Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu, one of the top contender for the lagos speakership
Assembly and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone may have fallen for the plot, davnop.blogspot.com has learnt.
The plot is being hatched by a combined team of lawmakers contending for the topmost seat of the House from the Lagos West Senatorial zone of the state.
Realising the difficulty in actualising their ambitions to lead the House in the eighth session that commences in June especially as the zone already produced the Deputy Governor-elect for the state, the grand plot was to get the Lagos Central to produce one of the least qualified lawmakers from the zone for the position.
The aim of this plot, according to findings by our correspondent, would be to later create the impression that the candidate produced by the Lagos Central, which is most qualified to produce the Speaker, is not experienced enough to lead the House.
This would then make the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as well as the party, to shift their search for the Speaker to other zones.
The plot seems to have been successfully hatched with some leaders of the party in the zone now considering Gbolahan Yishawu, one of those whose colleagues consider over-ambitious and inexperienced.
Yishawu had earlier stepped down from the race at a meeting of the lawmakers held last Thursday within the Assembly Complex. With two other lawmakers, one from the Central zone, Yishawu said he was stepping down for the most ranking member from the zone, Moshood Oshun, who is also in the race.
Before last week, over eight lawmakers jostled for the position. These include Moshood Oshun, the most ranking member from the Lagos Central zone, Yishawu and Kazeem Alimi from same Central zone.
Others are Sanai Agunbiade and Rotimi Abiru from the Lagos East zone; Adefunmilayo Tejuosho, Mudasiru Obasa, Dayo Fafunmi and Lanre Ogunyemi from Lagos West.
A day after the meeting where the Yishawu, Agunbiade and Alimi stepped down for Oshun, the leaders of the Central zone also endorsed Oshun as the sole candidate from the zone for the position.
However, Obasa and a senior member of the House, according to information made available to Naij.com, do not seem comfortable with the decision.
A source who is not happy with the intrigues at the House, told our correspondent that the outgoing principal officer, who was hitherto the longest serving lawmaker of the House before his defeat at the recent election, is in an agreement with Obasa to become a consultant to the House with Obasa being the Speaker.
“You know this principal officer. I do not need to mention his name, but he is scheming with Obasa to become a consultant and he knows that if Obasa does not emerge, his own scheme is defeated,” the source, an outgoing lawmaker, told Naij.com.
“Therefore, they then met with Yishawu and asked him to renew his ambition and do everything to emerge the candidate of the Lagos Central zone. He was also financially induced.
“I can tell you that Yishawu went round leaders of the Central zone at the weekend inducing a lot of them to rescind their decision on the most ranking member of the zone.
“I’m telling you this because I am not happy with this scheming. I won’t be at the next Assembly but I am not comfortable with the kind of politics being played currently just because of the position of the Speaker.
“The speakership position, from the calculation, is going to elude the Central zone.
“What they have planned is with the Central adopting Yishawu, they are sure of easing him out with the excuse that he lacks the experience to lead the House,” he said.
The source further confirmed that a meeting of lawmakers and leaders from the Central zone held at a hotel in the Festac area of Lagos State on Monday where the idea of Yishawu becoming the candidate of the zone was muted.
Though details of the meeting are still scarce at the time of this report, it was learnt that some at the meeting opposed the idea of swapping in favour of Yishawu as it would put the zone in a disadvantage.
Yishawu is a first term lawmaker who would be returning to the House for a second term in June. He started underground moves for the position of the Speaker even before the general elections resulting in the wide-held opinion by members that he is over-ambitious and desperate.
Many lawmakers have constantly expressed reservations to his ambition arguing that he lacks legislative experience.
Yishawu confirmed recently that he does not have much experience, but maintained that he does not need the experience to be Speaker.
“I don’t think being the Speaker of the House should be based on legislative experience; it is something that everybody would have. It has to do with your human management, your administrative ability, and your leadership quality. The lawmakers make the law, we are all lawmakers, and we handle the bills that make up the law.
“The Speaker of the House doesn’t even get involved in law making process. It is the members who scrutinize the laws, the Speaker is the moderator and at the end of the day, he scrutinizes what they said and moderates, when they vote.
“I don’t think the legislative knowledge is of importance in choosing the Speaker. What are more important are those things I have said earlier like human management and human relations,” Yishawu said in an interview with journalists.
In a related development, a former Lagos State Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni has refuted claims that he has lost touch with events in the Assembly.
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