~Debo Akinbami, PhD
He did not speak extempore. Every letter offered was laced with a lacerating truth, the sort that bruised blurred truths. He did not brand it as a feat to score a political point; he was deeply human about it, and humane. Down-to-earth Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, had assembled Ondo’s retirees to address. He held the lectern, without airs; and, by the truths he told, and the humility in his tone, he made the meeting point -Cocoa Conference Hall- a melting point.
He spoke from the heart; his message was as pure as it is piercing. It was for those who had served as it was for those serving. “The Governor is not doing you a favour; and this is neither a gift nor a political largesse from the government. It is your earned right; the moral and constitutional obligation that the state owes you for doing roles – in season, in the making of a dynamic Ondo State; and for your unblemished years of service”.
The Governor’s message reminded the writer of the old teacher’s location of the ‘milk of human kindness’ as a precondition for leadership finesse. The Cambridge English Dictionary captures the trait as having a natural sense of compassion, sympathy, and deep goodness toward other people. And, for what it is worth, Aiyedatiwa has, in more ways than one, demonstrated a surplus dose of ‘the milk’.
A quick, sequential run of the Governor’s consistent commitment to gratuity defrayment, and the manner he makes no fuss about it, says even more. As he took the reigns, he commenced immediate disbursement of funds to fix outstanding gratuities, beginning with the local government and primary school retirees. That captured what the 2011, 2012, and 2013 batches. He released, in 2025, another ₦2.5 billion, to boost.
In October 2025 the Aiyedatiwa-led administration disbursed ₦1.4 billion to fully offset the backlogs of the 2014 batch of retired local government staff and primary school teachers. ₦2.46 billion was released, March 2026, to pay 733 public service pensioners for 2018 and 2019; ₦2.61 billion directly disbursed into beneficiaries’ accounts, in June, 2026, as outstanding gratuities of local government and primary school workers (2015).
The Governor followed it up with another ₦3.82 billion to clear the full gratuity backlog for 985 mainstream civil servants, targeting the 2020 and spills from 2015 to 2019. That was September 2, 2026; and, in the same week (September 5, 2026), Aiyedatiwa pushed out ₦2.39 billion to simultaneously wipe out two years of arrears (2016 and 2017) for mainstream civil service retirees.
At the close of the conversation, Governor Aiyedatiwa released the sum of ₦3,897,315,605.75 as gratuities for local government and primary school retirees (2016). He directed, with dispatch, the immediate crediting of beneficiaries’ accounts, to forestall human hitches. The Governor did not just give the senior citizens their dues, he also gave them his gratitude, a demonstrating rare humility.
The Governor resaid his avowal to make regular payment of gratuities a priority and point of duty, so that citizens who had served -in their youth- are not betrayed by the state that should, ideally, celebrate them; and so that they do not become vulnerable in old age. This rare gift of compassion, the milk of human kindness, plausible as it is, is something to be envied in the few leaders who are blessed with it. Luckily, Ondo has it in Aiyedatiwa.
***Dr. Akinbami is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Ondo State on Public Communication.