This is a sequel to my July 7, 2026 piece: “No Lotus for Governor Aiyedatiwa.”
I’m writing about Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa again. Not because I’m fixated. Not because Ondo politics is my bedtime story. But because politics, like comedy, keeps repeating the punchline until you finally laugh.
The first salvo was on July 1, 2026: “Tears in Abuja: How Governor Aiyedatiwa lost Ondo APC to BTO’s takeover.”
A sitting governor, weeping. A political Lord whose word should be law, watching the structure slip through his fingers to the Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo — BTO.
That wasn’t poetry. That was miscalculation. Aiyedatiwa starved the party, misread the temperature, and then watched BTO pull the rug with both hands and a smile.
But a reader stopped me in my tracks last week. Read his comment: “…Aiyedatiwa was a non-starter; a misnomer in the corridors of power. I don’t even know how, or why Akeredolu made him his deputy.”
Fair question. So I went digging.
—The “Lucky” Origin Story—
Here’s what the insiders told me, and their versions rhymed like chorus singers.
Before power, Aiyedatiwa was in Bureau De Change. No title, no office, just hanging around after his House of Reps bid flopped. Then he did what ambitious men in politics have done since time began: he got close to the First Lady.
Betty Akeredolu liked him. Called him “Lucky, my son.” And when trust lands in a place like that, doors open.
The opening came when Agboola Ajayi picked a fight with his boss and walked out of the deputy governorship. Akeredolu needed a replacement. According to multiple accounts, he even went to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu then, to ask him to pick. Tinubu waved it off: “Choose who you can work with.”
Betty didn’t wave. She pushed. Hard. And Akeredolu caved. That’s how Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa became Deputy Governor of Ondo State.
So when Akeredolu stood at the unveiling and played with the name “Lucky,” it wasn’t just wordplay. It was biography.
—When “Lucky” became a problem—
The honeymoon didn’t last.
Trouble started when Akeredolu’s health failed and the whispers of succession got loud. A video allegedly surfaced — Aiyedatiwa in a celebratory mood at the rumour of his boss’s near-death. Betty saw it. And that was it.
Betty and a frail Akeredolu reportedly vowed: this man would not succeed him. They tried impeachment. The House blinked. Then nature intervened. Akeredolu died. And “Lucky” ascended, completing the second term by constitutional default.
But the forces didn’t sleep. Re-election looked impossible. Even the Villa was cold.
Then came the masterstroke. Aiyedatiwa reportedly went to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, got his blessing, and walked him into Abuja to meet Tinubu. The pitch: one term, then power shifts to Akure.
You don’t say no to Pa Fasoranti. Tinubu didn’t. Aiyedatiwa got the ticket. He won in 2024.
—The irony of power—
Today, the man who rode in on First Lady patronage, survived impeachment, and borrowed an elder’s gravitas to get the ticket, is now watching the party structure migrate to BTO.
Poetic? Cruel? Both.
Politics in Ondo has always been a soap opera with real casualties. But the Aiyedatiwa story is a special episode: about proximity, about misreading loyalty, about what happens when you inherit power but not the machinery to hold it.
He was Betty’s choice, not Akeredolu’s. He was Tinubu’s reluctant concession, not his project. He was Pa Fasoranti’s moral collateral, not the party’s organic leader.
And now? The structure is gone. The lotus has wilted.
Maybe that’s the lesson. In politics, luck can take you to the throne. But only structure, money, and ruthlessness keep you there.
Aiyedatiwa happened in Ondo because Betty willed it. He stayed because Pa Fasoranti pleaded it. He may be leaving because he failed to fund it.
And that, dear reader, is how “Lucky” happened in Ondo.
See you next week.
NOTE: Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Theliberationnews.
