HUSTLING TILL TWILIGHT: A SAD TALE OF UNREPENTANT MISANTHROPES
I just read the press statement credited to Chief Tayo Alasoadura, a former Senator and Minister of State for Niger Delta and defeated senatorial aspirant in the 2022 APC Primary and Senator Ajayi Boroffice, the out-going Deputy Majority Leader in the Senate, whose long stint in the Upper Chamber represents great disservice to the people of Ondo State, particularly the Akoko constituency he pretends to have represented, as a straggler, indulged to “borrow” the office by the complacent and serially swindled communities.
They signed, jointly, an advertorial purporting to accuse Aketi of engaging in anti-party activities for challenging the manifest treachery of the same elements who devised all manner of subterfuge to stop the eventual winner of the presidential primary and President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. While right-thinking people, especially committed members of the All Progressives Party, APC, should not begrudge these old men for floating an NGO to bolster their dwindling political relevance named TIAM, a ludicrous acronym for “Tinubu Independent Action Movement”, those who may not know the facts concerning the skewed narratives in their advertorial must be availed of the opportunity.
The Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON, has left no one in doubt that he will always challenge any act which suggests injustice or impropriety from any quarters. He has never been apologetic for standing by the people when others try to be politically correct. He has been a strong party man who has never failed to stand against all partisans of injustice. It is not a recompense for political grandstanding that the people of Ondo, South West and indeed the entire South, in general, consider him the conscience of the country. He is not the type to play to the gallery in order to please any fleeting and parochial interests.
That Aketi is the epitome of courage is readily discernible in his numerous and impactful interventions at critical moments in the polity, starting from his days as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association. He became the alternate President of the country when President Umaru Yar Adua, GCFR, was seriously sick and the Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, GCFR, was not permitted to act in his absence. Aketi mobilized the NBA and Nigerians to resist that attempt at treason. The quiescent and acquiescent National Assembly came up with the ingenuous coinage, “Doctrine of Necessity” to escape the charge of connivance and collaboration with the cabal. Nigerians have not forgotten.
The reference to the choice of the current Governor of Ondo State as the candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in 2012, ignores, mischievously, the fact that the then party leadership needed a person of pre-eminent social standing as the flag bearer. Aketi was the only aspirant without any negative political baggage. Prof Boroffice had just supervised the NigerSat 1 which disappeared from the orbit after setting the country back with some N20billion. He had abandoned his primary constituency, the university, for too long. He did not resign until Prof Lateef Hussain, the late Vice Chancellor of the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, forced him to resign. His inglorious stint in politics had become a burden on any group which embraced the unwisdom of associating with the putrescent brand he represents. Aketi’s name was used to galvanise the little known party, ACN, in Ondo State. Facts are indeed sacred. Chief Alasoadura pretended to be the DG of the Akeredolu/Akintelure Campaign Organisation, Prof Boroffice worked against the party’s choice.
The Governor had contested the 2016 APC gubernatorial primary and the State elections as a fiercely independent candidate who would not compromise principles for any reason. The message which holds that no serious person underrates a consummate Bar politician, as he, was well delivered to and received by all concerned. Never again will anyone treat that quintessential brand for courage, decency, honesty, resilience and resistance with contempt. These characters were active participants at that period. They were witnesses to how Aketi checkmated hubris and overweening pride. He has since moved on.
It is true that Aketi stood against the crude imposition of candidates by the former leadership of the party. Professor Boroffice was a major beneficiary of the various acts of impunity at that time. Chief Alasoadura acts as an ingrate feigning deliberate amnesia as regards the role played by the Governor to ensure his re-election to the Senate. Having been rejected by the party leaders of Ward 5, his immediate political base comprising 23 units, for his selfish and divisive disposition, the Governor appealed to all and sundry to allow him go back to the Senate in 2019. While many candidates, elected by the party, had their names substituted at Abuja, Alasoadura’s name was retained. His people waited to show how resolute they were in distancing themselves from ineptitude, greed and ingratitude. He lost, woefully, in spite of the spirited efforts made by the Governor.
The Governor nominated him to become a federal minister to cover his shame, believing he would use the opportunity to redeem himself among his people. He not only alienated himself from his people, he acted in a manner which suggested that he was waging a war against them and the State. He resigned to contest again for the senatorial seat, an office he had used to feed his greed and pettiness. His appointment had turned out to be a huge mistake judging by the impactful standard being set by a much younger person, the vibrant Prince of Akure Kingdom, Ademola Adegoroye, the current Minister of State for Transport, who has proved to be a true representative of the people. There are flashes of inspiration emanating from his doggedness. I recommend the Prince, enthusiastically, to all good people as he is good.
