- Allen Sowore Esq.
I have been bringing you up to speed about happenings in Ondo state for sometime now, particularly, matters affecting the relationship between the Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN and his Deputy now the Acting Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa – the governor’ s high-handedness and his inability to tame his family’s overbearing interference on governance.
However, this time, I must exonerate the Governor because he has done the needful – transmitting power to his deputy while he takes sick leave to attend to his deteriorating health in a hospital abroad. I must equally wish him a complete and quick recovery. Amen.
Sadly, with deep sense of patriotism we regret to note the satanic activities of some members of the ” Ondo State Cabal” namely: the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Wale Akinterinwa, Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Duties and Union Matters, Dare Aragbaiye and others to sabotage and subvert the Acting Governor’s effort to assume full and smooth running of government and its machineries while Mr Governor is away as stipulated by law.
Section 190 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is apposite:
” Whenever the Governor transmits to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to the Speaker of the House of Assembly a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Deputy Governor as Acting Governor
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Therefore, it is instructive and behoves all the state government officials – political and the civil servants – to report and take orders from the Acting Governor the manner and way they would have done to Mr. Governor. Anything to the contrary is tantamount to an act of insubordination and should attract sanction.
As a lawyer, I understand that it is within Mr. Wale Akinterinwa’s constitutional right to run for the office of the governor or any other elective public office. But such personal inordinate ambition should not be cloaked to undermine constituted state authority as presently being exhibited by the Finance Commissioner and his co- travellers in Ondo state.
This surreptitious sponsored blackmails to smear and besmirch the reputation of the Acting Governor in some sections of the media should not be allowed a breathe in a sane society. Not even a state prided as the intellectual plinth of the South Western Nigeria.
I just read an unsavory News Report, poorly crafted, obviously, by these state skulduggery to create an imaginary rift between the Governor and his Deputy, now Acting Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa. The drafters fruitlessly attempted to portray the Acting Governor as a power hankering and over ambitious persona.
It’s a sharp contradiction, to accuse an Acting Governor of “undermining the authority of the governor’s office”. How can the Acting Governor undermine the authority he is exercising?
In another twist, they cunningly revealed that the Acting Governor (although ignorantly and repeatedly referred to Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa as deputy governor) demanded unrestricted access to the state treasury. There’s no such office now in Ondo state as “deputy governor” What we have presently is Acting Governor. In other words, Mr Governor in action. If the Acting Governor does not have access to the state’s Treasury, who else does?
Ridiculously, as expected though, the Cabal complained bitterly in their infamous write up about the functions of the Acting Governor. In their words:
” On Wednesday, the Deputy Governor was supposed to represent the governor at the 2023 FIDA Nigeria held at the International Centre for Culture and Event (DOME). But he declined, he chose to attend the 2023 NAF Conference World Hydrography Day in Abuja” .
Àwon Oloriburuku, they don’t want the Acting Governor to feature, attend or even appear at any serious state function outside the state. They want to cage him so that he will not have national connection and recognition as the Acting Governor.
Truly, I will not advise or counsel the Acting Governor to sack or terminate the appointment of any public office holder in the state like the then Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo did to the former Director General of State Security Service, Lawal Daura. He will be playing to the gallery.
Appropriately, a cabinet reshuffle and rejig of the state cabinet may be desirable to ensure the requisite unity of command in the instant circumstance. As critical stakeholders, we simply can not afford to look away while the state skid into full anarchy and mobocracy.