THE political logjam in Ondo State is becoming more chaotic as the struggle to control the governance apparatus gets messier. Ailing and unable to attend to his duties, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s continued absence from office has grounded key government activities, fuelled intrigues and allegations of financial misdeeds. The refusal of Akeredolu, who has been in Ibadan, Oyo State, since September, to resign or transmit power to the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has set the South-West state on edge. Democracy is taking a bashing.
Hope of a resolution flickered briefly in November when the main actors met with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja. But rather than defuse the uncertainty, Tinubu’s intervention aggravated it. A Presidency statement said Akeredolu, despite his ill-health, would remain governor and Aiyedatiwa, the deputy governor, while the state House of Assembly was asked to drop its moves to impeach Aiyedatiwa. Disappointingly, Tinubu’s prescriptions ignored constitutionality and the public good in favour of party solidarity.
Thus emboldened, the Speaker of the HoA, Olamide Oladiji, is carrying on as the supreme authority in the state. At a plenary, he arrogantly warned Aiyedatiwa to sign an undated resignation and submit it to the President. This is preposterous, demeaning, and unconstitutional.
Morally, and legally, the refusal of Akeredolu to transmit power or resign is offensive and inimical to the public interest. Tinubu erred by lending his weight to illegality. His responsibility is to insist on the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution that he solemnly swore to uphold by persuading Akeredolu to transfer state authority to his deputy.
At the height of the national political crisis in 2010, Tinubu demanded that ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua transmit a letter to the National Assembly for his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, to become the acting president. Rightly, he had argued that this conformed to the rule of law. He cannot turn round to consign that principle to the dustbin.
Ondo has been enmeshed in political shenanigans since early this year when Akeredolu took ill. In June, he transmitted a letter to the Ondo HoA for his deputy to act. Despite this, governance was chaotic and became messier when Akeredolu returned to Nigeria in September. But he has since been ensconced in Ibadan from where he ostensibly regained control of the government.
Along the way, the HoA commenced impeachment proceedings against Aiyedatiwa, who fought the moves in court. Akeredolu then sacked his deputy’s aides, blowing the simmering factional war into the open. Aiyedatiwa also apologised publicly to Akeredolu ahead of Tinubu’s intervention.
Akeredolu, a former Nigerian Bar Association president, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who had canvassed the resignation of Yar’Adua in 2010, should defer to the 1999 Constitution. The constitution was amended in 2010 to provide for a governor (or President) that is indisposed due to illness to resign or transfer authority to his deputy to act.
In his first term, Akeredolu similarly had a running battle with his then deputy, Agboola Ajayi.
Political watchers say some of the crisis is traceable to the politics of succession to the governorship seat in 2024. But the personal ambition of politicians is not worth throwing the state into a crisis.
The crisis is beyond an All Progressives Congress affair as the ruling party wants Nigerians to believe. Like other states, Ondo deserves good governance and stability. Tinubu should therefore convince Akeredolu to do the right thing.
Nigeria is not a monarchy, but a republican state, where the succession system is legally spelt out. Ondo State lawmakers should prevail on Akeredolu to step aside or resign, failing which they should impeach him. This is the best way forward.
