December 03, (THEWILL) – Come April 2024, about five months from now, political parties will hold primaries to choose candidates for Ondo State Governorship Election, which is coming up in November.
The ongoing political crisis within the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, following the supremacy battle between ailing Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and his Deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, is providing the perfect platform for interested parties in the 2024 governorship to stake their claims, according to investigation by THEWILL.
The interested parties are President Bola Tinubu, Governor Akeredolu and his Deputy, Aiyedatiwa and their supporters.
Ordinarily, these interested parties would still have asserted their right to pick and choose candidates for the forthcoming poll, but the current situation is weighing in favour of some over others. Here is where President Tinubu, who had been challenged since 2016 and defeated by local and Abuja-based forces to install his preferred candidate as governor, is enjoying the Ondo spectacle due to his stature as President and Commander-in Chief of the Armed forces, as a source puts it.
“One of the southwest states that Tinubu had a serious challenge installing a governor is Ondo. He had financially and politically backed some candidates in the past and they won, but later turned against him,” said a dependable source, “ This time around, he will get his pound of flesh as President.”
THE TINUBU FACTOR
According to the source, Tinubu made several efforts in previous years, but with negligible success, to install a governor in the state. Starting from 2008 when he was seen as the leader of Southwest politics, he ‘invested’ heavily in the legal battle at the election petition tribunal that eventually threw out Governor Olusegun Agagu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and affirmed former governor, Olusegun Mimiko of the then Labour Party, LP, as the duly elected governor. But the political romance was short-lived as Tinubu and Mimiko later fell apart.
Then in 2012, Tinubu tried to pay Mimiko back in his own coin by backing Akeredolu on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to unseat Mimiko. Mimiko won the election and soldiered on.
Undaunted, Tinubu played his cards in 2016. This time he decided to support Segun Abraham, one of his political protéges and an international businessman, as well as a one-time Chairman of Owena Motel under Governor Adefarati, to pick the ticket of the then brand new APC, having formed the national government in 2015.
Aware of the opposition of the players in Abuja led by President Muhammadu Buhari, who often felt uncomfortable with Tinubu’s claim to APC National Leadership title and Dr. Kayode Fayemi, former Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Tinubu cut a deal with his wife and current First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
While Tinubu supported Abraham, Oluremi supported Senator Robert Boroffice. Akeredolu, who had fallen out with Tinubu, got Abuja’s support and was able to defeat other contestants, including Abrahams and Boroffice, at the primaries.
ZONING AND ONDO GOVERNORSHIP RACE
Ondo-South is, by general consensus within the APC, the next zone to produce the governor of the state.
Aiyedatiwa and Chief Olusola Oke, SAN, are both from the zone. But the Deputy Governor is from Ilaje, the largest voting catchment area in the South. The plan to impeach him was part of the game plan to get him out of the way as successor to Akeredolu, even though the governor personally chose him with that reason in mind, particularly when his first deputy, Agboola Ajayi, who hails from the same zone fell out with him in 2020 and resigned to contest the governorship election on the platform of the Zenith Labour Party and lost. The Ondo South Senatorial District is said to be the next in line to produce the next governor after Olusegun Mimiko from Central served for two terms and Governor Akeredolu from Ondo North is in his last lap in office.
But Aiyedatiwa’s current supremacy battle with Akeredolu may have put his chances of succeeding Akeredolu in jeopardy. The ailing governor and his henchmen almost got him impeached for ‘misconduct’, after getting his media aide sacked for allegedly maligning the governor, who was then recuperating in Germany.
The governor’s wife, Betty, who is one of the power brokers in the government alongside their son, Babajide, (Adviser and Director-General of Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit of the state), is said to favour Chief Oke, SAN, who is also President Tinubu’s choice, as successor to her husband. Moreover, Oke is also from Ilaje, like the current deputy governor.
ONDO 2024 STORY
Aiyedatiwa, who succeeded Agboola, was said to have been recommended by Akeredolu’s wife, Betty, who wields a lot of influence in the government.
But Aiyedatiwa soon fell out with the First Lady who considered him ‘over ambitious’ and ‘desperate’ because he was accused of trying to take over from his ailing boss in acting capacity.
Because of this, he fell out of favour with the Governor’s camp leaving his governorship ambition on shaky ground.
In fact, a force led by the governor’s wife, his son, Commissioner for Finance, Wale Akinterinwa and others allegedly did everything possible to stop him. This is despite the fact that the governor ‘deliberately’ did not hand over power to the deputy, in accordance with the provision of the 1999 Constitution.
The thinking is that if Akeredolu did not survive the ailment, his deputy would not stand a good chance to succeed him. In order to prevent him from emerging as a governorship candidate, his traducers have laid other accusations at his doorstep; they even went to the extent of alleging that he molested his wife, an allegation which he denied.
