By Debo Akinbami

The theme refreshes the mind about the precursors to February 23, 2009; day one of Ondo’s finest leaders, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, was ousted as Governor. Agagu led Ondo State between 2003 and 2009, before the court voided his re-election bid. He came across as a governor of a rare class. He was a polymath ideologue and first rate scholar who prepared for governance and had his programmes planned out before hand.

Dr. Agagu, as governor, served with heart. He did so well in elevating the state he so much loved but was amply distracted by politicians; and, eventually consumed by them. The rest, as they say, is history. Agagu’s saga may have gone, but the derivable, hard lessons of the season leave with us. Life teaches us, as humans, through experiences, after all; and our depth derives from the same.

Like Governor Aiyedatiwa, Agagu was not faultless, but was hard to fault on performance terms. He made good marks and left a good remembrance. Even the fiercest of his critics conceded to his sterling performance as governor. The weird antithesis, however, was in the fact that the same Agagu, who was largely loved by citizens, was loathed by politicians. His sin, as politicians put it: “He was “tarring the roads without tarring the throats.”

Agagu’s failure to tar the politicians’ throats was his unpardonable sin. And this starkly reminds us that what excites the citizens may sometimes infuriate political actors. In effect, when politicians applaud a leader, he is “tarrying their throats”. Given this scenario, a leader not worth his salt may be distracted by what interests the political class at the detriment of the citizens. Politicians want the monies in their pockets. It doesn’t matter if the roads are death-traps. And when this is not within their reach, they manipulate the people.

For the love of Ondo, Agagu tarred more roads than throats; and, for so doing, the political class rewarded him with treachery, but his name is written in gold, nonetheless; in the hearts of the people he governed with good conscience. The intrigues of the time may have put the odds against him, but, in the end, posterity puts him in good stead. Agagu’s ordeal took an inter-party detour, Aiyedatiwa’s detractors inhabit his party. But the seasons are different, and so are the personalities involved.

From the moment it became obvious that the silver-bearded dude would lead the state, politicians had converged around him to pontificate on the shape of tomorrow, at veiled costs. They told tales about how his name dictates his pace, and how nothing compares to his manner of luck. At their peak of baits, they masturbated. But the governor, like an adroit tactician, said less. He simply looked on as interpreters fed fat on deciduous tales.

Aiyedatiwa understands both the games and the guts; even more than political interpreters thought he does. In his tunnel of turbulence, he had learned the harder way and armed himself ahead. He would rather take all in strides as he rides rough through the routes, absorbing even acerbic dabs- the obscure and obvious- with equal calm; the same quietude that grants him repeated wins. Whatever happens, what matters to Governor Aiyedatiwa is the people’s welfare, so that by the time he quits the temporary office, his conscience would remain his ally.

In other letters, the writer had forewarned the innocent public to be wary of a gang of paid critics who daily faults the Aiyedatiwa-led regime to lay the bed for a desperate ambition of a minister who employs the politicians to recreate the 2009 magic. Their routinal criticisms take objective semblance, whereas they are lured more by material gains than public interest. Some are tools in the hands of politicians who have vainly sworn to repeat history under a different guise.

The writer had nudged the people about an ominous ambition that makes room for all sorts of characters- tricksters, impostors and false hailers; an ambition that assembles bogus political dramatists and theorists who, at full throttle, boast bareface about how the same senatorial district which had just completed its own round would force itself back to power against the fair rotational tradition.

But, in all these, Governor Aiyedatiwa concentrates on adding values to the state. He has something going for him. Not of magic or mystics; yet, it is not an easy-peel for the simpletons. Only the shrewd few who can tinker with a recondite trajectory would break down the white magic about him. Applied or implied, none should contend the fact that Aiyedatiwa is a product of rare experience. His routes explains his haste to help the state defeat his hitches, his resolve to fix sundry infrastructural flaws and reconfigure the state for the benefit of all. And, beneath his broad smile lies a sturdy political will that stops at nothing when he puts his mind to a course.

The politicians have always been around as part of the power-mongering process, but they are rarely loyal to the people; only to their stomachs. The man who leads this time, in many respects, is of a different breed. He wants every Ondo citizen to be at ease; to be physically secure and prosper. Not to feed the politicians fat and leave the masses hungry. And this is how shrewd and depth defines Aiyedatiwa’s acts. He belongs in the rare class of gifted leaders and bears profound gifts that he makes no fuss about. He cares about all but suffers no fools.

• Dr. Debo Akinbami, PhD, is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Ondo State on Public Communication.