By Olanrewaju Adesanya
The Speaker of Lagos State House Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa has stated that no amount of attempts to intimidate or threaten the state legislature can change its constitutional decision on the 17 rejected nominees of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Obasa who presided over the Monday plenary of the House made public the privileged information he got about an alleged plan by some group of people to attack the Speaker and the House based on the rejected nominees.
He hinted further that the lawmaker’s decision was faulted by the said group on the premise that politicians have been placed ahead of technocrats, in giving clearance to 22 out of the 39 list of nominees forwarded by Governor Sanwo-Olu.
Obasa gave a trajectory of how far he and the governor have come, adding unequivocally that they are still brothers and no rancour whatsoever but pure performance of constitutional roles assigned to the legislature.
“We’ve been around together for long, when he became the Governor, I became the speaker in the last four years and I am still the Speaker here, we have been working together and I wonder why any time they say no to the request of the Governor it became something else.
“That is when the so claimed enlightened concludes that we are fighting the Governor. The house came up with so many resolutions which the executive did not carry out. Nobody has notice that, nobody has said anything about that.
“So, I don’t know what informed the erroneous believe that the house is fighting the governor.
We must get this right that we have our own constitutional responsibility and have exercise the responsibility by clearing some and denying some and we have our own reasons for saying no, which I believe people making inputs left and right do not have the privilege.
“They don’t know. Saying we are placing politics ahead of technocrats! What technocrat? What do you mean about technocrat, who is not a technocrat in this hallowed chamber?
“They talked about Dr. Akin Abayomi a gentleman who happens to be a colleague also in serving the people but before him we had Leke Pitan, Dr. Jide Idris and many of them, before COVID which happens to be an isolated case we had Ebola which was also taken care of under Fashola, it is not about qualification, experience or exposure, we are the representative of the people.
“The mouth piece, the ears and sight of the people, so we know what we look for, you may have this and that degree, it may not be enough, we are given responsibility by the constitution and we have done what we believed was the best.
“They talked about Aramide the Commissioner for Works but before her we did Ikoyi, Victoria Island Link Bridge under Fashola when the now Deputy Governor Dr Obafemi Hamzat was the Commissioner for Works.
“Hon Ganiyu Johnson was also Commissioner for Works he did so many tremendous things, when Asiwaju was Governor, we did so many great things, so you should not make allusion to what you don’t understand.
“They talked about the Commissioner for information Gbenga Omotosho citing his experience and exposure, what happened to LTV 8?
“Have they taken the time to investigate and leave some things they are not in position to understand.
“We must understand what political party is all about. It is about a group of people who aspire to gain power, so we gain the power since 1999 and we have to sustain it. We must protect our party, we’ve had technocrats in the past and this would come and go but we will remain.
“So, I am trying to protect my party and I would continue to do that but we are not going to sacrifice service to our people in the name of technocrats, no.
“If anybody is interested to know why we have taken such decisions they should approach the house. The house as a body restrained itself from exposing what is discovered during the screening exercise and we would not be forced to spill it.
“We just need to caution those using their pen for the people that are paying them to write whatever they write; we are not going to be threatened or intimidated, the civil society organizations can as well protest it is their constitutional right, but we won’t be intimidated, we have said no and it remain so.
“If there is any reason for us to reverse our decision, if there is a germane and convincing reason, I think we will but not by threat. We are politicians if not for us the technocrats won’t be appointed it was due to our success that they got appointed and to our own estimation if they had not done well I think we have right to say no and we have said no.
“We are not going to be threatened but it is good to advice -a man living in a glass house not to throw stone, if not the glass may soon be shattered.”
