Just before an interview with him for TVC in one of Lagos’ highbrow hotels, I asked Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in Yoruba, “Bawo lara sir?” How is the body? We were both standing, awaiting the crew to set the stage.
His reply was wordless. A grimace, a surrender and a lighted pair of eyes. I asked again. Still wordless. I knew, before what was perhaps his last major interview, that what was afflicting this man did not signal a cheerful prognosis. He had just returned from Europe for a medical checkup. Beyond the grimace and surrender, the lighted pair of eyes indicated a warrior on a defiant march. He would not, in the words of Poet Dylan Thomas, “go gentle into that good night.”
When his health was unraveling, I imagined his lighted pair of eyes. I saw them when he announced he was traveling out for treatment. When the controversy raged over why he was in Ibadan and not in Akure. When his then deputy, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, fought to stay alive. In the back-and-forth of recriminations. In the battle of the women, one a wife, the other a political climber, hiving a home. The concoction thickened with shadowy schemes of allies and foes. Snarls of forged signatures and denials. Two elephants were wrestling, and the Ondo grass withered. We did not hear his side of the story. We cannot bury him in unsubstantiated charges. As Sophocles notes, “A dead man cannot testify in his own funeral.”
As the theatre bustled on, Aketi’s life dropped with every heartbeat, until last week, as the year petered out, he surrendered to the way of all flesh. As David sang, “What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hands of the grave?” So Aketi goes, but what a man he was.
It is now a matter of legacy for him. After all the fight, power is transient, and the whole hoopla of who owns what has melted in tears and mourning. Our people and politicians should know as Ebenezer Obey crooned that Ile aiye o to nkan. This life is nothing. Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity. Both sides were saying, like Napoleon, “God gave me this crown. Whoever touches it should beware.” Or what John said in Revelations, “Hold thou fast which thou hast and let no man take thy crown from thee.” But it is all for nothing.
David Diop, the French-Senegalese writer, wrote in his new novel, The Door of No return, that monuments are in our stories. What story did Aketi leave behind? It was of social justice, of fierce nationalism and federalism. In my last interview, he warned those politicians who, for selfish reasons, would want to privilege law over convention in jettisoning the pact by southern governors that the presidency should come to the south. He, a lawyer and senior advocate, said the law is important but convention vitalizes the constitution. Any society so captured by law as to forget tradition will have neither law nor tradition – my words.
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He also called for justice within the realm of justice, and was worried that the Supreme Court had to open up not only to judges but also academics and lawyers. He cried about the power of the CJN, playing with the acronym. He said the CJN is now the controller of the NJC. The same alphabets.
Aku orire
The new governor may have been carried away. It was still mourning in Akure and the new governor, Aiyedatiwa, was sunny and jubilant. He purred, Aku orire, meaning, “let’s celebrate our good fortune.” He should not even have allowed himself to be sworn in so early. By such hasty swearing-in, he stepped over Aketi’s body. He should have grieved. Was he also laughing over the corpse of his benefactor? He would not want to be characterised as such but that was the optics in his smiling visage and air of buoyant joy in the room. He was already the acting governor with all the powers. He could have waited a week. The powers of acting governor are not diminished if he is not sworn-in. He could, at least, have acted rather than put up that sordid act.
He probably was not aware of his haste. He has to apologise for that lack of sensitivity over a man who held him out of the shadow, supported him to be a member of the House of Representatives, made a major enemy because he picked him for the senate and nominated him into the NDDC. While appointing him his deputy, he virtually assured him he would be his successor. So, why not exercise patience and not act as a baby on a mother’s lap jumping for a feeding bottle as though it will not come?
In his sober moments, he probably would realise his mistakes. He did not know that Aketi’s sacrifice was not a thing of pride to him. So, did Aiyedatiwa not appreciate all of Aketi sacrifices for country and even for him? The video has gone viral when Aketi gushed on the man and import of his name Lucky, and Orimisan – my head is good- and his surname that means the world is now ours. I recall the story of Lucky Igbinedion, whose brother Bright never enjoyed his good fortunes. The saying was that it is better to be lucky than bright.
He needs to address this in public so we can all move on. He owes it to Aketi’s soul, to Ondo State citizens and to all Nigerians.
