Lagos Assembly: The price of ruptured peace

TRACKING____The once serene Lagos State House of Assembly is in the midst of the storm, following the manner four members of the House were ousted in the form of suspension. In this report, WALE ELEGBEDE writes on the political intrigues rocking the state legislative arm

If there is a state House of Assembly in Nigeria that has had the luxury of cordiality and stability between its leadership and members over the last 10 years, it is the Lagos State House of Assembly. The steadiness in the affairs of the House has made its crisis management template become the cynosure of envy for other legislative houses in the country where turnover of leadership has recorded embarrassing statistics.

Perhaps, the few leadership skirmishes that have rocked the state Assembly since the advent of the 4th Republic can be counted with two eyes closed. Not much political crisis has been recorded in the Lagos State House of Assembly compared to others, where throwing of chairs, seizing the mace, factionalisation, engaging in physical combats, among others are the order of the day.

But cautioning on the hindsight, insiders within the Assembly said whatever is being portrayed as cordiality is only peace of the graveyard. The source said all that is painted is for good public relations and impressions but the depth is horribly laced with dirty politics.

The insider advised: “You are a journalist, go and find one of the ex-lawmakers in this Assembly and ask about the politicking and intrigues that pervade the system here. Forget what you see, it’s only for public displays, the inside is filthy even during their parliamentary meetings where there are no members of the public, you see intense agitation amid themselves. But the binding forces still include the party, the APC led by the trio of Tinubu, Aregbesola and Pepper.

However, from the blues, a fresh path of political crisis evolved from the House last week Monday, apparently after its parliamentary session. During its plenary session, the Speaker, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, took everyone by surprise when he announced the indefinite suspension of two members of the House, Hon. Moshood Olanrewaju Oshun representing Lagos Mainland Constituency 2, and Kazeem Raheem Adewale, member representing Ibeju/Lekki Constituency 2.

He also announced that two principal officers, Rotimi Abiru and Olumuyiwa Jimoh, were both removed from their positions as the Chief Whip and Deputy Majority Leader, respectively.

Afterwards, the suspension of the two lawmakers was supported through a voice vote by the members who were present during Monday’s plenary. Also, the notice and change in the leadership was contained in a letter read on the floor of the House by the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni.

Sanni stated that the 26 members who signed the letter, “wished to notify the House to change the leadership of the House including Hon. Rotimi Abiru as the Chief Whip and Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Olumuyiwa Jimoh.”

TracKnews gathered that the 26 members that signed the removal of the two principal officers include Victor Akande, Sentoji David, Nureni Akinsanya, Noheem Adams, Saka Solaja, Lanre Afinni, Fatai Mojeed, Rotimi Olowo, Makinde Rasheed, Adedamola Kasunmu, Temitope Adewale, Desmond Elliot, and Jude Idimogu.

Others are Olawale Olayiwola Abdul Sobur, Ajayi Owolabi, Hon Lukmon Olumoh, Kehinde Joseph, Tijani Suraju, Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, Mosunmola Sangodara, Hakeem Sokunle, Gbolahan Yishawu, Fatai Oluwa, Abiodun Tobun, Folajimi Mohammed, and Rauf Olawale.

Further drama ensued after the suspension and demotion of the lawmakers when Oshun, few hours after the pronouncement, was literally prevented from gaining access into the Assembly Complex by security personnel manning the gate, apparently in compliance to ‘order from above’.

Even visitors and workers had to bear part of the heightened security brunt as the two entrances into the Assembly were manned by eagle-eyed personnel, who thoroughly placed checks on every vehicle and persons coming in and out of the complex.

In what looked like an orchestrated move, the Assembly effected the selections of two lawmakers as replacement for the affected officers that were impeached in the persons of Noheem Adams from Eti-Osa Constituency 1 (as Deputy Majority Leader) while Mojisola Miranda, representing Apapa Constituency 1 was elected as the new Chief Whip.

Incidentally, the replacements were picked from the same zones where the demoted members represent. Hon Mojisola Miranda, who is from the Ojora royal family was named to replace Abiru as the Chief Whip. Hon Jimoh Wahab was also replaced with Hon Noheem Adams from Eti-Osa I, who is also close to the Elegunshin family.

The report, entitled, ‘Lagos Assembly spends N2.4b on 80 cars in 11 Months’, allegedly indicted the leadership of the House and some principal officers of reckless spending.

The report alleged that sometimes last year, a contract was awarded for 40 cars to be purchased for the lawmakers and less than a year after another contract was awarded for the purchase of cars for the members in December and January.

He said: “You may want to ask why the government is providing functionaries of Assembly with vehicles. The vehicles are for government; registered in the government’s name. They are not a personal property of the Assemblymen.”

The last angle being proffered as the likely basis for the crisis is an unswerving clampdown on the former power broker in the House, now a member of the National Assembly, Senator Bayo Osinowo, popularly referred to as Pepper. The speaker is also said to be nursing a senatorial ambition for Lagos West ahead of 2023.

But rebuffing insinuation of planning a coup to oust the speaker, one of the suspended lawmakers, Abiru, said he and his colleagues didn’t sketch any impeachment plot, stating that the rules about the removal of the speaker is clear and somewhat tedious.

For anyone to contemplate removing a speaker, you would need about 26 members (40-member house) and no one that I know, except if any member can come out and say that he was approached by my humble self or anyone at all to remove the speaker.

