By Emma Obe
Popularly known as Aketi, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, 64, the second term governor of Ondo State does not cut the picture of a contemporary Nigerian politician. He wears an all-white beard; and his simple caftans are out of sync with the well-known flamboyance of the typical Nigerian politician.

Despite belonging to the ruling party at the centre, Akeredolu has indeed become a kind of rallying point for opposition against the harsh policies and positions of the centre, especially on national security matters. And he doesn’t seem to worry about the likely repercussions.

As a lawyer, Akeredolu has reached the pinnacle of his profession. He has been anything a lawyer should be: a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ondo State attorney-general and commissioner for Justice, and the Chairman of the Nigerian Legal Aid Council. Little wonder, he dropped behind the black suits and conservatism noted with senior lawyers and joined politics. In fact, many think he is in the new terrain to conquer.

Akeredolu’s wife, Betty Anyanwu, a civil society activist from Imo State, whom he met during his National Youth Service Corps days in Owerri, is three years older than him. He is what many people like to describe as a detribalized Nigerian. And he hasn’t hidden this flare of his. He appointed a young woman from Imo State as a Special Assistant in the Office of the Governor and retained her despite the heat put on him by some hard-line Ondo citizens.

It was a similar scenario when he nominated a Rivers State woman married to an Ondo man as the state nominee on the list of Nigerian ambassadors. Despite the pressure, Akeredolu stood his ground and had his way.

When he became governor in February 2017, Akeredolu said his priorities would include agricultural development, fish farming for export, improvements to education, jobs for youths and improved roads, free education and primary health care. He said he would increase subsidies on social services and guarantee greater local control over public spending. But those are not the issues that are jutting him out for recognition right now.

He has become a hero of sorts in a country needing bold public officers to speak and walk the talk. Next to the worsening economic situation of the country, Nigeria is caught in the throes of insecurity, a lot of it perpetrated by Fulani herders, who use forests and forest reserves across the country as the base for their heinous activities.

In the midst of all the apprehension and intimidation, Akeredolu stuck out his neck to challenge the menace of the Fulani and defied the federal security authorities to find a solution to the precarious situation not only in Ondo but in the whole of the South-West. And he has been unbending in this task.

However, the governor has not allowed the popular support he appeared to be receiving from his stance on these matters to get to his head. At every opportunity for dialogue, whether with the federal authorities or even with the Fulani herders organisations like the Miyetti Allah, he has made himself available and even ready to make concessions if such avenues provided opportunities for peace and security.

When Sunday Igboho, a young Yoruba nationalist, emerged out of the blue in reaction to the security situation in the South-West to mobilise for secession for the Yoruba, Akeredolu did not play to the gallery about his position. He told Igboho outright that he was on his own, that he believed in the unity of Nigeria and would not work with anyone to divide the country.

He perhaps seems to have drawn most of the inspiration he is adopting now as the new kid on the block status in Nigerian politics from his heyday as the NBA president. Without declaring it, the governor has made himself the political arrowhead of South-West, especially when the people are looking out for a leader to speak out and act in their interest. Well, that might be supported by the fact that he is currently the Chairman of the South-West Governors Forum, which, in the main, aggregates the opinions of the geopolitical zone.

It might not be very surprising, however, that he adopted the prefix – Arakunrin, soon after he took office as governor. Arakunrin in Yoruba means Male Drummer. That could be it. He is not just the drummer, he has also become the spokesman; and he is doing his beats for the Yoruba nation excellently.

The governor who just marked the 100th day of his second term last Friday has since his re-election last October never hidden his position on hot issues that define national discourse.

Only last week, he threw a bombshell in the babble of proposals being tossed about in the ongoing debate on the amendment of the Nigerian constitution.

Without mincing words, he called for the adoption of a part-time unicameral legislature. If this is done, Akeredolu believes, it would cut down the cost of governance at the federal level, and free money for other social services and capital expenses of government. Who knows? The bearded governor unlike other governors might not harbour plans to retire to the Senate after his second tenure as governor.

While other governors were still dilly-dallying about what to do to ease killer Fulani herders from the forests on their states, Akeredolu stepped out and gave the herders an ultimatum to get themselves registered or be flushed out of the forests. His quit order to the herders drew flaks from some of his counterparts from the north and especially the federal government. The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the federation, Abubakar Malami, even declared his order unconstitutional.

But Akeredolu stood his ground and eventually got the leadership of the Fulani herders to comply with his orders. Today, the security news coming from Ondo forests, which before his action was a den of kidnappers, robberies and assassinations has improved.

But the most outstanding test of Aketi was his stand-off with the federal authorities over the setting up of the South-West regional neighbourhood security outfit, Amotekun. As Chairman of South-West Governors, Forum, Akeredolu carried the establishment of the outfit on his head. Despite the opposition of the Federal Government to the establishment and operation of Amotekun, he endured and constructively engaged the federal authorities until Amotekun was grudgingly accepted.

Coming at a time when the Federal Government was promoting the establishment of community policing and added to threats by the federal government to clamp down on Amotekun, it looked like Akeredolu might back off. He did not but went ahead to get his colleagues from the other South-West states to inaugurate the security outfit. Several times, he led delegations to the Presidential Villa and other federal authorities to make them see reason why Amotekun must be.

He spoke tirelessly about the imperativeness of Amotekun, giving instances of where some northern states have security outfits like Hisbah to enforce some form of Sharia and why Amotekun meets constitutional requirements.

He was the champion at the Asaba Declaration, where the 17 southern governors banned open grazing and called for state police because of the failure of the federal police to effectively contain the worsening the crime situation.

Curiously, a lot of Akeredolu’s policies have continued to face strong opposition. He recently introduced Oduduwa Anthem in Ondo schools, which was indeed meant to get the kids from the state to identify and keep up with their traditional heritage. But that too came for serious criticism from people who claim that singing any anthem other that the national anthem in schools was unconstitutional.

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Soft-spoken, Akeredolu has stealthily ingrained himself as an epic hero at a time when it is difficult to stand up and be counted on the side of truth resilience and the ordinary people.

Surprisingly, the governor is not a stranger to controversies. His career both in politics and the politics of the NBA has been dogged by stand-offs and controversies. Not many people believed that he could stand up to the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Bola Tinubu.

In 2016, he defied Tinubu and ran for the governorship ticket of the APC and won. Those who know Tinubu and his control of the politics of the South-West can say it better that when you are not in the good books of the APC national leader, your political career could be doomed. He returned again in 2020 and despite what seemed like conspiracy to oust him, he clinched the ticket of the party, which saw his deputy resigned from government and ran against him.

As NBA President in 2009, a member of his own executive committee filed allegations of fraud against him. But after looking at the charges, the National Executive Committee of NBA dropped them. And a few years later, the national secretariat of the association was named after him.

With all these, many Nigerians today see the Ondo State helmsman as the new poster boy of activism in the country.