EVANGELIST ADESINMBO OMOYE, Mni.
In politics, loyalty is a premium price that only very few are willing to pay. This is more exemplified in Shakespear’s Julius Caesar. Though Brutus is Caesar’s friend and a man of honour, but surprisingly, he joined in the conspiracy against Caesar’s life, convincing himself that Caesar’s death is for the greater good of Rome.
Ahead of the 2021 governorship election in Ondo State, Governor Oluwarotim Akeredolu, coming from his alleged near-death experience with his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, needed a man of ‘honour’. He went in search of a man he could trust, a man that would be loyal to him till the end.
It didn’t take long before he found a man, whose names evoke goodluck and progress, Lucky Orimisan Aiydatiwa. At the time, Lucky, as he was called by all, was ‘BEGGING’ for a mere NDDC apointment. So, Akeredolu felt he was the right person for the job – a man with unconcealed simplicity, a man who only wanted the little things- and so he made him his runningmate for the election.
But like eveything in life, man proposes, God disposes. Akeredolu’s health failed, and he turned to his hand-picked deputy for loyalty. But instead, what he got was a shock that reverberated through the state, particularly with those in the know of how he became the deputy governor.
But what many people did not understand was that when Lucky Aiyedatiwa personally released a Press Statement, that he did not sign any letter of resignation and neither is he ready to sign one and that he is in a “joint ticket” with his principal till 2025, it was the beginning of a bigger drama.
Only those who knew the various games he had played at the back will be able to decipher the whole essence of the statement. Prior to this period, Aiyedatiwa had concluded and mentioned to people that he would succeed Akeredolu before their constitutional term end on February 24, 2025. To him, by whatever arrangement and by facts available to him ( no matter how porous, discredited, untrue and vague) he believed Aketi cannot survive his ailment.
So, when his media people developed the short code or payoff “ O’Datiwa, O’Dirorun” meaning “ It’s now ours, it has become easy”, not many people could read between the lines except those who heard him make statements along that line that Aketi would not finish his term as Governor of Ondo State because of his ailment. He came to this satanic conclusion based on wrong information he got from those close to Aketi as family members or those that they have mentored for close to three decades but turned to squeal on him for personal reasons.
Based on the wrong information he received which he believed, Aiyedatiwa is on record to have boasted to people or make statements that “ if it remains a day for February 2025 to end he will become the Governor of Ondo State”. What this means is that no matter the calculation Aketi will no longer be alive and he will succeed him. So when his aides at a meeting with him coined the phrase “ O Datiwa, O Dirorun” all that they had to do was to embark on serious political drive both on the media and personal contacts.
When eventually it became necessary for Aketi to seek further medical assistance, Lucky and his team of Vultures within and outside the State Exco went on overdrive hemorrhaging the entire political and social space with negative stories about his boss and those he perceived as stumbling blocks to his ambition.
He was found to have shamelessly reveal official private communications to the Press. He openly demand respect through intimidation and blackmail and employed the use of positions in government to bring many to his side. To him, power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and when you see a wounded lion you must take it by all means possible.
For instance, it is a fact that just like outsiders, many members of the Exco were undecided where they stand during the difficult moments. Each news of Aketi’s demise during the period erodes the confidence of many members of the State Executive Council. Many of them had their “ loyalty tested”. Only very few of them believe that Aketi deserves their support and loyalty to the end. But unfortunately, many of them pitches their tents with the Acting Governor hoping to be rewarded when the “ did is done”. Unfortunately, Aketi survived.
It is on record that some days before the arrival of Mr. Governor, he was still cocksure that the Governor would not come back. When one member of the State Exco known for his loquaciousness told the Acting Governor that he heard the Governor will arrive soon that he won’t want to be too close to him like before, he was said to have told him in a matter of finality that as far as he was concerned “ it is past tense”. When young Commisioner asked him to explain further he reminded him of his right to make a choice between “the living and the dead”. He was said to have immediately ended the telephone conversation. That’s the way Lucky went about his search for his “ Peradventure” power.
Hence, the current impasse in Ondo State between the House of Assembly and the Deputy Governor of the State, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa must have posed a lot of confusion to many people. Some wonder what could make a man so loved and so assisted by his boss and his family become a target of the Ondo State House of Assembly and the boss cannot call them to order. Others wonder why would a man who was at the throes of death, rescued by God and whose deputy led the Exco in “prayers” and also held the reins of government together could come back and and his target through the back is to get rid of his “loyal and supportive” deputy?
Some of these people have been so overtaken by emotions to suggest that Akeredolu is an ingrate and that he is behind the move to impeach his Deputy. They have forgotten that the Levi’s tire is a different arm of government and they have oversight functions to perform as it’s written in the Constitution. Despite anything the “cabals” might have told him, they feel Akeredolu on his return should be going to Churches, Mosques and Shrines to show gratitude rather than trying to remove his deputy.
So, when the House moved against Aiyedatiwa based on the many infractions he had committed against his Oath of office and the Constitution and his people particularly from Ithe Southern district, which he knew as a fact. The best strategic thing he could think of was to begin to run round and round like the Barbers Chair.
Instead of confronting his so called “traducers” with the facts to prove his innocence, all he cared and the most available option is to embark on a journey of Witches and Wizards.In the African world of myth and mysteries, the journey of the African witches and wizards is to inflict and tire out their prey before they eventually kill it. A war of attrition so to say.
The recourse by the Ondo State Deputy Governor to be running from pillar to post is a strategic plan developed by Aiyedatiwa and his very few but vociferous supporters based on beliefs held by him that Aketi’s days are numbered. For proper understanding, anyone who have read the Constitution would see that the content of Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution was an easy to read law. Even, laymen like me can understand it. It has milestones in such a way that you know what to do at any point in time and the steps to take.
What Aiyedatiwa did was to rush to Court, prolong the process rather than answering to the questions and waiting for the Governor to embark on another round of medical trip outside to which it would become imperative for power to be transmitted to him “at all costs”. He would now do what he had failed to do or too scared to do before. He will adopt the “ Yemi Osinbajo Principle”. This will be to sack everyone who had been a problem to him. The cabals and their supporters within and outside the State Exco will go and those in the civil service will be shown the way out. The other erroneous strategic thought he has was that “ Aketi cannot survive” for too long. To him his is on borrowed times. What a mindless thought.
What this means in essence is that, the initial proposition that Aketi is terminally ill is still ringing in the Deputy Governor’s head and he is doing everything or determined to fight to finish to achieve his aim. There is no doubt that he had some support outside the State and within the State. Unfortunately, this support is too little to save him from what my layman mind has been able to see in the Constitution and what is currently going in the Court.
The truth here is that, Aiyedatiwa would try so much but he had been ensnared by his indiscretion, greed and pulsating naivety. His vaulting ambition has bottled him so much he has become so unrealistic about his capacity. His search for power has turned him to a slave to those who seek to benefit from his poor judgement. Like Abacha he has been “ hold up” in his mind that he is ready to rock the boat and swear in vain to the god of power that Aketi is finished and he would benefit from his doom.
Unfortunately, this “Peradventure Strategy” is dead on arrival. It is a dream that will never materialize. It is based on disloyalty, evil plans and debauchery. No such plans survive in the face of truth. It will collapse like the “Halloween Morgue”.
It is not Akeredolu that is Lucky’s problem. It is Lucky that is unlucky to think Akeredolu will die before his tenure ends. That is the fact of the matter. That is the Lucky Aiyedatiwa wrong story.
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