‘Sins’ that cost Lagos speaker his seat

Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa had his eyes on the governorship seat of Lagos when his colleagues booted him out of office on Monday. Reports on Obasa’s interest in the coveted seat were discarded as mere rumour in some quarters, but the message became clearer after the Archbishop of Methodist Church Nigeria (Lagos), Most Rev. Isaac Ayo […]

Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa had his eyes on the governorship seat of Lagos when his colleagues booted him out of office on Monday.

Reports on Obasa’s interest in the coveted seat were discarded as mere rumour in some quarters, but the message became clearer after the Archbishop of Methodist Church Nigeria (Lagos), Most Rev. Isaac Ayo Olawuyi, indirectly drummed up support for the three-term speaker during the Lagos House of Assembly’s 22nd Annual Thanksgiving Service.

At the event which the former Speaker attended, Olawuyi had said in the interest of religious tolerance, Lagosians should elect a Muslim as governor in 2027.

“I also want to add that we have consideration for religious inclination in Lagos State. It would be 12 years in 2027 that we have been in the system together and we have been having Christians as governors. Now, it’s time to give our Muslim brothers a chance to govern us in Lagos State. We want to pray that when it’s time for the election, it would be a time for us to elect who will govern us in Lagos State effectively,” the Archbishop had said.

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He went further to praise the former Speaker for his leadership and collaboration with the other arms of government, saying these have kept the state strong.

“You have been a true and sensitive leader with a big heart. You have proved yourself worthy. We pray that God will continue to use you to make us smile in Lagos and also grant you your heart desires,” he said.

After that event, the campaign for Obasa regained momentum while the former Speaker carried on with glee. However, he was impeached on Monday, about a month after that endorsement. For a man who lasted that long in a slippery political environment, how did such fate befall him? How did his adversaries get him?

According to reports, Obasa’s travail began after the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), the highest decision-making body of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos reported him to President Bola Tinubu.

Putting it mildly, a chieftain of the ruling party who spoke off the record said, “The seemingly insurmountable walls around him started crumbling during the End-of-The Year break. His fate was sealed after our elders visited the president. That meeting nailed his political coffin.”

During the visit, insiders said top on the agenda of the GAC was the cold war between Obasa and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Although Sanwo-Olu and Obasa have had a running battle, the matter came to a head during the 2025 budget presentation.

Obasa stoked controversy when he declared that he was not too young or lacked experience to run for Lagos governor.

He had said, “I am not too young or lacking experience to run. Those who have been before me are not better off… I have made it a personal task to mobilize people on the platform of Mandate, which some political detractors have misconstrued as being a selfish aspiration on the ground for me to become governor of the state.”

Making such remark on live TV and right in the presence of Sanwo-Olu had drawn the ire of the party leadership in the state and they waited for a ripe time to tender their grievances before their leader.

The chairman of GAC, Alhaji Tajudeen Olusi, was said to have started the discussion by reminding the president of how highly the governor’s office was when he governed between 1999 and 2007.

He reportedly told the president how disrespectful Obasa had been to Sanwo-Olu, citing several instances. Tinubu was said to have openly lashed the former speaker for not just disrespecting the governor but also the GAC and party elders.

Since that moment, the forces against Obasa restrategised and his colleagues who had collectively at random got him into the record books as one of the longest speakers in the country, finally turned the page on his enviable political career.

Below are some of the controversies of the politician who was elected into the hallowed chamber while serving as councillor in Agege local government area of the state.

Move to scrap LCDAs

One of the issues which sparked controversy under Obasa was the move by the House under his leadership to abolish the 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) created when Tinubu was governor.

After the Supreme Court granted autonomy to the 774 local governments in Nigeria, the Lagos House introduced a bill to scrap the LCDAs and replace them with newly designated administrative areas.

The bill titled “Bill for a law to provide for the local governments’ system, establishment, and administration, and to consolidate all laws on local government administration”, sought to recognise 20 LGAs in the state as outlined in the 1999 constitution.

Kicking against it, Sunday Ojelabi, Chairman of APC in Lagos, had said, “Our position as a progressive party is that we cannot discountenance the contributions of the LCDAs to the overall political and socio-economic development of the state.

“Our landscape is dotted by several infrastructural projects by the LCDAs which include road, drainage and market construction, school and housing projects, primary education and health facilities and various social service interventions etc. The various collaborative efforts with the state government on refuse disposal, drain clearing and security are also pointers to their continuous relevance.”

Rejecting Sanwo-Olu’s commissioners

In 2023, Obasa was involved in another controversy over the row between him and Sanwo-Olu on the confirmation of commissioners. The House under his leadership allegedly refused to clear close to half (17) of the 39 commissioner nominees recommended by the governor.

Among those rejected were six persons who served in the cabinet of Sanwo-Olu during his first term. The noise from that drama reverberated across the country warranting the GAC to meet with both parties in search for a truce.

While reacting to the criticisms that trailed the decision of the House, Obasa had said there is no fight between the lawmakers and the governor adding that “but we have constitutional rights to say yes or no to his nominees”.

The statement was seen as a daring one to the leaders of the party in the state and overbearing on his alleged political ambition.

‘Operating multiple accounts’

In a series of investigative pieces in 2020, Whistleblowing platform, SaharaReporters said it traced multiple accounts to the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of the former speaker. According to the platform, the accounts registered with various names were being used to siphon public funds.

“At least 64 bank accounts have been discovered to be linked to Obasa registered with various names allegedly used to siphon public funds in Lagos. The BVN reveals that Obasa operates accounts with multiple names in Polaris Bank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa, First City Monument Bank and Wema Bank.

“To conceal his identity, the Speaker changed his name and date of birth in some of the accounts. Aside from using Ajayi Mudashiru Obasa, he also used Obasa Abdulrahman Gbadunola and Gabriel Adedoyin Savage to register some of the bank accounts. Some of the companies linked to the BVN include Adesav International Ventures, Fabric Splash Ventures, Swifthi international ventures and Quick Solution International.

“Others are Quick solution International Ventures, White Honey Enterprises, Cream on Ice Services, A.B DELCO Nigeria Company, and Fabric Splash Ventures, Skye-Macosh Company, Swifthill International Ventures, Silver Section Global, Davedab Global Ventures and Jose-Macosh Company and De Kingrun,” the report read.

Whilst the smoke from that controversy was yet to settle, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him for questioning, but he denied the allegations, blaming them on his political opponents.

N17bn Obasagate

A group, the Lagos State Anti-Corruption Coalition, had alleged that the Assembly under Obasa’s leadership allocated N17 billion for the construction of a gate and called for an investigation into the matter.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the anti-corruption group petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the House leadership for awarding the gate contract.

Addressing the allegations during a plenary session, Obasa attributed the claims to political fears surrounding the 2027 elections, which remain over two years away.

“It is so funny. How much is the allocation of the Assembly in the whole year that we will decide to spend N17 billion on a gate? They even claimed that we expended 200 million on thanksgiving that did not hold.

“We are aware that at a period like this, when we are approaching elections in 2027, we should expect such things. I think some people are scared, and I don’t know why.

“This House did not and has not embarked on any such project. We are not that reckless. We had our thanksgiving last Friday, and dignitaries from various parts of the state attended it,” Obasa had said.