Strong indications have emerged that recent intervention of President Bola Tinubu in the political crisis rocking Ondo State over the feud between Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, may have suffered some setbacks.
Already, speculations are rife that the Ondo State House of Assembly is planning to declare Aiyedatiwa as the acting governor on Tuesday (today).
There are feelers that the state lawmakers plan to reconvene on Tuesday (today) to deliberate on the proposal to declare Aiyedatiwa as Ondo acting governor.
But the camp of the Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, it was learnt, is not leaving anything to chances as it is said to have mapped out strategies to frustrate the plot against the ailing Governor.
Recall that Akeredolu has been away from the state in the past six months over ill health. He travelled to Germany for treatment, but on his return to the country, he headed straight to his house in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, instead of the Ondo State Government House in Akure.
Following President Tinubu’s intervention, the Presidency, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Tinubu, Ajuri Ngelale, advised all warring camps to bury the hatchet and embrace peace.
The Presidency also extracted commitments from the different parties to this effect.
According to the Presidency’s statement, “This means that Governor Akeredolu remains Chief Executive of the State, Aiyedatiwa remains Deputy Governor, and members of the State Executive Council continue their respective duties, even as the leadership of the State’s House of Assembly and the APC Chapter in Ondo State is preserved.”
Aiyedatiwa, it was learnt, however, met with some lawmakers in the Ondo State House of Assembly said to be among his sympathisers on Sunday night.
At this meeting, it was learnt, the Ondo deputy Governor insisted that he be declared acting governor of the state on Tuesday (today).
Aiyedatiwa, it was learnt, allegedly queried President Tinubu’s intervention in the Ondo political imbroglio.
One of the state’s lawmaker, who pleaded anonymity, said on Sunday night, he and some of his colleagues got a phone call from the deputy governor, who told them that he must be declared acting governor on Tuesday (today).
He added that when they reminded Aiyedatiwa that his demand wasn’t part of the resolutions of the meeting with the President, he was said to have retorted that the President can’t dictate to them how to run Ondo State.
But the Speaker of the Ondo House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, is said to have insisted that the lawmakers will abide by the outcome of the meeting with President Tinubu.
The Speaker was said to have insisted that any decision not in accordance with the resolution reached during their meeting with President Tinubu would not be welcomed.
He explained that the transition occasioned by emerging disruptive technologies in the age of artificial intelligence was in the context of Nigeria, adding, “Coinciding with deepening socio-economic crisis limiting the financial capacity of institutions and the country to acquire those very technologies, failure of which would put us further back in the race to socio-economic advancement.”
In his paper, Atiku asked, “How are you preparing for them, and how is Nigeria preparing for them? What about artificial intelligence’s potential impact on teaching and learning, especially Large Language Models such as ChatGPT? Are you prepared for that?”
He, however, expressed cautious optimism about AUN’s readiness, noting that the institution, which ought to be on its feet, had been afflicted with the same kind of malady that had afflicted the Nigerian state, which he called a “mistaken” philosophy.
(Punch)
