Lagos, 12 June, 2023 / 11:20 am (ACI Africa).
The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos in Nigeria has cautioned members of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) against making laws that are biased towards natives of the Nigerian State.
In what has been described as a “shocking announcement”, LAHA speaker, Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, who was delivering his acceptance speech after his re-election as house leader on June 6 said that Lagos being “Yoruba land”, and not “a no-man’s land … we are going to employ all legislative instruments for the support of the indigenes of Lagos. There would be laws and resolutions in the areas of economy and commerce, property and titles.”
In a June 10 press statement, which the Director of Social Communications of Lagos Archdiocese, issued, Archbishop Alfred Adewale Martins faults the speaker of LAHA for making remarks that imply he is set to spearhead discriminatory laws in Nigeria’s largest city that is cosmopolitan.
Archbishop Adewale calls on LAHA “to purge itself of legislative biases and discrimination, and work towards enacting laws that are for the common good and take care of the interest of all the residents of Lagos State.”
He explains, “In the light of the tension and clear divide between indigenes and people of other tribes living in Lagos that were created by threats, words, and actions of people from all sides during the last elections, the statement credited to the Speaker does not seek to calm situations and heal the wounds that were inflicted in that period.”