South-West: Fayose’s rally, APC’s trouble 2 days ago The Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, seems to have pre-occupied himself with the recruitment and mobilisation of supporters for the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-West, Fisayo Falodi writes The African proverb that says a child tends to probe the source of his father’s death if he grabs the mantle of authority is being practically demonstrated by the Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, as he has begun what may be described as the recruitment and mobilisation of supporters for the Peoples Democratic Party. As some commentators have said, the governor-elect has embarked upon the major task of waking the PDP, especially in the South-West up from its slumber, instead of concentrating on how to form a responsive government that would succeed Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration in October. Fayose won the June 21, 2014 election in all the 16 local government areas of the state and defeated Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress, who was seeking re-election for a second term. In the June 21, 2014 election described as free and fair, Fayose, who won in 158 of the 177 wards in the state, was declared winner of the governorship poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission. As a child with the mantle of authority and who is ready to probe the source of his father’s death, Fayose appears to have assigned for himself the major task of mobilising support for the PDP in the South-West states. Fayose, however, began the push to mobilise support for the PDP during the sensitisation rally held recently by the party in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where he claimed that the people had rejected APC. He said the people were tired of the party and that it should be preparing to vacate the various states under its control. The governor-elect said at the rally organised by the PDP South-West Organisation and Mobilisation Committee in Ibadan that the party would not beg anybody to return to its fold. He had said, “This is the last time that any member of the party, irrespective of his position, whether former governor or president will be begged to remain in the party. If they want to join other parties, they can go. They should not disparage the party again because if they do, they will go. “They have enjoyed benefits in the party so they should respect the party, whether former president or senator. I left the party when I had misunderstanding with it and returned when we resolved our differences. The door is open for them to leave.” Still basking in the euphoria of his victory at the poll, Fayose had said, “I am the only person in Nigeria to have achieved the feat of defeating two incumbent governors, so I am in a position to give advice on how to achieve victory. We will defeat the APC in Oyo and other South-West states with the support of the people. Our business in government is to perform and give due recognition to the grassroots. The APC has wasted the opportunity it has to perform by neglecting the masses. Elections are not won by propaganda but at the grassroots level. If Ekiti can do it, Oyo people can do the same.” Also at a rally organised in his honour at the popular Gani Fawehinmi Park by the PDP in Lagos, Fayose reiterated why PDP should be supported. He described APC as a party that could not be trusted. Fayose alleged that APC used and dumped him. The Ekiti State governor-elect, who claimed that he was disappointed by APC after he helped the party to win a rerun in Ekiti, added, “It is not the first time that a child insult Iroko tree that the tree falls on him. I fought against PDP a while ago and went to work for them (APC), they swore and made promises and they thought that after three years I would become broke, but a termite can never consume rock. “After I finished working for them, they put me on the reserve bench. I was calling them but they refused to pick my calls.” Fayose, however, advised all PDP governorship aspirants in Lagos State to take their campaigns to the grassroots, describing the step as the surest way to win elections. But the Oyo State chapter of APC has risen to frustrate the move to deliver the South-West States to PDP as it asked Fayose to stay off the state. A statement by its Chairman, Mr. Akin Oke, dismissed what it called the “pedestrian politics” being played by Fayose and warned the governor-elect to concentrate his energy on Ekiti people as Oyo would be too hot for his kind of politics. The statement read, “We have watched Fayose’s flippancy getting worse by the day since his alleged victory in Ekiti. We do not have any qualms with his riding on a roller coaster of this supposed victory and talking down on everybody while telling them that he is the newest thing to happen in South-West politics. “We only warn him that that brand of murky politics which saw him grandstanding and riding roughshod over everybody will not work in Oyo State. We are a people who do not allow foreign generals lord it over us.” The APC decried what it called Fayose’s sudden and uncontrolled attack on everyone, including leaders of the Yoruba people, stating that he should learn a lesson in keeping his mouth shut so that he does not court the wrath of the ancestors of the Yoruba people. “The ancestors of Yoruba people warn that a farmer who just had his barn running over with a bountiful harvest must be humble enough to be sober in plenty. Doom awaits such a farmer in the long run. This warning is what Fayose is not heeding as he is running his trap against everybody.” The APC comment did not go down well with Fayose as he told the party to brace up and face the reality of its rejection by the people of the South-West and “stop looking for scapegoats to blame for its failure.” In the statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, Fayose said, “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association and movement among many other freedoms enshrined in it. It is in exercise of the freedom that people came together to form the PDP and which people also freely joined. “So, that Fayose and others are members of the PDP, I don’t know how that has injured the APC. Also, it is in the exercise of the freedom of movement that PDP members and leaders converged on the PDP secretariat in Ibadan, Oyo State, to hold a sensitisation rally and necessary, legally-mandated security agencies performed their duties that led to the success of the event. “No doubt the APC has become jittery not only in Oyo State, the South-West geo-political zone, but in the nation at large. The people have seen their deceit and are determined to shove them aside and they have done that in Ekiti State.” The clash between Fayose and APC, however, caught the attention of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, which agreed that the governor-elect’s rights as regards his movement and association could not be curtailed under the constitution, but claimed that by mobilising support for the PDP, he had embarked on an expedition to scatter the South-West. CNPP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said Fayose’s emergence as the PDP candidate for the governorship poll was questionable in the first instance following the arrays of unresolved issues he had with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for alleged corrupt practices and the court for killings. Okechukwu, who spoke with Saturday PUNCH on the telephone, said, “Constitutionally, Fayose is free to move and associate in any part of the country; his freedom cannot be curtailed. But what the governor-elect is doing is to extend President Goodluck Jonathan’s desperation to win the 2015 election at all cost to the South-West. “Jonathan’s administration is becoming desperate and dictatorial, that is why he preferred Fayose to the former Minister of Police Affairs, Capt Caleb Olubolade, and Senator Gbenga Aluko, who have robust pedigree, to contest for the election. The President has pre-meditated agenda, if not Fayose should not have been given the PDP ticket. “Fayose is now recruiting and mobilising support for the PDP so as to compensate Jonathan, who is desperate to scatter the South-West. And if the law is followed, Jonathan cannot win the 2015 election.”
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 06:01:23 +0000
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