MARGINALISATION: Lagos indigenes are saying ‘Enough Is Enough!’ – De Renaissance Patriots’ Youth Leader, Eleto

By KEMI KASUMU

We are saying that Enough Is Enough! In 2027 give us Governor, Deputy, Speaker, Secretary to the State Government, Head of Service and see whether within four years we will not develop this state like Dubai.

The Youth Leader of De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, a socio-cultural organization established to make Lagos a better state for its indigenes, Mr. Yakubu Eleto Esq, has described the charades called alignment and realignment at the Lagos State House of Assembly over the issue of speakership as not only a show of shame but also a disappointment.

Eleto, who appeared on The Morning Show interview programme of Arise Television Tuesday March 4, 2025 to present the view of De Renaissance Patriots on the matter, said it did not add up that a lawmaker removed constitutionally on the grounds of misconduct, highhandedness and lack of respect for his fellow parliamentarians would now be reinstated by the same two-third majority that ousted him in the first place.

He was also not comfortable that political elders like Chief Bisi Akande and Chief Olusegun Osoba, both of whom had been governors of their respective states of Osun and Ogun, would be the ones invited by powers behind the crisis in the Lagos Assembly to resolve the issues in a way showing clear relegation of indigenous elders who could better resolve such matters.

Asked where its group, De Renaissance Patriots Foundation of Lagos State indigenes, stands seeing what played out at the state House of Assembly with Mojisola Meranda now out as speaker and back to her former position of Deputy Speaker and Mudashiru Obasa now reinstated speaner, Mr. Yakubu Eleto, said:

“Well, to us as a group, we see the entire thing that happened yesterday (Monday) as a shame on the most populous Assembly in the sub-Sahara Africa where some members of the House, more than two-third majority, removed a Speaker on the ground of misconduct, on the ground of highhandedness, on the ground of lack of respect to fellow colleagues in the parliament, and was removed unanimously, fulfilling all the conditions as laid down in the Constitution, yet, such will still come back and swallow its own vomit and say that the Speaker that was unanimously elected will now resign and the Speaker that was removed, and that same Speaker tested his popularity in the house by trying to force his way into the parliament, went there hoping that the honourables would join, that only four members sat with him on that day.

“That was the height of it and it’s a pure desecration of a parliament. He sat and he said he adjoined sine dine. And he even went to say that he was even the speaker, meaning that two speakers emerged in the state.”

Delivering the thought of De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, Eleto said, “As a group we saw what happened yesterday (Monday), in fact I was moved to tears and had to abandon everything I was doing that ‘How could that be that Meranda would resign and not even another person emerged. The same person that the House said was a disappointment to the House would now be re-announced again as Speaker. So, it was a show of shame to us as a group.”

One of the interview panelists, specifically Rufai Oseni said “So you call it show of shame but I call it ‘Babasopecracy’. Before you came on air I was singing a Yoruba song, ‘Olowo gba’yawo ole, ole nse lailaha kiri’. What it means is there is nothing you can do about it because, even, you people calling yourselves De Renaissance group enjoyed this same hegemony in Lagos as your bonafide. So, today it’s as if you are trying to go against the Babasopecracy, which you’ve been roundly crushed and roundly beaten and he has asserted his authority. So, why do you feel ashamed now?”

Responding, Eleto said, “As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of the Babasope. I’m sure the Baba was there as the Baba when the speaker was removed. The Baba was there before January 13.”

Rufai would not immediately agree with Eleto as he continued, “After the speaker was removed, the consensus was ‘we would bring Obasa back’. I had gotten intel that he was going to be brought back because the powers that be said they wanted him back and they succeeded.”

Eleto interjected saying, “No, no, no. Irrespective of whatever, the fact that January 13 Obasa was unanimously removed, that Obasa was even sweating like Christmas goat moving up and down rocking the boat finding every means shows that it was not the issue of Babasope. But the only disappointment that we had was that they leaned everything behind the party that because of party supremacy they had to find a way of saving his political career, that he had served the house for close to a decade and that the only thing they can do for him is to allow him to come back and resign.

Marginalisation

“To us, that is the height of the disappointment that we had as a group, that it’s a shame and we, as Lagos indigenes, you know De Renaissance Patriots Foundation is a socio-cultural group, we believe that indigenes in Lagos State have been deeply marginalized that we are not at the helms of affairs in the state. The governor not from Lagos, Deputy not from Lagos, this speaker not from Lagos and that is why we became jubilant when Meranda came,” he proved his point.

Asked if party supremacy is not Babasope, Eleto said, “When you said Babasope, I don’t have any issue with Babasope. What we are saying is that what happened yesterday (Monday)……, when we became jubilant with Meranda was that Meranda is from Lagos, not only from Lagos, royal blood runs in her, it’s going to balance our hue and cry for sometimes that indigenes in Lagos State have been marginalized.”

On whether De Renaissance Patriots group is only interested in just taking power or it has a different view of Lagos, he responded:

“Well, we have a different view that from 1999 till date, if we are going to evaluate amount of money that this state is making, we are not supposed to be here and everybody agrees with us. If you look at the amount Lagos State generates in terms of internally generated revenue and if this money is spent judiciously for the development of this state, of course, we are not going to be here.

“So, as a group, we believe that one of the reasons that is causing this underdevelopment of Lagos State is because most people who are administering our revenue are not from this state. They pack the money from this state and take it to their own states to develop. One of the closest examples is Senator Olamilekan Yayi, who was three times senator in Lagos West, while he was in Lagos West, he was busy developing Ogun West even while in his third term he was in Lagos West here….”

When interjected as to if he had proof for such claims, Eleto gave a shot from behind saying, “Of course, I am going to even say this. When Federal Poytechnic Ilaro was going to be upgraded to university, who moved the motion in the house? This same Lagos West senator. And he did not move any motion that Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, which is in his own constituency, be upgraded to a university. But he moved motion that Federal Polytechnic Ilaro should be upgraded to a university. What is his business with Ilaro when he was actually representing Lagos State?”

He said, “What we are saying is that Lagos State would have developed more than this if we have indigenes, true Lagosians at the helms of affair.”

De Renaissance Patriots chieftain threw a challenge, “Let indigenes take over the state. It is constitutional, we are not just sentimental because indigenes of Edo are the ones controlling the affairs in Edo State, indigenes of Kwara are the ones in Kwara. Why not the indigenes of Lagos State.”

Asked a specific question to tell indigenes of which states are the ones controlling the Lagos State affairs, Eleto did not mince his words in revealing where they come from.

“Ha-haaaa! We have most people from Osun and Ogun. And that is why Bisi Akande would have the gut to come to Lagos and resolve political issues when they have unresolved political issues in their own states. The same thing with Olusegun Osoba and a whole lot of them. What is happening to our own elders in the state, can’t they resolve issues in the state?

“We have just been seen as second class citizens in our state, that we don’t have any voice of our own, that we are captured, that we are slaves and that we are colonized already.

“We are saying that Enough Is Enough! In 2027 give us Governor, Deputy, Speaker, Secretary to the State Government, Head of Service and see whether within four years we will not develop this state like Dubai.”