By Michael Abiola
At last, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has come out with his latest joker – hand-picking his deputy as his preferred candidate for next year’s governorship election in the state – and one can only laugh at the inability of the leopard to change its spots. While those who could read between the lines have never been in doubt of the governor’s capacity for the ridiculous, one is also not surprised that the most jolted with disbelief among his goons in the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is Dayo Adeyeye who, in what could be described as a fit of futile rage, resigned his appointment as pro-chancellor of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti.
Another interesting victim of Fayose’s crude craze for power is Biodun Christine Olujimi, a serving senator who had earlier served as his deputy in his first term as governor of the state. If we could recollect, Adeyeye and Olujimi had connived with others in the now-torn umbllera party to create the Frankenstein monster in 2014. Of course, that the monster is now tearing at them is good news to the ears! Corrupted by deceit and drugged by greed, Fayose made of himself a “harbinger of disunity and chaos” and it was as if Ekiti was in a state of permanent war with development. In his very eyes, Fayose’s house is now divided against itself and I believe former Governor Kayode Fayemi and other members of the opposition must be having some good laughs wherever they are now chanced to wander.
Left to me, I have all along wondered why Fayose was of the opinion that Ekitians were so gullible that he could willfully decide for them without their input. On the other hand, observers like yours truly have also found it difficult to believe that a state like the ‘Land of Honour and Integrity’ could be under the rapacious grip of one political misfit in whose dictionary decency is a lost word. Be that as it may, Fayose’s return to power after a well-deserved foray into the political wilderness may also have had its own use. In my view, it was meant to teach the good people of Ekiti how to make a choice between uncultured and unrepentant students of Lamidi Adedibu’s school of Amala politics and those who, genuinely, could use their God-given talents to give the state a new lease of life. The Fayose experience was no doubt meant to strengthen the people with the expected ‘never again’ resolve against oppression and internal colonization.
Sincere observers will admit that, just as sin remains the only problem God has with mankind, the only challenge that is at present militating against good governance in Ekiti State is Fayose. The more reason the coming months in the life of Ekiti will be very interesting. As we are gradually moving into 2018, the aberration in the state is another very important wound which must be accorded utmost priority by the leading opposition party if it must retain its popularity in the consciousness of Nigerians. Why do I say this? The leading alternative party in the state also has the rare privilege of being the party in power at the national level. To all intents and purposes therefore, the coming months in the life of Nigeria will be very interesting and, for reasons not unconnected with its strategic importance, next year’s governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun will go a long way in deciding where the country’s pendulum swings in 2019.
Though, I may not possess the magical power to predict the nature, structure or outcome of next year’s governorship election in the state, how did Ekiti get to this pitiable pass and who will save dear state from a political jester whose penchant for mischief and theatrical distractions have no equal in Nigeria’s democratic space? Without being immodest, Fayose has done a so much harm to the polity, especially, in the area of painfully diverting the people’s attention from his incompetence and this is where the opposition must come with an overriding determination to free the state from his odious grip. The electorate need to be enlightened on its roles of building a state in which future generations can proudly claim to have a stake. To achieve this, All Progressive Party (APC) must present a candidate whose capacity for peace can suppress the outgoing governor’s capacity for violence.
From what I could glean from the list of aspirants being paraded as possible successor to Fayose, the only person who, in my view, is capable of delivering the state from his firm grip is Babafemi Ojudu who is currently serving the country as President Muhammadu’s Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Ojudu is a former Senator and an accomplished journalist who has also paid his dues as a renowned human rights crusader. In my considered opinion, the involvement of a journalist-turned-politician like Ojudu in Nigeria’s evolving democracy is a positive pointer to great things in terms of political participation. Unlike other leaders who revel in selfishly frittering away our common patrimony so easily, he is a man of uncommon ability whose tenure will be characterized by innovative thinking and worthy achievements.
Albert Einstein equates life to “riding a bicycle” which balance must be kept by ‘keeping moving.'” Though one of the most lucrative businesses in Nigeria these days is sycophancy, the truth is that we have a faulty system and that’s where the problem lies. But, if one may ask: why this politician of testifiable affability at a time like this in the life of the state? With a debt overhang of close to N100b incurred in a spate of 3 years and about 12 months in arrears of salaries to various categories of the state’s workforce; with a backlog of unpaid gratuities and pension allowances that also runs into years even as funds meant for social welfare are being wasted on the altar of frivolity; and with next-to-nothing on ground to justify any judicious utilization of receipts from the Federation’s purse, why do we think SBO, as he is affectionately called by his admirers, is the God-send who will not only throw a log into Ekiti’s undrinkably bitter Water of Marah with a view to making it sweet but also do all that it takes, lawfully, to return the state on the path of prosperity?
What particularly intrigues me about SBO is that he is not one leader who joys in disappointing the electorate who might have invested so much love and faith in him. Rather, he is an astute politician who will stop at nothing to invest his energy in a system that creates justice as opposed to one that merely shares which is currently at work in the state. In other words, that Ojudu will use the resources available to the state, however meager, to better the lives of Ekitians can never be in doubt.
*Abiola wrote in from Aramoko-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Michael Abiola, No 5, Oke Oja Street, Aramoko-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
