Aiyedatiwa and the Politics of Manufactured Outrage

By Dr. Abayomi Obasola

When I read the February 22, 2026 piece by Festus Adedayo in the Sunday Tribune titled “Aiyedatiwa’s Years of the Locusts,” I was not struck by its literary flourish. I was struck by its bitterness.

Dr. Adedayo has, over the years, worked alongside and around politicians whose records were, at best, underwhelming and, at worst, abysmal. Yet, never did we read from him the kind of apocalyptic metaphors he now deploys with theatrical relish. It is therefore difficult to ignore the growing public perception that his current crusade against Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa is less about governance and more about grievance, less about facts and more about fresh sponsorship.

It is fashionable in certain circles to recruit media attack dogs when political battles heat up. The language is usually the same, locusts, vultures, blood, greed. What is often missing is evidence.

Let us address the issues. 

Dr. Adedayo attempts to tie Governor Aiyedatiwa to violence at ward congresses of the All Progressives Congress. He offers no proof, only insinuations and “daring claims.”

Internal party contests across Nigeria have historically generated tensions. To leap from that reality to branding a sitting governor as a reincarnation of Sani Abacha is not analysis; it is hysteria.

Security agencies are investigating the unfortunate incidents referenced. In a constitutional democracy, culpability is established by law enforcement and the courts, not by columnists wielding metaphors.

Governor Aiyedatiwa has neither suspended democratic institutions nor altered the constitution to elongate tenure. Ambition pursued within legal frameworks cannot logically be equated with dictatorship.

Perhaps the most astonishing claim in Dr. Adedayo’s article is that “there is absolutely no new development” in Ondo State. Facts disagree.

Within the last year, the Aiyedatiwa administration has, Completed and commissioned strategic roads including Igoba Road, SIB Extension, Afunbiowo Housing Estate Road, and Ayegunle–Iwaro–Oka Road—projects that have significantly eased transportation and stimulated commerce. Continued rural road expansion to connect agrarian communities to markets, strengthening the agricultural value chain. Upgraded healthcare facilities and improved staffing in state hospitals.

The administration has Sustained prompt salary payments and stabilized public service morale. Advanced educational support initiatives, including infrastructural improvements in public schools. Maintained fiscal discipline amid national economic turbulence.

If these constitute “locusts,” then one wonders what development looks like in Dr. Adedayo’s lexicon.

Dr. Adedayo sneers at the completion of projects initiated by the late Rotimi Akeredolu. But governance is not a relay race where batons are discarded mid-track. Responsible leadership requires continuity.

Should projects have been abandoned merely to create artificial “newness”? That would have been reckless. Instead, Governor Aiyedatiwa ensured value for public funds by seeing them through to completion. That is prudence, not poverty of vision.

It is convenient to romanticize the tenures of Olusegun Agagu and Olusegun Mimiko while ignoring present economic realities.

Nigeria today grapples with inflationary pressures, subsidy reforms, and reduced purchasing power nationwide. Yet, Ondo State has avoided fiscal collapse, maintained infrastructure development, and kept governance stable.

Context matters. Selective amnesia does not. 

Dr. Adedayo describes Governor Aiyedatiwa as an “accidental leader.” That characterization is constitutionally flawed.

Nigeria’s democracy provides clear succession protocols. When a deputy governor assumes office upon the demise of a principal, it is not an accident, it is constitutional order. To belittle that process is to belittle democracy itself.

Criticism is healthy in a democracy. But credibility matters.

A critic who found little fault while embedded around underperforming political actors suddenly discovering prophetic outrage invites scrutiny. Why now? Why this intensity? Why this governor?

Public discourse in Ondo State deserves better than sponsored outrage packaged as moral alarm.

Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa inherited a state navigating grief, political transition, and national economic strain. In one year, he has stabilized governance, continued infrastructure delivery, maintained fiscal order, and prevented administrative paralysis.

He may not govern with theatrical noise. But governance is not performance art. It is steady work.

Ondo State is not experiencing “years of the locusts.” It is experiencing a period of consolidation, quiet, methodical, and deliberate.

And no amount of recruited indignation will erase visible roads, functioning institutions, and a government that continues to move forward.

This is not 10 kobo advice. It is a call for intellectual honesty.