By DADA AYOKHAI
A former Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Edo State governor during his first tenure, Mr. Taiwo Akerele has expressed disgust at remarks credited to Gov Godwin Obaseki to the effect that his decision to appoint him as his then chief of staff, CoS, was borne out of his love for his Akoko Edo people.
Gov Obaseki has repeatedly cited how his deep affection for the Akoko Edo people influenced his decision to appoint him as chief of staff .
A furious Akerele, speaking from his base in Washington, D.C, USA, urged the Gov Obaseki as desist from saying equating his (Taiwo’s) appointment as CoS to the governor’s love for the Akoko Edo people.
Mr. Akerele served as the CoS to Gov Obaseki during his first term in office and later resigned at the tail end of the tenure due to political realignment
Gov Obaseki had claimed that his love for the Akoko Edo people made him to appoint their son, Taiwo Akerele, as CoS, during his first term in office.
He made the claim during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants held in Igarra, the headquarters of the Akoko Edo local government area.
Akerele’s rebuttal is contained in a statement dated October 30 and signed by him.
Press statement Reads :
Obaseki in Akoko-Edo to inaugurate SAs and SSAs, says my love for you made me appoint a COS from here.
I am constrained to issue this statement to refute the claim of Godwin Obaseki that his love for Akoko-Edo people made him to appoint me as his, Chief of Staff, COS. Please sir desist from referring to my appointment as a testament to your love for Akoko-Edo people.
Is my appointment the beginning and end of development for the Akoko-Edo people? Why can’t the governor wake up to the reality of my voluntary resignation? I have moved on!
The office of the COS is a personal choice of his excellency and not a mandate of the people. Recall this is not the first time Mr Governor is making this statement but I chose to ignore as this is too low for me to reply but it appears Mr Governor gets excited whenever he is in the midst of people that cannot challenge him to the reality on ground in the state hence he finds something amusing to say. Otherwise how can a state governor continues to make reference to an appointment made over 7 years ago as an achievement to a people in dire need of rapid development and progress?
Ever since he is been in office for 7 years now what significant project has the governor executed for Akoko-Edo people? This should be the last time Godwin Obaseki should refer to my appointment as a show of love for the people as he could have easily replaced me with any of his PDP members or friends from Akoko-Edo since my umbilical cord is not tied to his.
It is sad that Mr Governor took time to travel to Akoko
-Edo for an issue as flimsy as inaugurating SAs and SSAs, a function that is not rooted in law or administration or at best a function the local government chairman could easily have done or performed?
This is the same local government where kidnappers have taken over farm lands, the same local government where the roads are in dilapidated state, schools have no teachers and where young graduates and youths are jobless and the technical college abandoned while there has not been any new projects initiated to stimulate economic growth and development yet its convenient for his excellency to always visit for reasons as low as inaugurating SAs and SSAs or coming to hold PDP meetings with persons that will always hail or sing his praises without asking policy based-questions.
Look, it is high time leaders in Africa like Obaseki know that their time is up and our people cannot continue to be deceived by all these manipulative tendencies to mask the underlying issues of development.
I do hope this will be the last time he will publicly refer to my appointment as his COS as a testament to his love for my people otherwise I will be forced to challenge him to a public debate on key issues especially during my time in office and up to the event that led to my insistence that I am done.
That I decided to be quiet and stay focused on my choices doesn’t mean I can’t descend to the arena just like some of his commissioners have been doing lately. We are all brought up differently and I look at issues from broader angle(s).
Taiwo Akerele
Washington DC
30th October 2023.
It read, “
