Power is an opium. Political power, especially, intoxicates. Its trappings are literally luscious. But its grandeur deludes. Its allure blinds. It tends to give the holder a facade, a false aura of invincibility. What is more, the serpentine lane to the pinnacle of political power is often laid with land mines and a hidden ‘Banana Peel’ that causes the holder, who struts on that lane carelessly, especially in our climes where power is a big business and the easiest route to fame and wealth, to slip and fall! That is why power is said to be transient.
The tale of the proverbial ‘Banana Peel’ was popularized by Dr. Chuba Okadigbo(of blessed memory) in year 2000 when he was on the cusp of political wilderness following his impeachment as the then Senate President. Okadigbo, an intellectual, who was imbued with a generous dose of native intelligence and the power of oratory, wits and humour, had warned his kinsman and successor, Anyim Pius Anyim, to beware of the proverbial ‘Banana Peel’ around the exalted seat of Senate President, the Number Three in the nation’s hierarchy of power protocol, which often ensures the fall of the occupant from grace.
As it were, the erstwhile powerful Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, representing Agege Constituency 1, last Monday became the latest victim of the proverbial ‘Banana Peel.’ While he was holidaying in far away Atlanta, in the United States of America, his tottering power edifice back home eventually crumbled like a pack of cards.
More than two-third of the House voted overwhelmingly for his impeachment and so, he was removed in absentia, over multiple allegations of fraud. His deputy, Mrs Mojisola Meranda, representing Apapa Constituency, took over immediately as the new Speaker, while the Deputy Chief Whip, Fatai Mojeed, became the new Deputy Speaker.
The new speaker on Friday announced new principal officers following the dissolution of the former committee. The new appointees are: Hon. Temitope Adedeji, representing Ifako Ijaye 1 Constituency as Majority Leader; Hon. Richard Kasumu, representing Ikeja 2 Constituency, Deputy Majority Leader; Hon. David Setonji, representing Badagry 2 Constituency, Chief Whip and Hon. Semiu Okanlawon, representing Kosofe Constituency 1, Deputy Chief Whip.
The impeachment of the 52-year-old Obasa, who became speaker in June, 2015 and was serving his third term,came barely days after he was alleged to have overseen the withdrawal of N43.5billion for backup vehicles for lawmakers, among other multiple statutory and financial infractions.
The member representing Epe Constituency 1, Abiodun Tobun, said the decision to change the House leadership was “unanimous”. While announcing the new leaders of the House, Tobun added that all standing committees and principal positions had been dissolved. He told newsmen shortly after the impeachment: “It is only death that is constant; so change is inevitable. Members of the parliament today have decided to change the leadership of the House. The Constitution makes it clear that the House has the power to regulate its proceedings.
“The members of the House felt we had had enough of the leadership of Mudashiru Obasa. We unanimously agreed that Mojisola Meranda would become the new speaker and Fatai Adebola would be the deputy speaker. It was a resolution concurred to by all members of the parliament. As we speak, all principal positions and standing committees of the House have been dissolved.
“The House has resolved to work together to move the parliament to the next level. We cannot sit back and watch the parliament fall into ruins. We owe our constituencies and Lagos State the duty of restoring the sanity and integrity of this House. That is why we have taken this action—to save our image and that of the state.”
However, beyond these overt reasons adduced for Obasa’s removal, intrigues were patently at play. Indeed, few keen watchers of events in the state would be surprised at the speaker’s fall. In resume, his removal and the failure of former Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to secure a second term ticket for the 2019 governorship election, were two sides of the same coin. Their stories, we day say, exemplify vital lessons in the frailty and intricacies of power; how easy it is to fall if anyone fails to tacitly navigate the slippery labyrinth of power.
Ambode, who was fondly loved by Lagosians for his stellar performance in his first term, fell out of favour because of the delusion and grandeur of power. Obasa obviously failed to learn from Ambode’s pitfalls. The former governor, having been inebriated with the trappings of power, became haughty and in a costly gamble began to disregard Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the all-powerful Governor’s Advisory Council(GAC), the highest decision-making organ of the ruling party in the state. The body, led by a former party chairman, Tajudeen Olusi, is made up of elders whom Tinubu himself treat with reverence.
