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OPINION: Akeredolu And The Absurdity In Ondo State

Published

2 years ago

November 21, 2023

By Suyi Ayodele

“How many governors are in Oyo State?” The question was directed at me by an Abuja-based senior journalist. He is equally a friend. I was confused. Rather than answer, I put a call across to him. “Bros, what type of question is this?” He laughed. He told me that someone played the same prank on him, and he chose me as his own victim too. Then I understood what he was driving at. We discussed other issues, and I terminated the call. But ever since, the question has refused to go away. How many governors are indeed in Oyo State? You may ask your next-door neighbour the same question.

Oyo State is the ‘luckiest’ state in Nigeria, today. The state has two ‘sitting’ governors. One of the governors was legitimately elected by the people of the state. His name is Governor Seyi Makinde (GSM). He resides in Ibadan, the state capital, carrying out his constitutional duties as the governor of the state. The second ‘governor’ is Arakunrin, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who was elected as the governor of the second neighbouring state of Ondo State. To get to Oyo State from Ondo State, you must cross Osun State. When Akeredolu adopted the prefix, “Arakunrin” instead of the honourific “His Excellency”, that his peers in the remaining 35 Government Houses answer, we all believed that he came with humility. Akeredolu, for almost a year now, has been in Ibadan, directing the affairs of Ondo State. We must know that the man known as Aketi, is not in Ibadan by his freewill. Circumstances beyond his control and human understanding, pushed him to relocate to Ibadan. He has our sympathy for that. Not just our sympathy, Arakunrin Akeredolu has our daily prayers as we wish him well in whatever battle life has thrown at him. That is the best we should, and can, and must do for him, at this most critical period of his life. Anything beyond this becomes an absurdity.

The people of Ondo State elected a governor that would stay in the state and direct the affairs of the state. They did not bargain for a proxy governor. The constitution itself envisages a situation like the present Akeredolu’s debacle. That is why the drafters of the constitution made provision for the office of a deputy governor. In any situation where the governor cannot perform his duties efficiently and effectively, his deputy is expected to take over, either in acting capacity, or as substantive governor. What is happening in Ondo State between Arakunrin Akeredolu and his deputy governor, Mr. Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa, is pure abnormality! There is no other name for it. It is even more unfortunate that Akeredolu is the one at the centre of it all! If gold rusts, what will iron do!

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That Governor Akeredolu is not enjoying the best of health at the moment is no longer debatable. That his health impairment is affecting governance in his home state is equally undeniable. Then what is the way out? That should be our concern. We are asking for the way out because we live in a country where everything is upside down. Were it not so, Akeredolu’s case should have been the model, the template that every civilised society should copy. Here is a man who is bigger than a colossus in constitutionality. In all ramifications of life, Akeredolu has paid his dues. Unfortunately, his antecedents are in sharp contrast to his present behaviour. Why is his gold rusting? How would a man who ascended to the pinnacle of the legal profession as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and who at a time was the number one lawyer in Nigeria as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), find himself in this situation and would refuse to do that which is right, noble, and just? Why, if we may ask, will an Akeredolu make nonsense of the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria, the very document that he took an oath to protect, defend and uphold? Something is missing!

The first time Nigerians got to know officially that Arakunrin Akeredolu was not in perfect health was on June 13, 2023, when the governor sent a letter to the Ondo State House of Assembly that he would be embarking on leave to attend to his health. In that letter, Akeredolu officially handed over power to his deputy, Ayedatiwa, to act as the governor of the state. Not a few Nigerians hailed the move. We all thought that the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was here with us. Alas! We were mistaken! Akeredolu was expected to spend 21 days outside the state for his medical leave. Before the expiration of the 21 days, the governor sought and obtained an extension. Then days rolled into weeks, and weeks into months, until the governor, on September 8, 2023, after almost three months, wrote to the Assembly that he was back to take the reins of power as the governor. That was when the real crisis started. The pliable Ondo State House of Assembly, for whatever reason, began an impeachment process against the deputy governor. That incident has led to not less than five litigations in various courts of coordinate jurisdiction. And in all the matters before the courts, Ayedatiwa has triumphed. The latest being the ruling by an Abuja Federal High Court, which last week refused to vacate the order it issued restraining the Assembly from proceeding with the impeachment notice until the substantive issues before the courts were determined. The Assembly is on appeal against the ruling. You may wish to ask, as I do: what is the Ondo State House of Assembly after? Whose drumbeats are the members dancing to over the impeachment move?

