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Between Wike’s temper and Anambra’s valedictory slap

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5 years ago

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In the final analysis, it will appear that the Nigerian political elite, adept as it is at plundering Nigerian resources and inflicting pain on the people, has a very scant understanding of the psychology of the people it pillages. A very true story that will succinctly demonstrate this happened in Ondo state, about 1990. Olabode Ibiyinka George, commodore in the Nigerian Navy, had been posted to the state as governor in 1988. As is customary, in tow did he come with his wife, Feyi, a very self-opinionated woman. Unsubstantiated claims alleged that both were on the verge of divorce before the Ondo posting but Maryam Babangida, being Feyi’s friend, had recommended George to her martial general beau, Ibrahim. George and Feyi were thus forced into a marriage of convenience during their odyssey in Ondo.

While George was about his job as military governor, indeed reputed to have established the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in Owo during this period, one of the state’s thriving tertiary institutions today, Feyi was ruining what was left of his reputation. On this day, Feyi, replicating Maryam’s variant of Better Life for Rural Women in the state, had met women in the Erekesan Market of the state capital, the bulk of whom were senescent, frail and grey-haired women.

The optics of that infamous address still tyrannically assails the memory of the people till today. Cupping her eyelids contemptuously like Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, wife of French’s Louis XV1 must have done while impudently responding to her husband’s starving peasant subjects’ cry of lack of bread during the French revolution, to wit, “Let them eat cake!,” Feyi had courted the ire of Ondo people and came to symbolise the excesses of a reviled Nigerian power elite. She had unconscionably told the Ondo women: “Even though you are old women and old enough to give birth to me, today, I am your mother, the mother of all of you”. In a Yorubaland where age is venerated ahead of wealth, social and political ascriptions, Feyi could as well have been the proverbial child who stoned the Iroko tree and disdained ancient lore of the prowess of the Oluwere goddess residing in the tree as effeminate; did she think the Oluwere is driven by human velocity?

Happening at the twilight of his unceremonious removal as governor, Feyi’s infelicity hallmarked George’s time in Ondo and to date, its ghost still haunts the people. And perhaps, also haunting the two diametrically opposed couple too, who had to go their natural ways at the end of their contractual engagement in Ondo Government House. When the Concord magazine, conducting a valedictory interview for the departing commodore, demanded what Governor George would like to be remembered by and his response became, that “a Lagos boy passed through this place,” amid allegations of plundering of their resources, it was easy for Ondo people to allege that George and Feyi had come to “use Lagos sense for us”.

The slap roulette in Anambra last week involving the wife of respected Nigerian civil war hero, the Ikemba Nnewi, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca and wife of erstwhile Anambra governor, Willie Obiano, Ebelechukwu on one side and Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike’s intemperate riposte to both governor and deputy governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki and Philip Shaibu, brought to mind Feyi George’s incivility and infelicity in Ondo state during Geroge’s tour of duty. A major and mutual take-away from the three encounters is that, not only do Nigerian rulers still harbour imperial attitude to power, they are propelled into arrogance by a Kabiyesi mentality akin to the draconian power of kings in the old Oyo Empire where the king was beyond question. Apparently blinded by the binge of dole-outs they give to political louts and a sense of majesty they feel at superintending over billions of naira patrimony of the people which they fritter away at wills, as well as the power of life and death that the constitution unconscionably gave them, Nigerian rulers fail to realize that, even in their cowered state, Nigerian people disdain haughty leaders. Humble yourself beyond them, in spite of the enormous powers at your disposal and you will have them eating by your table.

Feedbacks from the people and the social media since the self-confessed dirty slap handed to the former governor’s wife by Bianca at the inauguration of Charles Soludo as the sixth elected governor of Anambra state, have concretised the submission that Nigerians loathe leaders who disdainfully, without restraint, flaunt the powers they have over them.

