Akeredolu: Haunted by His Position on Yar’Adua

The videos and photographs that emanated from the visit of four governors from the South-west states last week, to their ailing colleague, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, in his Jericho private residence in Ibadan, Oyo State have set tongues wagging with many of his opponents describing him as a hypocrite following what he told the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2009 to 2010.

The governors who visited Akeredolu were Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Abiodun Oyebanji (Ekiti).

Akeredolu, who recently returned from Germany after months of medical treatment, has remained in Ibadan, a development that has generated criticisms from Ondo people, particularly the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The governors were said to have had a closed-door meeting at the Governor’s Office, Agodi, before proceeding to Akeredolu’s residence.

But as soon as the photographs went viral on social media many reminded Akeredolu  of his position on the late President Yar’Adua, as the then President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Akeredolu, as NBA president, was one of the most vociferous voices, who repeatedly called on the late President to resign due to his ill-health and allow the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over.

On one occasion on December 8, 2009, the former NBA president said: “The prayer of the association is that the President should recover fast, return to his office, and resign. No matter how much you love your country, it should not be at the detriment of your health. It is not your party or your wife that will decide whether you are capable of handling state matters; it is only your doctors that can decide that. The bar is not asking the president not to come back and take his seat, but the right thing must be done.” 

But Akeredolu, who now faces a similar health challenge as Yar’Adua, seems to love Ondo more than himself.

Though the Ondo State governor transmitted power to his deputy when he departed for Germany in June, but as soon as he came back, he wrote to the state assembly that he had resumed, even when he was not fit enough to return to the Government House in Akure.