Until last week’s bloody clash, governance in the Sunshine State of Ondo was the proverbial upholstery (timutimu) which shielded a generation of filth (egbin) from the glimpse of the world. The ward congress of the State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, which left two people dead and several others injured, brought out all the hidden muck. The bloodbath was attributed by many stakeholders to the State governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s now well-known inordinate ambition to stay-put, in the lingo of Pidgin English speakers, for a third term.
Daring ones among the people of the state even claim that the disruption of a stakeholders meeting presided over by the state chairman, Ade Adetimehin, by political thugs said to be emissaries of the governor were part of his ploy to reincarnate the narration of General Sani Abacha’s self-perpetuation in office. Raphael, Adetimehin’s brother, was brutally attacked by the suspected political thugs at his ward in Idanre. He was said to have been shot and stabbed, in an operation in which the party chairman was thought to have been the one brutalized. Adetimehin senior, who is not in Aiyedatiwa’s good books, was said to be the target.
Since Aiyedatiwa came into the saddle two years ago, having replaced late Rotimi Akeredolu, his boss, it has been sorrowful tale of retarded and arrested development for Ondo State. Recently, inhabitants of the state covered their faces in shame as government rolled out “celebration” of what it said were its achievements in office. An ear-marked commissioning of road projects that Akeredolu had almost completed and ones that even a local government would be less proud to hoist for mention was all Aiyedatiwa could boast of in two years. They were Igoba, SIB Extension, Afunbiowo Housing Estate, Ayegunle Iwaro-Oka, and a couple of other roads. State-wide condemnation stampeded government into suddenly putting the commissioning under wraps. For an oil-producing state, Aiyedatiwa is disgracing Ondo State tremendously due to his gross incompetence and incapability.
Those who accused previous governments in the state of failure to jump-start the state for it to compete with other states of the Southwest see Aiyedatiwa’s fare as governor as intolerable and the limit. Of all of past governors of the state, Olusegun Agagu and Olusegun Mimiko are hoisted for their remarkable developmental strides. The situation now is such that, apart from tokenism, Ondo State is so backward developmentally, so much that it cannot stand shoulder to shoulder with any state in the west.
But, is the fault in the people’s star? Why are Ondo people always this unlucky? Yes, Aiyedatiwa is an accidental leader. It is why every people must ensure that spare tyres are not put forward as deputy governorship candidates. As proven now, situations could change and what was thought to be spare becomes the original. Ondo State’s experience in this regard has been distressing. There is absolutely no new development that can be pointed to since the incumbent came into power, despite the billions of Naira accruals from IGR and federal allocations. The rumour in town is that the state’s wealth is tethered in the pockets of SANs who are helping to process in court Aiyedatiwa’s puerile arguments to reincarnate as Sani Abacha.
Indeed, the Aiyedatiwa years are appearing as the years of the locusts. The onus is on the people to guard their loins. Anybody angling to lead the state must be known to have resounding pedigree of commitment. No longer should vultures with talons soaked in blood and greed be ever allowed to mount the saddle of the Alagbaka Government House. As a writer-wayfarer friend of mine often says as signature tune of his Facebook narratives: This, too, is my 10 Kobo advice.