“As she made towards me, I then pulled away her wig. She held on to her wig with her two hands and tried to take the wig away from me. This very act is considered a sacrilege to a titled matriarch such as myself in Igbo culture. It was at this point that I stood up to defend myself and gave her a dirty slap to stop her from,” Bianca had owned up in a press release.

Ordinarily, Mrs Ojukwu should by now have had charges filed against her for assault, though provoked. However, not only is that not happening, a very huge number of respondents on social media, in Anambra state where Ebelechukwu and her husband held sway for eight years and virtually the whole of Nigeria, are abetting this assault by justifying Mrs Ojukwu’s action. A letter purportedly written by the Obi of Awka where “His Imperial Majesty” asked Mrs Obiano to apologize within seven days to Mrs Ojukwu, the entire Igbo race, the new governor and the judge swearing Governor Soludo in when the assault occurred, has “or face the consequences” even when Bianca had owned up to having slapped the ex-first lady, has gone viral. In fact, someone who witnessed the slap binge, a member of APGA, the political party that venerated Obiano and his vile-tempered petrel while in power, had reportedly posed for a photo-op with Bianca after her “gallant” slapping the first lady, declaring that, by daring a generally reputed arrogant Ebelechukwu with a dirty slap, wife of the Nigerian civil war hero had made his day.

Apart from the abstruse sartorial sense of Obiano the husband, his widely circulated rumoured romance with alcohol that reportedly gave him a persistent glazed and unsmiling look like the interior of the glazier, as well as this latest cache of allegations of humongous pillage of Anambra by the EFCC, the ex-governor was never known to be tempestuous. Taking his cue from Peter Obi, reported to have massively developed the Owelle of Onitsha, Nnamdi Azikiwe’s home state, Obiano has a genial personality and literally turned Anambra into a construction company. Ebelechukwu was his counterpoise, temper-wise. Unapologetically tempestuous, a former staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) she romanced power as if both of them shared the same umbilical cord.

Ebelechukwu’s ire was courted at the drop of a hat by anyone who encountered her. Though understandably because she, with the active connivance of her husband, had expressed the desire to contest the same senate seat that she currently occupies, former minister, Stella Oduah, an incumbent senator representing Anambra north, had taken to her Twitter page to harangue Ebelechukwu for what she called her “disgraceful (act) against womanhood,” as she “threw decorum away and attacked Her Excellency, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu”.

Apart from deploring this attitude which she called crude, indecorous and unbecoming “of a woman who had acted as a mother of the state and even desirous of serving in other capacities,” Oduah said that “only a few days ago, an innocent woman was publicly paraded naked in the same community our former first lady hails from and one would have thought that rather than showcase this brute nature of fighting and engaging in public fisticuffs with her guest, she should have exerted same energy and fighting spirit in ensuring that justice is done for that widow”.

While the slap session must gave Oduah an opportunity to seek her comeuppance from Ebelechukwu, those who knew the former first lady had very scant respect for her tempestuous character and ill-temper during her “reign,” Senator Uche Ekwunife, who long fell apart with her, was also said to have been pleased that Bianca unburdened Ebelechukwu of her magisterial haughtiness.

However, in all these, no one has taken time to address Mrs Obiano’s ostensibly justified angst against Mrs Ojukwu. Manifesting the self-righteousness of a duchess dowager over an Anambra that she presumably sees as her familial property – being the wife of the Ikemba who established APGA – the ex-beauty queen, whose marriage to her father, ex-governor Christian Onoh’s friend, Odumegwu, caused a prolonged furore, had serially and impudently dismissed Obiano’s government and went ahead to put down the governorship bid of Soludo. In fact, in one of the press releases she issued against the professor of economics’ nomination as APGA governorship candidate, Bianca said her husband’s spirit would be bitter in the grave that Soludo was the choice of Anambra APGA.

