Society Gists

…As Obasa’s Man-Friday, Ogundimu Silently Eyes Deputy Speakership

…The Senator Remi Tinubu Factor

… All the Political Undercurrents Involved

What is currently transpiring in the vibrant Lagos State House of Assembly can best be described as being living much to be desired, and it can be related to what is happening in the National Assembly. Like David Mark, Dogara, at the upper echelon.

Hitherto, there had been very luminous signs that the incumbent speaker of the LSHA, Right Hon. Mudashiru Obasa may not find it an easy ride to the speakership seat come the next dispensation in the House.

The most dangling and visible signs of stiff opposition to Obasa’s plum seat are evidently coming from his deputy, Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun, who we hear has been pulling all the strings in his arsenal at his disposal to edge out his principal, Obasa.

It is ever important to dream big in life but how and when it will come to reality is the big issue, because it doesn’t come to fruition by magic but by sweat and determination. This could well be the mindset of the current Deputy Speaker and fourth-term returning member of the vibrant Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun, who represents the Lagos Island Constituency 1 in the hallowed chambers of the state.

From incontrovertible sources, we hear that the sagacious politician and tactician is quietly scheming to be the most influential and powerful lawmaker in the house come the next dispensation, going by his body language since he won his fourth term election into the LSHA weeks past.
Little wonder, Wasiu Eshinlokun, the Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, is anxiously mending his path to ultimate power aided by the blade of a sturdy benefactress, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Of course, it is a known fact that Eshinlokun became the Deputy Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly as a matter of compromise of ambition; the former Executive Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government has never hidden the fact that his ultimate ambition is to lead the State Assembly as its Speaker.

Eshinlokun has thus found a formidable and dependable ally in Senator Remi Tinubu.

Unimpeachable sources say that the coming back of the incumbent Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, may just have been effectively checkmated with Eshinlokun’s newly-found favour in the sight of Remi Tinubu, who interestingly comes from the same constituency with Eshilokun.

Meanwhile, and interestingly too, as an albatross, Obasa’s erstwhile political godfather and then frontline supporter in the House, Bayo Oshinowo, popularly known as ‘Pepe,’ is no longer in the House to throw his usual weight behind him, thus giving a seeming leeway to Eshinlokun’s inordinate ambition.

What might however be a clog in the wheel of Eshinlokun’s bid is the political imbalance his emergence might create in the state over power sharing , since the governor-elect, Babajide Sanwoolu, comes from Lagos Central senatorial district and Lagos Island Local Government where Eshinlokun incidentally is also from; thus by political arithmetic and math, it will be very unfair and inexplicable by the party hierarchy to present and endorse two principal office holders from the same axis of the state.

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Again, knowing what is already in the spanner to truncate his much-desired second return to the speakership of the House, and being now the de facto oldest member of the vibrant House, Speaker Obasa is touted to have won the collective support of majority of the returning members and has been going round lobbying the new members-elect to his side, and if things stand this way, the choice is left for the members to make Obasa on roller-coasting home to another victory over his deputy, with whom he slugged it out in 2015.

Another twist to the dramatic play in the LSHA is the coming on board of a new and impressive member of the House, Yinka Ogundimu, who is now being touted as the vice to Eshinlokun, when they are sworn in days to come, which has already caused a divide in the Agege Constituency where Obasa and Ogundimu interestingly come from.

Meanwhile, Ogundimu has debunked all stories flying that he has an eye to any leadership position in the LSHA, because he is always submissive to his Speaker, Obasa. But those in the know are bent on Ogundimu’s silent moves are close to his chest. This development is already causing cold war between the two members from the Agege Constituency.

One fact that evidently stares political stakeholders and observers in the state is that the political grandstanding and undercurrents in the state will be an interesting one to watch as it unfolds in few days to come, just as the Lagos political terrain remains a formidable one when it comes to party supremacy and wrangling which the players always find a way of finding solutions to, even if temporary.

The nagging question now is: will Eshinlokun outwit Obasa this time around? The answer is definitely hanging in the air. So, for now, Eshilokun’s ambition will continue to remain in the realm of wishful thinking and pipe dreaming.