Politics
Tinubu, Lagos lawmakers at war over impeachment of Speaker Obasa
The removal of the embattled lawmaker, Mudasiru Obasa, as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, has created cracks in President Bola Tinubu’s dynasty.
There are indications that President Bola Tinubu’s decades-long political dynasty in Lagos is experiencing its first major crisis following the intrigues surrounding the removal of the embattled lawmaker, Mudasiru Obasa, as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Obasa’s removal and the support given to the lawmakers by many Governance Advisory Council members without consulting Tinubu signal an unexpected political move within the All Progressives Congress, a party where the President remains the state and national leader.
Previously, it was widely believed that the President approved Obasa’s removal before the state lawmakers took action.
However, sources close to Tinubu and familiar with Lagos APC politics revealed that the President was not consulted before the lawmakers took the decision.
According to the sources, the President was embarrassed that such a significant political move was executed without his knowledge and was puzzled why many GAC members would support the decision.
Obasa was removed as Speaker on January 13 by 36 lawmakers over allegations of misconduct, abuse of office, and financial mismanagement.
The Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, was immediately sworn in as the new Speaker, while the Chief Whip, Mojeed Fatai, was elected as the new Deputy Speaker.
Obasa, who had been Speaker since 2015 and represents Agege Constituency I, insisted upon his return to Lagos from the United States that he remained the speaker.
His removal has since divided the GAC caucus and the APC in Lagos.
To assert his authority, President Tinubu, according to sources, directed GAC members to persuade Lagos lawmakers to reinstate Obasa and allow him to resign.
The GAC members held a marathon meeting on Monday at the Governor’s Lodge in Marina, Lagos, where they conveyed the President’s directive to the lawmakers.
However, despite apologising to Tinubu at the meeting and reaffirming their loyalty to the President, the lawmakers reportedly insisted that Obasa would not be reinstated.
Of the 39 lawmakers present at the meeting, 37 voted against Obasa’s reinstatement.
It was gathered that the members agreed to write a letter of apology to the President explaining why Obasa could not be reinstated.
A viral video on social media showed some APC members dancing and singing praises of the new Lagos Assembly Speaker, urging her to continue her speakership.
According to sources, six GAC members chosen across the three senatorial districts of the state travelled to Abuja on Wednesday to deliver the lawmakers’ letter to Tinubu.
However, for undisclosed reasons, they were unable to meet with the President.
Providing insight into the crisis, a prominent APC chieftain with knowledge of the ongoing intrigues described the development as a major political challenge for Tinubu.
According to the source, the Lagos progressive family would never remain the same due to the political machinations.
He explained that the crisis was driven by three major political factors: the 2027 governorship election, the rivalry between the Justice Forum and Mandate caucuses within the APC, and the ambitions of Lagos indigenes to dominate the state’s political structure.
Obasa belonged to the Mandate group, while many of the lawmakers and GAC members were affiliated with the Justice Forum.
The APC chieftain stated that many GAC members, particularly Lagos indigenes, initiated Obasa’s removal to stifle his governorship ambition.
He also noted that the power struggle between the Mandate group and the Justice Forum over the control of the party’s structure ahead of the 2027 elections played a significant role in Obasa’s ouster.
“The President is not happy that the lawmakers and the GAC acted in this manner. He feels betrayed. You know the level of control he has in Lagos. Nobody wields absolute power without other forces supporting them, especially in Lagos politics. For them to have taken such action without his blessing, it amounts to disloyalty and a betrayal of trust.
“The situation now is a test of wills—who will blink first? The President has insisted that they comply with his directive to reinstate Obasa, but they have not done so. It is almost as if they are challenging Tinubu’s authority in Lagos.
“This is an unusual development. Even before Tinubu became President, he maintained control over the state. Now, they are dealing with someone who has always emerged victorious in political battles. Even when he faced challenges in the primaries and the presidential election, he still prevailed. This crisis is a significant test for him,” the source said.
The APC chieftain confirmed that the GAC members who travelled to Abuja were denied an audience with the President.
“Those who went to Abuja were not granted audience. If anyone claims otherwise, they are merely playing politics.
“After this, the APC and the progressive structure in Lagos may change permanently. What happened is unprecedented. This crisis has created distrust. Political betrayal of this magnitude cannot be overlooked. It necessitates a strategic realignment to prevent a recurrence. If you are betrayed once, you might gain public sympathy. But if it happens again, it becomes a liability,” the source said.