Insiders squealed that Ambode often refused to pick Asiwaju’s calls, while surreptitiously building a parallel party structure in the state preparatory to the 2019 election. He was also alleged to have kept the GAC members waiting for days anytime they wanted to see him. The elders at a point reportedly vowed that he(Ambode) would never smell a second term in office.
However, in the build up to the 2019 governorship primary rancour, the Nigerian Governors Forum, led by the then Zamfara Governor, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari, cornered Tinubu in his Abuja residence. Yari, it was said, led all the governors then to prostrate for Asiwaju Tinubu and passionately pleaded with him to forgive Ambode’s infractions and allow him to run for a second term.
Tinubu, who was said to have shed tears at the action of the governors, which tended to cast him in the mould of a god, reportedly told them(governors) that the decision was not his but that of the GAC elders, who had vowed to deny Ambode second term. But he reportedly promised to talk to them if they would listen.
And as soon as he(Tinubu) flew back to Lagos, he summoned a meeting of the GAC elders, relayed the Abuja drama to them and pleaded with them to give the governor a second chance.
The elders concurred and requested Asiwaju to summon him(Ambode) so they could give him conditions and offer him the second term ticket. The rescheduled party primary was then about three days away. But according to a top source who attended the meeting, Ambode, probably thinking that Asiwaju wanted to continue to persuade him not to run for the primary, refused to pick Tinubu’s calls for over two hours that he intermittently placed calls to him. That was how he lost the chance to secure second term. Of course, Ambode has since reconciled with Tinubu.
During his nine-year reign as speaker, Obasa himself fought many battles, including allegations of misappropriation of funds and the battle to hold on to his position each term. In 2020, for example, Obasa was invited and quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) and even stood trial over allegations of diversion of Lagos funds to his personal firms and bank accounts. However, he denied all the allegations and he was eventually cleared.
The most recent allegation he described as “spurious and laughable” was that the Assembly spent N17billion in constructing a gate. In his defence, Obasa said the allegations were politically motivated, pointing out specifically that “such baseless claims will arise as the 2027 elections approach.”
“It is funny,” he said. “How much is the allocation of the Assembly in a whole year for anyone to claim we spent N17billion on a gate? They even alleged that we spent N200million on the recently organised 22nd Thanksgiving Service, which is untrue. We are aware that as elections in 2027 approach, such baseless claims will arise. It seems some people are scared, and I don’t know why. This House has not embarked on any such project. We are not reckless. Our Thanksgiving Service was held last Friday, attended by dignitaries from across the state.”
What, however, sealed his fate was, among other factors, his silent rift with the current governor, Babajide Sanwo -Olu, and his alleged disregard for the same GAC elders. The party elders were particularly miffed by Obasa’s alleged disrespect for the office of the governor.
The frosty relationship between the impeached speaker and Sanwo-Olu blew open in 2023 when the Obasa-led Assembly rejected 17 of the 39 commissioner-nominees presented for clearance for no tangible reasons. The former speaker had denied any rift with the governor then, but it took the intervention of the GAC elders to get the 17 commissioner-nominees eventually cleared.
Insiders hinted that at a point, Obasa became haughty and cocky. He began to see himself as an emperor, wielding enormous power. He burnt his fingers in the process. His Archilles’ heels were the gratuitous remarks and costly gaffes he had been making in recent times, especially concerning his rumoured ambition to contest for 2027 governorship in the state. This was demonstrated when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on November 21, 2024, presented the state’s 2025 budget to the Assembly.
During the presentation, Obasa, in a magisterial and insensitive fashion, digressed from the issue of the day into rambling about his purported ambition to succeed Sanwo-Olu. He remarked quite impoliticly, even when the governor and his entourage were already seated for the presentation, that despite ongoing speculations, he had not seriously considered running for governor. He emphasised that his primary concern was strengthening the party in the state.
The former speaker declared that while he had not given the matter a serious thought, he did not lack the experience to contest the governorship election. He then launched into one of the gaffes that nailed his political coffin. He said none of the past occupiers of the office was better than him.
