~ How Ekiti workers, others deceived Fayemi with endorsements ~ ... lot of Nigerians, especially those not resident in Ekiti,have been wondering why the electorate massively voted against the governor in spite of his achievements, which are indeed, many. In fact, from the moment the final result was announced, journalists in Ekiti State had begun to receive frantic telephone calls. And the questions everybody was asking were the same: How come Fayemi could not win even a single local government area out of the 16 in the state? Was the election rigged? Yet, the elections were devoid of violence or rigging. Local journalists and others, who had covered the election stormed the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ado-Ekiti that Sunday morning after the result had been announced. They affirmed that there was nothing like rigging. It was peaceful, free and fair. No snatching of ballot boxes, no delay in the delivery of boxes and other voting materials throughout all the 16 local government areas. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials arrived on time at their polling units at the right time. There were even more questions from Nigerians that could not believe that a sitting governor could be so massively defeated. What happened then? Are they saying the man did not perform? What is their problem? With all the huge crowds that have been attending his mega rallies, which we all saw on television and in the newspapers, are you saying the man could not even win a local government area? Not even hislocal government? But it is not only Fayemi that was defeated in his local government area. His deputy, Professor Modupe Adelabu, was defeated in her ward in Ado - Ekiti. The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Ganiyu Owolabi, was defeated in his base; the Chief of Staff to the governor, Yemi Adaramodu was defeated in his area; all the Senators and House of Representatives members lost in their local government areas and some even lost in their polling units. In fact,it was gathered that former governor, Chief Olusegun Oni, was the only one, who voted for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in his polling unit. So, what could have been responsible for this terrible defeat? Three factors have been cited by informed analysts in the state. There was an internal crisis within the APC and those who saw the problem coming were suppressed and eventually kicked out of the party. Those ones began to work against the party. There were lots of grumblings within the party, and many of the commissioners had complained at various times of being financially stifled, lamenting that they could not render any help to many of those seeking help from them. Everything was centralised around the governor and his close aides, according to them. Another reason was the glaring disconnect with the people. The then PDP governorship candidate, Ayodele Fayose, right from his days as governor, had been close to the common man. He has no problem, sharing roasted plantain or corn with the commoner in the streets of Ado-Ekiti or Itapa-Ekiti. He freely associates with the commercial motorcycle riders and drivers, which earned him assorted appellations from the elite in the state. Fayemi, on the other hand, was not of a similar stock. He is seen as belonging to the elite class. But funny enough, those people dont vote during election. They often stay indoors, watching television while the downtrodden and common men, who are fully in love with Fayose because he identifies with them queue up to vote. All the civil servants, teachers, local government workers, students and artisans, who have direct access to Fayose see him as a man of the people while they see Fayemi as the bourgeoisie governor, an Ekiti-based principal told the reporter. Mr. Jide Adegbemi, a lawyer in Ado-Ekiti, while analysing the current political realities in the state, also informed: By the time the real campaign started, and Fayemis supporters were singing Koduro soke (let him stay up), the people said, now that the governor has started building a Government House on the hill, if we give him a second chance, he would now be very far from the people and no one would be able to see him. So, whenever his supporters were singing, JKF: Koduro soke, the ordinary man would say, e ta ni rubber, ko jabo sIsan. What that means is, if hes staying up, shoot a catapult at him and bring him down to Isan-Ekiti, his hometown. But most people in the state would agree that a number of factors actually marked the beginning of the end of his tenure. One was the way he handled the Teachers Development Need Assessment (TDNA) crisis in 2012, an issue that dragged all the way to 2013. He also had issues with local government workers, students of Ekiti State University (EKSU), judiciary workers, health workers, pensioners, commercial motorbike operators, the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), and others. All these people have families who are aware of their complaints against the governor. So, when he began to buy buses for the associations and unions this year, and the people were aware that the election was coming in a few months, they were just looking at him, wondering how the governor thought they could be so easily deceived. And instead of showing any grievance, they too started hailing him and chorusing: JKF: Koduro soke. Each union and professional association began to tell their members that they should endorse him so that they could get their own dividend of democracy, said a union leader who pleaded that his name should not be mentioned. More annoying, especially to teachers was the governors complaint that the state was not rich enough to pay the 27 per cent Teachers PecuniaryAllowance (TPA) while he was busy buying exotic cars and sport utility vehicles for traditional rulers across the state. Then when the election was less than a month and he approved the 27 per cent allowance, the teachers told themselves that this governor probably thought that they were foolish. So, they too decided to go to the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium to deceive him and affirm that they were for him. Of course, all these people are from different local government areas. And on the Friday before the election, the workers, especially teachers and local government employees, gave themselves an unofficial holiday, fully determined to vote out Fayemi and give their votes to Fayose. Early on the day of election, teachers and local government workers began to send text messages to one another on the need for them not to forget their decision to vote Fayemi out. They said the governor would deal with them if he got a second chance as governor. It was like a hurricane. If you like, you may call it a revolt, because never in the history of Ekiti State has any incumbent governor lost so massively. That is the truth that many people outside the state do not know, Adegbemi said ~ More on the website
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 10:06:58 +0000
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