While the impeachment tango lasted, the party which jointly produced Akeredolu and Ayedatiwa, the All Progressive Congress (APC), came into the matter and initiated a peace move. As matters stand between the governor and his deputy, it appears that the APC peace initiative is a ruse, after all. The governor is as unrelenting as his deputy is perpetually embattled. I asked an old friend from the Akure axis what the problem was. His response shocked me. Ayedatiwa, the old folk said, “Has no manners and is not loyal to his principal.” I asked my friend if that was not the same allegation levelled against Agboola Ajayi, the former deputy governor to Akeredolu during his first term. My friend responded: “Suyi, honestly, Aketi (Akeredolu), has not been fortunate with his deputies.” Really? I was not convinced. Fortunately, my friend is also a ‘village boy’ like me. So, it was not difficult for me to ask him about the wisdom in the saying of our elders to wit: When a woman lacks manners, she says she has never been lucky with husbands – Obirin so iwa nu, o ni ohun o gbori oko waye. How come it is easy for people to conclude that Akeredolu’s two deputies have not been of good behaviour without paying attention to the character of the governor himself? What do you say of a man whose every wood in the cooking place bellows only smoke (bawo ni gbogbo igi se nse eefin)?

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Since the ‘return’ of Akeredolu from Germany on September 8, 2023, the governor has not been seen in Akure, the state capital. A competent source, however, said that two Saturdays ago, the governor was in his Owo home town to see one of his old relations. The source said that the old relation was worried that he had not seen his cousin, the governor, in a long while; and when told that Akeredolu was in Ibadan, the old man in his late 80s, elected to travel to Ibadan. On hearing that and in deference to the old man, Akeredolu, the source added, had to travel to Owo and returned to Ibadan that same day. Governor Akeredolu now resides in Ibadan, permanently. Who governs Ondo State in his absence? He has transmitted a letter of resumption to the legislative arm. By that, the deputy governor reverts to his constitutional position as an assistant waiting for assignments from the governor. Now that the governor is perpetually absent; and his deputy is not only redundant, but has been given a ‘laborious task’, who rules Ondo State? I hope nobody would come up with the argument that the governor can rule the state from any part of the country. In the rote learning of “states and capitals”, my two-year-old granddaughter knows that Ibadan is not the capital of Ondo State! What is bad is bad; no matter how much we love the man with a gangrene-infested sore, nobody uses the water oozing out of its pores to cook okro soup! Akeredolu and his handlers cannot make Ibadan the capital of Ondo State at the expense of Akure! But that is what they are unwittingly doing!

For whatever anyone may think, the issue of Akeredolu goes beyond Ondo State. That the governor is holding on to power despite the knowledge of his ill health in the public space is a collective shame of the entire Yoruba race which prides itself as the most civilised in the nation. And there is no doubt about that; the Yoruba people are civilised, sophisticated, and urbane. What we are experiencing in the region now is the season of the locusts. The current politicians in the zone have become lords over the people. They have turned the once politically vibrant Yoruba people to a conquered race; one at the mercy of those they ‘elected’ to govern them. This is strange, very strange in all ramifications. The Yoruba are not known to condone impunity. At a time in the history of the people, the womenfolk rose to defend the land. Check the exploits of Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978), and how she led the Egba women to fight a sitting monarch in Abeokuta, over indiscriminate taxation. What about Madam Efunporoye Osuntinubu, later known as Efunroye Tinubu (1810-1887), who assisted two Oba of Lagos; Akintoye and Oluwole, to ascend to the throne when they were about to be short-changed? If Chief Gani Fawehinmi were to be alive today, what would be his attitude to this crass impunity? Where are the Yoruba men and women of honour in this Akeredolu matter? Why is no one of note talking; why are the nobles of the land not condemning this charade which is an absolute breach of the constitution and a slight on the collective sensibility of the people?

