By Ayodele Oni
Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has said the continued absence of Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, from his duty post is not new in Nigeria politics.
Sani criticized the refusal of Akeredolu to resume duties months after his return from overseas medical leave, despite transmitting to the State House of Assembly that he has resumed.
Mr Sani, in a short post, compared the current situation in the state with that of the late President Musa Yar’Adua.
“Ondo State is in the Yar’Adua quagmire situation,” Mr Sani, who represented Kaduna central senatorial district in the 9th National Assembly, posted on X account.
“In 2009, Nigerians witnessed a similar political impasse when Mr Yar’Adua, seeking medical treatment overseas, refused to hand over power to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan.
“Mr Yar’Adua’s hard-line kitchen cabinet and family members also hijacked the presidency and held on to power by refusing Mr Jonathan to ‘act’ in the absence of the president. It took the National Assembly’s invocation of the “Doctrine of Necessity’’ to resolve the stalemate.
“Ailing Governor Akeredolu, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, was one of the vocal voices at the time, asking Mr Yar’Adua to hand over power.”
However, Mr Sani’s criticism of the continued absence of Mr Akeredolu from the state re-echoed the protests by the opposition groups over the failure of the governor to hand over power to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Mr Akeredolu, who is on second-term tenure, has yet to return to the state more than three months after his return to the country from a medical trip overseas.
Different political groups including members of the opposition party have berated the governor for still holding on to power despite his health challenges.
The state government stated Mr Akeredolu still attends to files and official documents on his sick bed despite his health challenges.
“As I’m standing before you now, I sent two files to Mr governor and two files came back within a week and he approved what I asked for,” Bamidele Olateju-Ademola, the state commissioner for information and orientation, said in a recent interview.
