Lagos House Of Assembly: Nobody Can Whittle Down Tinubu’s Influence

Lagos State House of AssemblyMembers of the Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday declared that nobody can whittle down the political power and influence of a former Governor of the State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The lawmakers made this point yesterday at plenary when Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Tunde Braimoh, drummed up support for Tinubu in the wake of the recent rift between him and the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

Recent developments in the polity had led to speculations that there is a conspiracy to clip the ex-Lagos governor’s wings ahead of the 2019 polls. The silence on the part of the Presidency also fueled suspicion in some quarters that those behind the plot to cut down Tinubu to size, might be acting a script by forces in the corridors of power.

Lending credence to this school of thought, Braimoh and his colleagues yesterday questioned the Presidency’s “silence” over the development, especially given the “years of sacrifice and financial commitments” Tinubu gave to the emergence of APC.

The House of Assembly noted that an insult to the personality of Tinubu was synonymous to insulting the entire Yoruba race, especially given the leadership role he (Tinubu) has played in the unification of the Yoruba nation.

“The situation does not speak well for the internal democracy of our party and efforts must be made by stakeholders to arrive at a quick resolution.

“To achieve this, we call on the party’s leadership to call the executives to order with a view to ensuring that adequate respect and honour is given to party leaders, including Asiwaju Tinubu”, Braimoh said.

The Deputy Majority Leader, Muyiwa Jimoh, noted that the “ongoing fight is not just against Tinubu, but against vision and posterity”.

He added that “Asiwaju Tinubu is too big a personality for anybody to toy with”.

Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, argued that rather than be seen as apathetic to the development, President Muhammadu Buhari should play the role of a father and unite everybody.

“The signal coming from the presidency is not good enough. Appointments have been made without Tinubu’s knowledge and major decisions have been made without adequate consideration given for his view and opinion. We believe this is not good enough and it is a sign of disrespect for a personality like Tinubu, whose contributions to the consummation of APC in Nigeria can never be brushed aside”, Obasa said.