The Lagos State House of Assembly, under the firm leadership of Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, once again lived up to its constitutional responsibility on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, when it raised concerns over the worrying practice of political appointees assuming office without legislative confirmation.

To discerning minds, this was no political storm. It was not a rift, neither was it a quarrel between the Executive and the Legislature.

It was, in fact, the Lagos State Legislature performing its core duty under the Nigerian Constitution. Yet, to the surprise of many citizens, some online bloggers hurriedly framed the development with sensational captions such as “Political Storms Rage Again in Lagos State” or “Obasa Sets for Another Showdown with Sanwo-Olu.”

Such misleading framing does more harm than good. It distracts citizens from the essence of governance and creates an illusion of conflict where none exists. Worse still, it undermines the confidence of the people in their democratic institutions by peddling half-truths.

The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is unequivocal on the requirement for legislative confirmation at the State level:

Section 192(2): “Any appointment to the office of Commissioner of the Government of a State shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the House of Assembly of the State, be made by the Governor of that State.”

Section 196(2): “The Governor shall appoint the Secretary to the Government of the State, Head of the Civil Service of the State, and Commissioners with the confirmation of the House of Assembly of the State.”

Section 126(2): “The Auditor-General for a State shall be appointed by the Governor of the State on the recommendation of the State Civil Service Commission, subject to confirmation by the House of Assembly of the State.”

Section 4(7): further empowers a State House of Assembly to make laws for the peace, order, and good governance of the State.

Section 128(2)(b): authorizes the House to “expose corruption, inefficiency, or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence.”

Therefore, when the Lagos State House of Assembly insists that appointees must appear before it for confirmation, it is not engaging in political grandstanding. It is simply upholding the Constitution and safeguarding accountability.

So, one must ask:

Why should political meanings be hastily read into every resolution of the Lagos State House of Assembly whenever it discharges its lawful duties?

Why do certain online media outlets thrive on creating unnecessary friction between the Executive and Legislature; two arms of government that are, in fact, partners in governance under the doctrine of separation of powers?

Should the pursuit of online traffic and sensational headlines come at the expense of truth, clarity, and democratic education?

It is reckless and irresponsible journalism to reduce constitutional duties to mere political theatrics. When that happens, the media ceases to inform and instead begins to mislead, thereby weakening the public’s trust in institutions that exist to protect them.

It is no secret that across Nigeria’s thirty-six (36) States, most State Assemblies are considered mere extensions of the Executive. They lack independence, autonomy, and courage. Lagos State, however, stands tall as a remarkable exception, a Legislature with what can rightly be called “the uncommon standard.”

Are Lagosians not proud that their Legislature is not a puppet of the Executive?

Would citizens prefer a rubber-stamp Assembly that shirks its constitutional duty simply to avoid headlines of supposed “political rifts”?

Or is the discomfort, in reality, with the Speaker himself, a leader who deeply understands legislative business and boldly asserts the powers given to the Legislature by the Constitution?

Dr. Mudashiru Obasa is not just another politician; he is an inimitable legislative phenomenon. Experience, after all, counts in politics. As the saying goes: “The older the wine, the sweeter it becomes.”

From his days as a Councillor in 1999, to becoming a Member of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2003, and serving continuously since then, Obasa has built a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most enduring lawmakers. His leadership has seen him serve as Speaker for three consecutive terms, a feat few can match, while also held the position of Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria.

Under his stewardship, the Lagos State House of Assembly has not only maintained its autonomy but has also risen to a global pedestal. Legislatures from other Nigerian States routinely come to Lagos to learn best practices. Parliaments from across Africa and beyond have sought collaboration, recognizing Lagos as a shining model of legislative independence.

This pedigree explains why Dr. Obasa is able to interpret legislative proceedings and exercise institutional powers with precision. It is not arrogance. It is experience, competence, and mastery of democratic governance.

To permanently address misinterpretations and enlighten citizens and journalists on democratic processes, I urge the Lagos State House of Assembly, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, to sponsor a bill establishing an Institute of Democratic Governance.

If Lagos becomes the first State in Nigeria to create such an institute, it will solidify its leadership in democratic innovation. The institute would serve as a training ground for public officers, journalists, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens. It would also deepen public understanding of separation of powers, legislative authority, and accountability.

