Who is After Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa? The Questions Behind the Ondo Power Equation

A quiet unease is building around the Ondo State Government House, centred on the working relationship between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and his deputy, Dr Olayide Adelami. None of the claims driving the speculation has been independently confirmed.

The most concrete allegation involves money. Sources close to the matter claim more than N180 million in running costs, travel allowances, and other entitlements owed to the Deputy Governor’s office have gone unpaid for months, straining its ability to function.

Questions have also touched the Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Omomumi Isaac, with claims that her office played a role in withholding the payments. Neither she nor the state government has offered a public account of what actually happened.

A second category of concern is political rather than financial. Some stakeholders allege Adelami has been sidelined from appointments and grassroots decisions typically reserved for a sitting deputy governor, including reported difficulty influencing a councillor selection in his own ward.

If accurate, that would suggest a deliberate narrowing of the deputy’s role rather than routine friction. Which is odd because Aiyedatiwa served as deputy under the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu during a period marked by open institutional tension.

A third thread involves the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, led by Amidu Takuro. Claims suggest matters within that ministry’s remit, an area where the deputy governor typically holds coordinating responsibility, have proceeded without adequate consultation with Adelami’s office.

Even symbolic gestures have drawn scrutiny.

Adelami has reportedly missed recent Government House religious observances, including the monthly Night of Praise and Sunday chapel services, though absences of this kind rarely confirm anything on their own.

Taken together, these threads point to Aiyedatiwa’s administration being under quiet strain, not yet a confirmed crisis. What remains unclear is whether the tension reflects ordinary friction between two offices or a deliberate restructuring of influence around the governor.