By Leye IGBABO

Sometimes ago, I wrote on a topic tagged: *”Freed Yet Enslaved”*. I was then describing the nation Nigeria which actually became independent several years ago but still wallowing in self-afflicted enslavement.

In the write up, I made satirical reference to the state of mind of the children of Israel who though had been freed from the burden of their Egyptian taskmasters, they yet conducted themselves in a manner that suggested their preferences for enslavement. Having been set free, they complained at every junction to their promised land even at any slightest inconvenience until almost all of them, lost the golden opportunity to their place of destiny!

By the time, they were approaching the red sea, they did not wait for the God who miraculously rescued them from the hands of the Egyptians before they started challenging Moses, their leader why he had to bring them to the wilderness to perish. Hear them in Ex 14:11-12:

[11]And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?[12]Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? *For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.*

Immediately they crossed the red sea, they yet met another hindrance. This time, it was like they wouldn’t get anything to eat and they forgot the One who gave them manna at such a critical time. Here them again.

Exodus 16:3[3]And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Pls read Numbers 11:1-6 to further understand the state of mind of these children of Israel.

From the foregoing, one can arguably submit that His Excellency, Hon Lucky Ayedatiwa is still thinking maybe, he was still desiring to become the substantive governor of Ondo State even when he had been sworn in on the 27th day of December, 2023, hours after the death of the former governor Rotimi Akeredolu SAN was made public!

Today, being the 12th day in the month of January 2024, he is yet to announce his deputy governor thereby running an incomplete govt!

I invite the governor to note the trauma that the entire people went through during the unfortunate absence of former governor and to be properly notified that the people do not want to transit into such horrible state again.

As it is, the governor seems not to have come to term with the significance of luck in his destiny to know that the world of governance in Ondo State has truly become his.

May I therefore pinch Hon Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa that he is now the Executive Governor of Ondo State and that he has been freed already.

He is free to nominate a deputy governor of his choice.

He is free to choose any of those who stood by him in his trying moments that will offer him genuine advice on good governance rather than those who saw a dead elephant and begin to bring out different types of knife. The cabinet as it is presently constituted is encumbering and unless he recognizes that he is freed, he may yet be enslaved by those who do not and will never wish him well.

A word is enough for the wise.

*Leye IGBABO is a social commentator and public affairs analyst.*