Speaking on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s role in the crisis, the APC chieftain declared, “The governor is playing the devil’s advocate. Some say he is the major financier of this entire situation and is the one ensuring that the President’s directive is not followed.”
Sanwo-Olu had earlier distanced himself from Obasa’s removal, describing it as strictly a legislative affair devoid of political interference from the state government.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media & Publicity, Gboyega Akosile, in an interview with The PUNCH, said, “It is purely a legislative matter, and the Assembly handled it the best way they could. It has nothing to do with the governor.”
But the source reiterated that the current political crisis was part of the permutations ahead of the 2027 governorship election.
He said, “It is a matter of getting a stumbling block out of the way. It is a game where the end justifies the means.
“The politics of 2027 has begun. Perhaps uncharacteristically, the speaker (Obasa) showed his hand too early, making himself a target for attack and destruction. After that infamous budget speech, Obasa became an easy target for those with similar ambitions.
“He gave them the opportunity to work against him, brainwashing members of the House about issues they were already aware of. They played it tough, making it seem as though the Speaker had been exploiting them.”
However, a top politician in the Lagos West senatorial district, who spoke with Sunday PUNCH on condition of anonymity, dismissed the claim that Obasa was removed due to indigenous factors.
According to the aspirant, the lawmakers removed Obasa because he was hampering their political and social well-being.
He argued that if the former speaker had maintained good relations with his colleagues, he would have been aware of the plot to remove him.
“What happened is a crisis within the legislature; it has nothing to do with being an indigene or not, nor with the 2027 governorship election. The fact that 36 out of 40 lawmakers orchestrated Obasa’s removal without him knowing in advance speaks volumes. It confirms reports that he did not have a good relationship with the lawmakers,” he said.
Speaking on the reported directive from the President to reinstate Obasa as Speaker, the APC aspirant warned that such a move would backfire and have devastating consequences for the party in future elections.
He said, “Removing the new Speaker will cause more crises for the party. Besides, how do we confirm that the President even gave such a directive? It could be a case of name-dropping. Assuming the directive is real, implementing it would be difficult because it would be seen as an attack on the indigenes.
“The new Speaker and her deputy are both Lagos indigenes. She is already receiving strong support from feminists and other female-led groups. Removing her would have a ripple effect on the party.”
Commenting on the crisis, a chieftain of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, said the matter wouldn’t go out of hand, saying ‘the bubble will not burst.’
He expressed his confidence in the ability of the GAC to manage the crisis, maintaining that there was no cause for alarm.
Igbokwe, said, “Lagos is Lagos and when the chips are down, everybody comes to the table and addresses the matter. Lagos has come a long way in matters of democracy and how to handle things like this. There are strong elders among the GAC members who will sit down, look into the matter, and try to resolve whatever it is.
“GAC is one body that I respect in Lagos; the bubble will not burst. There is no cause for alarm. Given my experience in Lagos politics, in which I have worked for almost 20 years, members of the GAC are committed and strong-willed. They have wisdom and understanding; they know when to go and when to stop, so there is no cause for worry.
“There is nothing GAC cannot manage; the current issue will not get out of hand. No man can change the system of Lagos, and one man cannot cause division in GAC. It is a kind of collective responsibility, and they are always united in anything they do.”
A chieftain of the APC, Fouad Oki, had on Wednesday cautioned the party leadership against prolonging the crisis, warning that doing so would be dangerous.
He urged GAC members to respect the independence of the House of Assembly and acknowledge the broad support the new Speaker, Meranda, had received from various sections of society.
Oki said, “This bold statement reflects a desire for progress and reform. It is imperative that we, as leaders of the APC, do not dismiss the voices of the people. Ignoring this sentiment could lead to political dangers that may jeopardise our party’s standing and unity.
“I urge you to consider the implications of prolonging this discord. Let us not allow our internal disagreements to overshadow the greater goal of serving the people of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole.”
Source: PUNCH
By Okey Maduforo Awka
The former member that represented Anambra East and West Federal Constituency Chief Chinedu Obidigwe has denied a social media handle where he was said to have made Prof Charles Soludo the Governor of Anambra state.
Obidigwe further stated that the report did neither emanate from him or from his Media Aides urging the party not to believe what he called attempt at setting a negative agenda in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Obidigwe who is an Aspirant of the party for the Anambra East and West Federal Constituency accused enemies of the party being sponsored by opposition parties to creat problems .
