I read an article entitled, Ondo: Can Boroffice Fix This Mess?, written by one Dapo Thomas in the Sunday, July 3, 2016 edition of The Nation, and had no difficulty reaching the conclusion that this piece of hagiography could have come from a deluded sycophant who battles with the reality of a fast vanishing hope anchored on prebendalism. The whole write-up betrays the writer as an apprentice rhetorician who lacks basic sobriety and gravitas necessary for balanced intervention. His attempt at projecting one of the aspirants, Prof Ajayi Boroffice, as the most “educated and connected to the grassroots” is dubious. If he hopes to achieve something positive for the aspiration of his principal with this trash, the reactions, which this evidential mediocrity has elicited, should jolt him and his sponsors from their complacent revelry.
The writer introduced a phrase, “political party establishment” to depict the obnoxious phenomenon of control by political merchants whose activities have brought us to this sorry pass. Dapo Thomas’s mindset does not only showcase a disturbing example of a pretender who appropriates the platform of intellection to propagate falsehood, it is also an index of the nadir of infamy to which we have fallen, freely. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle admonished us on the danger inherent in the acquisition of knowledge without character. This person appears to be struggling to come to terms with these qualities. Whatever must have been the motivation for this hurriedly arranged incoherence, an incalculable damage is about to be visited on a process which, by the admission of this man, has been compromised by the “political party establishment”.
I consider the comparison between reasoned engagements of politicians and the generality of the people in the US, with specific regard to the Democratic Party’s presumptive candidate, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders, a keen contestant for the presidential ticket of the party, idiotic and unintelligent. It is fraudulent, in the main, for anyone to embark on a facile voyage of drawing parallels between disparate phenomena. Political parties in developed countries may be controlled by political leaders. The environment, however, allows ordinary Americans the latitude to decide on issues of interest. Political parties in a Nigeria are owned by political businessmen. This fact is notorious. It is what has led to the destruction of the PDP. It will, inexorably, lead to the death of other political platforms which refuse to broaden the space of participation.
Dapo Thomas listed six “attributes” of Prof Boroffice which should make other aspirants go to sleep. According to him, the man is a “solid electoral asset that can clinch the governorship election for the party in the inter-party election”. Secondly, this uncommon politician, “the establishment candidate naturally enjoys the confidence and trust(sic) of the party leadership to deliver appropriately, the dividends of democracy promised the electorate by the party”. Thirdly, “the candidate obviously possesses intimidating political and academic profiles which his rivals cannot match”. The fourth laughable reason advanced concerns the possibility of the party leadership coming to this dubious conclusion having conducted “a secret poll in the state to know which aspirant was likely to win the governorship seat for the party without stress”. The fifth reason borders on the possibility of the party leadership “scrutinizing the manifestos” of the aspirants even before the election and without asking them to submit same. The last is the attribution of “providence” as anointing a man before election. We shall now proceed to exhibit the vacuous disposition of the writer, seriatim.
A more sober analysis of issues by any dispassionate analyst would have concentrated on missed opportunities and the desirability of an alternative team which should replace the current profligate, deceitful, fraudulent and directionless government which spent almost eight years building markets and fountains while the people wallow in abject poverty. A true scholar should be interested in identifying the problems faced by a given people and proffering realistic solutions to the challenges which weigh down the people. Scholars, who deserve to be regarded as such, propound theories on the necessity for strong social institutions and not individuals, however benevolent or intelligent. It is only a groveling sycophant who will praise an individual to high heavens in a deformed capitalist ambience. I repeat, only an impostor in the academia will try to subject the affairs of a state, however provincial, to the vaunted omniscience of a “professional politician “who has never lost an election”.
Of all the assumed and propagated virtues of the expected redeemer, I find the catch phrase, “solid electoral asset”, amusing. The writer did not allow his readers to struggle too much with understanding the meaning of this idiocy. Senator (Prof) Boroffice distributed 22 cars and 50 tricycles. He dispenses a lot of largesse, the “dividends of democracy” which some leaders of the party expect badly. He can be trusted to short change the people to satisfy the cabal. He has been at home with the grassroots. He knows what they need and he feels for them. He purchased cars for 22 hangers on and tricycles for the “Wretched of the Earth”. It does not matter if there are no roads in the whole of the Akoko Division. Boroffice’s idea of welfare is the purchase of these items for a handful of jobbers. How this reflects his academic profile remains to be seen. A professor who reads will see the connection between the development of infrastructure and economic opportunities. Only a demagogue will fail to appreciate this fact and equate the purchase of Tokunbo vehicles and Keke Napep for some to represent the aspiration of the whole.