“Becoming a governor is secondary,” he launched out; “it is something that I have not given serious consideration. Nevertheless, that does not mean I am too young or lack experience to run; whereas, those who have been before me are not better off.” In other words, all the past governors of the state, from Tinubu himself, Babatunde Fashola, Ambode and the current one, Sanwo-Olu, are no match for him!
He continued: “In addition, it is also important to correct the impression from some naysayers who have been insinuating that I made payment to seek blood relations in Ojo to validate my candidacy to run as governor.
“Of course, I have never denied the fact that I am Obasa. Rather, I have never claimed to be related to Onikoyi, Oniru, or any of the other popular Lagos families as the case may be. I can indeed never run (away) from the fact that I am related to my Obasa family in Ojo. But I do not need local validity to contest or run any election. If eventually, I am contesting, I will do so from Agege.”
He launched into these gratuitous distractions after he had allegedly kept all the important dignitaries, including the governor, waiting for over four hours. A source, who attended the presentation, recalled: “Not only was the governor kept waiting for over four hours, but the leadership of the party and all invited dignitaries were also kept waiting with no apology given.
And when he came into the chambers, courtesies were also not extended to anyone. Rather, it was a situation or an event of letting people know that ‘I am the emperor here.’”
Another major factor, which counted against him and annoyed President Tinubu, had to do with two offending bills the Obasa-led House had raised. The first was a bill which proposed to restructure local governance in the state. The bill sought to more or less ‘demote’ or deemphasize the 37 Local Council Development Areas(LCDAs) created in 2003 by the Governor Bola Tinubu administration. According to the bill, elections should be restricted only to the 20 LGAs recognized by the 1999 Constitution, while mandate secretaries should be appointed for the 37 LCDAs.
Proposing this bill at all was akin to a sacrilege. It was like deliberately undoing one of Tinubu’s enduring legacies and diminishing the sacrifice made by Tinubu to get those LCDAs created and sustained amid the presidential hammer that the Obasanjo-led Federal Government had wielded against Lagos State— seizing the state’s federal allocations for years— over those councils. The other bill was allegedly proposing to sack the chairman of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission(LASIEC). Tinubu himself was said to have been seriously peeved by the two audacious and incautious bills.
The issue was believed to have featured prominently when the GAC leadership, led by the chairman, Olusi, formally reported Obasa to President Tinubu when he came home in December for the Yuletide holiday. Highly displeased and infuriated by all the reports against the former speaker about his alleged disrespect for Sanwo-Olu and his adversarial conduct, the president reportedly tongue-lashed him seriously.
A top-ranking chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), who spoke with us on condition of anonymity last Monday evening, gave further hints about the Obasa issue, saying his removal had been in the works for a while. According to him, the former speaker rose through the ranks steadily as a follower of President Tinubu but almost learnt nothing from him (Tinubu) politically.
“Obasa,” he said, “became too ambitious and didn’t even hide it. As someone who has been with President Tinubu when the movement was just gaining momentum, he appeared not to have learnt anything. He played to the gallery. He saw himself as too big and a force that must be reckoned with; biting the fingers that fed him in the process. I would have expected him to know better, considering the many years he spent transforming from nothing into a giant”.
Obasa’s fate was believed to have been sealed at the meeting with the president as his cup was seen to have been full. The elders perceived that he was beginning to see himself as an emperor.
So, a change in the leadership of the Assembly was ineluctable. He was, however, given a soft landing often of resigning to save him from the embarrassment of outright impeachment, but he reportedly refused to quit honourably, making his removal inevitable.
We believe his political future depends on how he reacts to his impeachment. He may be tempted to contest it in court because he was obviously not given a fair trial having been removed in absentia. Even though his fall appears to be self-inflicted having strutted too incautiously on the slippery corridor of power, we feel it would have been more appropriate for the House to await his arrival and give him the grace of defending himself before hacking him with the axe of impeachment.
However, like a school of thought hinted, President Tinubu is a kind-hearted leader who forgives easily. So, if Obasa bears his fate with equanimity, learns his lessons and remains in hibernation as a floor member of the House and a loyal party member, he stands the chance of being ‘rehabilitated’ in the foreseeable future.
So, what next for the former speaker? Time will tell.
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