#Opposition lawmakers may blackmail me —Fayose# GOVERNOR Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State fears that the opposition majority in the State House of Assembly may attempt to blackmail him but he is sure that they can work things out to move the state forward. Speaking in an interview with reporters shortly before witnessing the collection of expression of interest and nomination forms by President Goodluck Jonathan for the next year’s presidential election at the national secretariat of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in Abuja, on Thursday, he also rationalised “Stomach Infrastructure” as a form of social security. He denied destroying the house of the Speaker of the State Assembly, Adewale Omirin, saying that he did not need to muzzle anyone to be governor. He said: “I enjoyed the free vote of Ekiti people in the last election and if I got the vote in the whole of the 16 local government areas and in the 158 out of the 177 wards, that put me in total majority in landslide and so there is no basis to fight the speaker. Meanwhile, the Ekiti State government on Thursday denied any plan to sack civil servants as being peddled on social media by the opposition All Progressives Congress.(APC) In a statement in Ado-Ekiti by the Special Assistant, Public Communication and New Media, Mr Lere Olayinka, the state government added that the current exercise of trimming down the number of ministries in the state did not indicate that it was going to sack some workers. “Workers in the state have nothing to fear, the ongoing exercise of trimming the number of ministries is not an indication that workers are gong to be sacked. “The exercise is intended to make the workers more effective and efficient. Workers will be deployed in a way to get the best out of them. “The only set of workers that have issues to clarify are those that were employed without due process after the APC lost the June 21 governorship election. “The proposal before the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, is the reduction of the number of ministries and parastatals to reduce cost of running the government, so as to be able to provide more basic amenities for the people. “The planned reduction of ministries and parastatals is still at the level of proposal that is yet to be considered by the governor. “It is also important to point out that there is no plan to turn the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to an agency under the governor’s office as being peddled. “SUBEB is a creation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and its funds come directly from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), a Federal Government agency. No governor can scrap it,” the statement read. “But don’t forget that to lead a state and to play politics in a state and in a system where the House of Assembly is majorly APC, there would be reasonable level of blackmail. “But I would continue to love and work with them and let me assure you, I have gone through worst storms. So, I am not bothered at all. I am an experienced governor and I know the game. “Very soon, my House of Assembly will be together working to keep the ground running. They want to work with me and I want to work with them. “I am the father of Ekiti and I will not do anything that will undermine any citizen. The best approach to win people is by your very good actions. That people don’t vote for you today or that they are not in your party today does not mean things cannot change; tomorrow. They might be the one championing your course. So, it is incorrect. “I have met with the speaker who denied ever making such statement and claimed that the special adviser media made the statement and I want to tell you that you don’t need to muzzle people. I did not muzzle people to become governor,” he said. On the Stomach Infrastructure policy he operates, Fayose said he will continue to press for it at all levels of government, describing it as a form of social security obtainable in developed countries. According to him, “Stomach infrastructure is very important in the life of a man. If you look at Britain, as rich and as comfortable as they are, in the entire time, they find their way to address the issue of the poor and less privileged masses in their country by what they call social security. “Food is a social security. You can’t be talking to a hungry man. He would be distracted by any means. Secondly, when we say stomach infrastructure, it is a welfare programme, a programme that would keep the heart of a man stable.” He added: “The welfare of the people in a society and environment of poor people matters and that is why we condemned the governor building a house of N3.3billion for his personal comfort. It is not nice and it does not go to sense.” Noting that there were more pressing needs to spend the state’s resources on, he further said: “The University of Ado Ekiti has most of its courses yet to be accredited and they needed about N800million to sort out those problems. Will the governor be living in the affluence when the whole state is in darkness? “The wage bill to pay civil servants has been hanging there for three months unpaid after the election. Will we say the governor should continue to live there when others are living in darkness? “Christmas is coming. Why do people go out of their ways to be shopping or doing other things if it is not just to make people merry? “So, I am grooming chicken, buying rice, yams, plantain, and the rest of them. I am sure if I give it to families during the festive period, they will be happy. So, stomach infrastructure is a way of life. “I also want you to know that most people that commit crime in this life do so because they have gone as far as the world and life is no longer worthy of living for them anymore and nobody is there to tell them that there is life for them. “For this reason; I have set up a department and I have appointed special assistant and personal assistant stomach infrastructure and same will be in all the local government areas. “So, my style without apology is that stomach infrastructure is a way of life for me. I will relate well with my people to alleviate poverty and hunger. “I also go to beer parlours on Fridays to stay with the common men there. Governance is not church, it is about diverse characters and you must relate with them as such,” he declared.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:27:40 +0000
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