I am not holding any brief for Ayedatiwa. I don’t even know him. I am not in any way defending his ‘good or bad manners’. What I know is that the case of the Ondo State deputy governor is like the proverbial bad onigangan (talking-drum drummer), who was hired for an occasion, and has been paid. Whether he can drum very well or not, he will finish his performance on the occasion he was hired for. You may not hire him the next time. At his swearing-in in October 2020, nobody asked Ayedatiwa if he would be “mannerly” or not. It is even an aberration for anyone to demand the loyalty of a deputy governor to his principal, the governor. That may be morally fine, but not constitutionally expedient. The deputy governor is expected to be loyal and faithful to the provisions of the constitution and the people of the state only. The same thing is applicable to the governor.

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The folly of changing deputy governors like babies’ diapers started with this political dispensation. In his eight years as governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had three different deputy governors in the persons of Mrs. Koforola Bucknor-Akerele (1999-2002), Femi Pedro (2003-2007), and Prince Abiodun Ogunleye (2007). His new political soul mate, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had three deputy governors in his first term, namely: Abiodun Aluko, Bisi Omoyeni, and Biodun Olujimi, who later became his political nemesis. The same was with Orji Uzor Kalu in Abia State, who also got rid of his deputy, Dr. Enyinnaya Abaribe. For over three months now, Akeredolu and his legislators have been trying to get rid of his deputy, but they have not succeeded. Why?

We need to pay more than cursory attention to the names the deputy governor answers. Are there hidden meanings to those names? His surname, Ayedatiwa, means: “The world has become ours”; baptismal name, Lucky, depicts one that is favoured; and his middle name, Orimisan, says: “My head is good.” Akeredolu and the House of Assembly may have to do the unthinkable to be able to get rid of the deputy governor. And should that happen, it would amount to another breach of the law. Lawyers, we are told, are priests in the temple of justice. Akeredolu is not just a lawyer, he is a father of lawyers. It is only impunity that will, in the face of the obvious fact that he lacks the physical and mental capacity to govern, make the former human rights activist-turned politician continue to cling to power at the expense of the people.

Ondo State is the loser in the present situation. The absence of the governor in the state has put the state at the mercy of political profiteers, Buccaneers, and rapacious locusts, who are feeding fat on the people. Most annoying is the fact that Ondo State is the ‘world headquarters’ of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group. If there is any time Afenifere is expected to speak truth to power, it is now. The leaders of Yoruba cannot afford to remain silent while this impunity continues in Ondo State. The Yoruba Council of Elders must speak, and speak, loudly now. When you have elders in the marketplace, the neck of a baby strapped on his mother’s back should not be bent precariously. The neck of Ondo State‘s baby is not just bent; it is dangerously bent. The goat is about to die in its tether, while the elders look on. The voices that rose against President Umaru Musa Ya’Adua in 2010 are loudly silent on Akeredolu. Why? The APC, which claims to be the party of our redemption, is also not saying anything. The feeble voice of the half-dead People’s Democratic Party (PDP), issuing an ineffective three-day ultimatum to Akeredolu to either resume or resign, is like that of the lone voice in the wilderness. Nobody pays any good attention to the PDP and its lethargic opposition nowadays. Truth be told, this act will never happen if the APC were to be in opposition. The entire Ondo State would have been on edge by now. But the case in Ondo State has gone beyond political affiliation. Every man of good conscience must condemn the impunity of Akeredolu and his handlers. They should respect the law, respect the people, and respect themselves.

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OPINION: 24 Governors And Still Counting

Published

3 hours ago

October 21, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

Years ago, when the sun used to rise and set at its time, a powerful farmer lived. History has it that at his coming of age, the man boasted that he would have the largest farm in his neighbourhood. He was said to have also told those who heard him boast that he would not work harder than any average farmer to achieve the feat. His strength, the powerful farmer told his listeners, is that he would do what nobody would ever do.

