The death of former Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on December 27, 2023, has once again depleted the giant elites of Nigeria’s political class.
The quantity and quality of tributes expressing grief over Akeredolu’s death has been overwhelming. Nothing could have prepared Ondo citizens, and indeed the country at large, for the shocker.
Checks have revealed that all past Ondo democratically-elected governors have passed on except one — Segun Mimiko.
Their passing on re-echoes the words of English poet and playwright, Williams Shakespeare, who described the world as a stage where each person plays his part and leaves.
These dead ex-governors were men of many parts. They wore so many caps and assumed many roles and they played all their parts so well, so efficiently, as to earn applause.
Like the biblical reference, to everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die.
The exit of these past governors closed an era and also opened another.
Here’s what you need to know about the dead past governors:
- Michael Ajasin – He served as governor of Ondo State from 1979 to 1983. He is the first democratically elected governor of the state.
The former Ondo governor died of “natural causes” in his home at the age of 78.
- Bamidele Olumilua – He became governor of Ondo in the third republic from January 1992 to November 1993.
In 2020, Muyiwa, the former governor’s son, said he died after a brief illness at the age of 80.
- Adebayo Adefarati – He was among the first elected governors who served after the military era was halted and the fourth republic was welcomed on May 29, 1999.
He died from an undisclosed ailment. He was 76 years old at the time of his death.
- Olusegun Agagu – He was Ondo’s second democratically elected governor. Agagu was also deputy governor to Olumilua.
The former minister was said to have slumped and died in Lagos in 2013. He was 65.
- Rotimi Akeredolu – Akeredolu died at the age of 67. The Ondo government said Akeredolu died of “complications from protracted prostate cancer”.
- Olusegun Mimiko – He was a two-time state commissioner for health, and served as Ondo governor from 2009 to 2017.
After his first term, he sought re-election and won, making him the first governor in the state to win a second-term bid since 1999.
