POWER MONGER: Muda is much in a haste. He wouldn’t wait for the pounded yam to be ready. He hurriedly began to munch his yam hot, hot, with palm oil and a sprinkling of pepper and salt.
I can almost here my former colleague muttering to himself: “Muda ti je iyan e n’isu.”
Translated: “Muda wouldn’t wait for the pounded yam to be ready. He chose to eat yam in place of pounded yam.”
He forgot that in Yoruba lore, mere yam is commoners’ chow often eaten around bonfires. Pounded yam on the other hand, is the king’s delicacy. The yam pounding ritual itself is done with an especial pubescent fervour by sweating, half-clad, damsels. As they pound the yam to malleable consistency, they allow a few trickles of sweat to escape into it. They pound and pound until the off white paste is soft as the underbelly of the king’s new wife.
This process takes a bit of time. And the ideal soup for this king’s meal is efo riro, the vegetable soup not unlike a dense, swampy forest. The real efo riro is probably the most nutritious soup known to man. It boasts of over a dozen assorted proteins including, panla, ede-nla, bokoto, shaki, abodi, shawa, or’sha kekere, eja osangbigbe, pomo, omo-onile, eja-aro kika, etc. The soup is so dense and impregnable with protein, it hardly has any sauce.
So pounded yam is worth every minute you have to wait for it. And at that, it is eaten so very slowly and with deliberate relish.
All of this background fable is just to explain the how and howtofor that led to the ouster of the most powerful state House of Assembly Speaker in Nigeria, the Lagos Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa.
He was removed like a miserable flea under the skin of a favourite pet. He had celebrated Christmas and new year with the usual pomp of the moneyed. He even travelled abroad on official assignment without an inkling of what daggers loomed in the dark for him.
Monday , 13th January was Mudashiru Obasa’s Golgotha. His colleagues in the legislative chamber by mere denunciation, axed him.
Though the process may not be flawed (you only need a good majority to remove a Speaker), it is outright indecent. But as we say in Igbo, he who his father sent on a rogue mission kicks down the door with gusto.
But of course, the Lagos Assembly members, not unlike any other person or group running the Lagos system, are marionettes running errands for the little Deity that dwelleth in Bourdillon.
That is why the whole horde of them would rise as one overnight and kick out a Speaker of 12 years running. A Speaker they never installed in the first place.
Never had a House Speaker been removed so ignominiously and in absentia; without a list of charges against him; without a panel to look at his offences and without an opportunity to defend himself.
Even if the law required that you don’t have to prove any misconduct, for the sake of democracy and good sense, there was a need to show the people that it was an elected legislature at work and not a coven of wizards.
As you read this, the public doesn’t know why Obasa has been so brutishly chucked. These people could well have murdered Muda right there on the floor of the Lagos Assembly not unlike what Brutus and Cassius did to Julius Caeser right there on the floor of the Roman Senate.
Come to think of it, it is the same offence. They accused Caeser of becoming too powerful, tending into a monarchy. The conspirators claimed to be liberators seeking to maintain Rome’s democratic order. But the cold-blooded murder of Caeser evoked a series of civil unrest that eventually led to the fall of the Roman empire. But the situation seems reversed here. Muda seems to seek to stop a Tinubu ‘monarchy’ in Lagos.
But all we hear is that Muda was rude to the governor of Lagos State. He kept him waiting, blah, blah. And that he disrespected some nebulous elders known as Governor’s Advisory Council, GAC.
Of course this is a pretext. There’s more to Obasa’s cut down than they want to admit.
SEYI TINUBU FOR GOVERNOR 2027: It is nigh common knowledge that what is playing out already in the super-rich city state of Lagos is a succession feud. The 2027 guber election is less than two years away. The stakes are high, permutations are already fever-pitched. Gladiators are numerous and strategists are feverishly at work.
But only one man has the ace in this matter and that’s Bola Tinubu, the Deity of Bourdillon, now ensconced in Aso Rock.
But the uncanny twist in the tale is that Seyi, Tinubu’s heir also wants to be governor of Lagos. He has been testing the waters with his running dogs and barrchanal foot soldiers chanting his name in the streets.
The hard kick in Muda’s butt is a strong signal to any upstart eying the Lagos power seat.