The point made on the “trust” by the ” establishment of the political party” in Boroffice is grossly misplaced. The APC is a public party, at least on paper. It is only decent to take and treat it as that, especially by those who theorise to justify perfidy. Any member of the society should be free to join and leave the party. The reference to super delegates in the United States is also misplaced. The American system is well structured. No individual rules like an antediluvian emperor.The so called party leaders in Nigeria are business men and women who control the economic and political space. They have no scruples. They hardly choose a person who is fiercely independent. Ensuring that they get the “dividends of democracy” means keeping the people in perpetual privation. Those who are truly desirous of freedom must resist them. They don’t and can never mean well for the people. The new thinking in the country does not support groveling sycophancy. Some leaders of the party are on trial for corruption now. Others will be tried in no distant future. Many are against the current efforts of the Buhari government which is bent on cleaning the Augean Stable of corruption. It is asinine for anyone to refer to some nebulous characters as constituting “party establishment” hoping to reap from a reckless rule.
On “academic and political qualifications which his rivals cannot match”, the writer needs some education here. It is very obvious that certification to him equals education. But assuming, without conceding, that being a professor “at a young age” is all there is to be considered a star, of what relevance has that been in the lives of the people of Akoko? The purchase of 22 cars and 50 keke Napep as “welfarist” intervention by a supposed educated legislator is fraudulent. The Akoko division in Ondo State is still highly provincial. There are no good roads. Boroffice should not have descended into the prebendal arena if the huge investment of the state in his education had had a positive impact. Mimiko built “international markets” where Ondo people buy goat for “Asun” and dog, to prepare a special delicacy. Those second hand vehicles and tricycles will complement the grand deceit of the out-going government. He has been a senator representing the state for five years. In what specific ways has the state benefitted from his membership of the Senate?
A professor is an occupier of a Chair in the academia. In addition to his teaching and research, he must keep the professorial chair busy. Professor Boroffice left University of Ibadan as a Senior Lecturer in 1986, according to the intending palace bard. May we demand to know how he left LASU? For how many years did he teach in that institution? Why was he asked to resign or be sacked by Prof Lateef Hussain, the former Vice Chancellor? The simple truth is that our erudite scholar used that institution as a contact address while hustling full time. His name remained on pay roll for a long time until Prof Hussain assumed office as the Vice Chancellor. He was not sacked because of the intervention of some eminent Lagosians who interceded on his behalf.
He is a professor of Zoology. He “successfully” launched Nigersat Com 1 in Russia after expending about N16 billion. May we ask this uncommon scientist to explain the circumstances leading to the disappearance of this monumental fraud from the orbit? He has been a member of PDP, Labour Party, ACN and now APC. This political prostitution is promoted as “solid electoral asset”. He has won all elections because he is a scholar, astute politician and “trustworthy” distributor of the “dividends” of democracy. Why is Akoko still backward? He has received humongous amount as “constituency project allowance” for five years. He participates in the current political shenanigans which President Buhari strives to obliterate. Ondo State does not need a legislator who distributes cars and Keke Napep in 2016. It is an insult to the memory of departed great minds of the state. It is a fraudulent way of expropriating the commonwealth of the people while pretending to cater for their needs.
From all indications, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, appears to be the target of this unwarranted attack by the hack. The suborned writer alluded to the process which threw up Aketi as the preferred candidate in the 2012 election and clownishly concluded that the choice of the former NBA president and former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the State, led to the loss of the party. He also, mischievously and ignorantly, claimed that while Akeredolu “lost his Owo Local Government”, Senator (Prof) Boroffice won his Akoko Constituency. This assertion depicts this Thomas as a sloppy and simplistic researcher. A click on the INEC website would have exposed the lie in his statement. Akeredolu WON his Owo local government in 2012. The ACN also won in Akoko South West due to the efforts of Gboyega Adefarati, the son of late Chief Adebayo Adefarati, the former governor of Ondo State. The reputation of the old man and the dedication and honesty of his son, gave ACN the victory. Boroffice did nothing. He actually worked against the interest of the party because he was not chosen as the candidate. He did not come out on the day of election. I have friends in Akoko who were in the state during the election. He is not regarded as a trustworthy politician. Aketi became a lawyer at the age of 21 years. He became a Senior Advocate at 42 years old. He has practised law for almost 40 years. He is not a contractor. He has lived through the sweat of his brow. Many young lawyers have benefitted from him.