According to the Media Assistant to Obidigwe Mr Dominic Okagbue in a statement;
“The attention of Hon. Chinedu Benjamin Obidigwe has been drawn to misleading and unfounded claims/propaganda being circulated on various social media platforms through a pseudo account, alleging that Obidigwe said he installed the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, as Governor in 2021”
“We wish to state, without any iota of equivocation, that such a statement never emanated from Hon. Chinedu Obidigwe. It is a desperate move by his political enemies who are bent on tarnishing his image as a tool and technique to advance their unmerited aspirations”
“Obidigwe, in 2021, was merely an electorate with just one vote. Even though he voted for the Governor and APGA, the question remains: can one man’s vote make a Governor?”
“Governor Soludo was elected and made Governor through the collective votes of Ndi Anambra, both in his first and second terms. We therefore call on the reading public to disregard such rumours and treat them as faceless and unfounded allegations geared towards the character assassination of an innocent man” he said.
A former Kano State Governor and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says northern political leaders conducted a deliberate assessment of potential allies before settling on Peter Obi as the most capable partner to prosecute the 2027 presidential campaign.
He dismissed concerns about a hidden power struggle between his camp and Obi’s.Politics
Kwankwaso made the disclosure in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, offering one of his most detailed accounts yet of how the North-Southeast political alliance within the NDC was formed.
“I looked around together with our leadership in the north to say, okay, who do we think is capable? Who can come and work together with us honestly so that we can move this country? Along the line, we realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it. That’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
Kwankwaso, a two-term former governor of Kano State and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in 2023, leads the Kwankwasiyya movement, a grassroots political force with deep loyalty across Kano and parts of northern Nigeria.Nigeria travel guide
He left the NNPP amid internal disputes before joining the NDC alongside Obi earlier this month.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, ran on the Labour Party platform in 2023 and drew massive youth-driven support across the South and urban centres, though he did not win.
Both men formally joined the NDC on Sunday, May 3, defecting from the crisis-hit African Democratic Congress.Politics
At the party’s national convention on Saturday in Abuja, Kwankwaso backed the NDC’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, describing it as a step toward fairness, healing and national cohesion.
Responding to a question about whether the alliance concealed a quiet rivalry between both camps, Kwankwaso argued that friction between principals and their deputies was a product of greed, not structural tension.
“The problem people are having, especially leaders, is that they are too greedy to the extent that they begin to have issues. There is so much to do. You don’t have to fight your deputy,” he said.
He said his record as a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and later as governor of Kano State, showed that political partnerships could hold under pressure.
“I had an opportunity to work with my speaker and we worked very well. I was in Kano for eight years despite the difficulty of my then deputy governor. We were able to work for eight years amicably to the extent that I handed over to him,” he said.
Kwankwaso extended the argument beyond his personal experience, saying the same principle applied at the federal level.
In the Senate and other places, in the NDDC, we worked amicably with people. There is so much to be done and that’s why you have even ministers, other executives, advisors and so on. I don’t see from my experiences of the past why deputies or vice would fight with the president or governor,” he said.
He grounded the alliance in Nigerian political history, tracing a lineage of productive North-Southeast partnerships from the first republic to the present.Nigeria travel guide
“Right from the beginning, this sort of alliance has been in existence. Now we are going back to what Tafawa Balewa did during their time,” he said.
He also referenced the collaboration between former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and leaders of the NCNC, as well as that of former President Shehu Shagari and his vice president, Alex Ekwueme, in the second republic.
“So also in the second republic, immediately after the war, our leaders, Shagari and others, worked very closely with the southeast, with Alex Ekwueme as his vice president. They are our friends. We want to work together with them,” he said.Politics
Kwankwaso also noted that subsequent administrations had shifted power-sharing away from the South-East, a pattern he suggested the current alliance was correcting.
“There was a change during the third republic where for many obvious reasons an election was annulled and the government under the military decided to bring in Shonekan from the South-West.
Even after that, the military and other leaders worked together and brought in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West again. Even Bola Tinubu probably is a beneficiary of all that,” he said.
He was emphatic that the choice of Obi was not driven by regional sentiment alone.
“It wasn’t just because we are going to the South-West just because of the South-West. No. We realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it and that’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
The movement of both men into the NDC has triggered a wave of defections, with senators, House of Representatives members and political blocs aligned with their former coalition gravitating toward the new party, rapidly reshaping calculations ahead of the 2027 elections.
