Since individuals are elected based on their Party label or affiliation, this endorsement is one that I give with a grain of salt and with some reluctance and trepidation as a concerned citizen of Ondo State and as the Federal pioneer Director of DIFFRI assigned to Ondo State under the Governorship of late Rear Admiral Okhai Mike Akhigbe and General Ekundayo Opaleye while they were still both in lower ranks.
Being the Director has afforded me an opportunity to know the local terrain of Politics in Ondo State before Ekiti was carved out of the old Ondo State.
My job had taken me, at the time, to every nook and corner of the 16 or 18 Local Governments of the State at the time and where I had to have direct dealings with all of the Chairmen of Local Governments.
My Directorate at the time being a Federal sponsored Project was more financially viable than all of the other Units or Agencies of Government at the time and that was why all of the Ondo State Permanent Secretaries and even the Secretary to Government at the time, my former Classmate at Obafemi Awolowo University late Olaiya Oni did not like the idea that a former federal officer was handpicked for that job. They all would have killed someone just to take that job.
They did everything in the book to sabotage my effort but I survived all of their intrigues and probe with my integrity and reputation intact by the left I left the place to relocate to America in 1987.
I therefore know Ondo State and Ekiti State at the grassroot level better than I should, if I have never had an opportunity to serve in that position, for any length of time.
I have delved into all of this background information before making my endorsement of Aiyedatiwa for Governor in the coming election.
The PDP as a Party under President Goodluck Jonathan must forever regret and blame themselves for the day they made the mistake of ever allowing the loss of power to the APC with General Muhammadu Buhari as President and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Chairman of the APC.
Bola Tinubu was the arrow head of the political Coup that sent the PDP grabbing for straws and crumbs in a country they have said they were going to rule till the second coming of Jesus.
The PDP was that sure of his political tenacity and sagacity, but guess who masterminded the successful Coup?
It was the same “Omo Iya Aje, Emilokan” Ahmed Bola Tinubu born Ogunlere in Iragbiji in Osun State, but raised in Lagos by a surrogate mother Iyaloja Mogaji Tinubu of blessed memory.
It is most difficult to wrestle power out of the hands of a ruling Party in Nigeria or any third world country unless there is another fundamental realignment of forces and Group Interests which Ahmed Bola Tinubu fully understands and would not allow under his watch because he knew how and what the APC as a Party had done to wrestle the PDP to the ground and to take over or dislodge the Octopus PDP from power in 2015 and to retain that power till now.
The APC is not going to give up the power they currently have in a country where Government Patronage and the limitless political spoils system at the federal level is just too critical for political survival and longevity.
That is why the APC for all of its political misgivings and shortcomings and failings which are legion and are well documented, is not going to be easy to be dislodged from power in Nigeria.
Even though the Party is not performing at optimum level, you can be sure, it will continue to win elections by hooks or crooks like I said before in my previous article without mincing words.
The APC had regained power in Edo and would do the same in Ondo again on November 16 in a landslide victory despite all of its apparent weaknesses and shortcomings in Governance at the federal level.
The PDP should clearly be the Party to take over in Ondo State, under normal conditions but nothing is normal in Nigeria.
Based on that fact alone and the fact that the PDP is just damned too disorganized and too financially bankrupt and confused to do that now that their chief financier the old Rivers State had been badly Balkanized and compromised by the new strong man of Rivers State Governor Wike with the political wizardry of an Adedibu in Ibadan Politics and whose loyalty to the PDP is now suspect to say the least.
Atiku Abubakar, as leader and last nominee of the Party had made a horrendous and an irreversible mistake when he terribly miscalculated on not picking Governor Wike as his running mate in the last election in 2023.
I can clearly see Governor Wike end up joining the APC, if he has not already done so in his “Men’s Ria” or state of mind. if not by action, as we speak
In making this endorsement I have to draw a serious distinction between Aiyedatiwa as a person and as a leader and the APC as a political Party.
They are two separate entities in my book as I make this endorsement.
I am a political consultant to the DNC in America and Political Science was my major in my Ph.D with 2 Master’s Degree in Public Affairs in International Relations and in Clinical Psychology and Social Work and Human Behavior in the Social Environment obtained from the Yeshiva Jewish University of New York as a Karl Ichan Fellow of that University from 1991 to 1993 so I know my stuff and what I am talking about.
I am not a card-carrying member of either the APC or the PDP. I am an independent consultant and adviser but a patriotic citizen of Ondo State with no ax to grind in the upcoming race.
I tell the truth and damn the consequence. You either take it or leave. I owe no apology to either of the gladiators in the race.
I am an an Akure man and an Omo Erin Uro the son of a World War Veteran who fought in the Second World War and the proud father of two Naval Officers proudly serving and making a difference in the U.S. Military in America.
I tell it like I see it and I fear no foe like we say in Nigeria.
A lot of people including late Governor Akeredolu and his First Lady had initially underrated Aiyedatiwa much to their own regret and peril.
He, Aiyedatiwa, had initially made himself look like an underdog but he has now proved to all and sundry, that the gentle walk of a tiger should not be mistaken as a sign of weakness or timidity.
Once he was picked as Deputy Governor to succeed Akeredolu, he had quickly moved to reveal the leadership spine and qualities in him which have now captured the respect and the imagination of the great majority of the voters in Ondo State by his live- and- let-live streak as a leader who knows how to pick those who can best help him to achieve his goal in Ondo State now that Ondo State is now recognized as one of the oil- producing states of Nigeria and a partaker in the 13 percent Revenue allocation from oil revenues accruable to Nigeria.
Ondo State has now become one of the richest states in Nigeria and would remain so for a long time when states are allowed to commercialize and manage all minerals found in their states. I know all about those mineral resources in Ondo State in my capacity as the pioneer Director of DIFFRI in Ondo State and a sure- footed one, I might add without being immodest
If Ondo State is allowed to commercialize some of the mineral resources and cash crops in Ondo State like the Bitumen in Agbabu, White Sand in Igbokoda and Off-shore Oil and Gas in Obejedo and Zion Pepper and Aiyetoro in the Riverine areas of Ilaje Ese Ido and Cocoa and Palm Oil and Palm Kernel and Rubber and Timber, there is a chance that Ondo State can become one of the economic engines of Nigeria under a Government headed by Aiyedatiwa as Governor.
Aiyedatiwa more than Agboola has the capacity, the integrity and the economic wisdom and leadership qualities to harness the limitless resources of Ondo State and to fasttrack the physical and economic development of Ondo State.
That is precisely why I feel confident to openly endorse him as the best candidate, if elected, to move Ondo State forward in the coming election two weeks from now on November 16.
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