…….. By Dr. Akeredolu O.N
*The current Governor of Ondo State has suffered a lot of persecution at the hands of the cabals; no aspect of his life was spared. However, instead of sinking him politically with their propaganda, his popularity doubled among the people of the state.*
*If Tinubu, Buhari, and Fayose were maligned by political desperadoes with the same tactics, honestly, the best disposition to the current unfounded allegation against the Governor is to ignore the rumour mongers, which H.E. Lucky Aiyedatiwa has displayed so far concerning the certificate issue.*
I have tried everything within my capacity to ignore the rumour mongers spreading falsehoods about the current Governor of Ondo State regarding the authenticity of his O-level certificate. It’s also noticed by keen watchers of political affairs that our current Governor’s popularity swells with every unfounded allegation against his personality. From his days as the Acting Governor during the first medical leave of Arakunrin, the cabals who were afraid of his acceptance by the people of Sunshine State started with allegations of domestic violence. The pseudo-groups being sponsored by these Machiavellians tried to tarnish the political image of the Acting Governor then. There is one thing that is very sure in the Nigerian political arena: any lie can fly if it’s well propagated. Having known this, peddling falsehood, mostly in the era of social media, has been the major instrument in the hands of these evil power mongers.
The most challenging thing is the level of gullibility among the so-called elites. It’s crystal clear that most people only had higher institution education but their reasoning faculty is still very low. When former President Muhammad Buhari was very ill and had treatment abroad, there was a section of the country that started spreading falsehoods about his real identity. This lie was accepted hook, line, and sinker without deep scrutiny. In fact, I heard a medical doctor sharing the same ideology with the possibility of it being true. They started by saying the former president. Buhari’s replica was in Sudan, called Jubril, and was brought in to hold forth while the main Buhari, who would elect, was dead, citing his Chief of Staff, late Aba Kyari, as the main originator of the idea. It became a trending issue of national debate until the entire dispensation was over. The question today is, was president Buhari actually dead then? Why was the evil lie? After he left the government, he returned to his low-key life used to, by his upbringing as a Fulani boy in Daura, Katsina State.
In the same vein, having served Nigeria in various capacities, from Second Lieutenant in the Nigerian Army, rose through the ranks and file, served as a military administrator of the North East, with headquarters in Maiduguri, modern-day Borno State, under the late Gen. Muritala Muhammed and later as Minister of Petroleum under Gen. Obasanjo as Heads of State Consecutively. He became the G.O.C of the most powerful mechanized division of the Nigerian Army, and subsequently ruled Nigeria for almost 2 years as our Head of State. When it was his time to win the presidential election of 2015 under the democratic dispensation, having contested in the past three previous elections, they came up with the same idea of certificate scandal, spreading the falsehood that he never had an O-level certificate. This singular rumour almost portrayed the most disciplined government organization, the military, in a bad light. How would they have employed someone without the prerequisite then into this highly respected government security apparatus and rose through the hierarchy to become the Nigerian number one Kaki man cum military leader?
Likewise, the former Lagos State Governor, now President of Nigeria, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, was not spared from this political epidemic. He was a successful man in the corporate world where he worked as the Executive Officer with multi-billion-dollar companies like Exxon Mobil. He participated in the senatorial election of Lagos State ,1991 and won despite being a political novice. The preservation of democracy turned him into an emergent activist where he fought the military junta of the late Gen. Abacha with everything in his capacity, even at the expense of his life. During the return of this democracy in 1999, he governed the Centre of Excellence for two consecutive terms , later became their leader and installed successors since then. The unprecedented achievements of Jagaban of Borgu in private, public, and political arenas didn’t immunize him against the shenanigans of the certificate scandal when he wanted to be the President of this country, the position he’s currently occupying.
Not considering that it’s not possible to work in Exxon Mobil oil, an international firm of first-class personnel with unverified certificates, even if Asiwaju was Prince Charles, the son of the Queen Elizabeth of England who now inherited the most revered monarchical throne in the world as the king. Suddenly, the senses of Nigerians, even our youths, disappointed them; they started the mudslinging to their detriment. We thank God that our Judicial system in the country finally laid the ugly incident to rest. Almost the same thing happened in Ekiti State between 2003 to 2007 when the son of nobody suddenly became the Governor of the people with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Having defeated political juggernauts like Chief S.K. Babalola of Ijero Ekiti in PDP primaries with a wide margin, finally knocked out the incumbent Governor then, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo of AD with the noble military background, from Iyin Ekiti, Mr. Ayodele Fayose had a bitter experience of the certificate scandal. The unbelievable miracle of someone without the usual rich foundation who didn’t follow the protocol of having any godfather or godmother was too shocking for the assumed political leaders who were disgraced by the emergence of the young man as the Governor under their watch; then certificate scandal came up but never sank the architect of the modern Ekiti State as the rest is now history.
That Ondo State’s cabals have resorted to the same formula to bring down the new Governor of Ondo State, H.E. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, despite he was earlier screened, profiled, and appraised by Aketi then before he was nominated as the Deputy Governor during the second term of Arakunrin’s governorship bid, it’s not strange to the reasonable political observers. However, if they couldn’t prevent Aketi’s death though they wished otherwise, not because they loved this Owo-born legal luminary but to have their way with their anointed aspirant as the next Governor in 2024, when it was obvious to everyone, I mean Aketi’s vegetative state and God later decided the fate of Sunshine people through the natural course of humanity which all of us will still go through. I’m very sure that no amount of shenanigans can prevent the incumbent Governor from securing the ticket at the end of the day. The golden silence of the H.E. lucky Aiyedatiwa is the right way to go because the conspiracy against him is too thick and unprecedented in the political history of Ondo State.
*Dr. Akeredolu O.N Leader, Aketi Medical Team, 2016, Vice Chairman, Aketi-Aiyedatiwa Medical Committee, 2020*