In a well-executed civilian coup, some members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, numbering 32, yesterday, impeached the speaker, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, while he was in transit from faraway Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States.
The lawmakers claimed they had had enough of Obasa and simply decided to try someone else, saying change is the only thing that is constant.
Upon removal of Obasa, who had been Speaker since 2015, they promptly replaced him with his deputy, Hon Mojisola Meranda.
Deputy Chief Whip of the Assembly, Hon. Fatai Mojeed, was also elected the new Deputy Speaker.
All existing structures in the legislature, including the standing committees, were equally dissolved.
Following in the same wind of change, the Assembly suspended its Clerk, Olalekan Onafeko, and replaced him with Mr. Abubakar Ottun, in acting capacity.
Obasa had recently been vocal on his ambition to be governor of Lagos State and even declared that no one could stop him.
Since 2023, he had been at daggers-drawn with Sanwo-Olu over issues of political control. He refused to clear some nominees of the governor for the executive council until he was given two slots by the governor.
Every year, he had refused to attend the signing of the state’s appropriation bill, apparently, seeing it as beneath him. Also, he was said never to have attended events where the governor was present, and if he did, he had deliberately come late after the governor was seated, in blatant breach of protocol.
The lastest of such actions happened on Sunday, January 5th, during the state’s annual Thanksgiving service at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan.
Obasa’s removal came after he allegedly oversaw the withdrawal of N43.5 billion for back-up vehicles for lawmakers, as well as other controversial activities.