And true to his boast, the man’s farm became the talk of the town. He cultivated virgin lands and acquired old farms from their owners. Some voluntarily yielded their plantations to him. Many others were forced to give up their farmlands by circumstances beyond their control. Not a few ‘recalcitrant’ farmers, who resisted the acquisition of their farmlands, died mysteriously. The situation got to a point that nobody was willing to share farm boundaries with the powerful farmer.

He became the only famer around. Other farmers ‘willingly’ turned farm hands on his plantation. At that point, the powerful farmer became a demigod. He decided who ate and who should go hungry. Even when a few others struggled to farm, the yields from their fields were too miserable. Yet, the harvests from the powerful farmer were bountiful. He sold, became rich and had in excess while others wallowed in abject poverty! The elders of the land knew something was wrong. They knew that the trajectory was no longer normal. They decided to act.

A powerful diviner was consulted. What came from the divination board was shocking. The Oracle revealed that the powerful farmer was not ordinary. Ifa disclosed that while the other farmers were relying on the strength of their hands, the powerful farmer did something esoteric.

According to Òpèlè, the powerful man consulted a sorcerer who made a charm that makes other people’s farm produce to reduce in size while that of the powerful man grew in leaps and bounds. That metaphysics is known as Ako. Ako, Yoruba metaphysics says it is twofold. One, the worse of the two, kills individuals and makes their ghosts work on the charmer’s farm. The other simply makes the other farmers’ produce grow wretched while the charmer’s produce prospers. In the case of the powerful farmer, Ifa said he combined the two! That was why those who resisted him died prematurely.

What was the solution? The divination said that if they must get rid of the powerful farmer, the people must make a sacrifice of all edibles and add what is forbidden for the powerful farmer to eat. Once the man sees the sacrifice, the divination said, he would lose all his powers. And what was that item? They asked. Ifa responded that the people should find out by themselves. After all, it is said that there is nothing as accurate as a self-applied divination.

The elders left and made arrangements for the sacrifice. All the edibles were added and the pot placed on the farm road the powerful man takes to his farm. But after about three attempts and nothing happened, the elders returned to their diviner. The message they got was that there was something they did not add. Ifa asked them to go and think deeply at home.

To solve the riddle, the elders took counsel and decided to prepare another pot of sacrifice. But this time around, they appointed some men to hide in the bush to spy on the man and his reaction when he saw the sacrifice.

The strategy worked. Early the following morning, when the man stumbled on the new pot of sacrifice, he laughed. He used his cutlass to check the items in the pot and laughed again. He then wondered aloud why the people would keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In his arrogance, he said, loudly to himself: “But they tried this time around. The only thing missing here is a lizard.” He upturned the pot and left for his farm.

Those hiding in the bush heard him clearly. They went back and reported their findings to the elders. The next day, another pot of sacrifice was waiting. But this time around, various types of lizards were added. The people did not want to take any chances.

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When the powerful man got to the spot, he knew that something had happened to him. He did all he could to reverse the sacrifice. He chanted, moved to incantation; he did evocation and ended with invocation. All failed! The powers he had had been neutralised. The esikus (ghosts)of those working on his farm descended on him and clubbed him mercilessly. He was taken home half dead. His era of terror ended.

Our native upbringing does not allow a younger person to teach an elder the wisdom of life. But the name, Ajáléonílébotièléyìn (A-já-lé-o-ní-lé-bo-ti-è-lé-yìn) -he who plunders another’s house to fortify his own backyard – is instructive here.

It is also un-African for a child to say he has seen a lot when the elders are present. I subscribe to that native injunction. But it is equally safe for a child to say that the little he has seen is enough to teach a life-lesson.

If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is rejoicing today because all his political opponents are coming to his camp in droves, I will advise him to ask his diviners the implications. There is a reason why he should consult those who are wise why nobody names his child Ajáléonílébotièléyìn.

