Obasa’s Journey of Grace and Grind from Agege to Alausa

ADESHINA OYETAYO

The distance between Agege and Alausa is just about six kilometres. Barring the ubiquitous Lagos traffic snarls, it would take a mere 10 minutes or less to drive from one end to the other. However, in outlook, opportunities for growth, quality of life, and other socio-economic indices, the gap between the two places is as wide as the Grand Canyon.

Until a few years ago, Agege was a boisterous, gritty neighbourhood where it was easier for a young man without direction to lose his way than to succeed. Alausa, by contrast, is calm and orderly—a middle-class neighbourhood where life seems bright and beautiful. It also houses the seat of the Lagos State Government, where decisions shaping Nigeria’s economic powerhouse are made.

Thus, transitioning from the tough streets of Agege, with its self-reinforcing poverty traps and systemic barriers, to becoming a power broker in Alausa is no small feat. It takes exceptional grit, grind, and grace. That is why the story of Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, remains a testament to uncommon perseverance and purpose that will continue to inspire and resonate through the ages.

Obasa’s rise and relevance in the politics of Lagos State reads like that of the intrepid mushroom that pierces the motionlessness of earth, pushing relentlessly, through faint form, till the hour of fertility strikes. From an early age, he pounded against oblivion with defiant rhythm, immersing himself in grassroots politics in Agege, and he was entrusted with key leadership roles including, among others, serving as zonal chairman, executive committee member, and campaign committee chairman.

When the time came, the Lagos State University, LASU, law graduate contested and won election into the Agege Local Government Legislative Council as a Councillor in Ward E and went on to serve as Deputy Leader. That was between 1999 and 2003. At the end of that stewardship, Obasa contested and convincingly won his election into the Lagos State House of Assembly on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to represent Agege Constituency 1 in 2003.

His constituents have re-elected him in successive election cycles, and he is currently in his sixth term as a legislator. At the inauguration of the Eighth Legislative Assembly in 2015, Obasa was unanimously elected as the speaker; a feat he repeated at the Ninth and 10th Assemblies. By 2027, he would become arguably the longest-serving state legislator in the country and the longest-serving Speaker of the Lagos State Assembly.

And he has repaid that trust implicitly reposed in him by his constituents with the massive, mouth-watering infrastructures he has attracted to Agege that have rejuvenated the look and feel of the area, which many now fondly call Mini London. There is hardly an untarred road in the entirety of Agege, thanks to Speaker Obasa. Significantly, there is a new flyover at the hitherto chaotic Pen Cinema junction that has improved traffic management and increased the value of real estate in Agege and neighbouring communities.

Indeed, that flyover has reduced the travel time between Agege and Alausa, just like Obasa’s story has made it clear that an Agege-bred can rise to the acme of their career if they dared to dream. That is why he invests heavily in his people in the area of improved access to education, entrepreneurship, healthcare, security, and grassroots and youth empowerment, among others.

On Tuesday, November 11, Obasa turns a year older. Though not a landmark birthday worthy of any celebration, if you have walked in his shoes, survived many political landmines and outright treachery, you would understand that this particular birthday calls for the grandest celebration and thanksgiving. Indeed, he has so many reasons to be thankful.

Earlier in the year, precisely on January 19, Obasa was abruptly ‘removed’ from office by his colleagues in the House of Assembly, the same Assembly he had led over the past decade with unparalleled distinction and diplomacy.

Though he was out of the country when the purported removal was orchestrated on the floor of the House that he had orbited for the past 22years, he hurriedly returned home to reclaim his mandate. Obasa was quoted in several media reports that he was not against being removed as Speaker, which he said was not a family title, but that things should be done legally and constitutionally.

After several interventions by well-meaning elders of the party and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Obasa was reinstated on March 3, bringing an end to the most turbulent 49 days ever experienced in the assembly and, by extension, the state. A federal high court would later declare that the action of January 19 was illegal, unconstitutional, and null and void. The court also nullified the proceedings and resolutions of the Assembly held on that day. Instructively, this incident happened in the very year he celebrates his 10th anniversary as Speaker.

During a plenary sitting last June, members of the Assembly unanimously lauded Obasa’s ‘sterling leadership, legislative depth, strategic foresight, and firm protection of institutional integrity over the last decade’, concurring that it is no easy feat to serve as a speaker for this long, especially within the challenging political landscape of Lagos State.

They also variously described his tenure as progressive, prodigious, and impactful while proposing to establish a legislative institute and an annual legislative awards ceremony to commemorate the milestone. The lawmakers reckoned that Speaker Obasa deserves all the plaudits that come his way for, especially, elevating the Lagos State House of Assembly “to be the leading light and pathfinder for Nigerian and African Legislatures.”

And for his riveting contributions, achievements, and steadfast devotion to the socio-economic prosperity and progress of the state, and the welfare and developmental needs of the people, which have become a considerable part of the success story of Lagos State, no day in his life should go without being celebrated.

As friends and associates, colleagues and party faithful fall over themselves in celebration of this legislator par excellence, there is an undercurrent of posers whether the ‘Agege Boy’ will hearken to the call to transfer his legislative and political ingenuity to the Governor’s Office, Alausa, in 2027. Time, as always, will tell. For now, let the bourbon and bubbly froth over while the ‘birthday boy’ bobs and weaves in exultation for clocking another year on firma.

Adeshina Oyetayo is the Special Adviser on Research, Media, and Documentation to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Obasa