The man Aketi does not need any introduction in Nigeria at present. His name is synonymous with forthrightness and courage, not treachery. He has been a relentless advocate for the downtrodden. He is not known for prevarication or equivocation. He fought the FG for the establishment of the Regional Security outfit codenamed AMOTEKUN to combat the menace of insecurity. He has been speaking against any policies of this government, perceived inimical to the well-being of the people. He joined some other Governors to sue the Federal Government on the CBN currency confiscation policy, only recently. Prof Boroffice did not have any opinion while Chief Alasoadura must have jubilated in the mistaken belief that the evil design would affect the chances of the President Elect. They both worked, assiduously, for the PDP during the last general elections.
Aketi had insisted on power shift to the South. He also campaigned, vigorously, for the election of the President Elect and other candidates of his party. It is on record that he was the only one who spoke out, vehemently, against the treacherous selection of Senator Ahmed Lawan, the current Senate President, as the so called “Consensus Candidate”, during the last presidential primary of the APC by the same heavily tainted leadership. Workers of iniquity, mass murderers, visited the Catholic church at Owo the following morning. Not a few people believed the message was meant for Aketi and the hardliners. He remained undaunted. Who did the duo support at that time? What was their position at the primary? The Governor is not known to hide behind a finger. He says it as it is. His principled stance on Southern presidency is well publicized. His support for the candidate who emerged the winner is supported with verifiable evidence. His performance as the Chief Servant of the people was a deciding factor in the last election. The people of Ondo State have always acted on conviction.
His clear choice and support for the President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was well documented. Any honest person was convinced of his role. Chief Tayo Alasoadura worked against the APC during the last elections. I challenge him to deny that his Personal Assistant, one Ola Baba, and Tade, his C.S.O, and Asunmo, his main guy in Ward 5, did not mobilise PDP supporters to Odudu-Ishinigbo-Igoba, to vote against the candidates of the APC in all elections. I have living witnesses. The timely intervention of security operatives ensured that the 7 buses and 2 Toyota Sienna vehicles, loaded with imported mercenaries, brought by those led by Ola Baba and Asunmo, were not destroyed by the aggrieved voters of Iju Ita Ogbolu. I challenge him to deny this statement. My office prevented a very serious crisis between the supporters of the APC and the miscreants sponsored by Chief Tayo Alasoadura. I dare him to deny this statement. We will present more facts.
Professor Ajayi Boroffice has been a peripatetic political hustler who left the university system for a long period until he was forced to resign from the Lagos State University by the late Vice Chancellor, Prof Lateef Hussain. He has been in the Senate for a period well above a decade. He is, currently, of negligible political relevance in the whole of Akokoland. His people are livid with anger for the wasted opportunities and uncommon greed displayed by him. He worked, openly, for the opposition party during the last elections. His anti-party activities are legendary.
This is a notorious fact. He did not only work against the APC in 2016, he joined his fellow travelers to exhume the moribund Alliance for Democracy after Aketi defeated him and other aspirants. at the party’s primary. Chief Tayo Alasoadura celebrated, openly, what he termed “The Freedom from Tinubu’s Bondage”. The video is still on the social media. Is it not tragic that these elements are now floating a Non- Governmental Association of mischievous old men to claim relevance?
The attempt to twist notorious facts is not only puerile and laughable. It portrays the purveyors of this shameless mendacity as individuals who can hardly survive outside politics. I find this press release ludicrous. It symbolizes the desperation of shameless and greedy entities whose mediocrities are a direct source of the deplorable state of affairs in the country today. The people of Ondo State know these characters very well. They have lost relevance, considerably, in the political circle, both at home and at the national level. The electoral misfortunes trailing their predilections for avarice and myopia are established facts. The President Elect appears to be the next target of a rapacious band of obsolescent but relentless elements, rootless politically, yet ruthlessly parasitic.
Let it be known to these bitter adversaries that the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi O. Akeredolu, SAN, CON, will continue to challenge any acts considered unjust, inequitable and indecent. As the Chairman of the South West Governors’ Forum, he has led the platform to play pivotal roles in social engineering regardless of the fact that his party controls the government at the centre. His roles as the leader of the Southern Governors’ Forum will be remembered as a stabilizing factor when it mattered in the polity.
Deliberative governance entails wide consultations, engagements, concessions and agreements. No one will be permitted to elevate hypocrisy and sycophancy to the status of an enviable art. The President Elect will be advised but will also be engaged, vigorously, on matters of optimum performance and collective interests by the true representatives of the people of this country. Any politician anxious of losing patronage in the next dispensation should start looking for other means of sustenance.
Politics should not be a profession. Aketi has a viable second address. Let all those who have burnt their boats on the country’s political island worry about the possibility of being marooned as the Adventurer sets sail to find new treasures. He will continue to be unsparing and forceful in pushing his viewpoints. To him, sycophancy is not a virtue. It has never been an option. He is a product of tradition. People of his pedigree are few in this clime.
Dr Doyin Odebowale,
Senior Special Assistant,
Special Duties & Strategy to
The Ondo State Governor.
