Lagos Assembly crisis signals ‘government by proxy,’ says Funso Doherty

Funso Doherty, a former governorship candidate, has described the recent crisis in the Lagos State House of Assembly as a reflection of deep-seated cracks within the state’s political structure.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, Doherty argued that the leadership tussle, which saw Speaker Mojisola Meranda step down for Mudashiru Obasa’s return, was not a final resolution but rather a symptom of underlying tensions within Lagos politics.

“These are symptoms that we see,” he said. “And they’re symptoms of the tensions that come from a hegemonic structure that we’ve had in Lagos State for so long.”

Doherty suggested that the handling of the crisis exposed a system of “government by proxy” in Lagos, where elected officials appear to act on behalf of unseen forces rather than independently representing their constituents.

“It almost appeared as if the people we’re watching were playing out a script that was written for them by others,” he remarked. “And by the way, the people that we’re seeing are the elected people. So in a democracy, you don’t expect that to be the case.”

Democratic principles undermined

Doherty warned that the reversals and counter-reversals in the House of Assembly crisis undermined the principles of democracy, which is meant to empower the people through their elected representatives.

“Democracy evolved from monarchical systems, as you know, where we were ruled by kings and things like that. And the idea is to give people a voice in government. The people’s voice in government is their assembly members,” he explained.

By allowing external influences to dictate legislative decisions, he argued, the assembly members had effectively surrendered their mandate.

“The reversals and counter-reversals send the message that that voice essentially has been captured by certain forces that operate behind them. And I think that is not healthy for democracy,” Doherty asserted.

Read also: You shouldn’t have resigned; you betrayed Lagosians, Doherty tells Meranda

Lagos politics at a turning point

Despite the outward resolution of the crisis, Doherty expressed doubts that this marked a final closure. Instead, he suggested that the event signified cracks in what he described as Lagos’ long-standing “monolithic hegemonic structure.”

“Whilst we see something that looks like, you know, maybe a smoothing over of tensions, I think fundamentally this is not the end,” he noted. “I think it reflects the fact that there are cracks in that monolithic hegemonic structure that has operated in Lagos State. And I think that we will see other symptoms in other areas to come.”