Such an institute would be a lasting legacy, reducing sensationalism, enhancing civic education, and ensuring Lagosians appreciate the true workings of democracy.

The Lagos State House of Assembly has neither exceeded its powers nor acted contrary to law by insisting on legislative confirmation of political appointees. On the contrary, it has fulfilled its sacred mandate.

The Legislature is not an enemy of the Executive; it is a constitutional partner. The Speaker and members of the House deserve commendation for defending the rule of law, not condemnation through misleading headlines.

As citizens, we should applaud a Legislature that sets the standard for accountability across Nigeria. After all, a democracy where Legislatures are weak is a democracy perpetually at risk.

Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa stands today as a testament to legislative excellence, a leader who has placed Lagos on the global map of democratic governance. His legacy, like fine wine, only grows richer with time.

*Olayiwola Rasheed Emmanuel is an Engineer, Poet, Journalist, Broadcaster, PR Strategist, Prolific Writer, and Politician. He was the Former Special Adviser on Environment, Information, and Civic Engagement to the immediate past Chairman of Agege Local Government.

Ten years after her passing, the name Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo still evokes images of grace, grit, and quiet power.

Known affectionately as HID, she was more than the wife of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the legendary nationalist and statesman.

She was a formidable figure in her own right, a trader-turned-industrialist, a strategist, a political bridge-builder, and the steady compass that kept one of Nigeria’s most consequential political movements from capsizing in stormy waters.

This is not merely a story of a dutiful wife, it is a story of a woman who used her own agency to help rewrite Nigeria’s history. She was a heroin

Born on November 25, 1915, in the quiet town of Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State, HID was the only surviving child of her parents, a pattern that traced back through generations and perhaps shaped the tenacity that defined her life.

Her early years were spent between classrooms and market stalls, learning arithmetic by day and shadowing her mother on trading trips by dusk.

These formative experiences did more than put food on the table, they equipped her with commercial savvy that would later fund political revolutions.

She met a young Obafemi Awolowo in the late 1930s in Ibadan. Their courtship carried out through carefully written love letters culminated in a modest wedding in 1937. From the very beginning, their partnership was built on shared ambition and mutual sacrifice.

She set aside her own career dreams to support his, embracing the role of homemaker and back-room strategist while he pursued law studies in London.

When Awolowo left for England in 1944, he entrusted HID with £20 for family upkeep. In an act that would later become family legend, she ignored his instruction not to trade and invested the entire sum in foodstuffs.

The profits not only sustained the family but also allowed her to send remittances to her husband, funds that kept him afloat as a struggling student.

Upon his return, HID expanded her trading ventures into full-fledged enterprises, Dideolu Stores, Ligu Distribution Services, and distributorships for tobacco and brewery products.

These businesses were far from ornamental, they were profit-spinning ventures that underwrote Awolowo’s political campaigns and financed the founding of The Nigerian Tribune in 1949.

By the 1960s, HID had become one of the most successful female industrialists of her time, combining sharp business instincts with frugal discipline.

HID’s real test came during Nigeria’s most turbulent political years. When Awolowo was jailed in 1962 on treason charges, HID became the unflinching face of the Awolowo political dynasty. She attended court sessions religiously, delivered meals to her husband in prison, managed the family businesses, and kept the Action Group’s political machinery running despite state harassment.

Her courage was not merely symbolic. She stood on podiums across the Western Region, broom in hand, rallying supporters to “sweep away the dirt” of misrule. In 1964, she even contested an election in her husband’s stead, demonstrating that her political credentials were not honorary but earned.

Tragedy deepened her burdens when their first son, Segun, one of his father’s legal defenders died in a car crash. Yet she refused to retreat into private grief.

Instead, she became even more committed to the causes she and her husband shared, education, social welfare, and good governance.

Those who encountered HID often spoke of her poise and faith. She was calm yet firm, deeply religious yet pragmatic, and fiercely loyal to her family. Awolowo famously attributed his success to three things, “the Grace of God, Spartan self-discipline, and a good wife.” That wife would go on to hold chieftaincy titles including Yeye Oba of Ile-Ife and the custom-created Yeye Oodua, a recognition of her status as mother figure to the Yoruba nation.

Even after Awolowo’s death in 1987, HID continued to chair the Nigerian Tribune and serve as the anchor of the Awolowo Foundation, ensuring that her husband’s legacy of progressive politics was preserved for future generations.

