The Task Before Obasa And The 8th Assembly

Monday, 8 June, marked a new era in the history of the legislative arm of Lagos State. It was the day the eighth session of the state House of Assembly was inaugurated by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. It was the day principal officers of the House were elected.

Mudashiru Obasa, the lawmaker representing Agege Constituency 1, emerged the preferred candidate of the All Progressives Congress, the party with the majority members in the House, as well as his colleagues became the Speaker, beating other contenders.

Just as we want to congratulate the new Speaker for attaining this lofty height, we think it is also important to draw his attention to some urgent issues to tackle. First among these is for the Speaker to immediately embark on sincere reconciliation with aggrieved members of the House who are not still comfortable with his emergence. The new Speaker has a lot of work to do in this regard.

Obasa must also learn from the mistakes of his predecessors and ensure the unity of the House. It must now be a resolution for the House to make punctuality its watchword. House sittings must no longer be held four or five hours behind the scheduled time. The last Assembly was characterised by incessant late commencement of sittings resulting in complaints and poor inputs to issues affecting the state.

There have also been cases of wives and even husbands, staff of the Assembly, who earned the anger of the spouses for returning home late while their counterparts in the ministries, agencies and parastatals would have reached home about three to six hours earlier.

The new Speaker must do all legally possible to earn some credit. These include learning on the job as fast as possible, carrying every member along, shunning vindictiveness, greed and avarice, and above all, working with the executive arm of the state government for the benefit of the state.

The eighth Assembly must be based on equality of all members, though with consideration for ranking as is the norm. The new members must be open to learn from their old colleagues so as not to fall into problems that could cost them their political careers.

For the eight Assembly to succeed, the 40 lawmakers, irrespective of party affiliations, must individually and collectively sponsor bills that would benefit the state and strive to be celebrated. It is one thing to be elected and quite another to know why he is she is elected. The present crop of lawmakers must learn not to wait for the executive arm of government for bills as it would give the impression of laziness. There must be competition for sponsorship of bills among the members.

Above all, the unity and peace of the House squarely lies on the Speaker’s ability to lead the House. Speaker Obasa must know that he could step on banana peels with every step he takes. He must therefore be careful not to fall.