The stability and prebuckling enhancement of a cantilever column composed of two parallel members and subjected to a dead or partially follower load is discussed. The members are made of different materials: aluminium for the host column and a piezoceramic material for the auxiliary rod. The presence of the piezoceramic rod, offset from the centroidal axis of the host column, makes it possible to study the influence of actuation on the internal axial force distribution and the diminution of the undesirable flexural displacement appearing as a result of accidental external load eccentricity. The principle of stationary value potential energy is employed to formulate a problem in which the electro-mechanical coupling is expressed in constitutive equations of the actuator's material. Nonlinear terms, which allow for the interaction of the developed in-plane force with the out-of-plane displacements, are included in the derived equilibrium equations. The numerical results are compared to those for an uniaxial system to show that the offset distance of the actuating rod has a large impact on the behaviour of the system. It is shown that while piezoelectric actuation cannot increase the critical buckling load due to limitations resulting from the risk of material depolarization, it does have a great impact on the flexural deflection of the column. Exemplary modification of the lateral deflection resulting from representative loads characterized by opposite eccentricities are studied for increasing actuation to prove that it is possible to either minimize bending or to straighten the host column. The presented configuration may be used as an efficient tool for controlling the prebuckling response resulting from accidental load eccentricity or alternatively may be applied as a piezoelectric bender to precisely position its free end. The formulation and solution method may be extended to dynamics and vibration analyses for the actuating rod - host column system.