On September 19, 2015, HID passed away just weeks before her 100th birthday. Her burial in Ikenne drew presidents, governors, monarchs, and ordinary Nigerians who saw in her a symbol of integrity and resilience. The celebrations were not just of a life well-lived but of a life that continues to inspire.

Her legacy endures through the HID Awolowo Foundation, which promotes women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship, and through the generations of leaders she mentored and inspired, including her grandson-in-law, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

A decade later, HID Awolowo’s story remains strikingly relevant. At a time when many lament the shrinking space for principled leadership and women’s participation in public life, her example offers hope. She proved that one could be a wife, a mother, a business mogul, and a political force without compromising integrity.

Her life challenges today’s generation to embrace resilience over resignation, enterprise over dependency, and courage over complacency.

HID’s quiet power was not in loud rhetoric but in unwavering consistency, an attribute Nigeria’s political class could learn from.

Chief (Mrs.) HID Awolowo was more than a historical figure, she was a living institution. Her nearly 100 years on earth bridged pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independence Nigeria, making her a witness and participant in the making of the nation.

Ten years after her transition, she remains, in the words of Harvard scholar Prof. J.K. Olupona, “the archetypal mother who guided the collective lived experience of the Yoruba nation.”

Her story is not just about the past, it is a roadmap for the future for every Nigerian woman who dares to dream, for every leader who seeks to govern with vision, and for every citizen who longs for a nation built on courage, discipline, and faith.

A few weeks to his inauguration as governor of Enugu state on May 29 2023, I had my first meeting with Peter Mbah along with a few other colleague media personalities.

The meeting, which was at the instance of my good friend, brother and perhaps one of Nigeria’s best media relations guru, Uche Anichukwu, held at the Abuja Transcorp Hilton.

Present at the meeting was also my good friend Ifeanyi Ossai, then deputy governor-elect of Enugu state. For many years,

I have been deeply connected to the political leadership of Enugu state to the extent that the state has become my second ‘’state of origin’’. And in these years, I have come to appreciate a leadership value system that is firmly hinged on a deep connection between the political leaders and the people of Enugu state.

In my close interaction with leading lights of Enugu state such as former Governor Ifeanyi Uguwanyi, former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekwerenmadu, former house of representative members Patrick Asadu and Toby Okechukwu among many others, I have come to the realization that if there is one state in Nigeria where democracy is truly work in progress then it is my second home state.

But throughout my years of involvement in Enugu affairs, I never met Peter Mbah, who by then was busy carving a niche in the ecosystem of Nigeria’s organized private as a leading player in the oil and gas industry as the chairman of Pinnacle until the Abuja meeting.

At the meeting, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, a lawyer, business man and politician who previously served as chief of staff in the administration of former governor Chimaroke Nnamani, in a very calm, composed and stoic mien, took us through his vision for the state.

In fact, he reiterated his campaign promises including the creation of a 30billion dollar economy, resuscitation of urban water supply, ending sit at home, upgrading of health facilities and most importantly the building of smart schools to usher Enugu children into a future that is today.

Listening keenly to this gentleman, I saw a serous minded man who means the business of governance.

Satisfied that Peter Mbah knew exactly what he wanted to do as governor, I decided to quip in a little suggestion on the need for him to run a government that should be inclusive of all Nigerians resident in the state irrespective of ethnicity and religion, especially given the fact that Enugu was the former regional capital of the old Eastern Region.

I specifically made this suggestion to the incoming governor, because of the widespread perception that the Igbo people of Nigeria are not accommodating of other groups as they are accommodated outside their eastern heartland home region and this issue is often weaponized against individual politicians seeking the highest office in the land from one of Nigeria’s most important sections.

As I made this appeal, Governor Peter Mbah, an otherwise straight-faced man with an expressionless mien, let out a smile of appreciation without saying a word. Little did I know that I was preaching Catholicism to the Bishop of Rome.

The recent controversy surrounding the abandonment of a multi-billion naira contract for the construction of Governor Mbah’s smart schools across the state, which was awarded to Olasijibomi Ogundele, a Lagos based Yoruba property developer has clearly revealed Peter Mbah as a detribalized pan Nigerian nationalist who is leading and living out the vision of the Great Zik of Africa of one united Nigerian nation of citizens away from a fractured country of disunited tribesmen.