This story above is derived from the legend of Ajáléonílébotièléyìn. Our elders say that we should tell he who removes other people’s roofs to cover his own porch to remember the day a whirlwind will remove his own roof (E so fún Ajáléonílébotièléyìn pé kó rántí ojó tí ìjì máa jà tó máa gbé’lé tiè lo). When that time comes, they caution that there will be no place to take cover from the impending rain.

President Tinubu appears to be the luckiest man today in Nigeria. He should be happy about that. He has every reason to celebrate. His camp is also justified if the drums are rolled out in jollification. If the trend of defection continues, Tinubu will be contesting against Tinubu in 2027! But I don’t think President Tinubu should be happy because he is the only farmer whose farm harvest is bountiful!

Why do I think the President should not be happy? The story of Ajáléonílébotièléyìn tells me that. Names in my Yoruba background carry meanings. This particular one is not just a name but a legend. The wisdom of the name tells me that President Tinubu should not rejoice because he has no opposition to his painful rule over Nigeria.

Joy, in the African worldview, has a slender and delicate body. We call it ayò, abara tíńtín (the tiny-bodied joy) in my place. Why did those before us give joy such a contrasting name? The elders of that era argued that within joy lies defeat, and at times, sadness.

When one is happy, they caution that such a person should not be overjoyed like the proverbial striped frog (Akere) which breaks its limbs while rejoicing! The story behind ayò àkèré (the joy of the striped frog) will, however, not be told today.

At the last count, President Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC), has 24 governors in its kitty. Only God can tell if any governor will remain in the opposition parties before the 2027 general election. This is a great feat by the President.

The simple implication is that President Tinubu, today, appears unbeatable! But is that true? Is there a man who cannot be defeated? Is there any champion for life? When a man is too powerful for his enemies to handle, what do our elders ask us to do? The answer to this last poser is the experience of life as taught by the name: Ajáléonílébotièléyìn.

What President Tinubu is doing with the decimation of the opposition is exactly what the powerful farmer, Ajáléonílébotièléyìn did to his fellow peasants. He can only thrive for a while. Those who believe that President Tinubu is the master strategist should know that very soon, the sacrificial pot waiting at the three-footpath for the President will contain an item that Tinubu is forbidden to eat. It will happen because nature does not allow an individual to answer the name, we-have-come (Enìkan kìí jé àwádé)!

The president’s masquerade can dance alone for as long as he wants at the arena. It must surely exhaust all the stunts in its arsenal. Former Governor Raufu Aregbesola of Osun State hinted at that last week. We should pay more than a passing attention to the man known as Ogbeni! The whirlwind will surely come and blow off the roof of Ajáléonílébotièléyìn.

He cannot be the only one with a roof over his head. And because he had succeeded in the past in rendering other houses roofless, there will be no place of refuge from the impending inclement weather! Like they say on the street, everyone go chop breakfast! This is why I believe that it is too premature for Tinubu and his supporters to rejoice.

What the President and his APC are doing is not ordinary. The way the opposition bigwigs are rushing like Kwesi Brew’s poem, Lest We Be The Last, to the ruling APC can only spell doom for the nation. The end, like Brew’s poem, will not be palatable to the defectors of today. Tinubu himself will find out too late that there is nothing to the defections. His harvested ‘friends’ have enough forbidden edibles in their bags.

This is one of the reasons I consider Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State’s reaction to the gale of defections that has hit the PDP as the most metaphorical reaction so far to the epidemic of defections sweeping across our political landscape. Looking at how politicians, especially fellow governors, are falling over one another to join the ruling APC, Makinde quipped that he was not moved by the number of the people defecting to the ruling party.

He added that he would “only be moved when hunger defects into the APC.” That was classic; that was deep in all ramifications. The statement has generated a lot of negative reactions especially by the apologists of the ruling APC and the Dictator-General of Nigeria, President Tinubu, who, today, is the sole beneficiary of the harvest of defections.

Many have argued that it was ‘uncharitable’ of Governor Makinde to have mocked Nigerians for being hungry. Some said that it was ‘self-indicting’ and ‘insensitive’ to talk about poverty in the land. They argue that if indeed there is hunger in the land, Makinde is part of the people who inflicted that pain on the citizenry. I don’t hold the portfolio of Makinde’s publicist, and as such, I won’t defend him on that.