Then, a few hours to Soludo’s inauguration, Bianca had taken to her Facebook page to dismiss Obiano’s eight-year reign thus: “It’s liberation day, and today we sing the redemption song. Anambra will be better. This is the day the Lord has made…a day that reaffirms the age-long truth that no one holds the stage forever. I thank the Almighty for keeping us all alive to witness this day”. To have worked relentlessly for Soludo’s win and finding an impish intruder who had mordantly dismissed her husband’s government in attendance at the swearing-in venue of that same candidate, an act that ostensibly showed a woman who sought to reap from the proceeds of what she did not sow, was enough reason why anyone’s anger would be on tinder as Ebelechukwu’s was at the swearing-in session. However, being an infamously dismissive and cantankerous woman loathed across board, not only was she presumed at first to be the aggressor who dished out the slap, even when that realization dawned on the people, Bianca was still held as a heroine. A temperate-minded woman in Ebelechukwu’s shoes would have bided her time to prove a justifiable point.

Earlier, Governor Wike’s infamous temper had been advertised on national television when he publicly harangued Edo state deputy governor, Philip Shaibu at the inauguration, in Port Harcourt, of the Eastern Bypass Road project. His grouse against Shuaibu was that he threatened to leave the PDP.

“And he lost his local government when we were in Edo, he lost. And he would come out on television to threaten the party that there are alternatives, look at the deputy governor. It’s very unfortunate for our party, a deputy governor is wearing khaki, look at it, I’ve never seen a thing like this in my life … who is his father?” Obaseki immediately replied to this infelicitous statement from Wike as amounting “to a delusion of grandeur,” saying, “In Edo, we don’t accept political bullies and overlords and historically, we have demonstrated our capacity to unshackle ourselves and dethrone bullies and highhanded leaders.”

Apparently lacking the staid comportment that leadership requires Wike, ostensibly commissioning some projects at the Ikwerre local government of the state a few hours after, paid millions of naira to national television to cover live the commissioning that was obviously an opportunity to reply Obaseki. “If you go and check the DNA of Godwin Obaseki, what you will see in that DNA is betrayal, serial betrayal, and ungratefulness. Let me stand today to apologise to Adams Oshiomhole who has been vindicated by telling us that we will see the true colour, we will see the insincerity, we will see the ungratefulness of Governor Obaseki,” Wike burst out in his guttural, seemingly incomprehensible waffles.

Apart from the huge cash he superintends over which makes him an oil sheikh amongst governors, who in turn cringe before him, in comportment and manners, Wike lacks the temperament of power. In saner societies, the lack of this should disqualify him from the position of responsibility he holds where decorum, taciturnity and felicity are demanded. It is often difficult to believe that this governor of the oil-rich state underwent a course in law as he displays less of law and more of lawlessness. His incandescent temper is legendary and in public, has talked down notable governors and persons in Nigeria. He, it was, in May 2021, who threatened “to flog the hell out” of the former governor of Niger state, Babangida Aliyu, on a television programme, for the latter’s temerity of calling him a dictator. Wike also severally singed the flesh of a king and ex-governor Godswill Akpabio, among others, riding on his usual intemperate roller coaster.

While the moral of appreciating a benefactor is an African ethos that is reified in discourses and social interactions, political scientists have been in a quandary in analysing this act among Nigerian politicians whose “benefits” to recipients of their “large heart” are, in most cases, heists pillaged from the people’s common till. While Wike was not forthcoming with the benefit he rendered Obaseki and Shaibu that needed to be requited with a supine attitude to his garrulousness, many have volunteered to say that it was the huge Rivers war chest he opened to the duo while their election was afoot. As the Yoruba will say in their aphorism, it will seem to be the case of a thief’s stolen wealth in the hands of another thief – ole gbe, ole gba. So what gratitude is needed?

What unites the cases of Feyi George, Mrs Obiano and Wike is the inability of power-holders to understand the ephemeral texture of the power they hold. While Wike is reputed to have changed the infrastructural makeup of Rivers in seven years, he lacks the etiquette of a leader and presents as an impatient bully, in the words of Obaseki. Must he reply to every perceived infraction? This is where leaders demonstrate their innate qualities.

