I shook my head in utter disappointment reading about the reported declaration of Hon. Abiodun Tobun, the incumbent lawmaker representing Epe State Constituency 1 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, to frustrate the peaceful and enviable polity in Lagos APC and also the State House of Assembly by challenging the leadership arrangement of the incoming 10th Assembly.
What made his aspiration more disappointing is the path the purported experienced lawmaker threaded by claiming to have the support of the party leaders and the governor.
Yes, like every members-elect, Hon. Tobun may be in his right to aim at the speakership position but it is disappointing that a three-term lawmaker of his kind who has just won his fourth bid will be making a thoughtless and miscalculated move.
To think that someone who has immensely benefited from the Incumbent speaker’s leadership and mentorship will allow himself to be used as a cog in the wheel of the assembly’s smooth takeoff in the upcoming dispensation is unimaginable.
It needs no in-depth analysis to decipher that since the political arrangement that gave way for Obasa’s reemergence as the speaker the last time out is still very much in place, the leadership of the state House of Assembly should maintain its order.
It is visible to the blind and deafening to even the deaf that Obasa’s leadership in the hallowed chamber has not only kept the legislative assembly at its best consequently raising the bar of parliamentary excellence beyond common standard but ensured that the party need not worry about the State Assembly.
We have records of crises that rocked various state assemblies in the last dispensation. Such wasn’t the case of Lagos State and that didn’t come by fluke it was a result of the qualitative and all-inclusive leadership Obasa exerted as he holds sway.
Obasa’s agenda of promoting and strengthening legislative institutions from the state to the local government level; establishing a Centre for Democracy and Legislative Studies; reviewing old laws in order to bring them up to date, particularly laws that establish agencies and parastatals were greatly achieved.
Mr. Governor can attest to Obasa’s legislative acumen and his immense contribution to the party’s victory in the last election especially that of the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
It is on record that, Obasa through the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Foundation which eventually metamorphosed into Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu movement, Obasa played a critical role in APC’s success, especially in South West.
Beyond that, Obasa was ordinarily expected to go to the Senate but his regard for party’s supremacy compelled him to settle for the state assembly.
Away from the above If there’s a need to ensure stability in Lagos Politics, now is the time in order to allow President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu fully concentrate on governance at the federal level.
Obasa has mastered the art of ensuring peace and smooth running of the house activities for eight years. To continually retain homestead, President Tinubu needs the collaboration of the legislative and executive arms in Lagos to foster peace and tranquility.
A miscalculated aspiration of a thoughtless lawmaker should not put this in jeopardy and lead to what’s unthinkable. More importantly, Tobun is only using the governor’s and his deputy’s names as a decoy. His ultimate sponsor is the current governor’s predecessor that is from the same area of Lagos as Tobun. The former governor in question is averse to everything Tinubu and even plans to use Tobun’s installation as speaker to create trouble for Sanwoolu in preparation for his desperate plan to run for Lagos governorship in 2027.
One thing is sacrosanct and that is the declaration of the chairman, House Committee on Transportation, Hon. Adewale Temitope that 39 of the 40 lawmakers elect are solidly behind Obasa. This is enough to take Tobun’s aspiration as something that’s worth losing sleep over…a pinch of salt so to say.
‘Bayo Oyeyemi
Asiwaju Indefatigable Group
Fri., 2nd July 2023.
