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Aiyedatiwa has risen to the occasion to invigorate his authority as Governor and to carve a niche for himself and to untie himself from the Apron Strings of medically-incapacitated Governor Aketi Akeredolu.
I led a one man Battalion opposition and criticism of Akeredolu for blocking the only road to the Deji’s Palace on the excuse that the blockage was needed and called for to relieve or minimize the Traffic Congestion on the main Oba Adesida Double Carriage Way in the center of the State Capital.
What Governor Akeredolu had done was a great disservice and insult to the Deji-in-Council and to the Akure Council of Chiefs and to the rank and file of the people of the City with the biggest population in the State and the Headquarters of the Akure South Local Government.
I made it clear in my letter of protest which was widely publicized in the Social Media and Facebook that Governor Akeredolu would never have had the temerity to intimidate and to insult the Sultan of Sokoto or the Oba of Benin or the Olubadan or the Alaafin of Oyo or the Olowo of Owo the way he has insulted the Deji of Akure who has doubled down as the paramount ruler of Akure Kingdom, and the rotational Chairman of the Ondo State Council of Obas not to talk of his power and influence as the Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna and as the Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR)
I have earlier on addressed a similar protest to him on his discriminatory attitude of delaying the Approval of the selection of Kabiyesi the Olojada-Elect for close to 5 years or more on the authority of Oda Kingmakers who had by a comfortable majority announced the selection of Om’Oba Julius Ajayi Omomo as the first graduate Olojada in all of Oda History.
Governor Akeredolu was kind or magnanimous enough to immediately lift his Government’s embargo on the selection and the Coronation of the new Olojada. I gave him kudos for listening to constructive criticism as a public figure and a politician
I wrote another letter widely publicized on the News Media thanking the same Governor Akeredolu for quickly recognizing the man’s selection by the Oda Kingmakers and for immediately approving his selection and the presentation of the Staff of Office to Oba Ajayi Omomo by the Chairman of the Akure South Local Government who represented the Governor at the Ceremony. It was a good move by Governor Akeredolu who was a performing Governor before his medical incapacitation .
But Governor Akeredolu had bluntly refused to attend to the other protest concerning the Blockage of the main entrance to the Deji’s Palace which had been recognized since 1985 or thereabouts, as a Historical Federal Landmark and Monument maintained by an annual Federal subvention on the authority of General Ibrahim Gbadamasi Babangida as the Military President of Nigeria.
Acting Governor had today unmasked the masquerade like they say in Akure Dialect by giving an order to remove the blockage to the Road leading to the Deji’s Palace with immediate effect and automatic alacrity thus affirming his power and authority as Acting Governor who is fully allowed to carry out the full functions and responsibilities of substantive Governor Akeredolu who is on an indefinite medical leave outside Nigeria.
It was the right move to make and the right thing to do drawing cheers and praises and standing ovations from the rank and file of Akure People at home and abroad as we speak.
We are all now singing the praises of Aiyedatiwa as a listening Governor with gravitas.
It was a joyful day in the State Capital that the Acting Governor can justify by ordering the construction of a modern roundabout and flyovers around that junction to give the Roundabout a befitting face lift and to relieve traffic congestion that may finally get the attention of the Federal Government to very expeditiously move the old and rickety Post Office adjacent to the Deji’s Palace and which has become an eyesore to another more befitting location in the State Capital.
That movement of the Post Office and the Federal Ministry of Communications was long overdue as eloquently argued in all of my previous articles on the subject, so the space currently occupied by the old Post Office and the Federal Ministry of Communications can be spared and the structures on it moved elsewhere in Akure, to enable the Akure South Local Government reconstruct the whole area as the entry point to the Deji’s Palace and to the moral equivalent of the Arlington Cemetery in Washington DC where American political and civil Heroes and Heroines and Heads of State like John Fitzgerald Kennedy are buried.
Who in his right senses would ever think of locating a Post Office At Arlington Cemetery? The move was as crazy as that, if you get my point.
The current federal Post Office in Akure is built next door to “Oke Ile” in Akure Dialect where the remains of all the 46 past Deji of Akure are buried for thousands of years. It makes no sense for any Government to put a Post Office in the Cemetery of our Kings or to allow the Hausa/ Fulani Currency Black Market merchants to dissect-rate and do their business on the Holy Grail of our traditional values for years.
If nothing is done, I plan to take the Federal and Ondo State and Akure South Local Government on behalf of the Adesida Royal Dynasty of Akure and the Osupa/ Odundun Dynasty of Akure to seek damages for the insults and defamation caused to our traditional values, if we all know our rights in that country.
“ Oke Ile” is precisely the wrong place to build a Post Office or the Federal Ministry of Communications if our Nigerian leaders have any sense of History at all and if we all cherish our traditional and cultural values as a people.
Acting Governor Aiyedatiwa has written his name in gold today in the State Capital by issuing the order to remove the Blockages with immediate effect, but there is still more he can do to earn the support and the respect of his people as he looks forward to running for Governor in less than a year.
What he had done was the right thing to do and I speak for millions of Akure people at home and abroad in congratulating Governor Aiyedatiwa and thanking him and his Government for putting the interest of the Public based on his power and authority as granted by the Eminent Domain Provisions in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution as amended.
I hereby urge the Chairman of the Akure South Local Government and his Counsellors to liaise with the Governor’s Office and the Ondo State Ministry of Works and Urban Planning and Akure Land Trust in getting the job done and completed.
I rest my case
Prince Dr. Wumi Akintide
Oyemekun Terrace New York