A major leadership trait is patience which Wike lacks and which Feyi and Ebelechukwu have scant possession of. Feyi and Ebelechukwu are the women that the French named femmes fatale – the destructive female – whose husbands have no leash over their intemperate and asocial behaviour and who drag their husbands’ names in the mud. Can anyone imagine how a woman’s unguarded temper could bring to its knees her husband’s eight-year tour of duty? The trio authenticates the wisdom in the saying that a low-minded person drags an office to their level.

When one is in office and surveys the seemingly borderless landscape of raw power at one’s beck and call and the vast number of people who grovel before one, there is the risk to think of oneself as a mascot and Superman. The truth, however, is that you are as mortal as the other man next door, equipped with frailties and foibles. What will testament this is when you go to the toilet. Your poo-poo isn’t less smelly than the madman on the street and when you transit this mortal fold, maggots will make a feast of that body you think too highly of. Just as they will the pauper’s body.

As if to underscore the ephemeral component of power, Obiano left government house and a few hours after, he was in the caserne of the EFCC. As James Hadley Chase said, Obiano, “His Excellency,” must have found out that power holders are not only lonely when they are dead; they are, immediately power leaves them. As I often say, of all ascriptions and bestowals in this world, the one that answers to the holy writ’s description of the fleetingness of life as unto vapour, is power. While one who loses wealth, fame, the name could still have their flakes surrounding them, when power leaves its holder, it leaves them in entirety. Obiano must have found out the eternal nugget in that Yoruba wise saying that no one vacates the road for someone who rode the horse yesterday – a i yago f’elesin ana – which underscores the transience of power, That is the lesson which the Feyi, Ebelechukwu and the Wikes of today who are still in power, should learn.

 

Dr. Festus Adedayo, a Journalist, lawyer and Columnist writes

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Governor Seyi Makinde’s Media Chat: A Hundred And Twenty Minutes Of Trash Talk | By Sola Abegunde

Published

1 day ago

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October 13, 2026

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I knew that Governor Makinde would provide us with a hundred and twenty minutes of comic relief and at the same time, I knew he is bound to commit unforced errors which would further expose his shenanigans.

The outgoing Governor of Oyo state did not disappoint on both fronts.

Personally, I understand the need for him to have one final valedictory Media Chat.

The atmosphere might be too hot for him to even think of such luxury after the general election in 2027. So, if he’s got the opportunity now, why not take a shot at it?

I must however say that the Governor displayed his insensitivity right from the choice of the Studio the Chat was aired.

Shortly before the Media Chat commenced, I came across a release signed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, BCOS Chapel, Com. Ademola Balogun.

Com. Balogun was full of lamentations concerning the very terrible state of the Oyo state Broadcasting Corporations, BCOS.

He was of the very strong opinion that the BCOS should have meaningful opportunities to cover Government activities.

He also called on Governor Seyi Makinde to empower the BCOS to invest in modern studio, transmitting equipment, digital broadcasting facilities and online platforms.

Com. Ademola spoke extensively about Staff welfare and other issues.

Sadly, while Governor Seyi Makinde has been consistent in empowering a particular Radio station, the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS has been dying slowly.

Unfortunately, I have no good news for Com. Ademola. His lamentations will definitely fall on stone deaf ears. It is too late for Governor Makinde to change his ways. I just pray that the Governor would not wake up one day and sold off whatever remains of the Corporation.

That is just by the way. Let me address Governor Makinde’s Media Chat for whatever it is worth. The Governor spent a whole two hours venting anger and spreading outright lies and half-truths.

I am surprised that Governor Makinde has not seen any reason for him to have a second thought about his awkward and reckless comments about the Law Profession.

I am saying this because, for the second time, his Deputy was sitting closely beside him and yet, he felt like it was humorous for him to take a dig at Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli, the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate, regarding his misconceived failure as a Law practitioner.