Party stalwarts from Ondo South Senatorial District who are eying the governorship, come 2024, are also involved in the web of intrigue surrounding the contest for the governorship. Prominent among them are the Commissioner for Finance, Wale Akinterinwa; the Senator representing Ondo South, Jimoh Ibrahim; running mate to Akeredolu in the 2012 governorship election, Paul Akintelure and National Vice Chairman APC Southwest zone, Isaac Kekemeke.
These aspirants are courting the favour of the governor through his wife and son, while some of them are also courting the president.
For now, Mr. Olusola Oke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, one-time National Legal Adviser of the PDP, before he defected to ACN in 2012 when he contested for the APC governorship ticket but was prevailed upon to step down for Akeredolu, former NDDC Commissioner in 2001 and Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, OSOPADEC, pulled some surprises with his performance at the 2016 primaries. He lost, but his performance and CV made an impression on Tinubu.
“Of all the potential candidates for Ondo 2024, Oke appears to have the President’s attention,” said a party source.
He is said to come from the zone where the governing party is likely to zone the governorship in 2014.
THE BACKGROUND
The crisis in Ondo started in June 2023, when Akeredolu went on a medical vacation to Germany when he took ill and failed to transmit power to his deputy, Aiyedatiwa, in an “acting capacity,” pending his return to the country.
During his stay in Germany for treatment, Governor Akeredolu’s health was rumoured to have worsened and some powerful people in the government fingered the media crew of the deputy governor as being responsible for spreading the rumour.
Akeredolu returned to the country in September and officially wrote to the State House of Assembly, informing it of his resumption. A copy of his letter to the lawmakers was also forwarded to Aiyedatiwa, thus relieving him of his position as acting governor.
But since his arrival in September, Akeredolu has been staying in his private residence in Ibadan, Oyo State recuperating and performing his duty as governor from there. His absence has sparked some protests and debates about the constitutionality of his actions.
His managers are said to have been forced to bring him home to prevent a public backlash against his long stay in Germany as he is said to be physically unfit to withstand the strain of his office.
But his continued absence from office in the last five months and failure on his part to transmit power to his deputy, Aiyedatiwa, since he returned to the country in September, has polarised the Sunshine state into many camps and heated up the polity.
Governor Akeredolu’s failing health and his inability to transmit power to Aiyedatiwa have combined to put governance in Ondo state on auto-pilot at the moment, further dividing many interest groups.
Tension is currently running high in Ondo State as many groups and the main opposition party, the PDP are constantly protesting the governor’s absence in the state.
The groups, under the aegis of PDP Forever Initiative, led by its National Coordinator, Obande Gideon Obande, threatened to occupy Governor’s Office should he (Akeredolu) fail to heed the 72-hour ultimatum. Disturbed over what they called leadership vacuum created by the absence of Akeredolu from office, the groups asked that his deputy should be fully empowered to run the affairs of the state.
At one end, there was a civil society group, the Incorporated Trustees of Liberate Foundation International, which sued the Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, Deputy Governor Aiyedatiwa and 20 members of the State Executive Council, seeking an order from the court to declare Governor Akeredolu incapable of discharging the functions of his office on the ground of serious ill-health.
The legal action, according to the group, is sequel to the governor’s absence from office since May 17, 2023 till date without any particular date of his return to office in sight.
Alarmed at this development, the majority of the State Executive Council on Thursday, November 16, 2023 passed a vote of confidence on the governor.
The cabinet members, in a communiqué, promised to continue to support the governor in his drive towards ensuring the development of the state.
However, different groups are protesting daily and calling for the resignation of Governor Akeredolu.
At this point, the leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti and other elders in Ondo State waded into the feud between the governor and his deputy and appealed to President Tinubu to intervene.
Ondo elders urged President Tinubu to end “the current constitutional crisis in the state, to avoid the looming breakdown of law and order,” according to Pa Fasoranti after an emergency meeting held in his Akure home, attended by traditional, religious and professional leaders, market women, the academia and other notable stakeholders.
President Tinubu on Friday, November 22, 2023 waded into the matter and persuaded the opposing factions to embrace peace and maintain the status quo. He urged the lawmakers to refrain from any impeachment move against the deputy governor, and the deputy governor to rise above partisanship and embrace all groups and shades of opinion in the state.
Responding, Aiyedatiwa pledged to carry all commissioners and officials along in the handling of the state’s affairs, just as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Olamide, resolved to halt all impeachment moves against Aiyedatiwa over alleged misconduct.
These resolutions came after nearly six hours of deliberations presided over by the President and attended by state officials, including party officials and members who converged on the Presidential Villa, Abuja, until late Friday, November 29,2023, night.
The Deputy Governor, who declared his decision to maintain the status quo and unite all the warring factions said, “I want to say that I pledge to all of you that I embrace every one of you. I put behind all that has happened before now. I’ve let go just as the President has advised us.”
The Ondo House of Assembly and the Speaker, Oladiji, withdrew their appeal challenging the decision of the Federal High Court stopping the moves to remove Aiyedatiwa from office. But they vowed not to support him in acting capacity as governor, a status quo that favours the many political interests ahead of 2024 polls.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
