● From “Aiyetidatie” to Abuja tears: How luck, ego and empty pockets cost Aiyedatiwa Ondo APC
Politics in Ondo State has a cruel way of exposing men. It lifts you on the wings of providence one day, and strips you bare the next. Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa is learning that lesson in real time.
Let’s be honest: Aiyedatiwa’s rise was never about master strategy. It was luck. Divine luck, if you believe in such things.
When Agboola Ajayi’s inordinate ambition blew up his own deputy governorship under Rotimi Akeredolu, providence reached into political obscurity and pulled out a Bureau De Change man from Obe-Nla. Akeredolu, with his trademark wry humour, even played on the name at the unveiling: “Aiyetidatie lo ni o” — “the world has become yours today.”
And for a while, it did. Aiyedatiwa rode Akeredolu’s coattails to a 2020 re-election victory, and after Akeredolu’s death in December 2023, he was sworn in to complete the term. He then won his own mandate on November 16, 2024, beating that same Agboola Ajayi who had started the whole drama years earlier. He inherited a solid APC structure, the goodwill of Akeredolu’s legacy, and a clear runway.
He has squandered all three.
—The fall began with ingratitude–
Aiyedatiwa picked fights he didn’t need to pick. First with Betty Akeredolu. Then with the very political arrangements that kept him in office. He set out to revise and reverse Akeredolu’s legacies, not because they were bad, but seemingly just to assert that he was now in charge.
In politics, that’s called biting the hand that fed you. And in Ondo, the hand bites back.
While the governor was busy playing “personal interests first,” someone else was building an empire. Enter the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo — BTO.
—The Abuja tears—
About two weeks ago in Abuja, the music stopped. I reported it as “Tears in Abuja: How Governor Aiyedatiwa lost Ondo APC to BTO’s takeover.” Some called it sensational. It wasn’t.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
Aides and party officials confirmed it to me: Aiyedatiwa broke down after seeing the APC’s final list of National Assembly candidates to be submitted to INEC. Not one of his nominees made it. Zero Senate. Zero House of Reps.
In the House of Assembly, of 26 candidates, only 11 are believed to be loyal to him — and even those had to trek to Abuja to beg to keep their names after BTO’s camp tried to sweep them out.
A senior APC source told me point blank: “The governor lost everything in one fell swoop.”
-Megabucks vs. Miscalculation—
This wasn’t magic. It was money and timing. BTO, described by insiders as a “natural leader,” allegedly deployed vast resources to buy loyalty in Akure and Abuja, with backing from national party leaders and elements in the Presidency. The talk in corridors is that he is already angling for 2028. He moved early because he feared Aiyedatiwa would try to anoint a successor.
Aiyedatiwa’s mistake? He didn’t fund the structure. He didn’t water the plant. He assumed the title of governor would be enough to command loyalty. It wasn’t. His loyalists have quietly, and in some cases openly, drifted to BTO.
—A governor without a structure—
Now the knives are out. With only 11 loyalists in a 26-member Assembly, impeachment talk is no longer whisper. It’s conversation. The governor knows it. The Presidency knows it. I’m told a top Tinubu official is already rooting for BTO’s 2028 bid. And Aiyedatiwa is said to have fallen out of favour after what insiders call “imprudent political talks” following his 2024 victory.
Constitutionally, he cannot run again in 2028. He had hoped to be kingmaker. That door appears shut.
—The lesson of Ondo—
This is not about whether I like Aiyedatiwa or BTO. It’s about the law of political gravity. You cannot inherit a structure and refuse to nurture it. You cannot mock loyalty and expect loyalty in return. You cannot assume that because “the world has become yours today,” it will remain yours tomorrow.
Akeredolu called him “Lucky.” And lucky he was. But luck without wisdom, without structure, without gratitude, expires fast.
Ondo politics has moved on. The lotus flower that bloomed by accident is wilting because no one tended the roots.
And in less than 20 months, we will see who truly owns Ondo APC.
NOTE: Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Theliberationnews.
