Odebowale, who said this while featuring on Channels TV programme on Wednesday evening said that the political atmosphere of the state was overheated by those who wanted to contest and become the governor in the coming election, saying that they (no name mentioned) reduced the state to petty politics.
Dr. Doyin Odebowale, the Senior Special Assistant on Special Duty to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, has said that there was little governance in the state when the governor was in Germany for three months on medical leave.
Odebowale, who said this while featuring on Channels TV programme on Wednesday evening said that the political atmosphere of the state was overheated by those who wanted to contest and become the governor in the coming election, saying that they (no name mentioned) reduced the state to petty politics.
The governor’s aide who said this amid controversy that trailed Governor Akeredolu’s sacking of his Deputy, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s media crew, noted that the governor’s obituary was circulated more than five times in the state and that those who wanted the governor out by all means created an impression that he had become completely incapacitated while he was away.
When asked if the governor was now handling all the pressures around his office, Odebowale said, "What pressures? There is this erroneous belief that once you are a governor of a state, everything must come to you.
"It is not so. Why do you have your assistants? Why do you have your commissioners? The governor cannot be everywhere.
“This idea of creating the impression that governor must be a superhuman being who does not fall sick, who must attend to all files, who must see everybody is misnormal. It doesn't work that way. He was away for three months, my office has not stopped working for one day."
When asked why Governor Akeredolu sacked his deputy's media aides, Odebowale said it was only the governor who could explain that as the governor appointed all of them.
"Only the governor and the deputy governor enjoy immunity" and there is a laid down procedure in Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on how either of them can be removed from the office.
"Any other person is expendable. Every other person in the government owes his or her appointment to the governor, at his pleasure. For good or bad reason, he may decide to remove you, that is all.
"If you enjoy the confidence of the governor, you are appointed to serve the people of the state, if he feels that you are no longer needed, then, you go. No appointee was voted for by the people of Ondo State."
Asked if the governor informed the deputy governor before sacking the media team, the governor's aide said that the governor owed no one any explanation on what he wanted to do.
On Governor Akeredolu's relationship with his deputy, Odebowale said, "I know that the governor and the deputy still met a few days ago. There is no problem at all. I don't want to claim that what is happening in Edo State is what we are following. No, we are not following that.
"The governor is not interested in this petty politics that people have reduced the whole state to in his absence. When he was away, there was little of governance.
"People wanted to contest. They wanted to be governor. They want to be this and that. It is within their right but it was distracting us, and they were recruiting people to distract us. To be governor is not petty.
When he (Governor Akeredolu) was in Germany, he was asking people questions about things. He was sending transformers and he was calling them to go and fix it, contrary to the erroneous impression being conveyed that he was seriously incapacitated.
"As a member of this government, I was appalled at some of the things that happened. They were posting the obituaries of their father, not the governor more than five times, posting the governor's obituary.
"They wanted power, power to do what? Not to serve the people? They were overheating the polity. They created the impression that the governor was not in charge of anything. They picked on the First Family, abusing everybody.
"I'm not saying that the deputy governor did but I'm saying that these people know themselves. So, no governor will sit down and watch that happen."