THIS INTERESTING PIECE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE JUNE 21st ELECTIONS... READ AND ENJOY AYO FAYOSE.. EKITI ELITES AT IT AGAIN... Whether anybody likes it or not, Ayodele Fayose, a former governor and now a candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti state is a big factor. He is a force to reckon with as far as Ekiti politics is concerned. Whoever ignores him does so at his own peril. Immediately he emerged as a PDP governorship candidate for the June 21 2014 election in Ekiti, the political tempo in the state changed and things have never been the same there since then. His second coming to the governorship race, like his first outing, became a game changer. Regardless of any name anybody may call him, Fayose is a man of courage, a man of the people and a friend of the ordinary. That he can still command a large following after unceremoniously leaving office eight years ago shows a huge popularity in a country where loyalty is usually 100 % tilted towards the incumbent because of the opportunities of political appointment, contract and other patronages. Even Fayemi the incumbent governor acknowledged Fayose’s popularity and value when he approached him for his support to be able to defeat Engr. Segun Oni in the 2009 Ekiti governorship rerun election. Fayose’s biggest problem is his background, his pedigree. He was not born to the families of the nobles and neither did he come into prominence through the assistance of any political godfather. He was virtually and practically unknown before he became a governor. But that is not a crime and I feel it does not equally reduce him to a lesser human being. Determined people do work hard to become successful in life. In his own case, it would have been a different story if he is an Adebayo from Iyin-Ekiti or an Aluko from Ode-Ekiti or a Babalola from Ado-Ekiti. His burden would have been minimized, HND or no HND, if he had been born with a silver spoon by one of those who occupy the inner chamber of who is who in Ekiti. He would have easily been admitted to the cult of the Ekiti elites with his HND diploma even without becoming a governor. But he eminently qualified to contest for the office of governor with his HND diploma certificate when the electoral laws put the required qualification at General Certificate of Education (GCE). When he was warming himself to the hearts of the ordinary Ekiti people in the pre-2003 governorship election, the Ekiti elites saw him as inconsequential and so ignored him to their peril. Fayose’s emergence as the governor of Ekiti jolted the Ekiti cerebral. That he contested in a party considered as ‘demo’ and defeated an incumbent who was enjoying the goodwill of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the political orisa of the Yoruba) made his success at the poll a double jolt for the Ekiti elites. That Fayose is not a lawyer, a medical doctor or a professor and coming from an awkward political party usually regarded as a party of betrayals to preside over the affairs of a sophisticated state like Ekiti became his undoing. From the very first day in office he knew he had a war to fight. A war being orchestrated by the nobles and the elites stared him in the face. The grave mistake that Fayose made at the time was his belief that he had the majority of ordinary Ekiti people behind him to confront a troubling monster. He forgot that the greatest help the ordinary Ekiti people could render to him was their votes which made him the governor. Fayose did not realize that these ordinary people who were solidly behind him lacked the privilege to see Obasanjo, the then president at will with any debilitating request or petitions. But he must fight back to be able to rule. Fayose was therefore fighting tooth and nail the tiny clique but very powerful elites who were obstructing his government from all angles. It would have been better for him to seek and court the friendship of some of them instead of relying on the use of the instrument of office to fight those who were determined to make his state ungovernable. Fayose’s emergence in his first political adventure was shocking to the Ekiti elites and they learnt a lesson from it. The mode of his second coming is not entirely different from the first and the barrage of attacks by the elites this time around is so fierce in order to cage him or have him cut to size. They are attacking his guts left and right thinking that it will affect his popularity among the artisans and ordinary Ekiti people who are in the majority. For the purpose of election, those are the people that Fayose needs to win and they continue to be solidly behind him. In response to a contributor on a popular Ekiti think tank forum on the coming gubernatorial election in the state, a forumite who chose to face reality wrote as follows: “You watched him eating banana …. and throwing the crumbs to his awkward crowd at Ikere the city of our Dr Adu who resides in the comfort of Europe and throwing occasional jabs at Fayose. I became worried that Ekiti people from the Fountain of Knowledge would gleefully accept the banana ajeku of Fayose. These are the bulk of voters. Sir I will strongly advise you to come to terms with the simple fact that Fayose may win the next gubernatorial election in Ekiti. All odds favour him.” – (OA, Ekitipanupo, 21/4/14). Like many other contributors on the forum that day, I agree with his reasoning. Fayose has again shown that he is a master planner by the caliber of the person he chose as his deputy and the town he hails from. Ikere is about the 2nd if not the largest populated town in Ekiti. By choosing Dr Olusola Ojo, a University don from that town, Fayose has done three things: (1) He will be having a scholar, an elite at the top hierarchy of his government. (2) He may have placated many who might have been enraged about his sacking of Mr. Abiodun Aluko, his deputy during his first outing. (3) Choosing a running mate from Ikere may have reduced the number of votes that Governor Fayemi would have garnered from the town in June. Many people from that town would vote for PDP because they know that if PDP is able to win the gubernatorial election, a deputy governor from that town would be more beneficial to them than whatever APC government may want to do for them. No doubt, Fayose would need to go and reassure the people of Ikere that what happened between him and Mr. Abiodun Aluko would not repeat itself in the case of Dr Olusola Ojo if they win. When considering the allegations of fraud and political violence being leveled against Fayose by the current government and the Ekiti elites, he remains innocent until proved guilty. It is a known fact that it was only the regime of Otunba Niyi Adebayo that did not witness any violence since 1999. Ekiti State has not been violence-free since 2003 till date. In fact the amount of violence that had been witnessed under Fayemi government surpassed those witnessed during Fayose and Segun Oni regimes combined. The elites are also the problem of Fayemi even though they are his friends and are not attacking him. They are the one advising him to rule the state like a military governor who would not one day need people’s votes to continue in office. They continue to blow grammar to demonise Fayose and forget that they are in the minority many of whom that do not even have voters’ card. They have created so many enemies for governor Fayemi that it will take a miracle for him to win in the coming election. They made him to sack about 5,000 local government workers in a swoop while he doubled the number of commissioners and special advisers surpassing the number Chief Awolowo used to rule the big western region. The money they pretend to save from sacking poor local government workers on one hand they blew on their over-populated commissioners and special advisers on the other hand. They pushed him to embrace a policy that insulted the teachers. They say Fayose will not get votes from Ifaki and Ijan. But will Fayemi get votes from Omuo, Moba, Erijiyan, Emure etc? When all these are taken into consideration, Ayodele Fayose does not need to rig to win the coming gubernatorial election. Olusina Akeredolu, a lawyer is the Executive Director of Detainees & Indigent Help Center. He writes from Houston, Texas.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 05:35:02 +0000
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