WorldStage Newsonline– Even with the recent intervention of President Bola Tinubu in the political problem in Ondo State, it’s not yet uhuru to the crisis. The problem has continued to prove intractable given the backlashes that have always attended all efforts at nipping it in the bud.
To many, the latest further medical trip Governor Rotimi Akeredolu is to embark on to address the unsparing kicks of his ailment will serve as balm to the intractable political crisis in Ondo State but reports emerging on the development signal even more polarized and bitter rivalry that make the absence of the governor, despite transmitting power to his deputy, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, disappoint expectation of rapprochement.
The latest of the anti-solution backlash is the brewing discontent with the alleged reshuffling of cabinet in the state by the acting governor to which a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Sola Ajisafe, has responded with strong warning to the acting governor.
Ajisafe had on Wednesday, called on the acting governor not to reshuffle the cabinet to favour his supporters within the State Executive Council. He said the steps would be seen to undermine the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is recuperating in an undisclosed hospital abroad and a betrayal of the agreement reached with President Tinubu.
According to him, arrangements are ongoing to reshuffle the cabinet to favour some members of the State Executive Council, saying information at his disposal indicated that the acting governor would soon redeploy the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Princess Oladunni Odu, to the Ministry of Commerce, while the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Wale Akinterinwa, would be posted to Culture and Tourism.
Ajisafe states that such action is contrary to the 1999 constitution and would be contrary to the agreement reached with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the peace meeting held in Abuja.
He said, “Section 190 of the Constitution did not give the Deputy Governor the power to reshuffle the cabinet. The section gives the acting governor the right to act on behalf of the governor and not override the decisions of the governor. There can’t be two governors at the same time.”
Ajisafe said the two memos that emanated from the office of the acting governor, including the freezing of the local governments and Local Council Development Area (LCDA) accounts, and that the Chief of Protocol (COP) to Akeredolu is capable of undermining the office of the governor.
He noted that the protest by non-state actors demanding the resignation of Akeredolu showed that Aiyedaiwa wanted to succeed his boss through any means.
According to him, the first time President Tinubu summoned the gladiators to Abuja, there was no effort on the part of the acting governor as the leader of the state to reconcile all warring factions; rather, he said he recruited non-state actors to protest to demand the resignation of Governor Akeredolu.
He also said “Section 189 of the constitution talked about permanent incapacitation, not as freely being used by these people. These are the people who are pushing an agenda capable of rocking the boat of progress in Ondo State.”
As with Ajisafe so it is with many other major political players in the state. Some of them still believe the crisis is only suspended and not resolved. According this group, all the gladiators in the crisis are only fighting for their personal and political interests, and that the acting governor Aiyedatiwa has the ambition to succeed Governor Akeredolu just as other members of the state executive council. It was even rumoured that some supporters of the acting governor are now inferring from his name – Aiyedatiwa (affairs now ours) to suggest they are to eventually take over affairs.
According to statements from some political actors and elder statesmen in the state, there are many contending interests that will make reaching any settlement a herculean task. In fact, some of them say Akeredolu new absence will only offer itself a fertile ground for struggle for an edge by those scheming for next year off-season gubernatorial election in the state to both continue and re-strategize.
Besides, some others contend that the governor’s wife towering on the politics of the state as well as the fact that she’s allegedly backing different candidate against her husband’s choice for next year governorship position are sure reasons the state may not yet know peace
It was gathered that one of the reasons Aiyedatiwa is having problems with other members of the cabinet is because of the 2024 governorship election. Apart from Aiyedatiwa, in Akeredolu’s cabinet about three others are preparing to contest for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress in the primary that would come up in April 2024.
The prospective cabinet members include the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Oladunni Odu; the state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Wale Akinterinwa; and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr. Francis Faduyile are from the Ondo South Senatorial District.
The three of them, all from the South Senatorial District where the party zoned its governorship ticket, have signified their intention to contest the forthcoming election. There are other members of the party from the zone, according to sources, who are also willing to be Akeredolu’s successor in 2025, hence the political manoeuvring gives the impression that there might still be a crisis of who gets what in the future.
There is also the fear that Aiyedatiwa may be tempted to use his current position to suppress others in clinching the party ticket in 2024, fueling the doubt of any peace ahead.
An APC stalwart in Ifedore Local Government Area of the state, Jame Oloriegbe says it will take Aiyedatiwa playing the game well to succeed in his current office as acting governor he needs to play the game very well among the Ondo’s political gladiators so that politics would not continue to affect governance and halt development.
Until Governor Rotimi Akeredolu took ill and it became public early in the year, socio-political affairs in Ondo State were bubbling and relatively stable. But suddenly and unexpectedly, the once convivial political atmosphere began to take a nose dive following reports that the governor had taken critically ill and subsequently ferried to Germany for medical procedures.
The issue of the governor’s sickness itself is as unsettling as the crisis his absence in the state has been causing, even till now. The crisis over his sickness is rooted in his wife’s claim that a prominent woman member of his administration is responsible, alleging that the woman in question poisoned her governor husband and vowing to dish it out to the woman fire for fire.