The important message, however, is to admonish the simple and sloppy that winning an election does not translate, necessarily, to being regarded as the best. Fayose and men and women of his ilk have been winning elections in Ekiti State. President Muhammadu Buhari lost three major elections until Nigerians realized that Jonathan and his party, PDP, were bent on destroying this country. Buhari is now the president. Boroffice and his cohorts are among those opposing him. The current revelations about Ekiti should convince any sensible Thomas, even if condemned to doubt, to know that Jonathan rigged the election in favour of Mimiko in preparation for his 2015 re-election bid. Anyone who uses that as a yardstick to determine the popularity of Akeredolu is a simpleton.
This writer believes the lie that Akeredolu was imposed on the party by the same “party establishment” in 2012. He failed, however, to mention how a “mere lawyer” was able to achieve that feat among eminent and more “qualified” aspirants. He mentioned the names of Olu Agunloye, Tunji Abayomi, Segun Abrahams, a Canadian based indigene of Ondo State, Segun Ojo, another Owo indigene who campaigned, vigorously, against Aketi because of his hatred for Tinubu, and of course, our “erudite scholar” and politician, Ajayi Boroffice. A complete neophyte was “imposed” on these men in 2012! A reasonable scholar would have inquired into the cause(s) of such phenomenal occurrence.
At the risk of being considered immodest and brash, may I assert that these names were no where near Akeredolu in 2012? I should also make bold to say that the party hierarchy settled for Aketi for objective reasons. First, his tenure as the president of the Nigerian Bar Association was very successful. He acted as the official spokesperson of the opposition in the country when Yar Adua was ill and Jonathan was reduced to a mere clerk in Aso Rock by Aadoakaa, Danbazau, Turai and other nation wreckers. He it was who insisted that the Vice President must be allowed to act in the absence of the president. Many of the exigent progressives, including Boroffice, were somnolent and conniving. Akeredolu rebuffed all overtures to be suborned. As an active member of the NBA at that time, I was privy to most of the sensitive meetings to which he was invited by powerful elements in the country. He was never in the legal team of unscrupulous persons despite the tantalising offers from them. He was always in the defence team of those he adjudged as progressives. His sterling qualities commended him to those who decided on behalf of the party. He coordinated the legal defence of Aregbesola, Fayemi, among others, which culminated in the victory of the defunct ACN. It is a big lie to paint a picture of an opportunist who just strolled into a structure to achieve parochial objectives.
As a person married to an indigene of the state who is also keenly interested in the development of her state, I had travelled to all the eighteen local governments in Ondo State before he was chosen. There was no impressive presence of the then ACN on ground. Those who paraded themselves as party leaders in the state deceived the leaders in Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo and Ogun states. The realities on ground were far from the beautiful picture painted. The party leadership had assisted Mimiko with a view to getting him to join them. He swindled them and proceeded to create his own structures. Those who showed sympathy for ACN did so for selfish reasons. They had been sidelined by Mimiko. Let no one rewrite this story to score cheap political points. Akeredolu came as the galvaniser. He was used by the party. He was not imposed. Nothing has changed, significantly, since then.
I should not round off this piece without making a reference to the uncharitable comment which holds Aketi as a “stranger” in Ondo State. How strange can a person be to his origin? I should start with his name, Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu. All of these names are pointers to his Yoruba origin. His father was a Reverend gentleman from Owo. The mother is a native of Igbootu, an Ijaw Apoi community in Ondo State. He speaks impeccable Owo dialect. He has a house in Ijebu Owo, contrary to the falsehood spread by simpletons. He was the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state. He is the Chancellor of Anglican Diocese, Owo. He practises law in Ibadan and Abuja like most industrious indigenes of virtually all states of the federation. Who is the real stranger? What is the meaning of Boroffice in Yorubaland, Ondo State, especially Akoko? Ti a ba ka eru, inu eru aba je.
The gubernatorial primaries of APC in Ondo State will be pointer to many things. Just as the so called party establishment ganged up against Buhari for selfish consideration, the current lynch mob are all out against Aketi. Buhari triumphed over dollars and mischief. Aketi has always been a victor right from the days of the murky politics of the NBA to the present time. No amount of mudslinging can obliterate that fact. Aketi stands out among the rest. It takes a discerning mind to know, not a doubting simpleton.
Doyin Odebowale, PhD, LLB, BL.
Lecturer, Department of Classics,
Faculty of Arts,
University of Ibadan.