He repeated the ignorant and reckless comments about Senator Alli, not being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and for that reason, according to Governor Seyi Makinde, the Oyo South Senator is not an accomplished Legal Practitioner.

He had made that same reckless comments a couple of weeks ago and at that time also, the Deputy Governor was beside him!

The respectable man is an accomplished Lawyer of many years of experience, who had trained a lot of successful Lawyers.

I also wonder, how people like Dr. Nureni Adeniran and Olasunkanmi Olaleye, who are also Lawyers and have been working with Governor Seyi Makinde over the years would feel about those reckless comments coming from their Boss.

If you want to follow Governor Seyi Makinde’s reasoning, if you are a teacher and you did not rise to the status of a School Principal or Head teacher, then, you’re a failure.

If you are a Military Personnel and you didn’t rise to the position of a General, you’re a failure!

Any time I saw the Governor arguing in this regard, I always asked myself if he was actually himself, because, for me, only a drunkard is capable of reasoning in that manner, or, perhaps, some young elements who had taken so much banned substances.

I have carefully analyzed the 120 minutes Media Chat and I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde spent so much time treating two issues.

The first, being his frustration about his perceived betrayal by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the second being his failed attempt to rewrite the Constitution of Nigeria regarding the financial autonomy for Local Governments.

The birthday boy tried to work him through the crisis at the Circular Road, but it was obvious that the main reasons behind Governor Makinde’s Media Chat were grounded on his firm beliefs that Tinubu breached certain agreements with him and others in 2023 and his warped opinion about how the Local Governments should operate within our Federation.

Let’s start with Governor Seyi Makinde’s allegations against Tinubu.

According to him, in 2023, an agreement was signed between certain individuals, including himself.

He said there was an agreement that a Government of National Unity would be formed by president Tinubu after he won the presidential election of 2023 and that he and the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu were signatories to that agreement.

According to him, president Tinubu was not a signatory to the agreement but he was informed after the agreement was signed!

He went further to say that on the strength of that agreement, he presented Bimbo Adekambi as a Ministerial nominee because the president had earlier told him that he wanted to appoint the Minister for Budget and Planing from Oyo state.

To his chagrin and disappointment, president Tinubu settled for Bayo Adelabu and asked him to own the nomination of the former Minister for power, a request he claimed he rejected.

He therefore concluded that all the Ministers nominated from the South West are from Bourdilon.

I have carefully analyzed this confession by Governor Seyi Makinde and I have a few questions for him.

Why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is the only one complaining about a breached agreement?

Why did it take him all these long to come out with this fact?

What was the criteria for the nomination of Bimbo Adekambi? Did he just take a random decision to choose Adekambi without a prior relationship between the two of them or what?

How does Governor Seyi Makinde want to convince any right thinking person that he believed an agreement would be binding on Tinubu on the strength of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s alleged signature?

For me, that doesn’t make any sense, most especially, for an ” accomplished Engr” like Seyi Makinde!

I am surprised that Governor Makinde leaves out what he benefited from the alignment with Tinubu in 2023.

Remove the alignment with Tinubu in 2023, Seyi Makinde was a goner and the fact that he was able to secure a second term in office ought to have been enough for him.

I am also surprised that Governor Makinde didn’t understand that he was advertising his penchant for serial betrayal and greed when he was relating the events that shaped his re-election in 2023.

It was all about him and the decisions he took, not only affected the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP alone, it also affected certain candidates of his party during the first ballot in 2023.

Now, to the issue of Local Government Autonomy.

Governor Seyi Makinde is a very funny individual. He was very clear about his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023.

His position was that he never even believed in their existence and I was amused when the birthday boy was saying that despite his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023, he was still able to win in 31 Local Governments, signifying the fact that the people of Oyo state believed Governor Makinde’s explanations.

I am extremely happy that Governor Seyi Makinde has not changed his opinion on how Local Governments should operate within the Federating units.

