By Emeka Alex Duru
With the eventual conclusion of primaries by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ekiti, the battle line has been drawn for the July 14 governorship election in the State.
For PDP, the ruling party in the state, the candidate is the Deputy Governor, Professor Kolapo Olusola, who defeated former Minister of State for Works, Dayo Adeyeye, to clinch the ticket.
APC, on the other hand, is fielding the Minister of Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi, who beat other crowd of aspirants at the primary.
Fayemi had once governed the state and lost in his re-election bid to the current governor, Ayo Fayose, on June 21, 2014.
For the Minister therefore, going to the poll on July 14 for the same position, is akin to a return to a familiar path.
Same could be said of Fayose, to some extent. Though the governor is not going for the election, he is considerably involved, by proxy. He is seen as the face of Olusola in the encounter.
The election, in many ways, presents grounds for the unfinished battle between Fayose and Fayemi.
Some even see in it, a dress rehearsal for APC and PDP over 2019 general elections, especially in the South West. The stakes, are thus high, over the encounter.
Fayemi, APC for a kill
For APC, winning the election, means a lot. Ekiti, presently is the only state in the South West, that is not under its column.
Until recently when Ekiti and Ondo were outside the party’s sphere of influence, they were considered as huge obstacles to the region’s integration agenda.
But following the APC victory at the Ondo governorship election in November 2016, the party had not ceased at romanticizing over similar feat in Ekiti.
It is also in dire need of winning the poll, to shore up the dwindling perception profile of the President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly among his supporters in the South.
And for Fayemi, victory on July 14, is the only way he can convince observers that his allegation of being rigged out in the June 21, 2014 election, is not merely crying over spilt milk.
When the results of the exercise were then released, Fayemi, who was the governor, was initially quoted to have declared that if the outcome was a true reflection of the wishes of the Ekiti electorate, he would abide by it.
But following subsequent developments, he changed his opinion on the poll and contested the result. Though he lost at the various stages of the legal contest, he has maintained that the election was compromised in favour of Fayose.
He therefore has the forthcoming election to prove that even as he has operated from Abuja as minister since leaving Ekiti Government House, he still commands influence in the State.
To his credit, he has statistics of his job profile in his first coming and even as a minister to flaunt as the campaigns hot up.
Of course, riding on the so-called federal might – a euphemism for intimidating the opposition, Fayemi, aside his personal attributes and contacts, looks good at staging a come-back. This is especially as the Deputy Governor, with whom he is going to slug it out, cannot really be said to have had direct field encounter on election matters.
Olusola, Fayose unyielding
But having the solid support of Fayose, places Olusola on good stead for the race. Largely seen as a stormy petrel of the state’s politics, Fayose has a hold on the Ekiti voters that is unprecedented.
Though he is not going to be on the ballot this time around, his support for specific candidates in various elections in the state in the past, had in most cases, translated to electoral victory for them.
Fayemi was even a beneficiary of this Fayose mystique at a time. Then, while Fayose’s first term was truncated mid-way by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, it took his exit from PDP and support for Fayemi, for PDP candidate, Segun Oni to lose the governorship election in the state.
At the 2015 National and State Assembly elections in Ekiti, he gave APC a sound beating, delivering two Senate seats and majority of the House Representatives slots from the state to his party. At the state Assembly, it was a clean sweep for him and PDP.
His admirers expect him to perform the same feat for his deputy, with whom, incidentally, he has had good working relations, as against the trend in most of the states.
But the challenge for PDP, this time, is that Fayose is not the candidate. There is therefore, a limit to which he can ask his supporters to support Olusola.
Besides, the euphoria that had trailed the governor’s election, four years ago, has gone down, considerably, on account of many developments.
His regular brushes with the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over allegations of poor management of the state’s finances, have, without doubts, impacted much on his previous standing even among his die-hard supporters.
There is also a campaign that his insistence on being succeeded by his deputy, is in his desperate search for someone that may shield him from being properly investigated.
This is aside the insinuation of the governor trying to hoist a political dynasty in the state.
These are issues, informed analysts, say, may work against Olusola in the election. But perhaps, what may haunt him most, is the sharp division that has crept into PDP in the state over his emergence as the flag bearer.
Before the primary, Fayose had advertised Olusola as the person that would succeed him – a declaration, TheNiche learnt, did not go down well with his party men and even supporters.
Biodun Adebiyi, an Ekiti indigene, told our reporter that by that singular move, the governor gave impression of not properly understanding his people.
“He seems to have been carried away by sycophants around him. He should have known that an average Ekiti man or woman, is not somebody he can pull by the nose. By announcing to us, even before election that his deputy will succeed him, he has simply told us that our votes will not count. We are therefore, waiting for him and his magic”, he fumed.
Our reporter equally learnt that though the televised primary of PDP in which Olusola emerged, was intended to imbue it with a veneer of transparency, the intrigues that preceded the exercise, indicated that it was designed to fall into Fayose’s permutations.
Chieftains of the party in the state, are not taking the development, kindly, it was gathered.
This notwithstanding, Olusola, still has a good chance in the race,TheNiche was told. Aside his sound pedigree in academics and the loyalty he has extended to the governor, he counts on the incumbency factor that his party enjoys in Ekiti in going into the encounter.