The year 2025 opens to heightened political intrigues and positional posturing, especially with party primaries happening in less than 15 months’ time. Nothing will be left out in the desperate pursuit of power and lucre among politicians.
While the impeachment of Rt. Hon Mudashiru Obasa might have come as a rude shock to millions of Nigerians, it’s however a foreseen action. Having spent about ten years in the saddle as the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, the Agege-born political tactician may have begun to imagine himself a sort of deity in the politics of Lagos. He is the longest Speaker in the history of Lagos politics and may just be in the whole of Nigeria. In the last ten years, nothing happened or moved in Lagos without his express legislative approval.
Like Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” Obasa came under the spell of hubris, thereby challenging his “chi” (god) to a wrestling contest. Having won his legislative seat for a record five times, totalling 17 years, out of which he was Speaker for 10 years, it’s natural for Obasa to feel he had become infallible. This superiority complex could be seen in his arrogant disposition towards Governor Sanwo-Olu, his deputy and several appointees of the governor. From questioning the state’s budget to condemning the style of governance in Lagos, Obasa appeared to have committed the same ‘sin’ as former governor Ambode. Incidentally, it was this same Obasa that was used to demystify and dismantle the administration of Akinwunmi Ambode.
In Lagos politics, two character traits are considered “mortal sins” – curiosity and arrogance! If you are favoured to hold any office by the “Baba Sope” political structure in Lagos, you’re expected to be blind to every other thing and slavishly loyal to the political machinery that propped you up. Any iota of curiosity or arrogance is treated as gross insubordination. Curiosity is the act of questioning things, acts, expenditures or trying to ‘pokenose’ in the running of the “Baba Sope” sharing formula in the state. This would surely earn you a sack. It happened to Akinwunmi Ambode, Musiliu Obanikoro, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, etc, and it has just happened to Hon. Mudashiru Obasa.
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Obasa’s rumoured gubernatorial ambition clearly pitched him against powerful forces in Lagos. His words, actions and inactions were therefore always interpreted as spiting the Office of the State Governor. And the fact that he was much more experienced than Sanwo-Olu in the politics of Lagos made him act in ways adjudged arrogant. To a lot of people, Obasa needed to be taught a lesson in humility. Thus, with this impeachment already signed, sealed and delivered at a time Obasa is holidaying in Atlanta USA, many other ambitious fellows within the Lagos political cycle would be forced to moderate and re-pledge their unquestioning loyalty to the “Baba Sope” political machinery!
SCRIPT CREDIT: Facebook.com / Uzogara Tobechukwu
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