By Sola Ebiseni

ON this page, precisely on September 19, 2023, as an indigene of Ondo State I joined millions of joyful compatriots to welcome our Governor, Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, from his three months overseas vacation to take of his debilitating health condition. In the piece titled The return of Akeredolu and fortunes of Ondo State,  I had reasoned that the fortunes of our dear state which had been in a virtual state of comatose since his absence would share from the resumed vigour of our governor.  It does not matter that I have never and up till now do not share same political platform with him and the fact that I have twice aspired to the same governorship seat and still now throw my hat in the ring.

Throughout the long period of his absence the weekly  Executive Council met only twice, on July 13 and 28, merely to announce matters already concluded before Aketi went on vacation such as approval of new Obas to fill vacant chieftaincy stools and announcement of 37 local council development authorities since approved before Akeredolu jaapa on health conditions. It is not hidden that the government of Aketi has been dogged by the gubernatorial ambition of members of his government, particularly those of them from the Southern Senatorial District to which the successor of Aketi has been zoned by the emerging and now somewhat immutable conventional political culture of the state. There are legions outside the state government, including even some members of the National Assembly. Of course these ambitions are legitimate but an albatross on the neck of Ondo State which has been rendered prostate. This is the quagmire Aketi and his Deputy found themselves. 

From the beginning of Aketi’s second term in office and with the odious relationship with his first-term Deputy, my aburo, Agboola Ajayi, one would have thought that lessons would have been learnt in forging a harmonious relationship between Aketi and his new Deputy. Those of us watching the government closely but from the distance felt there was an umbilical cord connecting both of them, especially as Lucky soon left his beard, moustache and hairs on both sides of his cheeks to grow grey looking more as Aketi’s look-alike except for obvious age difference. In the absence of the governor, Aiyedatiwa’s acting governor status was a  mere paper-tiger.

His ambitious colleagues were so visibly insubordinate to the extent of contesting seat and space with him even in public functions. There were those so incensed with such development to suggest that Aiyedatiwa summoned the courage to do what Acting President Yemi Osinbajo did in 2018 by sacking the untouchable Lawal Daura, the Director-General of the State Security Service. Wisdom prevailed that Aiyedatiwa would not do anything of the sort which would now have been part of the justification for  his removal. To the knowledge of the public, the acting governor only stuck to the mundane issues of signing salaries of civil servants and political office holders. 

In every aspect of governance,  including fund management, his capacity was at the pleasure of his equally ambitious colleagues. Not even the reference of “His Excellency” is exclusive to him since; trust politicians, anyone who has shown a modicum of interest in such office is informally so hailed,  including yours sincerely. You can then imagine how unbelievable among the masses of Ondo State is the allegation of Aiyedatiwa having approved a whopping sum of N300 million, out of the money for palliatives to buy bulletproof car for himself.

For where? As Nigerians would say denouncing a statement as unbelievable and impossible. On the House of Assembly, the  problems with most state legislatures is that members hardly initiate any bills on their own, but merely only consider executive bills sent to them in fulfilment of constitutional righteousness. Thus, the Ondo State parliament has become comatose since the executive quagmire. Only the judiciary has been functional in the real sense of it.

The return of Akeredolu on September 9, was a thing of joy to the people who have been praying for him and also concerned about the rudderless state of the State in his absence. Except for the political class, the people initially gave their governor the benefit of the doubt and were not going to be too hard on him for returning to Ibadan rather than our Akure capital. They know that in spite of the packaging, the governor still needed time for full medical rehabilitation.

They have always associated him more with Ibadan and felt that even when now in the country he could still be delegating the power to summon Executive Council meetings to his Deputy, even if through online instructions. When Lucky’s media aides were sacked, the people still felt that being appointees of the governor, he could not be faulted for exercising the power to fire them. The sign that the Rubicon  was about being crossed was revealed in the press statement of the Deputy Governor refuting claims of his resignation on September 14, wherein he emphatically stated that he had a four-year joint ticket with his principal ending February 23, 2025.

I have not hidden my admiration for Aketi’s stance on national issues, particularly the courage demonstrated by him and his fellow South-West governors in creating the Amotekun regional security outfit which has made the huge difference in the security of the region in spite of resistance from the Federal Government and obvious disapproving indifference of Lagos. He led the Southern Governors Forum to dare the Federal Government in the advocacy and defence of true federalism; rejected open grazing of animals and its Federal Government-sponsored variants of RUGA, Cattle Colony, National Grazing Reserves, etc.

They were on the same page with  the Afenifere and the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum on Southern Presidency notwithstanding that they were not persuaded to go the whole hog to the South-East. This  impeachment move, whatever the motivation, is ill-advised and does neither Akeredolu nor our Sunshine State any good. The grace to return and healthier is sufficient for him to discountenance anything that may show lack of appreciation to God and millions of our citizens praying for him. His handlers are not kind to him by subjecting him to the stress of this most unpopular decision. Unfortunately, those who seek to speak for government are most uncouth, with one of them on prime time television speaking ill of the leaders of their party from the Southern Senatorial District.

The Executive Council and  engine-room of government cannot meet in the absence of both the governor and his deputy. Signs that there is no governance is stinkingly noticeable in the heaps of refuse on Akure highway. A little failed portion at Owena on the Akure-Ondo road has remained a nightmare to commuters and embarrassment of our state, notwithstanding the lame excuse that it is a Federal road. The situation now in Ondo State is better than then in Taraba when shortly before former Governor Suntai embarked on his ill-fated flight in 2012, he got his Deputy, Abubakar Sanni Danladi, impeached and appointed Garba Umar in his place who became Acting Governor due to Suntai’s incapacitation. 

By October 2013 the Supreme Court voided Danladi’s impeachment and restored him as Acting Governor till  the end of the administration on May 29, 2015 while Governor Suntai lived on though incapacitated. Aketi has just signed the newly created LCDA into law. While the intervention of the national secretariat of the party is a good development, the way forward immediately is for the governor to ask those interested in contesting in the gubernatorial election to resign forthwith, particularly now that the timetable is released. Some of us did so in the past. Nigeria, we hail thee.

Ebiseni  is the Secretary General, Afenifere and South West Coordinator OBIDATTI Campaigns.