- Obasa’s impeachment to be converted to resignation
- How Tinubu, Akande, Osoba, Akinyelure reached political solution
- Court orders reinstatement of assembly clerk
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mojisola Meranda, may step down, paving the way for either David Setonji or Wale Rauf to assume the position.
This development followed intervention efforts by prominent political figures, including President Bola Tinubu, a former APC National Chairman and a one-time Governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, a former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba, and the Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Pius Akinyelure.
Meranda made history as the first female Speaker of the House on January 13, 2025 after the removal of Mudashiru Obasa, who faced allegations of corruption, abuse of office, and high-handedness.
However, Obasa has since challenged his removal in court, arguing that due process was not followed.
Sources revealed that the key political figures held an initial meeting with principal officers and House members over the weekend, with another meeting with the President.
It was predicted that Meranda may be asked to return to her former position as the Deputy Speaker, while one of the two lawmakers from Lagos West—David Setonji (Badagry 2) or Wale Rauf (Amuwo Odofin 2)—could become the next Speaker.
David Setonji is currently the Chief Whip of the House and has served as a lawmaker since 2015.
Wale Rauf has been in the House since 2019.
This arrangement was reportedly influenced by regional representation in the state leadership.
Presently, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Speaker Mojisola Meranda are both from Lagos Central, leaving Lagos West without a top leadership position.
Given that Obasa hails from Lagos West, stakeholders have recommended that the next Speaker should be chosen from the district.
Despite these developments, 36 out of 40 lawmakers passed a vote of confidence in Meranda on Monday, February 17, affirming their support for her continued leadership.
However, the House adjourned sitting indefinitely, leaving room for further negotiations.
It was gathered that President Tinubu and some leaders of All Progressives Congress at the weekend, reached a political solution considered a win-win for all parties.
It was gathered that the president met with different people on the Lagos Assembly matter, with each analysing the implications of letting the situation escalate beyond the point it was at the moment, even though some damages had been done.
According to sources, it was against this backdrop that the meeting agreed that Obasa’s removal had come to stay and there was no going back on his speakership, especially as the laws guiding the Assembly were clear about the election and removal of a speaker.
Particularly more instructive was the revelation that virtually everyone, who had something to say on the Assembly crisis, spoke severely about the leadership of Obasa and his conduct for the period he held sway.
They argued, among other things, that if 37 out of his 39 colleagues stood against him with disparaging remarks about his leadership, in addition to the position of the political leaders in the state, who also wrote him off, then returning him would be against the tide.
They reckoned that it would be dangerous for the politics in the state, and the democratic credentials of the president.
It was on the strength of these arguments that the president resolved at the meetings that Obasa’s removal had come to stay, but a plea was made to salvage his political future by giving him a soft-landing.
It was in the bid to give him a soft-landing, the source added, that a conclusion was reached during the meetings that Obasa’s removal should be quashed and commuted to resignation, the same way the removal of a former deputy speaker of the Assembly, Funmi Tejuosho, was converted to resignation.
Once that was settled, the fate of the current speaker, Mojisola Meranda, was next on the agenda and it was somewhat complex for the president, the speaker being a woman.
The source explained that while the president wanted the elevation of a woman in the politics of the state, the speaker coming from the same senatorial district as the governor – Lagos Central – made it impossible for her to keep her position.
One of the reasons canvassed in support of that viewpoint was that, if the governor was elected from Lagos Central and his deputy from the East, then the largest senatorial district, Lagos West, could not be left out of the power equation on account of the leadership crisis in the Assembly.
The source disclosed that the president was so disturbed about the situation that he asked if another woman from Lagos West could be sourced and put forward, instead, so that the women folk would not allege discrimination in the power game.
Unfortunately, the only woman from that part of the state (Foluke Osafile, Amuwo Odofin 01) was not only a first timer, but also elected on the platform of a minority party, Labour Party, making her choice impracticable in view of the power arrangement in the state.
The meeting concluded that Meranda, too, should resign and stand down from the speakership position and allow someone from Lagos West to occupy the office, just so that none of the three senatorial districts would feel alienated.
Further explaining how the state arrived at this juncture, the source explained that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the president did not care about Obasa’s removal, as he was not special.
The source said Tinubu’s response conveyed the impression that if Obasa was unable to manage and carry his colleagues along, to the point that he lost their trust, then the president would not do his job for him.
It added that there was also the feeling that Obasa had served as Speaker for over nine years by riding on the coattails of the president, and that was enough compensation, for now.
However, the source said the president was angry with the fact that Obasa’s removal caught him unaware.
He said that he was not just the political leader of the party in the state and at the national level, but also as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
Tinubu considered being taken off guard in such a situation discourteous, and having attendant political implications.
But after several interventions, the president, the source said, looked beyond the failings of the assembly members, and was now interested in moving forward.
This disposition gave rise to the solutions collectively arrived at.
Court orders reinstatement of Lagos assembly clerk
Meanwhile, the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos has sacked the acting clerk of the House, Ottun Babatunde, who was appointed by Speaker Mojisola Meranda.
The court ordered the reinstatement of the former clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko.
The order followed an ex parte application to the court made by Onafeko through his counsel, Yusuf Nurudeen, in a case he filed against the Lagos State Government, Lagos State Civil Service Commission, Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission, the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Attorney-General of Lagos State and Babatunde.
Onafeko was the clerk of the House before January 13, 2025 when Obasa was removed as Speaker.
The claimant in the suit marked: NICN/LA/23/2025 sought an interim injunction restraining the six defendants from parading any individual including Babatunde as the clerk pending the hearing of the motion on notice for Interlocutory injunction already filed in the suit.
Granting the application, Justice M. N. Esowe in an ex parte order directed that Babatunde should cease to parade himself as Clerk.
“That both parties shall maintain the peace and status quo ante bellum until the motion on notice is heard and determined,” Esowe ordered in a judgment dated February 20, 2025.
The judge slated the hearing of the motion on notice for March 3, 2024.
The sacking is another new turn of the crisis rocking the assembly since the removal of Obasa, who has dragged the assembly and Maeranda to court, seeking redress.