He is still stuck on the fact that the 33 Local Governments in Oyo state should be appendages to the State Government, even, in spite of the Judgment of the Supreme Court granting them full financial autonomy.

I am shocked that Governor Seyi Makinde could attempt to confuse what happened between the Lagos state Government when Tinubu was Governor of the state and the Federal Government during Obasanjo’s period, with the illegalities he has been perpetuating with the resources 33 Local Governments.

There is a clear distinction between both scenarios.

In the case of Tinubu as Governor of Lagos state, the Lagos state Government created more Local Governments and the Federal Government was of the opinion that the state Government was wrong to have done so.

As a result of this misunderstanding, the Federal Government stopped the monthly allocations for the Local Governments in Lagos state and it led to a Judicial dispute.

In the end, the Supreme Court held that the Local Governments created by the Lagos state Government were incohate, but it faulted the Federal Government for withholding the monthly allocations belonging to the Local Governments in Lagos state.

Lagos state Government thereafter recognized and administered the newly created Local Governments as Local Government Development Areas and many states have since copied the template, including Oyo state.

In the present scenario, the president, through the Attorney general of the Federation approached the Supreme Court and sought to secure full financial autonomy for the 774 Local Governments and the Supreme Court agreed to the request.

I have been asking myself, why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is having problems with that judgement?

The monthly allocations released to the 33 Local Governments are released against their names.

Is Governor Seyi Makinde saying that it is proper for a Governor to still be the supervisor for the 33 Local Governments?

How does the judgment of the Supreme Court translate to the Federal Government trying to take control of the 774 Local Governments?

Yorubas will always say that a dog can not stand watch over two different buildings. ( Aja kii roro, ko so ojule meji po).

I was also surprised to hear Governor Seyi Makinde talking about the fact that, instead of full financial autonomy for the Local Governments, he preferred to discuss about how the Local Governments could be empowered to survive without monthly allocations from Abuja.

Haba! Governor Makinde!! Gently now.

You are depriving the Local Governments of their entitlements and you except them to thrive. How would that happen?

Why didn’t we start with the state? Can Oyo state survive without monthly allocations?

I think everyone can now see that Bimbo Adekambi as Governor, would never allow the Local Governments to breathe.

On the other hand, Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli has promised to guarantee full financial autonomy for the 33 Local Governments and the implementation of the policy requires no rocket science. All it requires is the will.

There is an existing judgment of the Supreme Court which has outlined the steps to be taken by any willing state Government.

Sarafa Alli only needs to direct relevant stakeholders at the Local Governments to comply with the judgment and that is the end of the matter.

What is so difficult in that, if you are not covetous?

I might have to do this piece in series but I will like to warn the residents of the Circular Road.

You heard Governor Seyi Makinde. He is promising you nothing.

My only problem with him is his attempts to shift the blame of the chaos he orchestrated at the Circular Road on the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

He even said that that the Government of Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road!

Sometimes, people like Governor Seyi Makinde needs no one to enchant them. Their character is an enchantment on itself.

If you’re saying that the Governments of the late Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road, is Bimbo Adekambi not an integral part of that Government and that is before you begin to ask the Governor for proofs.

I enjoyed Governor Seyi Makinde’s valedictory Media Chat, while looking forward to the new era awaiting him next year.

My father used to tell us that the mouth of the liar does not ooze blood. ( Enu opuro kii seje).

By the way, I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde never mentioned anything about the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the abduction of Teachers and Pupils of Yawota and Esinele communities of Oriire Local Government.

How far now?

Sola Abegunde.

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Re: Adekambi vs Alli: Dr. Olanrewaju’s Descent To Soliloquizing | Sola Abegunde

Published

2 weeks ago

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October 1, 2026

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I have read Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju’s piece titled ” Adekambi vs Alli: Between Substance And Sensationalism” and it offers me a lot of entertainment.

Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju is a seasoned Journalist no doubt. Very brilliant mind, but, he needs a lecture on politics and governance.