The alliance pairs Kwankwaso’s northern grassroots structure and disciplined voter mobilisation with Obi’s national youth engagement and urban electoral momentum, positioning the NDC as one of the main opposition platforms set to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027
Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has dismissed suggestions that his exit from the African Democratic Congress has created a damaging split in the opposition.
He said he and Atiku Abubakar may yet work together before the 2027 general election.
Kwankwaso spoke in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, responding to concerns that his move to the Nigeria Democratic Congress alongside Peter Obi had effectively divided the opposition into two competing blocs ahead of the polls.
“Now, we may still work together before the election. I personally, and I think even Obi himself, decided to leave ADC not because we are fighting with Atiku or anybody there. We decided to leave that party because we realised that there are some issues,” he said
He said the ADC was contending with three major unresolved problems that he believed would make it difficult for the party to field candidates, without specifying what those issues were.
“Whether they will be able to field candidates in that party or not is just a matter of time. It’s not like we had a primary election,” he said
The remarks come after Atiku recently claimed on Arise TV that Kwankwaso’s popularity was confined to Kano State and further divided there by Governor Abba Yusuf.
Atiku, who is seeking the presidency on the ADC platform, also described himself as the most popular politician of northern extraction, saying none of his contemporaries, including Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai, commanded a voter base across the North as wide as his.
Kwankwaso did not engage the slight directly, but made clear he bore no grudge.
“Politics is just like a game. I’m not fighting anybody and I’m not expecting anybody to fight me. I have no issue with that. I think we are past that level now,” he said.
He challenged those predicting a vote split in Kano to wait for the election result before drawing conclusions.
“Let’s wait for the election and see whether votes are split in Kano or not,” he said.
Kwankwaso also acknowledged a history of working with Atiku, recalling that he served as the former vice president’s northern coordinator during the 2019 presidential election.
“There was an election in 2019 in Port Harcourt. He won the election. I was his coordinator for the north. We worked for him,” he said.
He traced his broader relationship with Atiku to the 2015 APC presidential primary in Lagos, where he placed second behind Muhammadu Buhari, with Atiku third.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
The Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expelled 30 members of the party for instituting legal actions against the party.
The affected members include some aspirants for the National Assembly, and their expulsion may disqualify them from participating in the party’s primary elections.
Disclosing this shortly after the meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party, the State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Sir Valentine Iyiegbu, told reporters that the decision was in line with Section 21, Subsection 5 of the party’s constitution.
“The party discussed those who took the party to court, and many of them are contesting for the House of Representatives tickets of the party,” he said.
“The matter comes up tomorrow, and the SEC stated that what the party constitution stipulates would be followed, which is outright expulsion from the party under Article 21, Subsection 5.”
“The SEC actually ratified their expulsion because they did not exhaust all the internal avenues provided by the party to resolve their grievances,” he added.
Iyiegbu noted that the only reprieve available to the expelled members would be for them to withdraw their court cases.
“It is only when the matters are withdrawn from the court that the party can consider listening to them,” he said.
Speaking on the party’s primary elections, he explained:
“In the case of those contesting for the tickets of the Federal House of Representatives, all the eleven positions have aspirants, while for the Senate, the three positions are also being contested. The screening committees were here to perform their duties,” he noted.
The party also ratified the appointment of a five-man Primary Elections Committee headed by Sir Izuchukwu Okeke, the State Organising Secretary of the party.
By PETRUS OBI
Frontline aspirant for the Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency seat, Anayo Onwuegbu, has successfully completed the screening exercise conducted by the All Progressives Congress House of Representatives screening panel in Abuja ahead of the party primaries scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026.
Speaking after the exercise, Onwuegbu expressed satisfaction with the screening process, describing it as a reflection of the party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and credible leadership selection ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The aspirant, who is seeking to represent Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency under the platform of the APC, stated that he remains focused and prepared to continue to offer quality representation to the people of the constituency.
According to him, “The process once again highlights our party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and the emergence of credible leadership as we prepare for the 2027 general elections.”
He reaffirmed his dedication to the development of the constituency, pledging to serve the people with commitment and purpose if elected.
The APC House of Representatives primaries are expected to hold nationwide on Friday as aspirants battle for the party’s tickets ahead of the 2027 elections.
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