Succession battle: The Ondo political imbroglio explained
You must have seen the political imbroglio in Ondo and Edo states, they are not new to Nigeria politics. Cross-carpeting is as old as democratic government in Nigeria, politicians move to where they believe their interest will be better protected.
Don’t get it twisted, the cross-carpeting is not about the people. Don’t be deceived by the sweet words from the different sides as they fire salvo at one another. You may have heard them saying it is about their much touted agenda for good governance. No, don’t fall for it again, it is to protect political interest.
While Edo has been in the eyes of the media in the last one year over the battle between the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomole and his estranged political godson Governor Godwin Obaseki, Ondo joined the train at the weekend with the altercation between the embattled Deputy Governor Agboola Ajayi and the Commissioner of Police, Salami Bolaji.
In a viral video, Bolaji was seen preventing Agboola from moving his “personal belongings” out of the government house in Akure, over claims that he was informed that Agboola would be defecting from the APC to PDP and he could not leave with government vehicles. The video sparked outrage on the internet with many condemning the action of the police chief.
How did we get here? Here is a breakdown.
Long before last weekend’s drama, Ondo APC has been battling internal crises since the emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu as APC’s candidate in 2016. His emergence polarised the party with many chieftains claiming the process that produced him was fraudulent. When he became the governor in 2017 he didn’t make serious move to unite the party, instead he excluded the aggrieved members from his government. The crisis became more obvious during the 2019 election, those loyal to the governor sponsored national assembly candidates on the platform of the Action Alliance (AA) when they were denied tickets by the national leadership of the APC. This move cost the APC two of the three senatorial seats and three of the nine House of Representative seats. The drama between Agboola and Bolaji only brought what used to be a local crisis to national prominence.
Unlike Akeredolu who many believe is not a politician, Agboola is a career politician, he has been holding political positions for over two decades. Under the PDP he served as a local government party secretary in 1998, a local government supervisor, chairman of Ese-Odo LGA and a member of the House of Representatives from 2007-2011 (his election was initially nullified for certificate forgery in 2008 but was upheld by the Appeal Court in 2009). He moved to the APC shortly after the 2015 presidential election.
Although he has been having a running battle with Akeredolu and his wife Betty who many have accused of highhandedness, as Ondo prepares for governorship poll in October 2020, Agboola is eyeing his principal’s seat but Akeredolu is also interested in a second term – clash of interests? To fulfil his dream, he decided to move to the PDP where he believes he will be a better contender for the ticket. Some of the governor’s aides who have been attacking Agboola on social media accused him of being “over-ambitious”.
“Ambition is the problem, it is what has created a wedge between Agboola and his boss. Nothing more,” Ojo Oyewamide, Senior Special Assistant to Akeredolu on Media and Publicity wrote.
Agbo as he is fondly called has, however, said his reason for leaving APC was because “At the moment in Ondo State, democracy and wide participation by the people have given way to unsolicited and illegitimate outsourcing of power, familitocracy, nepotism, clannishness and primitive accumulation of illegal wealth under state cover.”
Agboola is not alone, many critics have also accused Akeredolu of appointing his family members, kinsmen from his Owo hometown and his wife’s kinsmen from Imo State into juicy government positions.
Nine permanent secretaries who retired in June 2019 also accused the governor of forcing them into early retirement to pave way for a junior officer to become the Head of Service when the position became vacant in August 2019.
Presently, the Head of Service, Dare Aragbaye, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Olugbenga Ale, Commissioner for Justice, Kola Olawoye, the Permanent Secretary of Government House among others are all from Owo. Recently the governor appointed his son Babajide as Secretary of the state’s task force on COVID-19.
With Agboola’s defection to PDP, the APC has asked him to resign as deputy governor but he insisted on staying in office. While the governor can fire any appointe, he cannot sack his deputy – they hold a joint ticket. What the law has joined together, only the law can put asunder through the legislature.
While Agboola insists on staying in office, all his aides have been sacked by the governor. He has also accused the governor of withdrawing his security aides and planning to bribe lawmakers N10m each to impeach him.
A law lecturer at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Remigius Akinbinu has said since no law compels a deputy governor to resign after moving to another party, a governor can only ensure his impeachment.
“In truth, a dissatisfied deputy governor ought to resign for the government to move smoothly,” Akinbinu wrote.
In the past, some deputy governors who defected to another party were impeached by lawmakers. In 2007, Femi Pedro was impeached as Lagos deputy governor for defecting from the Action Congress (AC) to the Labour Party to contest for governor. Alli Olanusi was also impeached in Ondo state in 2015 for defecting from the PDP to APC. Atiku Abubakar is one of the few who escaped impeachment after defecting from the PDP to Action Congress (AC) in 2006 to run for President. When Musa Ibeto of Niger State defected from PDP to APC in the build up to the 2015 presidential election, ex-governor Babangida Aliyu Ibeto did not ask him to resign.
