The Meranda revolution

THE NATION 

Two Mondays ago, the curtains were drawn on the political career of Hon Mudashiru Obasa. By the time of his impeachment on January 13, he was nearly two years into his third term as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, having been elected speaker first in 2015. By the time of his impeachment, too, he had no lawmaker or any godfather left in his corner. He had alienated everyone alienable: the governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), which is the highest decision-making organ of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and most portentously of all, his colleagues in the legislature. He had no friends left, and it is doubtful whether he even had any admirers left, except a few roughnecks. Hon Mojisola Meranda, who was elected speaker in his stead, was the immediate beneficiary of the legislative putsch. But it was clear she did not lead the revolt, nor had the capacity to inspire its ideological direction were such required for its success.

So, by and large, Lagos has in its hands the Meranda revolution, an opportunistic movement that capitalised audaciously on the numberless misdeeds of Hon Obasa, barely a month and some few weeks after he in turn led some sort of a second revolt against the governor. In 2023, he had got the assembly to turn down some 17 of Mr Sanwo-Olu’s 39 nominees for the state cabinet. And last November, he got his colleagues decked out melodramatically like the Cosa Nostra, as they humiliated the governor before and during the 2025 Budget presentation. At the same occasion, he embarked on a lengthy harangue of the governor and other dissenters. His cup full, and the GAC and just about everybody else livid, the powers that be kicked Hon Obasa out during his vacation in the United States (US). He will of course return, but only as a floor member of the legislature, considerably deflated and chastened. The manner of his rancorous politics and open animosity to the governor unfortunately set the stage for the colour and texture of the Meranda revolution.

Having taken the oath of office, and following the ‘gross misconduct’ of the disfavoured former speaker, Hon Meranda, the new speaker, soon embarked on visits to the power centres of Lagos, beginning with the powerful GAC, and following up with a courtesy call on Mr Sanwo-Olu. A day after the putsch, she and the assembly’s principal officers met with the GAC at the State House, Marina, ostensibly to brief them about the Obasa impeachment, and to secure their blessings. Emerging from the meeting later, she claimed to have received the needed endorsement. Last Monday, she and the principal officers finally visited the governor at the Lagos House, Ikeja, where she called for the alignment of the two arms of government, the executive and the legislature. The governor could not agree more on the need for alignment and rebalancing of the relationship of the two arms.

It was important that the Meranda revolution abandoned the legislative belligerence of the past few years under the insufferable speaker who strangely began to see both the executive arm and his colleagues as minions to be ridden roughshod over. But, surely, there are better, cleverer and more mature ways of carrying out the same mission of resetting relationships. The visits, though clearly well-intentioned, should have come a little later than they did, and should have been called in different circumstances. The party, of which the GAC and the governor are members, should have been made to call a high-powered meeting to be attended by all the relevant officials. At the meeting, pledges would have been made without any condescension or airs, and key leaders prompted to make soothing and placatory remarks after a closed-door session…