Beyond the emotional responses from those who felt that Makinde’s statement hit the raw nerve of the god of the land, we need to look at what the governor said and ask if he lied or not. We need to do this before we bay for the governor’s blood.

Going by the reaction from President Tinubu’s camp, it is established that those who are ready to have Makinde for supper over the statement agreed with the Oyo State governor that Nigerians are hungry. They equally admitted that poverty walks on our streets in a three-piece suit. Their only point of divergence is that Makinde cannot exonerate himself. That is a good enough argument. Truth is that no leader in the present dispensation is exempted from blame.

But what is the import of Makinde’s statement? Did he utter that statement in mockery or is it a statement uttered to demonstrate bewilderment? I have asked those gloating that “Tinubu’s strategy is working” by the gale of the defections hitting the PDP and the other opposition parties what exactly is the attraction in the APC. I have asked, without getting any convincing answer, what that fantastic feat of President Tinubu is drawing the opposition to his camp.

This is where I find Makinde’s statement very deep. Since May 29, 2023, when Tinubu took the oath of office, what has been the fate of the masses of this country? This is what I think the governor was trying to say. His argument is that those defecting to the APC either from the PDP or the Labour Party (LP), are not doing so because they are convinced that the APC government of President Tinubu has changed the lives of the people for the better.

Makinde, to my understanding, is saying that the only time he would give serious consideration to the madness going on in the political firmament is when hunger, the hallmark of the Tinubu administration, defects and relocates to the president’s camp. In essence, it does not make any sense that people will voluntarily move into the house of the one afflicting them!

That is logical enough and I am tempted to follow that line of reasoning. Something beyond the surface is behind the current mass movement of the opposition figures to the ruling APC. I am convinced that another Ajáléonílébotièléyìn is at work here.

It might not be that the present situation has anything to do with an esoteric measure; it could be that the President is arm-twisting the opposition. A former governor of one of the Niger Delta states was reported to have wept profusely while begging his successor to move over to the APC. The former governor was said to have told those who cared to listen that the power-that-be had threatened him with the anti-graft agency. And when a man’s hands are soiled, a little jolt will make him capitulate!

While, for the purpose of this argument, one can excuse the selfishness of the governors of Delta, Enugu, and Akwa Ibom States, all first-term governors, in abandoning the PDP for the APC for political survival in the hands of a mean political vampire, how does one justify the resignation of Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State from the PDP? What exactly do we say Governor Diri is looking for? Here is a man who fought gallantly to earn a second term in office now jumping ship! And yet, some brainwave-individuals would want us to believe that there is nothing fishy!

The President’s camp can rejoice at this winning streak. They can celebrate while it lasts. Every Ajáléonílébotièléyìn has something he is forbidden to eat. Tinubu lost Lagos in the 2023 presidential election. That means that he is not totally unbeatable. What was that forbidden edible the Lagos voters gave to him during that election? That is the missing link those who want the president out of power in 2027 should find. I don’t get how people call their affliction their saviour! Something is wrong, somewhere!

Just like Governor Makinde posited, my worry over this disastrous move to a one-party State is the implication of absolute power in the hands of a pseudo democrat as we have in President Tinubu. If this venture scales through; if Tinubu succeeds in the total annihilation of the opposition, the impending calamity will be worse than a tsunami! Nobody will be spared! President Tinubu can win the next round of elections; I don’t have any problem with that. My concern is that he should not, by any means, be allowed to win as a sole proprietor of Nigeria. That will be an unmitigated disaster!

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Teenager Becomes Nigeria’s ‘Vice President For A Day’

Published

3 hours ago

October 21, 2025

Editor

A teenager, Joy Ogah, symbolically took over the seat of Vice President Kashim Shettima for a day, using the platform to advocate passionately for the rights and education of girls across Nigeria.

In a statement issued by the Office of the Vice President on Tuesday, the symbolic handover took place during a meeting on Monday between Vice President Shettima and a delegation from PLAN International, led by Helen Mfonobong Idiong, Director of Programme, Quality, and Innovation.

