LAGOS STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY CRISIS: APC ONE PARTY DICTATORSHIP IS A DANGER TO DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS AND CIVIL RULE
The resolution of the leadership crisis which rocked the Lagos State House of Assembly for seven weeks is a warning to the working class, youth and the poor masses of Lagos state of the danger that the increasingly totalitarian one-party rule of the All-Progressive Congress (APC) constitutes to civil rule. On January 13, 2025, Mudashiru Obasa and the Clerk were removed in absentia by 36 out of the 40 members who constitute the House of Assembly and replaced by his deputy, Mojisola Meranda.
Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) statement
In moving the motion for Obasa’s removal, Femi Saheed, representing Kosofe constituency, accused him of gross misconduct and highhandedness amidst other allegations including “mismanagement of funds and lack of time transparency in his management of the House of Assembly funds” (Premium Times 13 January 2025). Despite the severity of these allegations, till this day, neither President Bola Tinubu, who reportedly felt slighted and undermined by being blindsided by the Assembly members before they removed Obasa, nor the Assembly members who made the allegations against Obasa have even bothered to ask for an investigation. The ruling APC has likewise not bothered to question Obasa. Neither the EFCC or ICPC which routinely goes after every petty criminal on the streets has bothered to even invite Obasa for questioning over these allegations.
Instead, at the insistence of Tinubu, the overwhelmingly democratic decision of the members of the assembly was unashamedly thrashed as Obasa was restored as the Speaker on March 3. Indeed, before then the security agencies, including the Police and the Department of State Security (DSS), who had initially protected the decision of the 36 members of the Assembly changed track once it was clear that Tinubu was not in support of it and shifted loyalty to Obasa who had just three other members lining behind him. For instance, on February 28, Obasa with heavy security successfully invaded the House of Assembly and held a plenary of 4 lawmakers in a show of shame that is unparalleled in the recent history of the State.
Unfortunately caught up in the show of shame are three House of Assembly workers who were alleged to have assaulted officials of the DSS on February 17 2025 when DSS operatives attempted to forcefully gain entry into the House of Assembly. We hereby demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim Olanrewaju Abdulkareem, Adetu Adekunle Samsudeen, and Fatimoh Oluwatosin Adetola and the dropping of charges against them. We urge the trade unions in the state especially the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) to openly defend these workers and demand their release. They should also commence a political campaign involving protests and strikes until the workers are freed.
Indeed, workers have a right to defend their workplace in a case of invasion by alien forces. It is the officials of the DSS who should have operated with restraint and civility when they encountered civil resistance to their attempt to gain an entry into the chambers on the said date. As the DSS itself would later find out, many members of the public including journalists were genuinely confused about the objective of the DSS at the assembly on that day. Singling these workers out for punishment for a confusion created by the heated controversy over the leadership crisis in the House of Assembly is both unfair and unacceptable.
As expected for the ruling APC, the plan ab initio was to settle controversy as an internal family affair. This is because any serious probe into any allegation of financial impropriety will expose the entire APC as a party of thieves and rogues. Even the members of the Assembly who removed Obasa will not be spared as their hands are not clean. This is not the first time when cracks emerge within the totalitarian one-party rule of the APC in Lagos state that allegations of financial impropriety emerge against elected office holders but which are quickly swept under the carpet once the political interest of the powers that be had been settled.
This is why the attempt to cover this up must be rejected. The affairs of the House of Assembly are matters of public interest. To this extent, these allegations cannot be ignored or covered up. They must be investigated because it is taxpayers’ money that is involved. We therefore call for the setting up of a public probe panel, made up elected representatives of trade unions, civil society organizations, professional bodies, community and youth groups, to investigate these allegations not just against Obasa but all members of the House of Assembly as well as the executive.
For far too long, Lagos state despite its global importance as a modern city and the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria has been run as the private property of certain powerful overlords in the ruling All-Progressive Congress (APC) and who, by virtue of their political dominance, claim the right to extract rent on the state vide a variety of means. A statement made by the chairman of the unelected APC’s Governance Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos State, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, made before the reinstatement of Obasa, regarding the crisis rocking the House of Assembly is relevant here. According to him, lawmakers “have no absolute power to remove and install their leaders” (ThisDay Newspaper 3rd March 2025). So, who really have the right to elect the leaders of the elected Assembly, the godfathers? What this statement really shows is how the kingmakers in the ruling party truly see the State as an extension of their sphere of influence for self-serving interest.
Suffice to note that as a result of this one-party totalitarianism, governance in Lagos state has become an exercise in organized deception. Today, the Lagos State government is one of the least accountable and transparent state governments in Nigeria. All its activities including the state’s annual budgets are shrouded in opaqueness while the state treasury is left to the mercy of party chieftains and kingmakers who operate like mafia dons. So bad is the situation that Lagos state government does not even care to respond to freedom of information requests from journalists and civil society groups seeking information about its finances. Right now, the state government is one of the parties arguing at the Supreme Court that it is not bound by the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to further shield itself from public scrutiny.
By all means, again the manner by which the democratic wish of the vast majority of members of the assembly was brazenly discarded and Obasa reinstated because of the self-serving interest of Tinubu and a few is a warning of the danger the ruling APC represents for civil rule and why a working peoples’ political alternative is urgently needed in Lagos state nay the country. Most of the old parties, like the PDP, are not an alternative, they also loot when they have the chance. We need to build a mass political party of the working class, radical youth and poor Lagosians to end the totalitarian rule of the APC and enthrone a new government that would be committed to implement a socialist plan to utilize the vast wealth of Lagos state and stamp out looting and leaders enriching themselves, in order to begin to meet the needs of all residents.
Peluola Adewale
Organising Secretary
For Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)