Is Akeredolu still Alive?

By Dr. Akeredolu O.N.

Though we are earnestly praying for Aketi to return alive to the state if it’s the will of God. However, the governor who was very vocal and audacious by nature has suddenly become inaccessible to the citizens for months – he couldn’t be reached by the great Ondo State cum Nigerian leaders like Pa. Reuben Fashoranti, Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, Oba Olu Falae, and Co. He is constantly incommunicado, unseen, and his whereabouts remain unknown. If we begin to doubt his existence despite that we wish him well, we may not be wrong, putting in view the unprecedented political havoc being perpetrated by the cabal.

A senior doctor who is an Orthopedic surgeon once told the bitter truth to his mother when his immediately younger brother was diagnosed with cancer at stage 4. One of the finest and most gifted hands in the field of curing bone diseases said to other siblings that they would soon cry in their family, explaining to them that his beloved brother was going to the world beyond. Others who were holier than thou said bad things about this great medical doctor, that he was not empathic and too frank. However, his prediction, based on his rich medical knowledge, came to pass.

In the same vein, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN was detected to be carrying the terminal illness of lung cancer. Some of us cried to God in our closets, wishing the life of the finest human rights activist could be spared, but he finally lost the battle. He did the unusual by digging his grave for burial before he finally passed on to the glory. There is a fact: no one is immune to cancer, and all human beings will die one way or the other, even without any terminal illness or disease. In a nutshell, no one can make a mockery of anyone because of sickness; we are all mortal beings who must die. Only celestial creatures would not experience sickness or corruption, as ordained by God.

At the Aburi accord, following the July 1966 retaliatory coup, one of the first seven graduates to join the Nigerian Army, Lieutenant Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, told the meeting being chaired by Lieutenant General J.I Ankra, then Ghana president, the need for the gathering to accept some bitter facts staring at everyone. However, Nigerian military leaders were in denial. Being more educated than most of his colleagues, a Cambridge University-trained lawyer, Lt. Col. Ojukwu persuaded them to agree on the truth that Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi had been killed, against the lie of kidnap that was being peddled by pro-government media agents.

The late Ikemba of Nnewi also corrected the wrong notion of the earlier January 1966 coup, which was erroneously termed the Igbo coup, in which the great congregation of military men and diplomats accepted the significant aspect of his objections. My point is this: Africans, mostly in the sub-Saharan region, like deception, which might explain the failed leadership currently bedevilling these areas. The current political dispensation hasn’t helped, compromising everything, including the rule of law, to please the greed of a few individuals, necessitating the recent upsurge of coup d’état claiming many countries of West Africa already while others are waiting for the right time to strike.

Ondo State has recently witnessed untold evils in the hands of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN. He rode on his few achievements as the president of the Nigerian Bar Association, of the learned colleagues. Arakunrin gained prominence after he criticized injustice under President Umar Yaradua, and confronted the cabal who wanted to hold the country by the jugular by subverting the rule of law. The emergence of Aketi in the political arena gave a false belief of seeing a Messiah who would take Ondo state to the Canaan land. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case today with what we had witnessed under his watch and when he is currently indisposed. Arakunrin, as he is popularly called by his admirers, put us in the current perils in which a few individuals are looting the state blindly, worse than what was experienced by Nigerians under President Umar Yaradua’s administration, which he condemned then.

The Aketi has been unavoidably absent from the state due to ill health for several months; the initial sympathy enjoyed from the citizens has waned down, considering Arakunrin’s ungodly attitude of attempting his deputy governor’s impeachment. The resolutions claimed to be reached by various warring factions have failed to provide leadership for the state. The Sunshine State’s indigenes are disappointed in the manner in which President Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu handled the entire scenario, leaving the situation messier by not upholding the rule of law, which is the backbone of any true democracy. No doubt, the state elders who called on the Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces to do the needful are disappointed by the unreasonable outcome of the so-called peace meeting with Mr. President.

During the civil war, an Igbo man, having donated his two grown-up sons to fight for the Biafran army, the last child of 12 years of age was about to be conscripted to this army against Nigerians. The elderly made a statement of fact and told the fearful commandant the bitter truth that, having donated his first two sons to the same cause, if there was a need to take a 12-year-old boy to the war after 3 years of unfruitful efforts, the Igbo elders needed to consider the possibility of surrendering to their enemies because it’s obvious they had lost the war. Considering the recent political shenanigans at the backdoor of Arakunrin Akeredolu in which his voice was neither heard nor seen by anyone except by proxies cum cabal members, doubting whether Aketi is still alive is not out of order.

Though we are earnestly praying for Aketi to return alive to the state if it’s the will of God, however, if the governor who was very vocal and audacious by nature suddenly became inaccessible to the citizens for months, he couldn’t be reached by the great Ondo state cum Nigerian leaders like Pa. Reuben Fashoranti, Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, Oba Olu Falae, and Co., constantly incommunicado, unseen, and his whereabouts remain unknown. If we begin to doubt his existence despite that we wish him well, we may not be wrong; putting in view what Africans can do for power, asking him to address the state even with a 3-minute video or we conclude he is no longer alive should be the bedrock of our agitation in Ondo state.
Peoplesmind