Beyond Resolving the Lagos Assembly Crisis

A recent resolution notwithstanding, the last has not been heard of the Lagos House of Assembly drama. Shola Oyeyipo writes.

The proverbial brave hunter, who is so skilled and adept at hunting elephants with his magical cap, the Yoruba say, enjoys only a fleeting moment of glory of not more than 24 hours.

A corollary to this is another wise Yoruba saying, which infers that whenever the mud figurine is about to suffer intrepid humiliation, it asks to be taken to the river for a bath.

Aside from his development initiatives and evident record of stellar performance, not many people knew about the political weight that the late former governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, boasted and threw around in his days.

Nicknamed “Ase”, meaning the authority, those who knew him and worked closely with him would contend that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s seemingly suffocating leadership in Lagos, as controversial as it may seem, would still pass as a child’s play, compared to when Ase was still the issue in the politics of Lagos State.

His words were not only law. Nobody dared to challenge him whenever he handed his orders. Short of calling him a dictator, he gave no room for a collegiate approach to his leadership style and did not entertain dissenting views.

Citing an example of his choking authority and leadership to support these claims, a short yet interesting story was once shared by an insider about the late Alhaji Jakande.

According to the anecdote, an ally of Baba Kekere as the late first elected governor of the state was then called, had gone to see the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to report Ase to him. Apparently, the fellow, a friend of Ase, had requested something, which Alhaji Jakande had reportedly looked away from, more so as a core party chief.

So, he went to see the former Premier of the old Western Region to express his disappointment.

Looking at him, Awolowo was said to have told the fellow that, “the man you came to report has also refused to honour a request from me, and I’ve decided to let him be.”

Stunned, the man said aloud: “But you put him there.” Awolowo did not let him land when he retorted: “The same way I put Akintola there.”

Clearly, at this time, after the battle with the late Chief Ladoke Akintola and the cost to his political capital, Awolowo had an introspection over his political engagements, going forward.

He had come to the conclusion that since political offices are public trust, the moment one was able to help any individual get into an office, the most honourable thing to do is to step back and allow them do their job without let or hinderance.

The same almighty Ase was later retired by the now President Bola Tinubu, when he joined forces with Chief Dapo Sarumi’s PRIMROSE group, to run for Senate in 1992 from Jakande’s base in Lagos West, and by extension, seized the leadership and control from him, especially knowing the place of Alimosho in the political equation of Lagos West and the state in general.

Is there any wonder, therefore, that Tinubu has never acknowledged Alhaji Jakande as an outstanding administrator in Lagos, the type the state has yet to replicate or reproduce in whatever form or shape?

It would be suicidal for a man with such humongous political ego to do so. After all, it was he who ended Jakande’s leadership and hold on the politics of Lagos.

By the way and for the record, Sarumi’s PRIMROSE had nothing to do with the “European plant of woodland andhedgerows, which produces pale yellow flowers in the early spring,” according to the Oxford definition. It meant: “People Resolve Irrevocably to Maximise Resources Of State for Excellence (PRIMROSE).

Perhaps, with all that God has done for Tinubu and in spite of his incredibly provoking inadequacies, his weakness is that he does not know when to stop or where to draw the line. The much-expected self-regulating mechanism is missing, and therefore, his tendency to continue to grow in his obvious God complex is not surprising, either.

His concern over the removal of the Lagos State House for Assembly Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, might seem genuine and founded. But if at the level he is now and with all that God had done for him, he never envisaged that a day would come when his leadership – as territorial and conquering as it appears – would someday face stiff resistance, then he might have been overrated after all.

Tinubu is at a juncture in his life and career, where managing tendencies and staying above the fray other than issuing orders and manipulating people remain his only enduring strategy. The loyalty he currently enjoys is not inelastic, especially since it is mostly economically induced. There’s always an expiry date.

Thus, he would do well with face-saving measures and strategies rather than testing the patience of the people and thinking he could always “shush” them. If he lets the rubber snap, the only remedy is a replacement.

The optics from the drama that recently engulfed the Lagos State House of Assembly was not a pleasant one, albeit the matter is being gradually subdued, notwithstanding the impression of a resolution that is being created.

The notion had long been established that the Lagos assembly has never been independent and had always taken orders from Bourdillon. But, such a brazen decimation of a critical institution, even now from Abuja, is quite disturbing.

If Nigeria’s democracy is going to be reversed after 26 years of unbroken efforts at keeping it, President Tinubu should do everything humanly possible to avoid being labelled as being responsible.

He should not be seen as constituting threat to democracy. After all, he is quick to tell stories of how he fought for democracy from the trenches. His constant bullying of an otherwise independent arm of government at the state level does nothing but discredits his democratic credentials.

To consider the removal of an errant speaker, who was merely first among equals by his colleagues, a coup against him, was taking this whole thing too personally and too far.

To think President Tinubu had all the time and opportunity in the world to intervene in the assembly situation and quell whatever crisis that was simmering at the time, presupposes he, too, took things for granted. Besides, he never really created access for feedback from his Lagos base.

As bad as it may seem, the deed had been done, and everyone had moved on. But the somewhat presidential meddlesomeness, hinged on personal ego of being blindsided in a such a major decision, when he could have owned the process, is unbefitting of the credentials of a supposed democrat, and demeans the ethos of this government in all respects.

Whether or not the president likes it, the damage had been done, and this would tell on the outcome of the next elections in the state and country. The fact that the Lagos lawmakers could brush aside supposed presidential orders and stand their grounds on the speakership debacle until lately is a takeaway the president must not discountenance.

When young men who adored him and would die for him, asked that their opinion must count in a matter that was essentially theirs, it would not be asking for too much. However, to push them to the point that they refused to yield but stood their grounds smacked of trouble in paradise.

No matter how huge the political leverage of the president is, he cannot be everywhere at the same time during elections and so, these lawmakers are supposed to be some of those expected to do the leg-walk for the coming elections. Thus, managing them is as important to the election of the state as much as, his own election as the president.

Results from the 2023 presidential election in Lagos State were a timely warning of what to expect in 2027, if lessons were not taken from that experience and amendments made.

This was at a time when the APC House was one and in order, in the state. But with the house divided and some of the tendencies already disappointed, 2027 is expected to toss up a different ball game.

The subtle attempt to encourage group politics in the Lagos APC and cause a devastating division between the Mandate Group and the Justice Forum, despite a presidential order in December to dissolve all groups, is sure to hurt the standing of the party in Lagos.

Except the president is prepared to continue to gallivant like the proverbial brave hunter and suffer a fleeting glory or set himself up for failure like the proverbial mud figurine, it’s about time his approach to the politics of Lagos, and the 2027 general election changed.

Reenacting the same old approach is no longer effective, especially that what lays ahead comes off like what would consume, even the wise, if he fails to embrace a timely counsel.