I make no apology for the loyalty I had for this man, in his life and in his passing. It has become fashionable in Nigerian public discourse to treat loyalty as naivety, and betrayal as sophistication. I reject that inversion. I believe “it is better to be hanged for loyalty than to be rewarded for betrayal”. Akeredolu extended trust to me without reservation; the least I owe his memory is an unflinching account of who he was and what he stood for, offered without the hedging that so often passes for balance.
Today, 21 July, marks what would have been the 70th birthday of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu (SAN, CON), former Governor of Ondo State. He is not here to receive the tributes that will fill timelines and newspaper columns, but the occasion demands an honest accounting of the man, his convictions, and what he built, not as sentiment, but as record.
I served him first as Commissioner for Regional Integration and Diaspora Relations, and later as Commissioner for Information. In both offices, he extended a trust that is rare in Nigerian public life. He did not simply assign me a portfolio; he handed me his voice. He allowed me to write his speeches, to shape the public narrative of his administration and of Ondo State, without demanding that I dilute his convictions to suit convenience. In a political culture where principals often surround themselves with aides they manage rather than aides they believe in, Akeredolu chose to believe. That distinction mattered then, and it matters now.
