He noted that people used to invoke the no-nonsense posture of Ondo State people to fight against oppression but “when oppression became the governor of the state, Ondo State people could not talk”.
The convener of the #RevolutionNow campaign in Nigeria has narrated how the intervention of activists solved the lingering political crisis in Ondo State within one week, a feat that could not be achieved by major political parties for almost a year.
The former presidential candidate said the activists saw the need for their immediate intervention on the issue when they realised that it appeared to be unresolved by major political actors in the country, adding that their intervention had brought more clarity and progress to the issue.
During a town hall meeting held on Saturday in Akure, Ondo State, to call for the resignation of ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, Sowore said: “Our plan was to have a town meeting here and shut down Ondo State until they do the right thing. Like our sister, Yemi Adamolekun said, we have tolerated this nonsense for too long.”
He noted that people used to invoke the no-nonsense posture of Ondo State people to fight against oppression but “when oppression became the governor of the state, Ondo State people could not talk”.
“As we plan to wrap up the year, we discovered that we have to intervene in Ondo State. And not because Ondo State is our State - I am from Ondo State as well - but because as we say in our day-to-day activities in the Students’ Union, this is another challenge. Double-double challenge o. So, we intervened and gave only one week to intervene; this crisis in Ondo State had been going on for more than a year. All the political parties could not solve the problem, so we decided to intervene and within one week, everybody was arranged in proper order.”
The political crisis in Ondo State was due to the absence of the ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu from office because of his ill health.
Many Nigerians subsequently called on the governor to resign and hand over to his deputy.
For instance, an elder statesman Edwin Clark asked President Bola Tinubu to invoke the “Doctrine of Necessity” to resolve the political crisis in the state.
Clark told Tinubu to use the same solution used at the national level when ex-President Musa Yar’Adua had become brain-dead but the people close to him still held on to power instead of ensuring the transfer of power to the then-Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan.
“The ongoing impasse in Ondo State can be likened to what happened when our dear late President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was very ill and did not transmit a letter to the National Assembly in accordance with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution, to enable the then Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to act as president,” he said in a Sunday letter to the Nigerian leader.