No matter how educated or professional you could be, if you lack basic knowledge about raw politics and governance at different tiers of Government, you are bound to struggle like a fish out of the water each time you attempt to defend certain positions.

Very obviously, Dr. Olanrewaju doesn’t know how a Local Government should operate on a normal situation, even, before the Judgment of the Supreme Court obtained by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I will refer Dr. Olanrewaju to a document titled ” Financial Memorandum for Local Governments”.

That document speaks to how funds belonging to the Local Governments could be legally spent.

It will also provide accurate information about the roles and powers of the Local Government Chairmen, Head of Local Government Administration, the Finance and General Purposes Committee, F&GPC, how approvals for funds, projects and how contracts are signed at the Local Government level.

Had it been that Dr. Olanrewaju had proper information, I am sure that he wouldn’t have advertised his ignorance the way he did, in the argument about Financial autonomy for Local Governments which Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is promising.

He would also have known that his Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde had been engaged in criminal activities in the manner he had been withdrawing and spending resources belonging to the 33 Local Governments illegally since 2019.

Perhaps I need to repeat this for emphasis sake. There is no Law that empowers a state Governor to withdraw money belonging to the Local Governments for the execution of projects on behalf of the Local Governments.

The fact that the monthly allocations for the 33 Local Governments would have to drop on a joint account does not confer any authority on a state Governor to illegally withdraw and spend same.

It is the responsibility of the F&GPC for each of the Local Governments to identify projects it wants to execute, approve funds for same and if the funds are beyond the approving limits of the F&GPC, it will seek approval from the Governor through the office of the Commissioner for Local Governments.

If the project would be executed as a contract, it is the sole responsibility of the HLGA to sign the contract agreement.

That is what Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is saying. That he would not make illegal withdrawals from the Local Governments funds. That he will allow the F&GPC for the 33 Local Governments to function without hinderance. That he will allow the Career officers to do their duties assigned to them by Law.

If Governor Seyi Makinde doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments and he is not hiding this fact and Sarafa Alli is saying, I believe in a functional and free Local Government, where is the sensationalism in that?

Truth hurts. Dr. Olanrewaju can not, through his essay, which I consider an afterthought, rewrite the fact that, his Principal publicly declared that he doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments, not to talk of allowing them to function freely.

I am surprised that Dr. Olanrewaju is of the opinion that Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is not saying what he would do differently.

I know that the Special Adviser on Media to Governor Seyi Makinde is not deaf. Neither is he blind or dumb. He is only being hypocritical.

How else does the Allied People’s Movement, APM and its Gubernatorial candidate want the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate to say what he is going to do differently?

On this issue of Financial autonomy for Local Governments, Sarafadeen Alli is saying, contrary to the illegalities of the past seven years plus, he will not concern himself with the responsibilities that are ordinarily that of the Local Governments.

On Education, he has declared that he will ensure that we go back to the 30 Pupils per classroom policy of the former Governor, Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, now, H. I . M, Oba Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja.

He said he will revive the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS which is gasping for breath under Governor Seyi Makinde.

He was emphatic about the fact that he would set up a Committee to review the crisis created at the Circular Road by Governor Seyi Makinde within 72 hours when he is elected as the Governor of Oyo state.

He said he would review the sales and handing over of our Farm Settlements to Estate Developers amongst other promises.

On these issues, what are the clear positions taken by Adekambi?

If Dr. Olanrewaju wants us to believe his cock and bull stories about the performance of the 33 Local Governments under Seyi Makinde, I challenge him to ask his Principal to publish the statement of income and expenditures for the 33 Local Governments in the past seven years plus.

He should give us a breakdown of the total figure of the monthly allocations received on behalf of the 33 Local Governments, the breakdown of salaries and allowances paid, the number of projects executed, identities of the contractors who handled projects, the contract agreements, total figure of the Internally Generated Revenues, IGR received by the Local Governments and the VAT.

