Ah, Lagos politics.
That beautiful jungle where loyalty expires without notice, where smiles often arrive heavily perfumed with ambition, & where information, especially those type whispered quietly over expensive dinners & in corners of elite political gatherings, is worth more than gold.
Election season is approaching again. And in Nigerian politics, election season is never merely election season. It is war season. Out right war anything goes. All is fair in war like they say.
The war rooms are gradually reopening.
The alliances are subtly shifting.
The phones are buzzing more aggressively at midnight.
And somehow, files that have slept peacefully for years suddenly wake up, dusted, refreshed & fully energized.
Because in politics, timing is never accidental.
Which perhaps explains why Hon. Engr. Gbolahan Olusegun Yishawu has suddenly become the subject of intense political curiosity, especially regarding his alleged investments, his supposed assets, & the rather fascinating public concern over how comfortable the man appears to be.
One would think wealth itself had recently been criminalized.
Suddenly, everybody seems deeply disturbed that a ranking legislator may have done rather well for himself over time. The outrage almost sounds philosophical.
“Why should one man have properties?”
“Why should he own investments?”
“Why should he have petrol stations?”
“And Banana Island too?”
One almost expects a public symposium on the dangers of prosperity.
But beneath all the moral gymnastics lies the real issue nobody wants to say too loudly: Hon. Yishawu is preparing, or at least strongly positioned, for a possible 5th term at the Lagos State House of Assembly.
And therein lies the true source of the anxiety.
Because after victories in 2011, 2015, 2019, & 2023, the Eti-Osa II representative has become more than just another lawmaker passing through the corridors of Alausa. He has become what politicians both admire & secretly fear, institutional.
4 terms.
4 victories.
4 cycles survived in one of the most politically sophisticated states in Nigeria.
That does not happen by accident.
Especially not in Lagos, where politics is played less like checkers & more like high finance mixed with warfare & Sunday thanksgiving.
Naturally, some people have now begun asking the familiar democratic question disguised cleverly as moral concern:
“Should one man remain in office for 20 years?”
A fair question, perhaps.
But what makes the conversation deliciously interesting is how quickly the argument shifts from tenure to wealth. From representation to real estate. From legislative performance to petrol stations (allegedly 4 of them).
Because if the real issue were truly about democratic rotation alone, then why the obsessive fascination with who owns what?
Why the almost poetic concern over a Banana Island property?
After all, nowhere, at least not yet, has the Nigerian Constitution declared prosperity illegal for lawmakers. There is still no known constitutional clause stating that once elected into office, a politician must immediately embrace poverty to prove purity.
And if investments are legitimate, legally acquired, & untainted by fraud, then exactly what is the offence?
Success?
Comfort?
Good living?
Or perhaps the greater sin is surviving too long in politics while remaining structurally relevant.
Hon. Yishawu, 58, is hardly an accidental player. An engineering graduate of UNN with a Master’s degree in Computer Science from UniLag, he has long cultivated the image of the thinking politician, calm, methodical, technically grounded, & politically strategic.
Not the loudest man in the room.
Usually the more dangerous type.
Those close to Lagos political calculations understand this perfectly well.
Because beyond the noise surrounding another Assembly run lies an even more interesting possibility, one capable of making ambitious politicians suddenly develop insomnia.
The Speakership equation.
Should the 2027 permutations eventually tilt toward a Governor from Lagos East (EPE) (Dr. Obafemi Kadri Hamzat, the current deputy Governor, & the endorsed candidate of the APC & perhaps a Deputy Governor from Lagos West, say in the person of Barrister Abimbola Salu- Hundeyin (Badagry), then Lagos Central could strategically produce the next Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
This is where Yishawu & Meranda, the current deputy speaker could slug it out as both are from Lagos Central. Eti-Osa II vs. Apapa I.
And suddenly, Hon. Yishawu’s long legislative stay no longer looks like mere political stubbornness. It starts looking like positioning.
Calculated positioning.
Which is why every structure matters now.
Every alliance matters.
Every whisper matters.
Every “expose” suddenly arrives carrying suspiciously elegant timing.
But politics, being politics, never leaves only one gladiator standing in the arena.
Because standing firmly within that same succession conversation is the current Deputy Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, experienced, visible, already tested by power, & perhaps carrying one advantage modern politics increasingly values beyond raw political seniority: optics.
Excellent optics.
For many within the APC establishment, a female Speaker in Lagos would project a remarkably progressive image about gender inclusion, balance, & modern political symbolism.
And symbolism, especially in Lagos politics, is never a small matter.
So yes, should the contest eventually narrow between Hon. Yishawu & Hon. Meranda, it may become less a battle of competence & more a sophisticated collision between structure & symbolism.
Between ranking advantage & gender advantage.
Between old political mastery & new political optics.
And make no mistake, Lagos politics loves both theatre & calculation equally.
Yet despite the noise presently swirling around him, those familiar with the Eti-Osa II landscape insist Hon. Yishawu is far from politically isolated. In fact, many quietly suggest the opposite.
They say he understands stakeholders exceptionally well.
They say relationships have been maintained carefully over the years.
They say structures have been serviced appropriately. He holds those who counts in his pocket.
And in Nigerian politics, serviced structures rarely abandon their architect suddenly.
Which explains why his supporters dismiss many of the recent attacks as little more than elite political irritation disguised as public concern.
After all, if constituents are genuinely tired of him, democracy offers a simple solution: elections.
But if the louder complaint is that the man appears “too comfortable,” then perhaps the real frustration is not wealth itself, but access to the machinery that produces such comfort.
And so the battle continues.
Some want him gone because they believe 20 years is too long.
Some want him gone because ambition is hungry & impatient.
Some simply want their turn at the table.
And some, perhaps, are merely uncomfortable with how firmly seated he still appears to be.
But like Desmond Elliott in Surulere, another ranking lawmaker who has repeatedly survived storms, outrage, online fury, & political ambushes, Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu may yet prove that longevity in Lagos politics is rarely accidental.
It is engineered.
Carefully.
Quietly.
And often very expensively.
For now, the movie continues.
The smiles remain polished.
The daggers remain hidden.
The stakeholders remain “happy.”
And somewhere in Lagos, political calculators are overheating quietly ahead of 2027.
As for Hon. Yishawu?
One suspects he is sleeping just fine. Is he likely to return…
