Obasa: Will Tinubu knock Olusi, other old allies?

LAST Wednesday, embattling Lagos Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa secured a judicial win in his quest to legitimize his re-coronation as the state’s third citizen after the earlier banishment by his colleagues. A Lagos court held his dethronement unlawfully routed, though tongues are wagging that there are maggots in the mix. Yoruba always caution that underneath the glamorous is the grime but it can’t be denied that ascendancy mojo has reverted back to the strongman of Agege politics whether the judgement was lawful or a sleight. You can call him the comeback guy. The judicial victory, being ridiculed as a quid pro quo, allegedly manufactured by his lifelong political god, has no doubt pumped more adrenaline into the political solution that returned him in the first place. Just like it would be uncharitable to still refer to a certain governor as Supreme Court-made after he won his re-election, those viewing Obasa’s return as a “hand of god” Maradonic goal can now rest. The judgement would have restored him to office anyway even if he had been kept out thus far and it should be clear now to anyone having political issues with Aso Rock anointed that it is suicidal heeding all-parties-should-withdraw-suit sanctimony by the president. First Rivers, now, Lagos. Those who heeded the president’s so-called political solution advisement to judicially deescalate in their confrontation with those beloved and bejeweled by Aso Rock are now chewing their index finger in regret, discovering very late that the preachment is a trap, to judicially hold the hand of one party in the conflict, to give the other, a crucial edge.

Yoruba will knock such an elder as agba ti o to’le (elderly mischief-maker). Aside the unflattering character classification, God Himself lists mischief in Proverbs 6:16-19 as one of the six things He hates: “These six things doth the Lord hates; yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies and he that sows discord among brethren.”

Is there any of these vices that is not a defining feature of the political class? Do we conclude then that politicians by their ways, are deliberately queuing in God’s hatred column or they are simply abominations to Him, judging by the above scripture? If they fit into above classification, then how can enemies of God get it right with leadership even if being serviced by the devil? If devil is their master, how can we expect them to deliver good? Proverbs 29:2 points out that the people will only rejoice when the righteous are in authority, adding “but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn”.

Nigerians can bear witness to this truth. Everyone can hear the wailing in the land. But Jesus encouraged that with time, unceasing wailing will force the hand of the wicked to do that which is right, using a widow’s parable in Luke 18:1-5; “ In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

Yoruba will preach persistence with “as long as one got lice, there will always be blood on the fingernails” from squashing the invaders.

In Lagos APC, there is a situation Yoruba will capture with ara o ro okun ara o ro adiye (both the rope and the hen on it are discomfited). I have snooped around multiple operatives of the party and it’s clear the president would have to go for broke to not experience repeat humiliation in his base. It is on record that in modern era of Nigerian politics, he is the third candidate of a major political party to lose his backyard to an opponent in a presidential contest, coming after now-late Bashir Tofa of now-defunct National Republican Convention who lost his Kano base to equally-late M.K.O Abiola of Social Democratic Party and Olusegun Obasanjo of PDP in 1999 who lost his Ogun base to Olu Falae of APP/AD. And the incumbent is supposed to be a better political tactician than the losing duo before him. Even to Obasanjo’s credit, he took South West by storm in his successful re-election effort and stormed to a decisive victory in Ogun.

But the decorated political strategist in Villa may not get the landslide being projected by his orbit in Lagos in the 2027 poll and his failure to land the state this time in the win column may eventually be down to how he is reportedly conducting the post-mortem of the legislative coup that almost swept Obasa away, which the president reportedly uncharacteristically sweated to quell.

An establishment insider told me that the president wasn’t really out to save Obasa but moved in all his presidential and political arsenal to force a status quo that forced Obasa’s replacement out, the moment he smelled what appeared to be the governor’s hand in the Obasa coup, despite the revelation that deep inside his Aso Rock villa and around him, were the original masterminds of what was planned to be a coup de grace, though those singing the ma jo lo mo nwo eyin e (we back you all the way) for the revolting lawmakers, reportedly backed out and withdrew their support when the president reportedly became bullishly enraged over the alleged Sanwoolu sponsorship.

From that point Muda reportedly became the whip for the president to lacerate alleged “betrayers” within the ruling fold. Apart from the governor who is allegedly a pariah in Villa and Bourdillion, other senior members of the ruling clique, especially those on the nebulous Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), suspected to be anti-Muda are now said to be targets of the viper-venom of the president. The anger is that they allegedly promoted alajobi (ethnic clannishness), since most of them are Lagos homers, above party ideals where the leader, in this case the president, should be supreme. Truth is, influential Lagos indigenes tried to own the Lasbat Meranda battle for the time it lasted, to have her hang on as the speaker and it would not be out of place for the GAC old men who are indigenous Eko to be sympathetic to her cause. A classic case of it’s our turn, let our own do it (omo wa ni e je o se). They were coming from somewhere before they became political associates of the president and Yoruba will say whoever throws kinship away, hangs the bag of sufferings. It’s an encouragement to stay connected to the root because of unexpected storms. Now, it seems storms are here for Eko old men.

Muiz Banire, also an indigene, recently lambasted them as do-nothing elders in his exonerative piece on the role of Chiefs Bisi Akande and Segun Osoba in the assembly crisis. He specifically queried if they were under hypnosis when the political solution that recoronated Obasa was being worked out. I’m yet to read any disavowment of his claims. For always being quick to allegedly embrace indigene/settler dichotomy when there is a political dispute in the ruling establishment, insiders told me the powers-that-be have resolved to put the old men “where they belong”, starting with the titular head of the GAC, Chief Tajudeen Olusi.

If Villa knocks him, it won’t be the first time. During Fashola’s re-election debacle, he was hammered by today’s president as then-apex leader. Then there was rapprochement, leading to him joining Chief Akande in the infamous plea visit to then-President Buhari to spare Lagos APC party exco when it became obvious the then-Adams Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee (NWC) was going to be history. The Akande team was on Tinubu’s errand but Buhari still chose a nationwide dissolution though then-VP Yemi Osinbajo came through for his former boss, by pleading with Buhari to retain the dissolved state excos in acting capacity. That was the move that partially sustained Tinubu/Oshiomhole’s hold on the state chapters. That was June 2020 which was a pandemic shocker for Tinubu.

Now, the Obasa saga is splitting the ruling gang again. Long time allies are losing mutual confidence. Olusi’s main sin was said to his refusal to take sides in the crisis and the Obasa camp is allegedly presenting his abstention as refusing to stand where the president is standing on the matter. While the old man was preaching oneness and reconciliation in the assembly, his critics said he was sitting on the fence when he was supposed to be standing on the Mandate.

The clearest indication of what is to come was the botched meeting the elders were duly invited to, which their host, the President stayed away from without offering the old men any reason. It was common knowledge that the President had the France trip before the ongoing one, while his old buddies, were left wondering in Abuja. They quietly returned to Lagos.

Now the sticks are reportedly coming…and the leader is now Nigeria’s all-powerful President.

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