PDP and APC, strategise for Ekiti 2018 politics, despite internal crisis in their folds, Assistant Editor, South West, MUYIWA OLALEYE, reports.
Even with the 2018 Ekiti governorship election still three years ahead, political developments in the state are increasingly becoming intriguing. On one hand is the Governor Ayodele Fayose-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that has demonstrated emphatic dominance in the politics of the state going by results in subsequent elections since last year, which it commenced by ousting the then Governor Kayode Fayemi in the June 12 governorship poll. On the other side of the divide is the All Progressives Congress (APC) that is obviously re-strategising to return to Ekiti Government House.
Each of the forces has its strategies of attack. While Fayose and his party are riding on the wings of consolidation, there are indications that the APC is creating structures to link up with the Ekiti masses, in the populist style that Fayose has always manifested in carrying the day.
An obviously elated member of the opposition party who believed in this strategy enthused that “those who are well-versed in the Fayose school of politics are the same people the APC will use to tackle, demystify and defeat him when the time comes”.
Somehow, the groundwork for this plot appears to be thickening in the state, especially given the recent developments in the PDP and the APC. For instance, about three weeks ago, a former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Olufemi Bamisile, openly declared interest in the governorship election of 2018, stressing that APC’s current position at the federal level would brighten the party’s chances of winning in Ekiti.
In addition to the strength he said the state APC would draw from the centre, Bamisile, a former PDP state deputy chairman, who defected formally to the APC only three days to the governorship election in June 2014, flaunted what he claimed as his knowledge of Fayose and how to defeat him in the election.
In going about it, Bamisile disclosed that he rented an office close to the PDP secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, essentially to be able to “properly and closely monitor them”, saying: “Soon, we will hound them out of the place.”
He, however, acknowledged that “it is going to be a lot of hard work” for the party to win in Ekiti, charging stakeholders in the APC from across the state at the forum where he declared his governorship ambition to gear up for a stiff contest.
Bamisile, who was the Speaker of the House of Assembly in the tumultuous regime of Segun Oni in the state, said: “By 2018, I am very certain that the APC will take over the government of Ekiti State. That is why we are starting early. We are reaching out to commercial motorcyclists, traders, commercial drivers in the two main drivers’ unions, artisans, students and all the people in all the local government areas of the state.”
He had declared his governorship ambition on Friday, July 10, 2015, and held another meeting with his supporters on July 23, where he reportedly repeated the boast that the PDP would soon yield its state secretariat to him.
“It is good news to hear that Governor Fayose has directed that they should vacate the PDP secretariat because of me. That is to tell you that he is feeling the heat of our political activities. The PDP will collapse like a pack of cards soonest,” he bragged.
He used the occasion to announce that eight members of PDP executive in the state had concluded arrangements to defect to the APC.
His words: “Frantic effort to restore the winning history of the APC has made it possible for eight members of the PDP state executive members to be prepared to join our party.
“With all modest support and support of three former governors in the state, I make bold to say that no fewer than eight members of the state executive are set to join the APC because I have personally spoken to them and they are confident that the APC is a better place.”
Earlier, on July 6, there were reports that Ropo Adesanya, a two-time chairman of PDP in the state, had formally defected to the APC. Wole Olujobi, the spokesperson to former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, who broke the news, stated that the formal defection of Adesanya took place at his native Ijan-Ekiti community.
According to Olujobi, Ekiti South senatorial chairman of the APC, Kayode Babade, received Adesanya and “hundreds of his supporters”. He quoted Adesanya to have said that his conscience would not allow him stay “in a party that exists for the pleasure of one man while the Ekiti people suffer”.
Following the report of imminent exodus of PDP stalwarts to the APC, there has been grave unease among the members of PDP executive committee who are currently at loggerheads with Governor Fayose.
The PDP executive led by its secretary, Tope Aluko, had for example announced the removal of Idowu Faleye as chairman, earlier in the year. Olatunde Olatunde stepped in as the acting chairman. In moving against Faleye, Aluko and his group had claimed that he resigned his position as chairman because he failed all constitutional requirements to be in the party, let alone serve as its acting chairman. Fayose, our reporter gathered, was not amused at the development.
While the power game went on, insinuations ran high that Aluko, and his colleagues in the State Working Committee (SWC) of the PDP were plotting to leave the party because of their rift with Fayose. But on July 24, Olatunde, Aluko and the auditor, Tunde Olanrewaju, on behalf of the other SWC members, denied the allegation, describing it as “unfounded, baseless and untrue”.
In their words, “We cannot now abandon a house that we have laboured so hard through the years to build.”
Their problem with Fayose/Faleye, according to them, is that Faleye was not constitutionally qualified to be the acting chairman of Ekiti PDP because he is from the same ward in Ido/Osi Local Government Area of the state as the youth leader.
“The youth leader, who is still functioning, and Faleye are from the same ward in Ido/Osi Local Government Area,” Olatunde declared.
He added that by the party’s constitution, there is no crisis because Faleye does not exist since his name is not in the party’s register.
The Olatunde group went ahead to announce Dapo Adebisi as the party’s new deputy chairman to replace Bamisile. It also announced the removal of Jackson Adebayo as the Publicity Secretary and replaced him with Michael Oladipo.
He added that the SWC would soon meet to ratify the appointments, adding that his action was backed by Section 24(5) of the constitution of the PDP which explains quorum.
On the role of Governor Fayose in all the activities, Olatunde claimed that Section 47(6) of the party’s constitution empowered the state executive to appoint new officers, stressing: “There is difference between the government and the party. The party produces the governorship candidate, and the highest organ of the party is the State Executive Committee (SEC).
“The governor is a member of the SEC, while the state chairman presides. From that simple illustration, that is the responsibility of the party. The governor faces governance while the SWC runs the party.”
Interestingly, while all these are going on, mum is the word from the Faleye camp of the party. Adebayo, his spokesman, when asked for his reaction to the developments, said “there is no comment”.
That has left many in the dark with regard to the plan of the other side of the Ekiti PDP divide.
“But, again, that doesn’t mean that Fayose that is still keeping quiet so far about it all is so politically daft not to know what is going on and how to respond when the time comes,” a commentator said.
However, interpretations of what have been referred to as the “raging cold war in Ekiti PDP” by some of the stakeholders are varied and largely incoherent. All, however, agree that all is not well in the PDP.
An observer said: “PDP has won the election and APC is now playing the politics because it is assisted by the party’s status as the holder of federal power.”
It is on this premise that analysts insist that Bamisile’s boast of snatching power from PDP in 2018 is not for nothing, arguing that there are so many things behind it, including political forces operating from outside the state.
Some also argue that the Olatunde group derives its confidence and strength to operate with so much audacity from some yet-to-be-known powers that will soon manifest in the run up to the election year.