The Trial Of Brother Bola

By

Felix Oboagwina

Right Honourable Mudashiru Obasa, without doubt, made some fatal miscalculation over the earthquake that torpedoed him out of the seat of Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. But the question on the lips of millions of Lagosians now is whether his godfather and indeed the godfather of Lagos politics, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would sacrifice his own democratic credentials for this drowning politician. 

Rather late, Obasa discovered that he was only a butterfly thinking itself a bird –a featherweight kept in place by grace. When he went on that trip to the US in December, the Speaker “vamoosed” the mace of the hallowed assembly. Apparently, he smelled the whiff of a brewing coup. To knock the wind out of the sail of the plotters, Obasa left with the mace. The 52-year-old Lagos Boy, who had been in the House since 2007 and became Speaker since 2015, knew how these things worked. No mace. No sitting. 

But his undeterred adversaries proved smarter. Where there is a will there is a way. They found a spare mace. More importantly, they had the number. A whole 36 of the 40 members in the House voted for his impeachment. Obasa could only muster three supporters. Officially, the accusations levelled against him included charges of fraud, thuggery and corruption. He allegedly claimed to spend N17 billion erecting a single gate at the assembly complex, inter alia.

Now here comes the Bola part. The President described the impeachment of Obasa as a “coup.” Apparently, Baba Seyi doesn’t like the fact that such an upheaval broke out in his home base and home constituency without his say-so. Tinubu feels insulted. More so, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was in the know. In fact, had Sanwo-Olu not been on his last leg as Governor, his second term would have been jeopardised in this drama because he too has an axe to grind with the reportedly power-drunk and swollen-headed Obasa. Members of the Government Advisory Council, a gathering of 30 wise men steering the affairs of Lagos State from behind the scene, are also tired of the Speaker. Yes, their rank is divided. But most GAC leaders want him out. They are fed up with his headiness, pomposity and ungovernableness. Reports from their representatives in the House indicated he was a closet tyrant ruled the House with an iron fist. A man who had spent 28 years in the House would need superhuman discipline to keep his humility. This one lacked both virtues.

However, there is the Miranda part too. Can Tinubu forgive the direct beneficiary of that so-called “coup?” Hon. Mojisola Lasbat Miranda emerging Speaker was purely coincidental. She was Obasa’s Deputy Speaker. She merely inherited the shoes vacated by her principal. It could have been anyone else. Being beneficiary of the coup is her only baggage in the eyes of Tinubu. Let us turn a blind eye to other considerations for now. 

However, Miranda comes with plenty values. She will be the first female Speaker. Fourth Republic Lagos has seen four Deputy Governors but never a Madam Speaker. Even more inviting is her pedigree. Representing Apapa since 2015 when she first stepped foot to legislate in the House, Miranda is a bonafide, purebred and indigenous Lagosian. Indigenes view her as their own very first full-blooded Lagosian on the seat. But will all Miranda’s firsts matter to a smarting Tinubu?

Majority of GAC members and party chieftains and traditional rulers are asking Jagaban to let the poor girl breathe and remain on the post. But the body language of the President shows unwillingness to stomach this “rebellion” in his backyard. That in no way indicates his being overly fond of Obasa. No. He could sacrifice the braggart. But if the Emperor allows the beneficiary of this rebellion to stay, not minding that it is a popular rebellion, what next would he have to stomach? 

Bola and his handlers have forgotten that the foreign media have their klieg lights beamed on the Lagos stage –BBC, CNN, VOA, Reuters, AFP. Even more than Abuja the administrative capital, Lagos as commercial capital commands supersonic media exposure. The vultures of news, views and opinions will televise and dismember the very innards of this episodic Lagos revolution. What about foreign diplomats? Everyone waits with baited breath to see whether Bola will pass this test of democracy.

With regard to ECOWAS, Bola underperformed. Under his leadership, the sub-regional association lies splintered into smithereens for the first time since its creation in 1975. Why? The current ECOWAS Chairman adopted the Emperor approach and meddled in the affairs of a sovereign nation. Ironically, failure began with him threatening in 2023 to attack Niger Republic to force military coup plotters there to reinstate democracy under overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum. Pressures, especially from Nigeria’s North, bound Tinubu’s hand from the attack he vowed. But he led ECOWAS to impose sanctions, including cutting Nigerian energy exports to Niger that had depended 90 percent on his country for power. In November coup-led military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger left ECOWAS and formed the Alliance of Sahel States.

Tinubu would have shed blood to restore democracy in Niger, now he appears to be shedding the blood of democracy in his home state. But for those who know him, this is no surprise. This is vintage Bola. Since finishing his tenure as Lagos Governor (1999 to 2027), he wears the reputation of suffocating democracy. He handpicks who becomes what, from Governor, to Legislator, to Local Government Chairman, to Councillor. Bola, who kicked against Baba so pe (orders from the godfather) syndrome under General Ibrahim Babangida’s Newbreed arrangement in the 1990s, has since 2007 metamorphosed and transmogrified into the Baba to nso pe (the godfather who issues orders from above). 

The man who nearly shed blood to restore democracy internationally in another country is domestically riding roughshod over democracy in his own home space. The irony! 

Wole Soyinka wrote “The Trials of Brother Jero” in 1960. The drama is a satire by the Nigerian Nobel Laureate, basically, exploring the themes of religious hypocrisy and social exploitation. Although the unfolding drama of the impeached Lagos Speaker depicts the dramatis personae battling political hypocrisy, the whole plot really, really revolves around the trial of one man, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This is the “Trial of Brother Bola.” How he resolves the Obasa versus 37 Lagos Assembly legislators will be the ultimate trial of godfather Bola’s democratic credentials. 

When the chips go down, everyone wants to see if the godfather can uphold the democracy he lays claims to championing. Will the godfather of Lagos politics uphold the minority and subsume the majority? That is the real trial for Brother Bola.

OBOAGWINA IS A JOURNALIST AND HE LIVES IN LAGOS