Which Southern Gov Can Wear Akeredolu’s Shoes?

At a time most southern governors and political leaders were pandering to former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which was ‘emotionally attached’ to the rampaging herdsmen, condoning their atrocious acts, the late Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, as the Chairman of Southern Governors’ Forum, had displayed uncommon courage in tackling both Buhari’s presidency and the invaders. Ejiofor Alike reports that the vacuum left behind by Akeredolu will be difficult to fill

President Bola Tinubu, in a condolence message issued last Wednesday, had described the late Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, as his “fearless brother.”

The president also noted that “in a challenging moment of our statehood when marauding agents of darkness spread their tentacles across our country, Rotimi was a strong voice in the wilderness calling us to rethink our security architecture so we can have a more secure nation.”

Many Nigerians might have forgotten why Tinubu described the late governor as a fearless leader.

Akeredolu had acted courageously when the agents of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration provided tacit support for foreign herdsmen who unleashed terror on Nigerians while on a land-grabbing mission.

As Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum and South-west Governors’ Forum, he had defended not only the people of the South-west, but the rest of southern Nigeria and the middle belt who were being massacred.

As communities were wailing, conducting mass burials and relocating to Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camps, the agents of Buhari’s administration were blaming the victims, urging them “to live peacefully with their neighbours” by ceding their ancestral lands to the invaders.

When most southern political leaders, including governors were pandering to the Buhari’s administration, which was providing tacit support to the killer herdsmen, it was only Akeredolu and former Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom that decided to stand up and be counted on the side of the victims.

The late Ondo State governor had during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration in January 2018, vowed that his administration would apply force to arrest the menace of Fulani herdsmen in the state.

“We have been using security agencies to engage the herdsmen to carry out their business peacefully but when engagement fails, we will use force. We will confront the herdsmen with all we have,” the governor reportedly said.

The late governor matched his words with actions when he mobilised other South-west governors to set up a regional security outfit, better known as Amotekun.

President Tinubu alluded to this in his condolence message when he noted that Akeredolu’s “unrelenting advocacy led to the birth of the local police in the South-west.”

After the failed attempts by the agents of Buhari’s administration to grab lands for the foreign herders through cattle colonies, RUGA settlements and Water Resources Bill, the former administration resorted to attacking governors who implemented internal security arrangements and legal frameworks to check the menace of the herders.

It was not surprising that Buhari’s presidency fought back when Akeredolu ordered the criminal herdsmen to vacate all the forest reserves in the state.

Addressing the leadership of the Hausa/Fulani and Ebira communities in Akure, the state capital in January 2021, the governor also banned the herdsmen from moving their cattle along the highways and within the cities across the state, adding that security reports and debriefings from kidnap victims pointed in one direction traceable to some bad elements masquerading as herdsmen

Akeredolu, who said criminal elements had turned forest reserves in the state and across the South-west into hideouts for keeping kidnap victims, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other criminal activities, gave seven days ultimatum to the herdsmen to leave all forest reserves in the state.

But in a swift response, former President Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, said Akeredolu, had no constitutional right to kick out herdsmen from the state government’s reserves

In the statement titled, ‘In tackling crime, Ondo State Government will not act outside the constitution,’ the Presidency said the governor, being a legal practitioner, should know that he cannot “unilaterally oust thousands of herders who have lived all their lives in the state on account of the infiltration of the forests by criminals”.

Reacting to the presidency’s comments, the Ondo State government had described Shehu’s statement as “very inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.”

The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said: “Mr. Shehu’s statement is a brazen display of emotional attachments and it’s very inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.”

Akeredolu had also in May 2021 declared that no inch of the lands in Southern Nigeria would be ceded to the invaders.

The late governor was reacting to a statement signed by Buhari’s spokesman, Shehu, on the position of the former president on the ‘farmer-herder clashes.’

The sacking of communities by the foreign herdsmen were dismissed by the agents of Buhari’s administration as mere “farmer-herder clashes” to exonerate the killer herdsmen and portray both the killers and their victims as aggressors.

Shehu had in the statement revealed the presidency’s position that ranching and revival of forest reserves were part of the “permanent solution to the frequent clashes between farmers and herders.”

The presidential aide had also queried the legality of the ban on open grazing by Akeredolu-led southern governors.

However, in a statement, Akeredolu accused Shehu of working for “extraneous interests whose game plan stands at variance with the expectations of genuine lovers of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples whose ethnic extractions are indigenous to Nigeria.”

While noting the rights of all Nigerians to move freely in all parts of the country as guaranteed by the provision of the constitution, Akeredolu said it was clear that Shehu seems to have issues understanding the difference between licentious criminality and qualified rights under the law.

“Dispossessing communities of their ancestral lands, encouraging denizens of the forests to overrun lands belonging to other people and forcing alien bands of migrants on the local populace to live ‘side-by-side’ with other communities cannot be for the purpose of animal husbandry.

“No inch of the space delineated and known, currently, as South-west, and indeed the whole South, will be ceded to a band of invaders masquerading as herdsmen under any guise,” Akeredolu had reportedly vowed.

As President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) too, Akeredolu was also fearless and as he stood up to the federal government on a lot of issues against.

Little wonder those who paid him tribute, described him as a bold and courageous man who stood for the truth at all times.

For instance, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, in his condolence message, described the late governor as “an irrepressible fighter and courageous defender of the people”.

While Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State noted that “Arakunrin Akeredolu was a courageous leader,” Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State said he was “brave and independent-minded.” 

Describing Akeredolu as “a dogged and courageous leader”, the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, said “I have also lost a worthy co-fighter for the South-west.”

As aptly captured by Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Akeredolu’s “death has left a vacuum that goes beyond state borders,” and which will be difficult for any southern governor to fill.