On whether the speaker is trying to cut Osinowo to size, he said, “Senator Bayo Osinowo, is a former member of the House and he’s indeed our de facto leader in the House of Assembly, so we are colleagues as members, but we know that he is the leader. I am from Lagos-East Senatorial District and the man was the brain behind the emergence of the speaker in the 8th Assembly.

“In the 9th Assembly, having also prevailed on us that the speaker should return ditto with other members, we did not think there was any problem between him and the speaker. But from what has emerged in the last few days, it is getting obvious that the speaker had an ulterior motive against the gentleman leader and brother.

Lamenting their predicament since last week Monday, Abiru, who aspired for the leadership of the House in 2019, said: “We have been denied access to the Assembly and we have since been removed by the Speaker from the group platform of the 9th Assembly which to me is mostly unnecessary.

“Again, from the day some members were suspended, he has put our offices under lock and key and denied our staff members’ access to the Assembly. All these are unconstitutional. I wonder where he derives such powers from. For somebody that we already know, we know he is someone who tries to make a show of power before now and what he has done has revealed his level of intelligence and myopic reasoning and these are some of the things we saw in his leadership style from the outset and we were trying to guide him.

“The Assembly was not designed to have a sole administrator; those who designed the parliament know that there are other functions other than the function of the Speaker that should be performed by some other people. But since the beginning of the Assembly, Obasa has acted more like a dictator and even a despotic leader; there’s no gainsaying about this. And that is why he has made many blunders in the process of the removal of both senior officers and even the suspended members,” he said in an interview with a national newspaper.

Abiru further noted that they are not certain if Tinubu is fully aware of their plight, adding that, “He (Obasa) did not consult with the governor and our leader (Tinubu) does not act in such a way. Our leader is equally loyal to all of us and we’ve not offended him in anyway so I doubt if our great leader is in the know.

“There’s no division in the party so I wouldn’t really know what he means by actions that could cause division in the House. It’s all a ploy to call a dog a bad name because he wants to hang it. All I can say is that he has ambition to run for Senate in 2023 and 2023 is a long time from now. I don’t belong to Lagos West senatorial district so I wonder what my concern is.”

But allaying fear of any division or irreconcilable difference within its fold, Braimoh said that there is no crisis in its ranks just as it disclosed that it has set up a committee to look into issues surrounding the suspension of four of its members.

Announcing the Assembly’s position after a parliamentary meeting of the lawmakers, Braimoh, who is the House Committee on Information, Publicity, Strategy and Security, said the committee is headed by Hon. Ibrahim Layode (Badagry Constituency 1), adding that conflicts are part of human nature and there are mechanisms to resolve them.

Braimoh stated at the briefing, which was witnessed by majority of members of the House, including the Speaker and other Principal Officers that the manner by which the two suspended principal officers were replaced was normal, adding that only two offices are constitutionally recognized; the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

He said: “Those who are being reprimanded are our colleagues, they are not outcasts, and we belong to the same political party. We are mindful that the image of the House is at stake and we want to tell you that the people affected are not outcasts, they are our colleagues. They is nothing to worry about,whatever is done was done in respect to the law. All that we did were done according to Order 10 Rules 68 to 72 of the Business Rules of the House.”

Corroborating Braimoh, the speaker in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Tolani Abati, denied any rift between him and Oshinowo, who he described as a friend and mentor and with whose support he had excelled in legislative activities.

Emphasising this cordial relationship, Obasa said he was with Oshinowo last Tuesday and that they both drove in his convoy. “I was the one that dropped Senator Oshinowo off on his way to Abuja yesterday. If there was a rift between us, will that happen?” the speaker asked.

According to sources, the matter has been tabled before Tinubu, who is currently in the United Kingdom and has given the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the go-ahead and mediate on the issue on his behalf.

But on the reverse side, some insiders said the speaker was ab initio not comfortable with the set of the principal officers he would work with when the leadership of the party decided to return all the principal officers including the speaker and his deputy at the commencement of the 9th Assembly in 2019.

However, from the purview of the party, the Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Lanre Ogunyemi, expressed strong reservations on the manner the crisis was handled.

Ogunyemi, who was a two-term former member of the House decried the turn of events, noting that the party leadership should have been consulted before action taken on Monday, 9 March, against four members of the House.

He said that the House members may have applied the disciplinary tool wrongly, saying: “If disciplinary tool will be applied in accordance with House Rules, suspended and deposed members should have been given benefit of fair hearing via appearance before a panel to ensure that allegations of insubordination and gross misconduct are proven.

“Furthermore, all members of the House are products of the party and it is expected that they would explore leadership and party machinery on the matter before arriving at their far reaching decision.”

But another twist to the development was a petition by a rights group, Human Rights Monitoring Agenda (HURMA), requesting that the speaker should step down from his position pending completion of investigation on him.

The relatively new group in a petition it allegedly sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and signed by its Executive Director, Olaitan Isiak, said it is seeking probe of the activities of the speaker for alleged financial recklessness and cornering of public funds through illegitimate means.

Clearly, the clouds over the Lagos Assembly is appearing not favourable for the current leadership of the House that has exceptional distinguished itself in lawmaking process, more so, its coming at a time when the ruling APC is enmeshed in crisis at the national level.

Will Speaker Obasa recoil and admit the suspended lawmakers back? Can the suspended lawmakers ‘trust’ the leadership again if readmitted? Is there really a crisis between Pepper and Obasa? What happens to the insinuation that some former lawmakers in the Assembly are the ones orchestrating the division in the House? How formidable will the Assembly be after the end of the crisis? Will Tinubu bring his weight to bear and call all interests to stand still? Answers to these posers are in the belly of time?