Ekiti State has been in the eye of the storm in the past few weeks for reasons that make nonsense of its sobriquet as a “Land of Honour”.
Shortly after the governorship election on June 16 this year, outgoing Governor Kayode Fayemi, who had hoped to defeat his two main opponents – Ayodele Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Opeyemi Bamidele of the Labour Party (LP) – said: “If indeed this is the will of the Ekiti people, I stand in deference to your will. If the result of the election is an expression of the voice of our people, we must all heed your voice.”
It was a statement Fayemi made in acknowledgement of the victory of Fayose over him and the other contestants. To him, it was a fair contest involving Ekiti sons and brothers who presented themselves before the people and they were bound to heed the voice and choice of the people.
“I have just spoken with my brother, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, congratulating him on his victory. In a few hours from now, I would be meeting the governor-elect to discuss the future of our dear state and how we would work together to institute a smooth transition programme,” Fayemi added then.
Also acknowledging the role voters played in his victory, Fayose said: “It will be impossible for me to come back eight years after I left the government without their support. Fayemi has done his best.
“The only constant thing is change. The office of governor is an exalted office. For me, Fayemi remains my governor until October 16. He is a respectable Nigerian and a respectable leader. It is in Nigeria we rubbish our leaders.”
Did Fayemi and Fayose actually discuss? What was the outcome of their discussion? What did they agree on that is in the interest of Ekiti and the people? To what extent did they respect their comments, one after the other, after the election result was announced? Or were they paying lip service and simply deceiving Ekiti people?
Both Fayemi and Fayose’s comments after the election can melt a heart of stone. They were reassuring words from supposed leaders of the state. But it did not take long before the animal in man took over, hence Fayemi ate his words and reasoned that Fayose did not win.
To compound matters, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), goaded him to contest the election result at the tribunal.
In my piece on July 20, titled “Unusual, but happy moments are here”, I explained that “when Fayemi congratulated Fayose the public quickly observed that what he did has the potential to deepen democratic ethos and that the APC should back out of its plan to contest the Ekiti governorship poll in court because Fayemi has already congratulated the winner, and that is a raw material the court must rely on to rule on the case.”
One of the things I warned Fayemi about in that article was to run away from the lure of going to court for the sake of it, as most Nigerian politicians do after every poll to contest, thereby involving in a winding litigation that is frustrating and eats into the time needed to work for the electorate.
Ever since the decision to contest the poll was taken, things have never been the same again in Ekiti. Strategies meant to get at Fayose’s in-coming administration, like the creation of additional councils, were devised and efforts allegedly made to stall his swearing-in on October 16.
The events leading to the recent invasion of the courts in Ekiti by hoodlums, the assault on judges, and the assassination of former state Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Omolafe Aderiye, are fall outs of the unbecoming demeanour by supporters of both Fayemi and Fayose to (re)validate their loyalty to their bosses at the detriment of Ekiti’s honour.
Justice John Adeyeye was allegedly attacked by Fayose’s supporters on the Ado Ekiti High Court premises two weeks ago. The alleged assault has become a subject of judicial and political commentary with many lawyers and politicians threatening fire and brimstone and calling for action against the perpetrators.
The good news is that both Fayemi and Fayose are in support of a probe into the incident.
Unfortunately, the dust over this particular stupid act had hardly settled when Aderiye was murdered in his office on September 24 to the chagrin of all, including Fayemi who slammed a curfew on Ekiti to contain the growing insecurity.
I am really at pains that Fayemi would allow those who have eaten the bread of wickedness and drunk the wine of violence destroy the good name he has made for himself after four years as governor. It is painful that two weeks to the end of his tenure, Ekiti people are inclined to seeing the face of a governor whose supporters allegedly murdered one of them instead of a Fayemi that did so much on social security.
I would be surprised if Fayemi did not see what is happening now coming, almost on the eve of leaving office, but lacked the discernment to take precaution due to political shenanigans or even decided to ignore it and damn the consequences. Fayemi, many people know, is too cerebral and urbane to involve himself in acts that would taint his image. But is it not possible for politically interested persons to perpetrate acts that will whittle down his integrity rating?
I doubt if Fayemi loves his state as he claims. If he does, something would have reminded him that those feeding fat from his government will do anything to discredit whoever is coming to take over from him; worse, Fayose, whom many of them worked hard to demonise before the vote and are still demonising after.
Politicians must see the love of state above that of self, family, friends and associates. Two weeks to the end of Fayemi’s tenure, the baggage he will leave with is worrisome. I am sure he did not bargain for it. In fact, it will take the grace of God for Fayemi to clean his image that has so been soiled of late due to his failure to understand well the ugly side of politics and stay on the side of caution.
I challenge Fayemi to go back and read his congratulatory message to Fayose and see where he has erred.
Those who are supposed to ensure that the honour associated with Ekiti is intact and not tainted are the ones working hard to dishonour it.
Politics apart, they are known to occupy positions of responsibility in all spheres of live in the state, but we know most of them are irresponsible going by their character and pedigree. The only grain of leadership you will likely find in them is in their clothes.