblings about marginalising his constituency. This is the deleterious kind of development that the GAC intervention has nipped in the bud.
The wisdom of the GAC and key national figures in the party has seen Meranda resign as Speaker, along with some other officers. It has also seen her re-elected as Deputy Speaker, and Obasa re-elected as Speaker. In her resignation speech, Meranda stated: “I took the above decision in order to save this legislative institution from further unnecessary conflict and embarrassment … and in deference to … our esteemed political leaders. … Just like we know, … the party decision is supreme.” Also, in his speech as Speaker, Obasa said to the legislators: “I want to thank you for your support, your dedication, your loyalty and your staunch belief in our party and the utmost respect for our party leaders.” Both speeches acknowledge and express respect for party supremacy; and that is commendable, because, as a Yoruba proverb puts it, “Odò tó bá gbàgbé orísún rè á gbe.” (‘A river that forgets its source will dry up.’)
There was ample arrogant display of unfamiliarity with or mischievous discountenance of the Nigerian constitution, the electoral law and political party constitutions and conventions by some very vocal or influential commentators on and analysts of the LSHA crisis. Some seemed to see the crisis as more of an opportunity to denigrate the APC or President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Critical issues surrounding the legislative misadventure were therefore disregarded. Some were also commenting as if they had an axe to grind with Obasa and got a wonderful opportunity, in the crisis, to even up with him and rub it in as harshly as they could. And they did kick the fallen Obasa with gusto.
If you didn’t know what the word ‘schadenfreude’ meant before now, just take a look back at the exuberant joy that some people expressed at the 13 January, 2025 military-coup-like ordeal of Mudashiru Obasa. According to Cambridge Dictionary, schadenfreude means “a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else.”
This brings to mind the story of the Swedish chemist, Dr. Alfred Nobel, the sponsor of the world famous Nobel Prizes. He invented dynamite and other explosives, originally for use in mining and related activities. However, people later started to use them as devastating weapons of war, and Alfred Nobel made a fortune from his deadly inventions. Then as reported by Radleys.com in 2015, in an article titled “On world humanitarian day, remember the story of Alfred Nobel,” his brother Ludvig Nobel died in 1888, and a French newspaper mistook the deceased for Alfred, and wrote an obituary on him scathingly titled “Le marchand de la mort est mort.” (‘The merchant of death is dead.’) An 8 August, 2021 article in a publication of the Office of Science and Society at McGill University, in Canada, also reported that Alfred was described in the obituary as a man who “became rich by finding a way to kill more people faster than ever before.”
As Britannica put it, perhaps to burnish his reputation, “In the will he drafted in 1895, Nobel instructed that most of his fortune be set aside as a fund for the awarding of five annual prizes ‘to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.’ These prizes as established by his will are the Nobel Prize for Physics, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Nobel Prize for Peace.”
Like Alfred Nobel, Mudashiru Obasa has had the opportunity to read his obituary, even if metaphorically-speaking. Like Alfred Nobel’s, the obituary has been to some measure unflattering. He should therefore, like Alfred Nobel, emplace a sustainable humanity-enhancing programme to guarantee for himself a noble reputation among posterity.