OPINION: Ondo Assembly Where Desperation, Indolence And Disservice Collaborate
By Enoch Akinwole
The recent turn of events in Ondo State and particularly in the state House of Assembly should ordinarily give the good people of the Sunshine State serious cause for concern. It has been well over 60 days now that the state Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu returned from his medical vacation in Germany and yet to step his foot on any part of the state he was elected to govern. Aketi has apparently been holed up in Ibadan while governance in Ondo State has unfortunately been hijacked by members of the cabal.
It is quite pathetic that the shinning sun of Ondo State seems to be going down on a daily basis because her governance is serious sick; just as the governor himself is evidently very sick. In addition to the fact that Ondo State is clearly a very sick state, it has also become a laughing stock and butt of jokes all over the nation. As things stand now in Ondo State, the sick governor has since retaken the power of governance in acting capacity from the fit and able deputy; while the same power of governance has been surrendered to members of the unelected cabal who have in turn been looting and plunderng the state resources.
It is quite disturbing that Ondo State has turned out to be the only state in Nigeria where both the governor and his deputy are not available for governance. While the governor is unavailable to govern due to sickness, the deputy governor who is fit and available has practically been shut out of the scene of governance. This is however contrary to the provisions of 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended which clearly empowers deputy governors to take charge of governance, whenever governors are unavailable or unable to discharge their duties.
Despite the fact that the constitutional duty of restoring sanity to governance in Ondo State falls on the State House of Assembly ;the hallowed chamber has rather chosen to join hands with the cabal to wage impeachment war on the deputy governor. Instead of looking at the direction of invoking constitutional provisions to compel the ailing governor to yield power to his deputy, leadership of Ondo State House of Assembly has become preoccupied with getting Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa impeached at all cost.
Despite the peace meeting held in Abuja at the instance of the Aminu Masari led committee with the Ondo State APC Chairman and members of Ondo Assembly ;the Speaker only returned to Akure to rekindle the flame of impeachment. This is definitely an affront on the national leadership of the ruling APC and Nigerian presidency by extension. The Assembly, Rt. Hon. Oladiji had unilaterally written another letter to the Chief Judge of Ondo State, Justice Olusegun Odusola requesting him to set up a panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct levelled against the deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
It is however interesting that 12 out of the 26 Ondo Assembly members immediately took exception to the unilateral action of the Speaker, because the decision was never subjected to parliamentary discussion. Meanwhile, one may then wonder why the Ondo Assembly Speaker and his co-travelers are so desperate to get the deputy governor impeached. The answer is not far fetched though, the deputy governor is seen as the only obstacle to the realization of their personal and desperate ambitions.
It is no longer a secret though that the Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly is nursing the ambition of becoming a deputy governor, just as the deputy speaker too is equally desperate to take charge as the Speaker. In the same vein, the House Majority Leader has also not giving up on his ambition to become the deputy speaker of the Assembly. It can now be seen without any cloud of doubt that the leadership of Ondo Assembly is simply hellbent on getting the deputy governor impeached by all means because of their desperate and personal ambitions.
It is also quite surprising as well as disappointing that the Speaker of Ondo Assembly,.Hon. Oladiji could have exalted himself about the national leadership and the party supremacy of the All Progressive Congress. What is also being witnessed in Ondo Assembly is a huge disservice to the good people of the Sunshine State. The Assembly has disappointedly abandoned the treatment of leprosy and start making frantic efforts to find a cure for ringworm.
Aside the LCDA Bill that passed into law by the Ondo State House of Assembly, the 10th parliament has largely been unpatriotically indolent since it was inaugurated on June 4, 2023. Instead of given sufficient consideration to the enthronement of good governance in Ondo State, the Assembly has unfortunately turned itself to a willing tool in the hands of power usurpers and reckless looters of the Sunshine State resources.
These unelected power usurper are taking maximum advantage of the sickness of Governor Akeredolu to enrich and connect themselves to having continuous access to the resources of Ondo State. Documents are being signed on a daily basis in the name of the name of Governor Akeredolu ; yet, no one can actually confirm if Aketi has been the one appending his signature to these documents. Instructions are also being dished out daily in the name of a governor that has not been able to talk to the people of Ondo State for more than two months since he returned from medical vacation in Germany.
Posterity may not be kind to the present crop of selfish, desperate and inordinate ambitions driven leaders of the 10th Ondo Assembly. A patriotic parliament ought to have started giving serious consideration to the Doctrine of Necessity as it was done by the Nigerian National Assembly when the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Ada could no longer discharge the functions of his office. Sad enough, the leadership of Ondo State Assembly knows the truth, but they would rather prefer to turn blind eyes to same truth and focus on the satanic pursuit of their desperate ambitions of profiting from the sickness of Akeredolu as well as the seemingly impossible impeachment of his deputy.