The situation is further complicated by the fight between the governor and his deputy, Mr. Lucky Ayedatiwa over trust issue that led to fragmentation of administrative system induced by vested interests of prominent political players in the state. It was learnt that the mistrust arose from claim that the deputy, while acting for his principal during his treatment abroad, was scheming to undermine and seize power from the sick governor, allegedly anticipating that he would succumb to the ailment.
The complication also got worsened by invocation of constitutional provisions by oppositions and some stakeholders in the ruling party (APC) with regard to the governor’s absence from the state even after returning from medical trip, a situation that amassed to the duration beyond which an executive of a state or the country must not be available for governance.
The constitution provides for the deputy governor to act if the governor is unable to discharge his duties as result of any incapacitation, including health challenges. But the governor has rather cut off with his deputy and even allegedly manipulating the state House of Assembly to remove him from office. The development had attracted intervention of, first, APC national officers and, later, President Bola Tinubu himself, as leader of the ruling party.
Not even the peace deal announced following the president intervention could bring any succour as the conflict hasn’t relented from festering. While critics described the agreement as recipe for confusion, loyalists of the governor believed it would ensure peace, given that the next governorship election in the state is drawing near.
Though there were arguments in some quarters that the governor has been discharging his duties from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, since his return from medical trip abroad, not a few prominent political leaders in the state have dismissed the argument with a wave of the hand, counter-arguing instead that it’s unconstitutional for a governor to stay put in another state to be administering his from there for such a duration spanning months.
This, in the interim, has caused the heat to shift from impeachment of the deputy governor of at the prompting of the governor and turning on the governor himself as large portion of the state’s populace are hell-bent on engineering his impeachment and removal from office for having not come to the state for administration since he returned from Germany on medical vacation about three months ago.
Besides, there were some other alleged undercurrents which sources in the state disclosed to be fueling the crisis. Among them is the opposition People’s Democratic Party’s allegation that the finances of the state are being due to the continued absence of Governor Akeredolu. The chairman of the party in the state, Fatai Adams claims “there is no clear leader of government business as the governor remains in sick bed; the deputy governor is still battling for political survival despite president Bola Tinubu’s intervention; and the state continues to wander in darkness.”
Adams promised to make public soon a compendium of illegal and illicit actions taken by functionaries of government to compromise the state’s financial health, assets requisitioned illegally, and sundry unpatriotic actions executed against the wellness of the future of the state.
The chairman went ahead to recommend transmission of power to the deputy governor in the interest of the state since the governor is currently unfit to handle state matters because of his illness.
A call and message to the state’s Commission of Information to state government’s position on the claim of constitutional infringement by the governor’s absence was neither returned nor attended to. However, a state functionary who volunteered comment but pled anonymity slammed the opposition PDP’s comment as playing politics with sensitive matters.
The source argued that despite the governor’s physical presence in the state government is running and that nobody can pilfer government finances when, according to the person, there are checks and balances everywhere. “It’s just a political statement, a careless and baseless allegation,” the source quipped, challenging the opposition to provide proof that the state finances were being pilfered instead of inflaming emotions.
There was also allegation of forgery of the signature of the governor leveled against officials of the state. Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Rasaq Obe had in a letter dated December 7, 2023 confirmed the forgery of the governor’s signature for ulterior motives. But some leaders in the state under the auspices of Ondo Elite Assembly countered the forgery allegation as only done to coerce the governor into transferring power to his embattled deputy because of his absence in the state.
The summation of all these undercurrents were also to spiral into further cacophony of calls for resignation or impeachment of the governor or impeachment of both the governor and his deputy to allow a new lease of life to political administration in the state. While a rights activist Deji Adeyanju called for impeachment of the governor, Chief Edwin Clark, former Federal Commissioner of Information and elder statesman in the Niger Delta wrote an open letter to President Bola Tinubu to adopt the Doctrine of Necessity to resolve the “unfortunate crisis” as leader of the ruling party – The All Progressive Congress (APC). By Doctrine of Necessity, Akeredolu will have to yield the power to his deputy since he’s incapacitated by ill-health.
Likewise, Adeyanju admits that while it’s normal for all mortals to sometimes fall ill but that it isn’t normal for governance to come to a halt because one man is medically incapacitated. Joining the power must shift fray also is a pro-democracy activist and presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, who is spearheading a rally to force governor Akeredolu to either resume duty immediately or resign.
It is believed that he’s in his Ibadan residence, Oyo State, recuperating. But a source said he may have been flown out to seek further medical intervention. Due to his absence, forces loyal to him have been battling his deputy leading to tension that has so far remained intractable.
Until the reconvening of reconciliatory meeting with parties involved in the crisis by president Tinubu on Monday, the previous such effort by the president yielded no result for peace. But there is talk among the people of the state that Monday’s meeting with Tinubu must have been what forced the governor’s hand into opting for further care of his health than allow it run the state aground.
