Governors’ inhumanity to their deputies and all others outside their pack could not be better evinced than by the shame governance in Ondo State of Nigeria has suddenly become. Ondo, the Sunshine State used to be our epitome of integrity and the home of valiant people. We grew up to learn that because we saw this manifest in many ways and at various times in our interactions with indigenes of Ondo State. The Yoruba word for “the valiant” is “akin”. We also grew up to learn that per capita, most of the people who go by the name ‘Akin’, or whose names are prefixed by ‘Akin’ in Yorubaland are likely from Ondo. So, “akin” is replete in Ondo, but it all appears to be just by name as they have all recoiled like rattled snails in the current political situation in the state.
Confidence Automobile Engineering Limited (CAECO) which we loosely called Confidence Motors or just Confidence gave us a close view of the character of many people named Akin from the old Ondo State. Confidence Motors was one of the most notable landmarks in Samonda, Ibadan. Another corporate outfit now occupies the premises of Confidence Motors, but the defunct outfir is still etched in our memory as Samonda children. Confidence Motors was owned by a man from Ile Oluji in Ondo State, Chief Moses Oluremi Adewakun, who was known with many numerous qualities of the akin we knew Ondo State to have. Confidence Motors had a hostel for his workers inside our neighbourhood in Samonda. We therefore lived and grew up with many people from the old Ondo State. At some point, there were more than one Akin in the hostel at a point, and one of them was the rallying point. Of course he was identified simply as Brother Akin Confidence.
Today, current political shenanigans in that land of the valiant have shoved the virtues attributed to the state down the vale of lawlessness. Ondo is now an example of utter lack of courage. The cowardice in the discussion and the handling of the affairs concerning the state is not just irritating, it is unsettling. Governance in the state in is limbo but the people have chosen the path not known with the “akin”. All the Akin in Ondo State have gone mute. This is unsettling both the watching citizens of the state and many other Nigerians who are observing the political absurdity from their respective locations.
The cowardice is more of a problem at the door of the Ondo State House of Assembly. The legislative arm of government is ordinarily supposed to be a gathering of the representatives of the people. The men and women in the house should have been the ones to thrash the governance limbo. The matter is theirs much more than it concerns other appointees of the state governor. But from all indications, the entire members of the House of Assembly have been herded in one direction. The members have laid themselves down for ridicule and have their heads in one location. Otherwise, if the Ondo State House of Assembly was indeed a legislative assembly of the people, then the state shouldn’t have got to this nadir. The representatives of all the peoples of the state regardless of political affiliation or leaning have failed the people.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Ondo State caucus in the Diaspora made a queer whimper recently. Through the feeble call, they begged the state governor to do something about the humdrum in governance in the state. The Ondo State indigenes abroad said what is going in their state is not good enough and wants something done about it. Then they are begging Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) to obey the constitution. If the members of the state House of Assembly had shown half the courage shown by those Ondo indigenes abroad, there might have been a move towards helping the state get out of the pin hold of heartless politicians currently manipulating the state.
But the Ondo APC members based abroad have managed to say something about the long absence of governance in their home state. We can cut them some slack. What about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the other opposition parties in the state? The PDP in Ondo State is acting typical of PDP everywhere in Nigeria – languid, lethargic, clueless and lacking in initiative. Or, is PDP not supposed to be the main opposition political party in the state? The mirthful in it all is that the people who are supposed to speak up in the state have all gone quiet. They have turned us over in their levity and Ondo State is currently on the chessboard of unfeeling politicians. The PDP in the state is acting like Fela’s Zombie. The legendary Afrobeat icon sang that ‘zombie no go talk unless you tell am to talk’ and that ‘zombie no go move unless you tell am to move’. Now, with governance in limbo in the state owing to the ill-health of Governor Akeredolu, who is PDP waiting for to spur it to act – like a zombie? The hapless citizens of the state? Does this party sometimes pinch itself as the main opposition to imagine what its condition would have been if it was in power in the state and its government is running the way Akeredolu’s is running? Well, I might be assuming too much that there is a semblance of political opposition called PDP in Ondo State.
Politics has always been in the horizon but when the time to play the politics of who will succeed Akeredolu is ripe, Nigerians might forget some things. Among them would be the fact that the foundation of for an uphill task has been laid by the opposition political parties for themselves. They have abandoned the people when the state needed direction. It will be interesting to see how these opposition political parties, chief among which is PDP, would organize themselves to confront and wrestle the APC monster that is currently ravaging both the country and Ondo State. If the PDP and the others are to rescue themselves and Nigerians, it cannot be in this rudderless state they themselves are wallowing in.
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says the deputy governor, in this case, Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa, should take over if the governor is incapacitated. This was nearly the exact position canvassed by Governor Akeredolu when he was the President of the Nigerian Bar Association in 2009/2010 during the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua saga. The only difference is that it was Akeredolu the NBA President speaking vociferously to uphold the rule of law. Akeredolu the governor has not done what he canvassed back then and this must have been haunting him and his acolytes who have been playing the ostrich.
Ondo deserves better, the citizens deserve better and Governor Akeredolu deserves to be remembered as a valiant man.
. TheWitness
