By Dayo Johnson

THE one-week old government of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, is beginning to settle down in Ondo State bringing a spoof and a sparkle that is bound to unsettle politics as usual in the state. For one is the unusual bluntness of the governor on issues which is a departure from the pretence that politicians normally put up as a facade. It is this character of the governor that is bound to test the patience of his handlers, especially his media handlers.

Aketi, as he is fondly called, has reportedly insisted on running a lean government against the desire of his political associates seeking for the widest participation as possible. This came to fore at a close meeting with selected leaders when he reportedly disclosed that he would not have more than 14 commissioners and ten advisers.

Weeks before his inauguration he had also shocked his party members during a courtesy visit to the former governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in his office when he praised the former governor for his unprecedented achievements. Many of them shook their heads when he openly declared that he doubted if he could match Mimiko’s performance in office.

Vanguard reliably gathered that leaders of the party expressed concern and uneasiness during their review of the visit.

Repeated allegations of backstabbing

The unease of the party chieftains is reflective of the much unease that trailed the relationship between the governor and his party officials in the days and weeks that led to the governorship election last November.

Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN

While the governor’s relationship with the majority of those who voted him to power remains largely mutually cordial, his dealings with a large section of party chieftains are bound to be characterised with much suspicion given the repeated allegations of backstabbing that characterised the campaigns of the ruling APC. Some are bound to be on the spot.

Cold war with a party chairman: Governor Akeredolu’s relationship with APC state chairman, Hon Isaac Kekemeke has remained one of mutual suspicion. Kekemeke fell out with the governor following his overt support for the preferred APC aspirant of preference for the choice of the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for the last governorship election, Dr. Olusegun Abraham.

Abraham is still in court challenging the emergence of Akeredolu in the party’s primaries. He had stayed away from participating in any of the party’s activities immediately after the vexed primaries which produced Akeredolu. Although Akeredolu has consistently denied any “cold ‘war’ between himself and Kekemeke, it is an open secret that those who toed Tinubu’s line before the APC primaries have been receiving the cold shoulder from the new men in power.

It took over a month, and “serious” persuasion by his aides before Akeredolu visited Kekemeke after the vexed governorship primaries at his Alagbaka residence. That was after Kekemeke boycotted the party secretariat having seen Akeredolu’s body language after he won the ticket. Kekemeke, however, has indirectly called the bluff of the governor by not showing up in public engagements where he was not invited.

He was conspicuously missing during the visit to Mimiko before the inauguration and when the Strategic Development and Policy Implementation Committee submitted its preliminary report to the governor and other ceremonies. When Kekemeke buried his mother, Akeredolu, though he was in the country, did not attend and sent the deputy state chairman of the party, Ade Adetimehin to represent him at the ceremony. The gist is that Governor Akeredolu prefers to deal with Kekemeke through the deputy chairman.

Harsh words for Boroffice: Echoes of the bitterness that characterised the campaign for the APC governorship ticket resurfaced during the gala night organised for the new governor after his inauguration. In his speech at the gala, the new governor lashed at Boroffice who incidentally was not present at the occasion accusing him openly of anti-party activities during the governorship election in November last year.

“A senator that won his seat under the platform of APC but chose to work for AD during the last governorship election openly, and later paid for a congratulatory advert for me on pages of newspaper, it looks strange to me, this is someone that didn’t even call to congratulate me. Tell the senator he is not a member of APC. Everyone that is involved in anti-party activities can’t come back through the back door, they would have to go back to their various wards to re-apply for APC membership card and apologise openly. They should also do the needful.”

Though the governor did not mention Senator Boroffice by name, the innuendo was enough for everyone to know that night. The claim has generated ripples in the camp of the senator while the governor’s undiplomatic outburst has begun to make party members and chieftains shiver not knowing whose turn it would be the next time.

This ugly development has put a check on plans by many party chieftains and their supporters who defected to AD before the poll to return to the ruling party. Attempts by lieutenants of the AD governorship candidate Olusola Oke and one of Tinubu’s major associates, Bola Ilori? who defected after the vexed primaries to return to the party have been consistently rebuffed across the state.

A doomed ambassadorial nomination: Also, the former state chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Sola Iji, who was penciled down to be Abraham’s deputy before the table turned in favour of Akeredolu, is still sulking following the sudden removal of his name from the list of career ambassadors to represent the state after being nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari. He was replaced by a former commissioner in Mimiko’s administration, Igbekele Daodu.

Glowing tribute

Findings showed that the treatment meted out to Iji was as a result of the Tinubu connection. Still, Iji has remained consistent in all party activities in the state despite his predicament.

Mimiko’s caution: It is expedient to note here that at the handover ceremony a day before the swearing-in, Akeredolu was at his best when he paid glowing tribute to Mimiko and his achievements in the state during his eight-year tenure. He equally recalled their days in the former University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile- Ife.

Responding after seeing the countenance of the leaders of the APC going by encomiums showered on him by Akeredolu, Mimiko expressed gratitude but was quick to express hope the new governor would remain himself and his mind would not be polluted by APC members, who are uncomfortable with his bluntness and free mind to say it as it is.  Only time will tell if Governor Akeredolu would bend towards his strange friends or be broken by them as he encounters the challenges of governance especially given that governance requires team work.