Costly Mistakes Made By Former Lagos Speaker Mudasiru Obasa…How He Left Fire Under The Ashes And Travelled To US 

The famous quote from Machiavelli’s book ‘The Prince’ which says it is: ‘Better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both’ easily comes to mind when discussing Hon Mudasiru Obasa’s tenure as head of the Lagos State parliament because he was a feared leader and he was quite very powerful.

After leaving local government councillorship position to become a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Obasa had become a force to reckon with and he won a sixth term in March 2023.

Hon  Mudashiru Obasa , who won a sixth term in March 2023, had on June 6,2023, gotten elected as Speaker for the third time.

 He had not only retained his Agege 1 parliament seat but had also remained the head of the state legislature until Monday, January 13, 2025.

Hon Mojisola Meranda was elected as new Speaker on Monday.

 Hon Mudasiru Obasa never for once served as a member of House committee but rather as chairman of ‘juicy’ committees, he actually left as chairman of Finance and Appropriation committee to become the Speaker in 2015.

He knows how to use power and positions to earn respect and get his fair share of the national cake, but that was not all, he also used his influence to attract developments to his community while ‘empowering’ the people around him.

A party leader recalled how Obasa used his position to ensure that the Agege Pen cinema flyover  project was made a priority disclosing that the then Governor Akinwumi Ambode had delivered his budget speech at the parliament chamber and during a tete -a -tete , Obasa had told him point blank that the Pen Cinema flyover project must be included to ensure easy passage of the budget and he got the go-ahead from the former governor to ‘pad’ the budget.

That was the ‘powerful’ Obasa! He was influential and feared by politicians in the state because he is believed to have ‘juju’.

The former Speaker was said to have attracted a lot of developments to Agege axis of the state and also had his loyalists compensated with appointments and patronages.

Obasa’s brother is currently serving as Supervisory Councilor in Ifako Ijaye local government while the secretary of the local government is his ‘boy’. The brother in question had gotten assurance that he will be the next Secretary while the current Secretary will become the next chairman of the local government.

‘He did not stay at the Speaker’s Lodge; the former Speaker ensures that he returns to his Agege residence every night and he was also very powerful and influential in the estate where he lives and that was why he was allowed to bury his father there contrary to the rules that such a thing is not allowed in estates’ said a source.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Hon Obasa had at different times survived impeachment attempts and those behind it had a ‘sob story’ to tell and this had made the lawmakers feared him in order not to get ‘punished’ by the powerful Speaker.

The lawmakers had been left to grumble for years now but dared not do anything about it and the rumblings of annoyance were made to end at their respective homes because they are aware that he deals with ‘political enemies’ with all his might.

He used ‘absolute power’ and reportedly intimidated almost all his colleagues.

Those who attempted to impeach him in the last dispensation including Bisi Yusuf, Wahab Jimoh and Moshood Oshun were dealt with and he also ensured that almost all of them did not get renomination in 2023.

2027 Lagos State Gubernatorial Election

Among those who are getting set to join the 2027 Lagos State gubernatorial race is President Bola Tinubu’s  Chief of Staff, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila who has not only held firmly to his Surelere constituency but also made an inroad into Obasa’s territory in December last year .

He built a hostel for students at the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Training Center, Morkaz, Agege and Obasa did not know about this until the Chief of Staff inaugurated the project during the yuletide which he found shocking.

Although media reports had sought to link Obasa’s impeachment with the 2027 gubernatorial race, there were actually some developments that had made his removal imminent and unavoidable while those who may have seen this as an opportunity to clip his wings simply amplified his mistakes.

It all started a few months ago when Obasa mooted the idea of having elections held to produce leaders only in the 20 local governments that are officially recognized by the federal government while those of the Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) will be appointed.

Obasa had cited the need to comply with the recent Supreme Court ruling on Local government autonomy, but many had seen this as an attempt to ensure that he controls the heads of the LCDAs while the governor controls the LG chairmen.