After all it all began in 1952, when Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC party threw up Mallam Umaru Altine, a Hausa speaking Muslim from northern Nigeria, who was resident in Enugu city as the Mayor of the regional capital of the Nigeria’s Igbo homeland; a feat in national integration that has remained a reference point in national unity for more than half a century.

This commentary is not about the business dispute between Brethren Olasijibomi Ogundele and Enugu state government but more about the fact that Governor Peter Mbah has shattered the myth or if you like the fallacy and falsehood about Ndigbo not being accommodating of others as they want others to accommodate them.

By entrusting some of his most important project in the hands of ‘’others’’ Governor Mbah’s action has clearly vindicated the Igbo people of Nigeria and rebranded their image as a people who truly believe in the philosophy of ‘’Nwanne di na Mbah’’ [a brethren can be found in foreign land].

Interestingly, Olasijibomi Ogundele is not the first and only beneficiary of Enugu state government patronage within the context of this commentary.

Recently, the Governor commissioned five ultra-modern bus terminals in Enugu state as part of his administration’s transportation master plan to provide affordable and seamless interconnectivity across the state’s major towns and city centre. Four of those terminals were constructed by Planets Projects; a Lagos based construction whose major promoter is Eng Biodun Otunola.

The modern Oshodi Bus terminal in Lagos was constructed by this firm. Similarly, the multi-billion naira Enugu state Command and Control Centre, which is reported to be the biggest in Nigeria with AI-enabled surveillance cameras across the state vide fibre optic cables, was built by Hajaraisan Nig LTD.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company is Aminu Uba Miko, an indigene of Kano state, while Ibrahim Shehu from Jigawa state was engaged to develop the Enugu State Vehicles’ Identification System Software.

And XEJET, the operator of the recently launched Enugu Enugu Air; an Enugu state owned airline was founded by Emmanuel Izah from Kogi state.

The good thing about these engagements is that they were competitively bided for but the Yoruba or Hausa ethnicities of Enugu state government’s preferred bidders did not limit or diminish their chances of winning the contract in Peter Mbah’s Enugu.

Just as Planets Project has a track record in transport infrastructure construction and management, so does Olasijibomi’s Sujimoto Property construction firm have a solid track record as pioneers of smart buildings in Africa.

That the Enugu state government has taking steps to sanction Olasijibomi Ogundele clearly shows that Governor Mbah has no incestuous relationship with the young man and that his engagement was purely based on the belief that he can deliver on the job.

Away from these few cases amongst many others, Governor Mbah in making strategic appointments in Enugu state has demonstrated the oneness of Nigeria, where the principles of inclusion, equity and justice reigns supreme.

The Managing Director of Enugu state Broadcasting Service is Ladi Akeredolu-Ale, a veteran broadcaster from Ondo state, while the man helping Governor Peter Mbah to drive his vision for available, accessible and affordable healthcare is Dr Yomi Jaye, his Special Adviser on Health Matters.

To boost the IGR of the state, Governor Mbah hired Adenike Okebu as his Senior Special Assistant on Revenue. While Alh Abubakar Yusuf Sambo serves as the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties, the Commander of Enugu Forest Guard is Olamitisoji Akinbamilayo, a retired Deputy Commissioner of Police who served in the Enugu state Command.

The retired DCP was in charge of operations when Governor Mbah directed the full implementation of the ban on sit-at-home and other violent activities by miscreants. For his meritorious service to the state, DCP Akinbamilayo was retained by the state as part of its security management team.

Peter Mbah’s Enugu state is the Nigeria of our dreams. And when the Igbo people of Nigeria are accused wrongly, they should point in the direction of Peter Mbah’s Enugu State.

Like I have consistently maintained, Nigerians are essentially one people and the various ethnic groupings are simply members of the same family that are living in different parts of the family compound.

A movement from one part of the family compound to another should not render a member of the family an outsider inside his/her family compound.

This is called citizenship. And as citizens of Nigeria, we should be free to reside in any part of the federation without the dichotomy of ‘’indigene and settler’’ wherein one’s ethnicity can enhance or diminish access to state provision and protection.

The fundamental condition preceding national development and security of any sovereign entity is the social cohesion, national integration and unity of the constituent peoples. Now we know why Peter Mbah’s Enugu State is working progressively.

*Dahiru is an Abuja-based public affairs analyst