Author: Ayomide Mubarak
The All Progressives Party (APC), in Ondo state, on Friday, showcased it’s manipulative prowess, when Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, deceptively appointed as many as 316 people, as Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants respectively, with barely three months to the end of his controversial regime.
The appointees will “serve” Aiyedatiwa for about two months only, as their concealed assignment actually begins and ends on the 16th of November , when the state’s gubernatorial election, in which Aiyedatiwa is also a contestant, will hold.
The idea of recruiting mercenaries for election in the name of a SSA or SA is an outdated format. The package has been discovered over time, to be mere waste of scarce resources, as most of the appointees either don’t reside, vote in the state or politically active.
It’s also important to note that most, if not all the people so appointed at this eleventh hour, are strangers to the governor. He does know no them. It’s only in a desperate situation, like the one our governor finds himself, that strangers and in some cases, non party members are appointed as Special Assistants without peck of office,few weeks to election.
What is more worrisome in this instance of governor Aiyedatiwa is the sad reality that, he is appointing over 300 hundred aides, when members of his party complain daily of hunger and lack of dividends of democracy.
In a report few days ago, APC members in the state described the governor as stingy to a fault and one who only patronises blackmailers and expired politicians.
A case in point is that of former House of Representatives member, Hon. Akintoye Albert, who has literally become a pawn in the political game of successive APC governors.
Recall that, the same Albert was recruited for electioneering purposes by Late governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu, few months to his second term election. He was dropped like a bad card as soon as election was secured. Many had thought his appointment as SA prior to the election then, was a prelude to proper and meaningful assignment in the new goverment. But Albert was only used and dumped,only to be picked by Aiyedatiwa again, for the same inglorious assignment. No politician of electoral value will condone such debasement.
Unlike Albert who will stoop to any length to benefit from whatever crump could fall from the master’s table however, Gbogi Emmanuel from Akoko South, who knows his onions has respectfully rejected the undignified appointment of Aiyedatiwa. He has written a letter to the effect. In the letter, Emmanuel described the offer as a political strategy to recruit ward canvassers for the November election.
Different from Albert who probably needs anything to survive, Emmanuel said he was not contacted before his name was included among the list of the 316 appointees, whose appointments do not come with any benefit beyond the paltry sum they will get for the two months preceding the election, after which they will cease to be useful.
What is more, Emmanuel who is in the United States of America insists, nobody consulted him to verify if he would be available for such a ridiculous job, after the governor had denied him the opportunity of serving his people in a more dignifying position before now.
Though Aiyedatiwa’s reason for patronizing outdated and unpopular politicians is understandable. The seasoned and popular ones won’t identify with a failed candidate, dubbed the most unpopular sitting governor in the history of the state. However, making mass, but wasteful and deceitful appointments should not be a way to get cheap popularity.
NB: Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of VAM News.