~Debo Akinbami, PhD
For his marque of politics, the governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has been seldom controverted. The issues, when they sprout, arose more from the fact that he does not align himself with routinal rules than the exact consequences of his acts. In style, he is improbable. It takes hardwork to predict his pattern; and, when he veils his thoughts, as he occasionally does, for strategic reasons, it makes a tougher task to access them. For this, he is often misunderstood, so that his reticence makes him equivocal, and, sometimes, dangerously undermined.
Time and again, the governor takes on the fluid mode and returns to deliver concrete fruition. Overtime, he has proven to be adept at his style. His artifice works for him, as I believe, works for the state. This is because, at each turn, he gets results for/from whatever he deploys his craft to. Anyone probing for proof may check his rising trajectory. From the manner he meandered his way out of the plot to oust him as deputy, to the routes he took to re-emerge as governor, or the clinical talents applied to reinventing the party in the state.
Aiyedatiwa is, by all means, a smart dude; and rarely conquerable. He does not advertise his craft; neither does he flaunt his potencies. Not even when critics fume and fan raw angst. He watched querulous actors recruit idlers and hangers-on to make his government look bad. He sees the smart-by-half enablers from his backyards but chose to take all in stride.
We learned, after all, that one of the hardest fighters to fault is a man who measures his words, masks strategies -with feeble exterior- and weaponises silence.
Governor Aiyedatiwa’s gift of calm is rare. And it is about his sturdiest strength. You would find him unruffled in matters that rattled others. He silently moves but keeps his eyes on the ball, allowing neither distractions nor derailments whatsoever. Even when the political temperature rises, as it sometimes does, the governor avoids frontal fray, or feigns fragility, but, in the end, hitting adversary’s groin, even badly.
His leading is intentional, methodical, and mathematical- if you like. He likes to be seen as soft, though innately tough, and that seems more like his turf. He has proven this for the umpteenth time to the consternation of even his own admirers. These thoughts about him may not be entirely postulatory. They may, in fact, come closer to traits the governor would like to veil from convenient discernment. But this, in essence, may nudge or warn those who elect to oppose him to appreciate the part that the governor reads sturdier than his outlook.
Still waters, they say, run deep. For learning this lately, there have been political casualties, both by choice and chance. There have been self-bruising players in good numbers. And there are stronger indications that the governor may not alter the pattern, but given a closer watch, the style, in my view, is not the problem. The craft is but an innocuous tool that persists only to preserve the throne. The wrong reading of a fella already beaten by seasons before reaching the throne poses a problem.
Candidates who took his routes to power rarely lose touch with hard-earned lessons, and they are rarely penetrable. The good difference about Aiyedatiwa is that he is deeply humane, empathetic and compassionate. Beneath the hardware of politics resides these fine values, irrespective. The governor has, rather in surplus, what the old teacher described as the milk of human kindness. And, so meticulously, he goes about seeking to raise the status of the state on the various fronts.
As I see it, his approach to governance may not be far different from his politics. He takes his time, not just to get things done but to get the best things done in the best fashion of it. And, quite significantly, he has done a number of things right, with outstanding results. Like his politics, he has been no less effective with statecraft. The same heights that other leaders noisily attain Aiyedatiwa has seamlessly accomplished with low applause, as he prefers it. He made no fuss about the infrastructural strides taking place around the state. He courts no fanfare about his strategic moves towards industrialising the state; but the leaps are obvious.
In typical silence, the capital city is daily transformed. He got the seaport licenced for Ondo without a show. He brings citizens to gainful employment, in their thousands. That the very first flyover was effectively concluded makes instructive statements, irrespective. It reads as though a magic to those underrating his craft how he reversed Dangote’s decision in favour of the state, yet he receives less clapping than criticism, which is fine, to do well or to do more.
While Aiyedatiwa busies himself with building a state all citizens can proudly call theirs, wisdom prods us to indulge his approach and care more about the substances that his craft yeilds. The governor cares about the need to elevate the state and make more prosperous than he cares about political ploys. And, the less he cares about distractions, the more he gets his games right.
***Dr. Akinbami teaches Journalism and Public Relations at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
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