Obasa also recently revived the  Mandate Group, a powerful political group that was promoted by the likes of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in those days and he made himself the new leader.

Sources told Team@orientactualmags.com that he had done this to tackle the Deputy Governor, Mr Obafemi Hazmat, who is the leader of the Justice Forum, an equally old  political group in the state.

An incident that laid the foundation of his troubles happened in December last year when Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu came to the House of Assembly complex for the 2025 budget speech. The governor and members of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) were reportedly kept waiting for hours, Sanwo-Olu had to leave for an urgent appointment and returned to the Parliament Chamber but still made to wait until Obasa’ s arrival.

The former Speaker had given an excuse that he had just arrived from Sierra Leone that day explaining that his flight was delayed.

The GAC leaders weren’t satisfied with his excuse and to worsen matters, he made controversial comments during the budget presentation ceremony that made him land in trouble, Obasa  had while reacting to rumours of his guber bid asserted that he is not only qualified but better qualified than those who had been governors in the state.

While he may have made a veiled reference to Sanwo-Olu, a national Newspaper did interpretative journalism and in its FrontPage had a headline that quoted Obasa as saying that he is qualified than Tinubu, Fashola, Ambode.

President Bola Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007.

Stakeholders in the state APC had considered this as an affront against the governor and they invited Obasa to a meeting to caution him but rather than showing remorse, he was reportedly busy giving excuses for his actions.

‘The GAC members later took a decision to report him to Tinubu, who is the national leader of the party, and they had subsequently sought an audience with the president during his visit to Lagos last month.

Obasa had shortly before the 2023 general election gotten co-opted as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council and he attended the meeting.

The GAC members took turns to make complaints about Obasa and described him as a time bomb getting ready to explode while they also raised allegations against him.

The former Speaker though sought to make some explanations, but the president was very angry with him and openly lambasted him. Obasa knew there was fire on the mountain and sent people to beg the president, but this was not easy because those he would have sent are the party elders who are members of the Governor’s Advisory Council -the complainants’ said a source.

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It was gathered that the last straw that broke the camel’s back came about four days later when Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu hosted all the 40 lawmakers to a dinner at the Government House, Marina and complained that he was not happy that he wasn’t having an ‘excellent’ relationship with members of the legislative arm of government despite his efforts to make them his ‘friend’ since becoming the Chief Executive of the state in 2019.

He pointedly asked what ‘they want him to do to build a good relationship with them’ since he has ‘reached’ out to them on several occasions and they had continued to treat him as an ‘enemy’.

The lawmakers were said to have openly commented that they got no ‘message’ from the governor at any point in time and Sanwo-Olu reportedly asked one of his aides to bring the list containing what he had sent to them as ‘largesse’ which apparently did not get to desired destination.

The infuriated and angry lawmakers were said to have there and then made up their minds that ‘Obasa must go’.

 However, rather than staying back at home to beg the party leaders and the aggrieved lawmakers, Obasa’ opted to kick the can down the road and left for the United States of America last weekend.

The house had adjourned sine die after passing the budget on January 6 , 2025, and nothing will happen until he returns to the country ,Obasa must have reasoned but he has been proved wrong.

Those who masterminded his impeachment began collection of signatures before he left the country but kept it close to their chest, his absence gave birth to a period of heightened activity and after getting more than 20 signatures, the lawmakers took a decision to hold an emergency session, and they got more signatures on Monday.

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The lawmakers subsequently held a plenary session and had Obasa impeached.

The Clerk, Olalekan Onafeko , who wasn’t ready to support the idea of convening the house, was also removed. The lawmakers got an acting Clerk appointed who subsequently ordered the Sergeant -at -arms to bring the Mace and they carried out the impeachment.

While it was practically impossible for Obasa to make it to the country before getting impeached even if he flies a private jet, arrangements were reportedly made for Plan B as anti- corruption agents were around to pick him up.

Sources also told Team@orientactualmags.com that Obasa may be arrested on arrival in the country unless he gets in touch with people in high places -Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you