Who Will Settle Governor Aiyedatiwa and Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele?

Abuja has a political ballet. In this place, loyalty is currency and proximity to power is everything. Also in this place, a curious squabble has broken out—not over ideology, nor policy—but over a single name on a board list. At the heart of it are Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State and Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele of Ekiti who are locked in what insiders are calling a simmering supremacy tango.

The trigger? A substitution. One Rasak Obe—Aiyedatiwa’s trusted former Commissioner for Energy—was reportedly dropped from the board of the South West Development Commission (SWDC) and replaced with Olugbenga Olufehinti. Not by accident, say sources, but by Bamidele’s quiet manoeuvre.

Cue in outrage in Ondo. The governor’s camp is livid, calling it an affront not just to their principal but to the entire state. Aiyedatiwa himself reportedly dashed to Abuja for a subtle showdown. Yet, what muscle can he flex when all three senators from his state—each with their own scores to settle—have, diplomatically, stepped aside?

There is irony here. Bamidele, once a backstage supporter of Aiyedatiwa’s primary win, now appears to be the hand behind the curtain undoing it. Politics, after all, is not a memory game but a momentum game. And Aiyedatiwa, in trying to replace those he deems unfaithful, may have underestimated just how many people in his orbit remember everything.

Meanwhile, party officials are scrambling to paint over the cracks. There’s no feud, they insist. Just a democratic process. Just routine appointments. Just… coincidence?

But the real question, whispered in Abuja’s corridors and shouted in Akure’s backrooms, remains: who will settle this spat between a governor eager to consolidate and a Senate leader determined not to be sidelined?

In Nigeria’s politics, egos are big and fences are paper-thin, so even a swapped name can start a civil war. And unless someone, somewhere, plays peacemaker soon, Ondo’s rift may ripple far beyond a development commission.