AIYEDATIWA BECOMES ONDO GOVERNOR

 

      Lucky Aiyedatiwa

On Wednesday, December 27, 2023, Ondo State Acting Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa was sworn in as the substantive governor of the Sunshine State after the sad passing of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who died in Germany where he was being treated for prostate cancer.

Aiyedatiwa, 59 years old took the oath of office at 5:18 pm in the presence of All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains and top government officials at the Cocoa Conference Hall in the governor’s office in Akure, the state capital.

In his acceptance speech, Aiyedatiwa recounted how his relationship with Akeredolu dated back many years ago, “having closely worked with him when his (Akeredolu’s) gubernatorial journey started in the Year 2012”, adding that “the events which culminated in today (Wednesday’s) ceremony is a watershed in the history of Ondo State as this is the first time we are having a transition in an administration”.

Aiyedatiwa’s walk to becoming the governor of Ondo State was a long and stormy one that lasted at least one year since Akeredolu suffered health challenges before he eventually succumbed to the claws of death on Wednesday in faraway Germany where he was being treated for prostate cancer. Aiyedatiwa, a former commissioner of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), survived an impeachment plot by Akeredolu’s allies in the Ondo State House of Assembly and stark opposition by his late principal’s foot soldiers.

Controversy had enveloped the state’s politics in the last few months with activists and constitutional lawyers calling on Akeredolu to transmit power to Aiyedatiwa in line with the 1999 Constitution. Akeredolu was in and out of hospitals abroad before he breathed his last on December 27, 2023. Eventually, Akeredolu, a second-term governor before his death, transmitted power to Aiyedatiwa on December 13, 2023, as he embarked on a fresh medical trip overseas, the second in 2023. Akeredolu, 67, could not make it back to Nigeria as he died of complications arising from prostate cancer.