17th April, 2015
Eromosele Ebhomele
With barely two months to the end of the seventh session of the Lagos State House of Assembly, some lawmakers and their supporters have begun intense lobbying for the position of the Speaker of the House in the eighth session that commences in June.
The position is currently occupied by Adeyemi Ikuforiji, who contested the Lagos State governorship primary last year under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, but lost.
Currently, three names have been thrown up as leading lawmakers for the position majorly from the alleged zoning of the seat to the Lagos Central Senatorial District of the state.
According to insiders at the House of Assembly, the current Chairman of the House Committee on Local Government Administration and Chieftaincy Affairs, Moshood Oshun, the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Education, Gbolahan Yishawu, and the immediate past Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government council, Wasiu Sanni-Eshilokun, are being considered for the position.
Also in the reckoning is former Deputy Speaker of the House, Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, said to be backed by some godfathers in the APC for the position.
Prior to the recent governorship and House of Assembly elections in the country, those eyeing the position had also included the House Deputy Speaker, Taiwo Kolawole, the Chief Whip, Abdulrazaq Balogun, and the Deputy Whip, Rotimi Abiru.
Though, Mudashiru Obasa, one of the oldest members of the House and Chairman of the House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget, had denied involvement in the race stressing that his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, would decide at the right time, it was learnt that he had been encouraged by some leaders in his constituency to pursue the position.
With the general election over, the political calculations have changed. All the principal officers, except Rotimi Abiru, would not be returning to the House.
Moreover, with the Governor-elect, Akinwunmi Ambode, from the Lagos East, the Deputy Governor-elect, Dr. Oluranti Adebule, from the Lagos West, the Lagos Central zone is now naturally positioned for the seat of the Speaker. But the party’s leaders will definitely have the final say and as such any of the four contenders have equal chance of clinching the exalted seat.
“Yes, there is intense lobbying for the seat. Though we do not yet understand the direction of our party yet, we are sure that for justice to prevail and for all the zones to be adequately represented, the Lagos Central zone should produce the Speaker,” one of the lawmakers, who won in the recent election to represent his constituency for a second term, told P.M.NEWS on Friday.
It was learnt that Eshilokun-Sanni, a lawmaker who served between 1999 and 2003 before holding other elective positions, had begun the lobby for the seat even before the election that brought him back to the House in 2015 to represent Lagos Island Constituency 1.
He is, however, still slugging it out with the current occupier of the seat, Hakeem Masha, who has appealed the judgement of a Federal High Court in Lagos which ruled that Eshilokun is qualified to vie for the state House of Assembly.
Yishawu, a first term lawmaker, who has been re-elected to represent Eti-Osa Constituency 2 at the House, has been one of the most successful among the first-term lawmakers in the House as he currently has a law passed, the Anti-Smoking Law, to his credit. He is also seen as one of the most brilliant members of the House.
Oshun, the lawmaker representing Lagos Mainland Constituency 2 at the House, is the oldest sitting lawmaker among the trio as he would be serving a third term beginning from June.
Prior to the current tenure, Oshun served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, and is believed to have contributed to the success recorded in the sector.
As Chairman, House Committee on Local Government, his colleagues say his tenure had been the most successful, putting the council chairmen on their toes and ensuring that they executed major projects throughout the three years they remained in office.
“Oshun is one person who knows how to handle others. He does not joke with issues relating to members of his committee and would always handle every task before him as if it is the last he would handle.
“He would make a good head of the Assembly because as one of the oldest in the House currently, he understands the workings of the Assembly, the needs of the state and that of his colleagues,” a member of the Committee on Local Government Administration, told P.M.NEWS.
Some lawmakers, however, argued that the issue of zoning should be jettisoned as the eighth Assembly would not be made of only APC members as it is currently.
To this group, the House needs a competent and very mature member to handle the affairs of the House since there would be eight members on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.