Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN, as simply “Arakunrin” (Yoruba for generic male, connoting “commoner”), reminds one of Shakespeare’s tragic hero, Caius Marcius Coriolanus, in the play, Coriolanus.
In the most romantic accounts, Coriolanus was a boy-general, crucial to victories against the Volscians, fierce rival-neighbours of old Rome, though Coriolanus was hardly out of his teens.
But a more realistic account portrays Coriolanus as a young general, but veteran of many triumphs, so much so that Rome’s survival depended almost solely on his valour.
On the face value, there appears a gulf between Akeredolu and Coriolanus. The one is 60, well past mid-life, lugging enough life experience for his last stretch to old age. The other was young, just eyeing mid-life, as callow as they came.
Still, similarities abound. After conquering legal practice by taking the silk, Akeredolu has turned his attention to politics.
Coriolanus did not quite “conquer” warring, for that remained his first and abiding love. But after so much blood and gore, Volumnia, his influential mother, felt Rome must elect his son as consul, and promptly nudged the reluctant young man towards her wish.
And there-in lies the closest comparison: politics meant Coriolanus, proud as a cock, vain as a peacock, must wear humility like a gown; which nevertheless sat rather ill on him. Provoked during his campaign for consul, by the treacherous tribunes, he blew his tops and embraced avoidable tragedy.
Governance, it appears, is shunting Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, the aristocratic lawyer, and Aketi, the colourful, if controversial politician, to Arakunrin, the commoner-governor.
Would this newfound humility hold, when the chips are down, and the heat of office sears? Or will the Aketi volcanic temper, like Coriolanus’s, blast everything into smithereens? That rests in the belly of time.
Still, in Ondo and environs, coining gubernatorial monikers, of the most theatrical hue, appears the fundament of branding a new government.
In his eight-year suzerainty, former Governor Olusegun Mimiko relished his Iroko byname, which projected solidity and strength; and harvested tumultuous roars in Ondo streets.
In the past seven years, Osun Governor, Rauf Aregbesola has milked his Ogbeni (simply Mr) moniker, which reinforces his projected image of the governor as the man next door — no frills, no thrills, just work.
Aketi, as governor, has gone even a step further, in projected gubernatorial humility — a commoner-governor at everyone’s beck and call, ready to serve, at the shortest of notices. That’s a sweet change from a rather cantankerous profile, with explosive newspaper interviews, ringing with venom!
A ready-to-serve governor, humble and focused, would register rather well with the long-suffering Ondo people, after the Mimiko years that promised so much, but delivered too little. That has left Ondo with quite some catch-up to do, at least when compared with its South West neighbours. Yet, with its oil wealth, Ondo is potentially the richest in all of the South West.
Yes, Lagos boasts more cash from the Federation Account; and raises much more as internally generated revenue. But divide the resources of Lagos with its 20 million-plus population, and Ondo’s with its less than four million people, and Lagos appears statistically poorer.
Still, it would be inordinate comparing or contrasting Lagos with Ondo. For one, Lagos, aside from a former federal capital, is one of the first-generation states, created in 1967. It is 50 this year. Besides, for the past 18 years since the birth of the 4th Republic, Lagos has built an awesome record in physical and social infrastructure, so much so that it is easily the national reference point.
Not so, comparing Ondo with its clusters of South West neighbours. Ondo is far younger than Lagos. Unlike Lagos, Ondo has not witnessed progressive continuation under the same party, or more accurately, movement, for that long stretch. But neither have states like Ekiti, Osun, Oyo and Ogun.
Ekiti, under Governor Kayode Fayemi, was a study in development policies, though a tragic shortfall in matching politics would lead to the premature electoral ouster of that government, after just four years. Yet, it is clear Ekiti was on its way to planned, deliberate and sustainable development, before the advent of the Ayo Fayose burlesque of stomach infrastructure.
Osun, much younger than Ondo (created in 1991, compared to Ondo’s 1976) has even fared much better since 1999, despite some indifferent governments. In the past seven years, in spite of its lean purse, the Aregbesola government has shown the greatest hunger for social and physical infrastructure in all of the South West, so much so that Osun is set to break out of its extant mode: a civil service state worth almost nothing outside the ultra-narrow economics of civil servants’ salaries.
Ogun and Oyo, second-generation states like Ondo, have made their strides too. Oyo was happy beneficiary as seat of the old Western Region. Even then, after a series of uninspiring governments since 1999, Oyo State, under Governor Biola Ajimobi, has essayed the heights Oyo should clear in sound infrastructure. But it’s work-in-progress yet.
Ogun, in the past 14 years, under Governors Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun, though under different parties and differing gubernatorial tempers, has maximally leveraged its contiguity to Lagos to jack up internally generated revenue and rev up physical infrastructure; in modern roads and bridges. But again, there is much more to do.
Whither Ondo in all of these, particularly when compared with its immediate peers of Ogun and Oyo?
The late Governor Olusegun Agagu had great vision in infrastructure, for he authored many bridges to link up the riverine areas that produce the state’s oil wealth, with the mainland that harbours its agricultural wealth. But the governor’s lack of legitimacy, no thanks to two controversial elections, blighted his agenda, from turning into legacy.
In contrast, immediate past Governor, Dr. Mimiko, lugged fearsome legitimacy, and humongous street popularity, after retrieving a stolen mandate from the courts and winning the first second term in Ondo history. Many contend he tried his best. But many more also argue that he spent an inordinate time on political gaming, fired by cheap trickery, busy playing the end against the middle, that he failed flat to deliver on his stunning potentials.
It is, therefore, a state rich in potentials, but tragically short on actualization, in comparison with its peers, that new Governor Akeredolu has inherited. Nothing bad in following the Iroko tradition of telling political symbolism, starting with a winning gubernatorial branding.
But from Iroko to Arakunrin, what the Ondo people crave are unstinted service and veritable results, even if theatrical sobriquets and performance are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
That is why Akeredolu must hit the ground hard, shun the temptation to play the Leviathan of both party and government, and give petty distractions a wide, wide berth.
Besides, he should leverage, to the full, the South West economic integration protocol, being forged by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission.
Otherwise, he risks the Mimiko self-rout of, blinded by hubris, trading putative greatness for pathetic ordinariness.
That would be yet another hope-betrayed by a longsuffering people.