In the absence of these vital information, which I am certain they will never dare to make public, I want to humbly suggest that Dr. Olanrewaju should go and update his knowledge about how certain things are done.

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Ladoja @82: When the ladder becomes too tall and Makinde’s sin of ingratitude | By Ayinla Joseph

Published

2 weeks ago

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September 28, 2026

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The Yoruba say, when a man forgets the ladder that took him to the top of the iroko tree, the fall that awaits him will be narrated as a proverb.

On Thursday, Ibadan stood still for its king. Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja clocked 82. Not 82 years of mere age, but 82 years of bruises, battles, betrayals and benediction. A former Senator. A former Governor. An elder statesman who, like Oduduwa, returned as king. The following day, Friday, Oba Ladoja also clocked one year on the throne of his forefathers.

Ibadan celebrated him. Nigeria celebrated him. The Presidency sent greetings. Former governors knelt. Serving governors bowed. The Alaafin of Oyo paid tribute. The Soun of Ogbomoso poured libation of words. Even the Aseyin, far in Iseyin, bought a full page in a national daily to say: our father lives.

But in Agodi Government House, there was silence. Cold, deliberate, imperial silence.

Governor Seyi Makinde did not felicitate his king. No advert. No statement. No courtesy of any sort extended. Nothing. His protégé, Bimbo Adekanmbi, toed the same line of contempt. For 48 hours, Ibadan people waited for a word that never came, until shame forced a whisper.

We must ask: what manner of politics is this?

In 2019, it was this same Ladoja who held Makinde’s hand when Makinde had no hand to hold. It was Ladoja who coordinated the coalition, who gathered the angry, the broken and the hopeful, and stitched them into a garment called victory for a man who had never won anything before. Without Ladoja, there would have been no Omituntun in 2019. And the man knows it.

Philosophers call it the Paradox of Power. Machiavelli warned about it in “The Prince”: that power acquired through the mercy of others must be sustained by gratitude, otherwise it consumes itself. Plato called such rulers philosopher-kings who failed philosophy. Men who know how to win power but not how to carry it.

History is littered with them.

Emperor Nero of Rome who burnt the city that made him emperor. King Rehoboam in the Bible who told the elders who made him king: “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist.” Emperor Commodus who thought Rome was his father’s farm and turned the palace into a circus until the circus swallowed him.

Seyi Makinde governs like them — as an emperor, not as an Omoluabi. A man who believes loyalty must flow upwards to him, but must never flow downwards from him. He rides on the shoulders of giants and then complains that the giants are too tall.

Today it is Ladoja he snubs. Yesterday it was the Alaafin. The day before, the Soun. Tomorrow, which Oba will taste his disdain? He has transferred his personal hatred for the Olubadan stool into a war against all royal stools in Oyo State. That is not politics. That is poison.

And what shall we say of Bimbo Adekanmbi, his political son, who has learnt this ignoble art of ingratitude so perfectly? The Yoruba say, “the child who says his mother will not sleep, he too will not sleep.” To watch a man seeking to be governor practise contempt for the throne he seeks to govern is a disaster foretold.

Oyo people know Omituntun 2.0 for what it is — a poisonous pill coated with sweet advertisement. If 2.0 can openly humiliate an 82-year-old first-class monarch who made him, what will Omituntun 3.0, headed by his anointed, do? It will be the unkindest cut of all. It will be the complete desecration of the Omoluabi ethos that Ibadan and Oyo hold sacred.

Seyi Makinde will be remembered. Not for the roads that crack before commissioning. Not for the parks that lead to nowhere. He will be remembered as the governor who rode on the backs of eminent men and made every one of them regret that they ever lent him their shoulders.

Ladoja at 82 needs no advert from Agodi to be great. The king’s greatness is not conferred by the governor. But the governor’s smallness is exposed by how he treats his king.

Oyo people, shine your eyes. This affliction must not rise a second time.

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