By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Lucky Aiyedatiwa has been inaugurated as the governor of Ondo State, marking the beginning of his first full four-year term after replacing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu who died in office in 2023.

The ceremony took place on Monday at the Ondo State Sports Complex in Akure, the state capital, two months after he won the governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Aiyedatiwa took his oath of office just after his running mate Olayide Adelami around 12:59 pm.

The governor thereafter rode in an open van around the complex, waving to cheers from supporters.

Road to Alagbaka

The inauguration completes the succession process in the Sunshine State, with Aiyedatiwa expected to head the next administration which will lead the state in the next four years.

To arrive here, Aiyedatiwa had to overcome a stiff competition from another former deputy governor of the state, Agboola Ajayi, who contested against him on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Aiyedatiwa’s stay at the Government House in Alagbaka, Akure, was extended when he was declared winner of the November 16, 2024 governorship election by the Returning Officer, Olayemi Akinwumi, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Lokoja, Kogi State.

The APC candidate polled 366,781 votes to defeat his closest rival Ajayi, who scored 117,845 votes, more than twice lower than Aiyedatiwa.

The final results showed that the APC won the election in a landslide, clearing all 18 local government areas.

A former deputy governor, Aiyedatiwa ascended to power on December 27th, 2023 after Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s death.

Akeredolu died after a lengthy battle with illness and had before his demise transmitted power to Aiyedatiwa.

He, thereafter, won the APC’s ticket for the 2024 governorship election in Ondo, pitting him against 17 other candidates including Ajayi who was also a former deputy to Akeredolu during his first term in office.

Credit: ChannelsTV

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

More financial trouble for Nigerians as DStv, Gotv set to increase subscription fee
MultiChoice, the company behind DStv, is preparing to raise the subscription fees for its Compact bouquet from ₦15,700 to ₦19,000.

This adjustment is expected to take effect soon, according to industry insiders

The increase comes nearly a year after the last price review.

The devaluation of the naira and rising energy costs have been identified as key reasons behind this change.

Many businesses in telecommunications, transport, and consumer goods have also raised prices in response to Nigeria’s economic conditions.

Other DStv packages will also be affected.

The Family and Access bouquets are expected to move from ₦9,300 to ₦11,000 and ₦5,100 to ₦6,000, respectively. Premium and Compact+ subscribers will also see new rates, though specific figures have yet to be confirmed.

Similarly, GOtv users will experience price changes.

GOtv Value subscribers will pay ₦3,900 instead of ₦3,600, while GOtv Plus customers will see an increase from ₦4,850 to ₦5,800.

Since 2023, economic policies such as fuel subsidy removal, currency devaluation, and electricity tariff hikes have caused the cost of goods and services to rise sharply.

Inflation in Nigeria reached 34.8% in December 2024, forcing many companies to adjust their prices multiple times last year.

Businesses across various sectors have reported heavy losses due to currency fluctuations, making price hikes a necessary measure for survival.

By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

After weeks of back and forth and in spite of a subsisting court case over the removal of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, President Bola Tinubu and some leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC), weekend, reached a political solution considered a win-win for all parties.

Sources at the villa hinted that Tinubu had received many prominent party leaders, including former APC national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba; Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake; and a former commissioner in Lagos State, whose name the source refused to disclose for political reasons.

Ahead of the meeting between the president and the party leaders, the source added that another prominent Nigerian and nonagenarian from the South-west (name withheld) had also met the president over the Assembly matter and other national concerns, during which he pleaded with the president to consider his request on Lagos as his birthday gift.

THISDAY gathered that the president met with different people on the Lagos Assembly matter, with each analysing the implications of letting the situation escalate beyond the point it was at the moment, even though some damage had been done. It was against this backdrop, the source said, that the meeting agreed that Obasa’s removal had come to stay and there was no going back on his speakership, especially as the laws guiding the Assembly were clear about the election and removal of a speaker.

Particularly more instructive was the revelation that virtually everyone, who had something to say on the Assembly crisis, spoke badly about the leadership of Obasa and his conduct for the period he held sway.

They argued, among other things, that if 37 out of his 39 colleagues stood against him with scathing remarks about his leadership, in addition to the position of the political leaders in the state, who also wrote him off, then returning him would be against the tide. They reckoned that would be dangerous for the politics in the state, and the democratic credentials of the president.

It was on the strength of these arguments that the president resolved at the meetings that Obasa’s removal had come to stay, but a plea was made to salvage his political future by giving him a soft-landing.

It was in the bid to give him a soft-landing, the source added, that a conclusion was reached during the meetings that Obasa’s removal should be quashed and commuted to resignation, the same way the removal of a former deputy speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Funmi Tejuosho, was converted to resignation.

Once that was settled, the fate of the current speaker, Hon. Mojisola Meranda, was next on the agenda and it was somewhat tricky for the president, the speaker being a woman.
The source explained that while the president wanted the elevation of a woman in the politics of the state, the speaker coming from the same senatorial district as the governor – Lagos Central, made it impossible for her to keep her position.

One of the reasons canvassed in support of that viewpoint was that, if the governor was elected from Lagos Central and his deputy from the East, then the largest senatorial district, Lagos West, could not be left out of the power equation on account of the leadership crisis in the Assembly.

The source disclosed that the president was so disturbed about the situation that he asked if another woman from Lagos West could be sourced and put forward, instead, so that the women folk would not allege discrimination in the power game.

Unfortunately, the only woman from that part of the state was not only a first timer, but also elected on the platform of a minority party, Labour Party, making her choice impracticable in view of the power arrangement in the state.
The meeting concluded that Meranda, too, should resign and stand down from the speakership position and allow someone from Lagos West to occupy the office, just so that none of the three senatorial districts would feel alienated.

Further explaining how the state arrived at this juncture, the source explained that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the president did not care about Obasa’s removal, as he was not special.

The source said Tinubu’s response conveyed the impression that if Obasa was unable to manage and carry his colleagues along, to the point that he lost their trust, then the president would not do his job for him.
It added that there was also the feeling that Obasa had served as Speaker for over nine years by riding on the coattails of the president, and that was enough compensation, for now.

However, the source said the president was angry with the fact that Obasa’s removal caught him unaware. He was not just the political leader of the party in the state and at the national level, but also as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. He considered being taken off guard in such situation discourteous, and having attendant political implications.

But after several interventions, the president, the source said, looked beyond the failings of the assembly members, and was now interested in moving forward. This disposition gave rise to the solutions collectively arrived at.