Although one may never know the color and texture of the animosity between now Gov Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State and Mrs. Betty Akeredolu, late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s wife and former First Lady that makes her almost always fly off the handle at the mention of her late husband’s name by the present government. Neither should it matter in the very least who wronged whom before one weighs in on what’s usually a one-sided brickbat always inexpertly advertised by Mrs. Akeredolu when an issue of public importance has to do with her late husband and the state government.
Mrs. Akeredolu’s latest outburst in what seems to be her penchant for nakedly dancing in the marketplace—-former First Lady title be damned—-which she probably but erroneously sees as her brand of activism, was her reaction to the state government’s announcement to commemorate the first anniversary of her husband’s demise with a public Lecture slated for Friday, December 27, 2024 in which Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and Basorun Seinde Arogbofa are to deliver speeches.
In her reaction to the state government announcement, Mrs. Akeredolu took to her X handle to condemn what the state government befittingly thought it should do in memory of the late governor the best way it knows how with a memorial lecture in the most asininely reprehensible and unintelligibly simpletonian, if not provocative language unbefitting of a woman with self-respect, let alone a former First Lady.
Hear her: “Lucky can’t be serious! Which legacy? Mtcheew. Lecture, my foot! This is not for Aketi because I and my family are not aware. Damn it! As the saying goes: You and your co-travellers cannot shave Aketi’s head in his absence. You cannot weep more than the bereaved. This is an insidious propaganda carried too far! Lucky, you are preoccupied with rubbishing Aketi’s legacy; you can’t succeed, anyway. Anybody close to Aketi and Arabinrin becomes your enemy. Your minions are scared to get close otherwise they lose their appointments. Now you want to pretend by organising one yeye lecture for Aketi’s memorial as an entry point to chop money on Aketi’s head. You are on your own o! If this is not #yahoo #419 lecture, tell me what it is.”
There’s nothing more to add or subtract from Mrs. Akeredolu’s submission above if it were to be analyzed as it might lead to a paralysis of analysis. So, let’s skip that.
But what must be said, irrespective of where anyone stands on the then power struggle or the war of political attrition between Mr. Akeredolu when he was alive and Mr. Aiyedatiwa, then his deputy, which Mrs. Akeredolu seems to be praying that her husband should continue in the afterlife with Governor Aiyedatiwa with her senseless gibberish, it’s time to call her to order that a governor deserves a modicum of respect in a civilized society like ours.
Mrs. Akeredolu should be told in no uncertain terms that it’s a grave error on her part to think that simply because she succeeded in appropriating Mr. Akeredolu to herself and her son as governor—-and they collectively rode roughshod on the people of Ondo State with reckless impunity—-it should be business as usual with a new man in the saddle.
It beggars belief why Mrs. Akeredolu still attaches too much importance to herself in the state’s political scheme of things despite her known profligacy and sleaze that was said to have continued even after Mr. Akeredolu had stopped breathing but his transition was yet to become public knowledge.
Her attempt to de-legitimize what the state government has planned, to commemorate the first anniversary of her husband’s death because she and her family “are not aware” is a crass, anodynitic, saturninely small argument better imagined from an intelligent woman, let alone a former First Lady.
Mrs. Akeredolu should cut out her incessant foolish craps. Ondo State has no room for this simple mind.
*Femi ODERE lives in Abuja. He can be reached at [email protected].