For instance, Muda forgot he is a political butterfly who began to imagine himself a bird. A hawk at that. He forgot the son of whom he was.
He has been favoured for too long, he forgot he was merely enjoying Tinubu’s noblesse oblige. Muda rose through the ranks in the Tinubu political firmament. He was a grassroots mobilizer, an euphemism for a foot soldier.
Apparently finding favour (or he was an effective enforcer), he became a Councillor at an early age, then a state House member in 2007 where he has remained till January 13th. He was on his 3rd term as Speaker.
A man with an unstructured educational trajectory, he seems to be of the Oshodi garage political school. He has the demeanour and carriage of an artesanal welder (not discounting the craft). No noble soundbites can be extracted from him for about 12 years of Speakership of the State of Excellence. Well, except his threat after the elections of 2023 to review land documents in Lagos and make life miserable fir Ndigbo.
But such is the nature of Team Tinubu in Lagos. Statesmen and intellectuals are not wanted. Only enforcers who can hold down the cow to be milked, are needed.
Remember, men like Babatunde Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode never had joy as Lagos governors because they had minds of their own. They weren’t robo-governors.
They weren’t like the incumbent who’s operated from a console in Bourdillon. He wouldn’t step off the loop, not even to poop, without a default buzz on the monitor.
SEYI AS JEB BUSH?: This is the kind of vice-grip Tinubu has on Lagos. Now as president, Seyi is already the next governor of Lagos, unless Tinubu is imbued with much good sense and decorum. But he is not. He is a bloody-minded power monger. His cheerleaders will be quick to dredge the Jeb example to steady his nerves should he seem to waiver.
John Ellis “JEB” Bush, is the son of President George H W Bush (1989-2003). Jeb became governor of Florida (1999-2007) and his senior brother, George W Bush also made president of the United States of America (2001-2009). Therefore, the huge Bush political dynasty in the US would make a veritable lodestar for Seyi accolades. If it could happen recently in America that a father made president, his first son made president and second son made state governor, why not in Nigeria?
NO TO SEYI TINUBU AS GOVERNOR: Yet, EXPRESSO votes a “NO” to Seyi Tinubu as Lagos State governor. It would be a political error and a huge detraction if Tinubu and Tinubu are running in the 2027 general elections. It will be inchoate, perverse, obscene, obtuse, corrupt, disgusting, discomfitting, disingenuous, unsightly, irrational, unreasonable, coarse, undignified, graceless, inelegant, bogus, shameless, tacky, immoral, amoral, debased, inappropriate, inordinate, warped, deviant, degenerate, twisted, ungodly, warped, wrong-headed, (add yours) all of these and more.
Note that in the long list of synonyms, there’s no mention of illegality. Yes, it is not illegal or unconstitutional for him to run but it’s a wrong thing to do. A Seyi candidacy may well unravel if not end Tinubu’s legacy in Lagos.
A CROWD OF GUBER CONTESTANTS: Lagos is not short of great minds to lead her. Here’s a short list of people eying the coveted job: Obafemi Hamzat, Hakeem Muri Okunola, Akinwunmi Ambode, Femi Gbajabiamila, Tokunboh Abiru, Abike Dabiri and even Muda Obasa, among others.
One day, when the knives are all out, EXPRESSO would review the capacities and capabilities of the contestants. But off the cuff, current deputy governor, Hamzat is a cut above the rest. But it’s story for another day.
Let’s close with another Yoruba wisdom: “ Ibi pelebe ni ati n mu ole je.”
Meaning: “ The leaf-wrapped bean cake is relished without haste.” Or put roughly, you don’t eat your moi-moi carelessly. You eat it deliberately starting from the flat, tapered ends.
LESSON: Mudashiru Obasa didn’t learn the virtues of patience and strategy. He jumped the gun and he was hit before he got started. Would Tinubu tighten his choke-hold on Lagos or would he allow Lagos to breathe for a change?
Let’s sit back for a great political drama in the Lagos amphitheatre.
•Feedback: steve.osuji@gmail.com
▪︎Osuji was editor at The Guardian, THISDAY, and NewAge newspapers. He was also Editorial Board member at The Nation.
▪︎OSUJISTEVE/24.01.2025
