No Tension Between Governor Aiyedatiwa and Tunji-Ojo

Laughter can be political evidence. On Monday in Akure, it did quite work. Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa leaned in; Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo smiled back. Because no handlers hovered, and cameras caught their ease. For Ondo watchers, that moment mattered.

The setting was the Ondo State 50th anniversary grand finale held on February 3, 2026, at the Akure Township Stadium. Tunji-Ojo attended as President Bola Tinubu’s official representative, while Aiyedatiwa hosted, all protocol duly observed.

For months, a different story circulated. Late 2024 into 2025 produced claims of a rift, framed as a rivalry for control of the APC structure in Ondo. The language grew portentous online, then portable, repeated as received wisdom.

Both men rejected it. According to Tunji-Ojo, it was baseless social media speculation; his remit stayed federal. On the other hand, Aiyedatiwa’s aides dismissed it as fiction, blaming enemies of progress. Since denials rarely end rumours, the comments from both parties only put the speculations to a temporary rest.

By September 2025, elders stepped in. The Ondo Mandate Elders Forum met supporters, instead of principals, urging restraint and unity. Their concern was that factions ferment quietly, then surface loudly during elections. In other words, there was anxiety.

Thus, it is the recent Akure incident that has changed the register.

At the stadium and later the Government Lodge, the pair moved together. The optics were deliberate yet unforced. Observers read it as a show of force, calibrated to settle a persistent narrative.

Tunji-Ojo’s role sharpened the message. Representing the President placed him as a conduit, even as he congratulated the governor, urged support for the administration, and tied the moment to the Renewed Hope agenda. The phrasing was orthodox; the alignment was the point.

Party groups echoed it. APC supporters and the Progressives Network for Tinubu stressed a shared task: mobilising for 2027. Unity here reads less as sentiment than as logistics, a precondition for turnout and message discipline.

And from this entire episode, it becomes obvious that rumours travel in Nigerian politics: gaining traction through repetition, ending through visibility instead of rebuttal. In Akure, visibility did the work, such that when the story closed itself, it was without a single statement.