From the Vice President’s chair, Ogah highlighted the challenges facing girls in the country, noting that over 10.5 million children remain out of school, more than 60 per cent of whom are girls.

“We must invest in education that is safe and inclusive for every child in Nigeria,” she said, urging policymakers and stakeholders to prioritise interventions that protect and empower young girls.

Ogah also urged the government to provide free sanitary products in schools and ensure access to clean water, sanitation, and proper nutrition for all children. She stressed that every girl deserves a classroom, a choice, dignity, and not silence.

“When girls are protected, peace becomes possible. I may be the Vice President for a day, but the struggles I represent cannot end in a day. They must continue in our policies, our classrooms, our conversations, and our budgets,” she said.

Shettima also used the occasion to reaffirm President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to advancing girl-child education and inclusive learning nationwide.

“We will continue the engagement with PLAN International and see where the force and strength of government can be brought to bear on your solid advice on girl-child education.

“In President Bola Tinubu, you have an ally you can believe in and invest your trust in,” Shettima said.

Recent reports from The PUNCH indicate growing national momentum toward gender inclusivity in education. On October 20, 2025, advocacy groups urged all tiers of government to invest more in girl-child education, mentorship, and sensitisation programmes, calling for stronger efforts to eliminate gender bias in schools.

In September, the Federal Government launched the Renewed Hope Social Impact Interventions (RH-SII774) targeting over 10 million women across all 774 local government areas through livelihood grants, digital inclusion, and clean energy initiatives.

Similarly, the Ministry of Education and the National Assembly have reinforced support for gender parity and access to learning.

The government’s recent workshop on inclusive education, coupled with the Student Loans Act and increased education funding, reflects ongoing institutional commitment to equity — a goal echoed in Joy Ogah’s symbolic “Vice President for a Day” advocacy.

News

ASUP Begins Two-week Strike Over Certificate Fraud At Delta Polytechnic

Published

3 hours ago

October 21, 2025

Editor

Following alleged certificate racketeering at Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics suspended its services on Tuesday for two weeks.

A whistleblower, Raphael Ufua, accused the institution of certificate racketeering, causing serious damage to the school.

Ufua alleged that the principal officers issued certificates to students who never attended the school.

However, announcing the strike, ASUP Chairman Dr Michael Ohana said the lingering issue of alleged result racketeering has brought the institution into disrepute and disrupted academic activities.

He said, “A serious cause for concern is how the yet-to-be-verified result racketeering issue has permeated social media, bringing staff and the institution into public disrepute.

“Our members are the worst hit. When we relate with the world outside, we are no longer able to proudly say we are staff of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku.

Meanwhile, within the work environment, the necessary supplies and resources that make teaching and learning possible have become a far cry.

“Following the state government’s refusal to act decisively on issues between the Governing Council and Management, despite several meetings and ultimatums, it has become imperative that the Union embarks on a two-week warning strike.

“Recall that in February 2025, the Governing Council suspended the Registrar over unverified allegations of result racketeering without due diligence.

“Similarly, in July 2025, the Council suspended the Rector over unfounded accusations of financial impropriety, later repudiated by the governor as ultra vires.

“Despite relentless union efforts, these issues continue.

“Therefore, ASUP suspends its services to the state government for 14 days, hoping the government will consider reports from investigative committees rather than forming endless committees on this matter.

“The Nigerian Police must stop harassing staff, especially our members. Heads of Departments are being summoned to Abuja to answer for suspected forged student results.

“Government should call the Governing Council to order and duly communicate to them their mandates and functions. This is to make them operate in the manner that is expected of a Council that governs an academic institution, as obtainable with other tertiary institutions within and outside the state”

The ASUP called for the arrest and prosecution of the false whistleblower, Raphael Ufua, whose actions have brought disgrace and public disrepute upon the institution and staff of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-uku.

They stated that the alleged result racketeering, involving principal officers of the institution, had disgraced the image of the state institution, insisting that it was merely a case of result forgery perpetrated by individuals who are neither management staff nor principal officers of the institution.