Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State

Bola Bolawole

By Bola Bolawole

Governor of my native Ondo state, Arakunrin (Mr.) Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu aka Aketi, will be one year in office on Saturday, 24th February. It has been one very drab and dreary year. Aketi has been damn too quiet and too, too cold for comfort. Is it that he is a silent worker and not a “noise-maker”, to quote President Muhammadu Buhari? Does he want his performance only to speak for him? He must be told that in politics, what is not seen to exist does not exist. He has to draw positive attention, if not to himself, then, to our state, and grab the headlines. Perception is vital; governance necessarily must be action-laden. A leader must mobilise and energise his people; he must be seen and heard and cannot be self-effacing. He must exude confidence and fire our spirit. He must convince; he must make profound statements. Gone were the days when we had quotable quotes from our leaders. As illiterate and anti-intellectual as Gen. Sani Abacha was, he left behind one quotable quote no one will forget in a hurry.

It is: “Enough is now enough”! Or who can forget that quote from the late Ooni Oba Okunade Sijuwade: “E jade ki e lo try best yin”? Leaders must inspire their people. Akeredolu is a well educated, learned, and experienced person and shouldn’t have any problem in this regard! Leadership is also about “action”; Aketi must wake up from his slumber and give us some action. He must begin to speak up and speak out. We want to hear him; the world wants to hear him. How will he draw attention to our state if he behaves like a monk or recluse? I am sure he saw a monastery there when he chose to vie for the Government House.

Last Thursday as I made my way to the airport in Akure to board an Air Peace flight to Lagos, I listened to a phone-in radio programme where my brother, Yemi Olowolabi, the Ondo state Commissioner for Information, featured. Yemi came late and I did not hear him offer any apologies. That was not good enough. Yemi, however, is a gentleman par excellence; very polite, humble, respectful, responsible, and vivacious. My path and his first crossed when he was Chief Press Secretary to the late Gov. Segun Agagu of Ondo state; some senior professional colleagues had put pressure on me to travel to Akure to help the Agagu government out with some of its media problems. Yemi did not behave like many other CPS who would immediately see you as a threat and an enemy coming to snatch their job. He cooperated fully with me and we worked seamlessly. He gave me very useful lessons that enabled me settle down fast on the job. The first was that while Dr. Olusegun Agagu was the de jure governor; his younger brother, Pastor Femi Agagu (Chief of Staff), was the de facto governor. Once you had seen Femi, you did not need to see the senior Agagu, who virtually abdicated power to his younger brother. Incidentally, Femi is also a commissioner in the Akeredolu government.

Second lesson: We were to travel to Lagos to address a press conference and Yemi brought a paper for me to sign. I asked why I should and he said we must give the proverbial “brown envelope” I protested that we shouldn’t and he laughed. He said, “Oga, your own generation was ‘thank you, editors’. You did your job and received ‘thank you’ but the present generation is ‘Ghana-must-go’” Grudgingly, I signed and Femi released the millions and we carted it to Lagos. At the Chinese restaurant venue of the event, I was not only surprised that Yemi was proved right; other things happened that must not be relayed here. A week or so before the 2014 Ekiti governorship election, Yemi and I compared notes at the Trade Fair hotel, Ado-Ekiti; troubled by the feelers I was getting from my numerous readers as well as my own independent investigations, I had asked Yemi whether he thought Kayode Fayemi could win re-election. Both of us were rooting for Fayemi. Yemi was sure Fayemi would win in all local governments and that Ayo Fayose would not win in any. I told him my reservations and findings but he assured me there was no way Fayose would win a single local government. As it turned it, the reverse was the case.

Yemi returned to his “Red Carpet” after that, before his latest appointment with Akeredolu. I must not forget to put on record his sense of duty during the high-wire re-election bid of Agagu. That election was massively rigged and Government House was the epi-centre of the sordid act of votes doctoring. I had the privilege of a blow-by-blow account as resounding defeat was turned into resounding success but results could not be announced; tension was thick in the air. My phone rang in the morning and Mr. Depo Tewobola, one of the two-some who had sent me to Akure for the media consultancy job, said, “Bola, where are you?” “Of course, where else but Akure where you had sent me” “What are you still doing there? Don’t you know that state will burn any moment from now?” I jumped out of bed, threw my things into the car and zoomed out of Owena Motels. Getting to NEPA Junction, there were bonfires everywhere already. The police advised me to go back but I elected to brave it. I drove through four bonfires to get to the outskirts of town. A few kilometres to Owena my phone rang and Yemi said he was on his way to ferry me from my hotel to a safe house at Government House but I told him I had already escaped. He shouted for joy and wished me Godspeed.

Last Thursday on the radio programme mentioned earlier, Yemi reeled out a long list of achievements by Akeredolu’s government: roads everywhere; reduction in the backlog of salary arrears from 8/7 months to two; what they were doing about potable water supply, etc. If they have done that much, why are they not flaunting it? I heard the controversy over the stoppage or non-stoppage of free education in Ondo state; and the criminal silence of the state government over herdsmen’s rampage in the state is known to all. Except for a whimper from Aketi a while ago, herdsmen’s atrocities have grown into a monstrosity in Ondo state. Aketi has fidgeted, trying the balancing act of juxtaposing the interests of the Abuja people who made him governor against those of the good people of Ondo state whom he governs. Chief Olu Falae was kidnapped, his farm violated again and again and then set ablaze; herdsmen have sacked a whole council secretariat; they have invaded the airport; laid ambush on the highways; and have raped, maimed, and killed innocent people – Aketi has not only done nothing, he has not as much as found his voice. And this is what Hausa/Fulani leaders of all hues will not do for anyone. Whoever you are and no matter the good turn you have done them, they will never sacrifice the interest of their people for you. Witness the travails of Tinubu and the mockery of him they are making at the moment!

We have got to wizen up! While I congratulate Aketi on the occasion of his first anniversary, he must now begin to show a sterner stuff, which I believe he is made of. Dabo,’miyemi, ma d’usha yi meren non! I know Aketi has a good media hand in Yemi Olowolabi – except he is one of those governors who do not empower their media handlers.

[email protected] 0807 552 5533