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“GONE AT LAST”
GOVERNOR AKEREDOLU IS REMEMBERED WITH GRATITUDE AND SOBER REFLECTIONS.
We all knew this day would come. We ought to have been better prepared to confront or to handle it in a way that cuts our losses but we had all refused to do that hoping against hope that a miracle was going to suddenly occur to change the inevitable and looming tragedy we have witnessed this morning with the sorrowful announcement of his passing.
“Iyanu a Sele” is how the White Garment Churches often describe it when they speak in tongues, “Eli Jah Talitakumi, Slobo Ye Ma ke la Sali Kaba”
Now it has happened. “The man died” not in the context of Wole Soyinka’ famous book and fictional genius.
The guy had wanted to hold on to life and political power for as long as possible, so he could continue to use Government funds and leverage to look for the best treatment that money can buy like few of our Nigerian politicians and leaders have done like President Umaru Yar Adua and President Muhammadu Buhari.
I suggest that It is now necessary for Nigeria to begin to keep record of how much had been spent to keep all of our ailing leaders alive so Nigeria could learn our lesson to ask for the medical records of any Nigerian aspiring to political leadership of our country, so we do not continue wasting millions of money in Dollars and local Currency to keep them alive if they are lucky to win.
Rather than the Ondo State House of Assembly demanding for a comprehensive Medical Report from the Hospitals treating the Governor and getting to know his diagnosis, they just kept quiet because some in Government have benefited from the drift that his medical incapacitation has caused the State.
The so-called legislators and law makers knew what the Constitution says, but would not go there or could care less about what our plagiarized Constitution has specifically envisaged or mandated.
It was even rumored that
the Governor’s signature was forged to take millions from the Ondo State Treasury thereby turning his sickness into a “Kalo Kalo” machine or an opportunity to make money and to milk Ondo State dry and to carry away expensive bullet-proof Government vehicles all on the authority of the Governor who was bed-ridden and was just damn too sick to remember or to put his signature to anything in the Animal Farm kind of Government we run in Nigeria.
The Security Vote which runs into millions for the Governor to spend without a need to account for dime or a penny was theirs to loot, no questions asked.
We probably would never know the whopping amount his prolonged illness must have cost the Ondo State tax payers but that information may now come to the open, too little too late, now that the man is gone forever. What a country!!!!
Well, it serves no useful purpose to talk evil of the dead, but there are lessons we ought to learn from his tragic situation because insanity is repeating the same bad habit, time and again, but expecting a different result.
Nigeria is never going to change unless we all become part of the change we want to see in Nigeria
That said, I must acknowledge that Akeredolu was a performing and a listening Governor before he got sick but more so in his first term in office.
He was a fighter and a political strategist within the APC and the National Governors Association where he was clearly a leader and a rising star.
We have to give credit where credit is due and criticize him, if we need to . That is the only way to bring change in a country crying for change. As Commander- in – Chief of the toothless Bulldog called Amotekun, he actually wanted to guarantee the security of his one people in Ondo State but the Buhari- led Government would approve AK 47 machine guns for his “Myyetti” foot soldiers but no arms for the Amotekun Security Guards of General Akeredolu who look awesome in his Ceremonial Uniform but could not even defend himself talk of another person.
I called Akeredolu a listening Governor based on how he had responded to a protest letter I had sent to him on the Olojada of Oda selection which he finally approved after a delay of close to 6 years. I reminded him in that letter that Posterity would be kind to him, if he did what I was suggesting and that he should remember in his sickness that tomorrow is not promised to him or to any of us.
I believe that the letter had touched his heart in a way he could not ignore or dismiss with the wave of the hand.
He was however slow to act on my other concern or complain on Akure and his shabby or condescending treatment of Kabiyesi the Deji of Akure and his blockage of the Entrance to the Deji’s Palace.
I called it like I see it without any fear or favor as a conviction writer.
It is a concern that the acting Governor Aiyedatiwa has now begun to address much to our own relief in the State Capital.
I would not end this piece or eulogy without expressing my sincere condolences to his First Lady Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu and their.children. I send my condolences to his Owo Constituency and to Ondo State and the whole country he has served so well and to the Anglican Diocese of Owo which he has meritoriously served as Chancellor for many years as confirmed to me in private by our father-in-the-Lord, the Rt. Revd. Bishop Stephen Fagbemi of the Anglican Diocese of Owo who spoke about the late Governor in superlatives the last time I visited the Bishop in his fabulous country home in Owo.
The late Governor had voluntarily allowed the Bishop to use that beautiful Town House in the GRA in Owo as his first home before moving to his refurbished Bishop’s Court Palace near the Anglican Cathedral in Owo.
Governor Akeredolu was a great asset to “Owo Imoro Ilu to t’eju gbalaja bi Omi Okun” his home Base in Ondo State which he had helped to build and to elevate to a beautiful modern city during his close to 7 years stewardship as Executive Governor of Ondo State.
67 year old AKETi was a good man and a star performer in my book and as a former distinguished President of the Nigerian Bar Association where he had left an imperishable legacy by building the NBA Building in Abuja which was later named after him..
We would have more to say about the late Governor at his State Burial which I expect to be announced in due course.
Eternal rest grant Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in Jesus name and until we meet to part no more in Paradise.
I rest my case.
Dr. Wumi Akintide
Oyemekun Terrace
New York.
