Your Excellency,
Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa,
Alagbaka,
Akure.
Dear Governor,
Alarm bell over lopsided appointments
Greetings your Excellency. Congratulations on your assumption of office as the executive Governor of Ondo State. I can’t thank you enough on behalf of the good people of Ondo State for your giant strides and achievements since you took the oath of office as the State Governor after the demise of the late Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
Concerned that you are truly lucky, your head is good, and the world has now become yours, as your name suggests, I write this letter to advise you, having personally observed your lopsided appointments, considering the rumpus of your loyalists and complaints by various groups which has got the internet talking ahead of the state governorship election slated for November 16, 2024.
Recall that by providence, you were inaugurated on December 27, 2023 as the state governor even though many people were not happy that a strong man and a voice for the liberation and freedom of the Nigerian people was gone. But your name, ‘Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa’, manifested and you took over as the State Governor by God’s grace. A position the good people of Ondo South have been long agitating for, to at least gain freedom from the shackles of backwardness, and age-long marginalization caused by previous administrations in Ondo State after the death of Dr. Segun Agagu.
With your emergence as the state Governor, many believed a Daniel had come to judgement. They believed you will right the wrong, correct mistakes, and injustice, give hope to the hopeless and stop the marginalization. In fact, Ondo South believed they have taken their rightful place and that the marginalization will stop.
Apart from the core politicians, the majority of our people from the south are not thinking of another messiah. It was believed our prayers have been answered, regardless of the political parties that produced you as the governor. Not only in Ondo South, also in Ondo Central and North, the majority of the general populace believe in the continuity of your administration beyond 2025.
But worried that things have changed with the people having a second thought, considering your lopsided appointments and alleged marginalization among your people in the six local governments of Ondo South, I decided to write this to inform you that all your loyalists in the other two Senatorial Districts are losing confidence in you. This is because it will be difficult for outsiders to trust and repose confidence in you if your people from the south can’t trust your leadership.
Sir, the good people of Ondo South, especially those from outside your local government of Ilaje, believe you are marginalizing them. They felt you have created another marginalization out of the age – long marginalization of Ondo South Senatorial District by previous state governors to dominate them.
I don’t really know the people who are advising your Excellency to introduce this wrong political philosophy of ‘take it all syndrome’, with further evidence by today’s appointment of your kinsman as the new Accountant General of Ondo State, a few weeks that the appointment of another Ilaje as the Head of Service, ditto others, become controversial.
Sadly, this is happening at a time you need good and formidable structures across the 18 local governments of Ondo State to continue governance beyond 2025. Truly, everyone is guilty of this act. People see it as a norm to favour their people when in power. But this becomes abnormal and unacceptable when governance is becoming a family affair. Honestly, your Excellency can’t defend it if the list of your appointments is rolled out for public consumption, those announced and unannounced, which were over concentrated in Ilaje, but I won’t do that since this letter is not aimed at embarrassing you, but to rather alert you of the impending danger of your actions in this regard.
Yes! Of a truth, I agree that you need to appoint loyal and trusted people in positions. I admit that leadership positions should be entrusted with competent people who share your vision and ready to work with you and support your vision with the needed loyalty required. I must also state that no law forbids you from appointing your kinsmen to positions. But it must not be too much as governance is not a family affair.
I disagree with your Excellency and those advising you that all the key positions must also come from Ilaje, your own local government. What happens to other LGAs? Sir, don’t you have loyal and competent people from other LGAs within and outside Ondo South Senatorial District? Can your people in Ilaje alone win this election for you?
Dear Governor, don’t you look beyond your party primary? Or do you think you can defeat the leading opposition party with a divided house, especially when your party men from other LGAs are already crying ‘Lama Sabachthani’ against you, which in this context means you have forgotten and forsaken them, amid political gang up and conspiracy within your party to stop your administration beyond 2025?
Honestly, I have nothing to gain or lose from your success or failure at the poll, but for my admiration for your personality, spirit of luck that follows you everywhere you go, and the spiritual reflective meaning of your name, ‘Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa’, which attracted me to do this, I won’t forgive myself if I don’t drop this open letter for the sake of posterity.
I did this with good intentions. I don’t really care if your followers and advisers will misconstrue the purpose of this letter. But I’ll be happy if you could correct all the anomalys raised above and address the lopsided appointments’ allegations raised by those that loved you by incorporating more people from other LGAs into your government and arrest the looming division already threatening your ambition.
I hope this letter meets you well.
My name is Olumide Akinrinlola, Publisher of Starnews NG.
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