What is Oyo Assembly Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin’s Sin?

BY: OLADAPO SOFOWORA

In the political history of Oyo State, by extention Nigeria, on the 10th of June 2019, Hon Adebo Ogundoyin made history as one of the youngest Speaker of Oyo state parliament at the 32. Ever since the Ibarapa East Constituency representative assumed office as the Speaker of the Oyo state House of Assembly, he has been having a smooth control of the chambers not until recently, when caution was thrown into the air by some members of the 9th Assembly, who vented their displeasure over some issues affecting the leadership of the house.

According to sources who told CITYSPY that; some caucus in the Assembly began to scheme against the leadership of the state legislative arm, alleging lack of transparency in running affairs of the Assembly and indecisiveness in canvassing for the general desires of lawmakers from the state Governor, Seyi Makinde. “Indeed, the brewing crisis was not only targeted at sweeping Ogundoyin off his seat, but also most of the principal officers. The plot against the Speaker was hatched by members of Ogundoyin’s initial inner caucus members, who felt they were beginning to be sidelined in the running of the Assembly.”

It would be recalled that, when Ogundoyin emerged Speaker of the house in 2019, members like Chairman, Parliamentary, Honourable Ayo Fatokun; Chief Whip, Honourable Hakeem Adedibu and former Chairman, House Committee on Works and Transport, Honourable Olamide Akinajo, were said to have positioned themself to be members of his inner kitchen cabinet.

Like a liberal man, Ogundoyin is an individual who sees position as God given, he embraced several other members of the house into his kitchen cabinet like his own brothers. He went as far as dishing out juicy committee leadership to everyone of them including the All Progressive Congress (APC) minority members of the house. “This move by the Speaker did not go down well with the initial members of the kitchen cabinet. They were scared that, with the introduction of more people into the caucus, their unwavery influence on the Speaker’s decision may begin to wane out. This sparked up their agitation as they threatened fire and brimstone by lobbying more lawmakers into a purported impeachment agenda. Ogundoyin remained unperturbed. LIke every leader, he tried every means to calm the storm in the house by taking some crucial moves.” A source added.

To avert the lingering crisis from taking its toll on the leadership and progress of the house, leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state, including Governor Seyi Makinde; Chairman, Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), Hosea Agboola and the Commissioner for Special Duties, Chief Bayo Lawal, held a close door meeting with the lawmakers to calm them down and look into their grievance. A source said; “The members which includes; Honourable Akinajo, Honourable Ayo Fatokun and Honourable Hakeem Adedibu, who were alleged to have been causing unrest in the parliament all denied the plot moving for a possible impeachment.”

An insider told CITYSPY that; “Some leaders adviced the speaker to suspend any lawmaker who causes unrest in the house. Ogundoyin resorted to taking other measures to calm the unrest. The speaker later announced the removal of Honourable Akinajo as the chairman of the House Committee on Works and Transport, with Honourable Kehinde Olatunde named as his replacement. As the head of the Committee on Works and Transport.”

After taking drastic actions to curtail the brewing crisis in the house, calmness has since returned into the chambers as Speaker Ogundoyin reiterates his commitment to quality representation of the interest of Oyo State masses. “Most of the lawmakers fail to remember that Ogundoyin is the leader of the house as Speaker. They had forgotten that, age does not matter in leadership. Like the Yoruba elders will say; ‘If a child is crowned King, all his subject must bow to him regardless of their age strata’. All this happened because Ogundoyin is a liberal and gentle individual, who relates with them more like a colleague rather than a principal position holder. Some of the members are taking advantage of his gentlemanly nature.”