OPINION: Aketi’s cancer and Arabinrin’s rage!

Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu CON, SAN (alias Aketi), the Executive Governor of Ondo State, is a great man whose academic profile leaves no room for mediocrity. As a lawyer and scholar he has been exhibiting certain gubernatorial quality seldom seen in Nigeria’s corrupted political scene. As Governor of an enlightened state like Ondo Aketi has proven to be a good democrat. He may not have performed miracles or wonderfully as the Chief Executive of the state but generally he has posted an above-average performance. Compared to many Governors in Nigeria (who got elected for the sole purpose of self-aggrandisement) Akeredolu’s APC administration in the state is not known to be enmeshed in serious corruption or squandering of state resources.

He was once the President of the Nigerian Bar Association and presently he presides over the Southwest Governors Forum as its Chairman. As a former Attorney-General of Ondo State Akeredolu is at home with the intricacies and technicalities of the law. Like the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, himself an economist and former CBN Governor, Akeredolu knows what governance is all about.

But that does not mean that the government he runs has not had issues of corruption or nepotism to contend with. In December 2021 the SAN of a Governor provoked the opposition when he appointed his son, Babajide Akeredolu, as Adviser and Director-General of Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit of the state. When controversy ensued the Governor justified his son’s appointment arguing that he had worked very hard during campaigns to merit the job! He even boasted that he could appoint him his Chief of Staff and “nothing anybody can do about it”!

Come to think of it the Governor could be right by saying that his beloved son deserved something better than what he had gotten. After all, he had worked tirelessly during gruelling campaigns for the Ondo governorship. But saying that anybody could do nothing about it was insulting the sensibilities of Ondo people who elected him. Babajide may be qualified to hold any public office under the administration of his father but what rankles is the way and manner such ‘reward’ is dispensed.

Governor Akeredolu is happily married to one Igbo elegant woman called Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu. The First Lady, a combination of brain and beauty, hails from Imo State. How they met before marriage is not known publicly but madam Akeredolu has been discharging her functions with remarkable competence. She has an NGO fighting brest cancer, herself a victim of same!

The Governor has had issues of ill-health in the past. In April 2022 an online media outfit exclusively reported that Akeredolu was hospitalised in Germany after falling ill. Again In 2019, the Governor was out of the state for five weeks while seeking medical attention in Abuja.

Now, Aketi is in the news lately for reason of indisposition. Reportedly he is nursing an ailment said to be blood cancer (leukemia)! The American WWE world wrestling heavyweight double Champion, Roman Reigns, once suffered from leukemia and announced it publicly. He took some time off the squared circle to treat himself and recovered! So leukemia cannot be said to be an incurable disease.

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells in the body. Symptoms may include weakness or fatigue, bruising or bleeding easily, fever or chills, infections that are severe or keep coming back, and pain in your bones or joints; they could include headaches, vomiting, seizures, weight loss, night sweats, shortness of breath and swollen lymph nodes or organs like the spleen.

Besides, sickness is no respecter of power and authority — in Nigeria or elsewhere. If that is the case then the former President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, would not have died in power! If that is obtainable among mortals then President Muhammadu Buhari would not be junketing abroad (especially London) for his storied health challenges.

Beyond Aketi’s cancer, however, there is this concoction consumption controversy raised by the beautiful wife, Betty. In an audio message shared online via the Whatsapp messaging platform Sister Betty sounded like a wounded lioness out for a pound of flesh. She expressly accused the Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter-Governmental Affairs, Ms Bunmi Ademosu, of interfering in the management of the Governor’s health. Ms Ademosu also doubles as the Head of the state’s Liaison Office in Abuja.

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Without mincing words the First Lady accused Ms Ademosu of nursing a political ambition. And hit her hard by alleging that she snicked in some concotion prepared by her fake Pastor which she administered to her husband leading to the deterioration in his health! She sounded menacing in her message asking Bunmi to “leave my husband alone” as if the woman was known to be a rival or close romantically to Aketi. She threatened to deal with her even reminding her of her Igbo origins!

One may not accuse the First Lady of enaging in unnecessary drivel given the fact that she was defending her husband and perhaps attempting to ward off an ‘intruder’. But she overreacted to the issue. Aketi is not a teenager for accepting to drink the concoction presented to him.

Yet it goes without saying that bringing up political connotations to the Aketi cancer challenge presents us with another angle to the tale. “Look at you, what have you got upstairs to be the Deputy Governor of Ondo State? Yeah, peradventure anything happens to Aketi, Lucky takes over, it is a constitutional thing. But for you to be scheming, is evil”, Mrs Akeredolu had thundered in her leaked audio message.

In Yorubaland traditional remedial beverage known in local parlance as ‘agbo’ is popular among folks. The local herb is consumed by many in the event of any health issue ranging from malaria to tiredness, stomach upset to love-making energy. Even ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, is rumoured to be a consumer of ‘agbo’! Perhaps that is why ‘Baba’ is still hale and hearty as an octogenarian. And his performance in bed could have been enhanced by this ‘agbo’ thing!

Sister Betty had said in the message that she preffered the orthodox medical treatment to the local concotion being supplied by an intruding woman. In this battle for the mind and heart of Aketi something tells us that it could get messy (or even messier) given the fire and power of a woman scorned.

Perhaps, Ms Ademosu was acting without ill-will towards her sick boss. She may have meant well. Maybe, too, the Governor’s wife may have suspected an extra-marital affair existing between Aketi and Bunmi, herself a beauty to behold. Whatever is the truth we believe Sister Betty reacted more out of emotion than seriousness the issue demands. We hold that her tirade is undiplomatically unbecoming of a First Lady of a State.

Unless Ms Ademosu’s main objective was to dupe or defraud the Governor by way of some solicited or unsolicited spiritual healing antics then nothing could justify Mrs Akeredolu’s anger and vitriolic charge. In politics Nigeriana there are mercantilistic schemes aimed at controlling bosses or political schemes aimed at profiteering. Yet, nothing, thus far, proves that Bunmi was out to swindle the Governor by using a fake Pastor (or even a fetish priest) to achieve a diabolical aim.

If the pretty lady (Bunmi) is out to realise a political ambition of becoming the Deputy-Governor now she knows there is no chance in hell of that becoming a reality. The First Lady made it clear that in the event of her husband dropping dead today then one lucky fellow named Lucky would be in constitutional line for deputy-governorship and not Ms Ademosu. However, it is unbelievable imagining Bunmi wishing her boss dead!

We sincerely wish Governor Akeredolu speedy recovery. Nay, soonest “recover” — due apology to the compatriot, Shina Peters.

AUTHOR: Ozodinukwe Okenwa

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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