By Oguwike Nwachuku
Femi, aged forty-something, lives in Lagos with his wife and two children. He has other relatives who depend on him for their livelihood.
He combines carpentry, his major occupation, with farming, fishing, hunting, petty trading, and any other crafts that fetch money.
I have related with Femi for many years because he is industrious and reliable.
On Thursday, July 12 he came to my house as a matter of courtesy to tell me he was travelling to vote in his home state, Ekiti. Really, I asked?
He said a strong yes, and backed it up with the confidence that he wants to be around to see the governorship candidate of their choice, Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, succeed Ayodele Fayose.
Why do you prefer Olusola-Eleka, I asked again? “He is loved by our people, and will continue from where Fayose stops,” Femi said.
“Fayose is on the ground in Ekiti. He lives with our people and knows their problems. These other candidates are like visitors who go outside to make money and come home to cause problem with their money. And our people know it.”
Femi also told me what shocked me. He said he contributed money together with others to make vests for Olusola-Eleka’s campaign. “I am also a stakeholder,” he boasted.
I laughed, and after exchanging pleasantries, wished him safe trip and urged him to be careful in view of what is happening in his state; which he said he is aware of.
But within me I kept asking: a carpenter trying to survive in Lagos contributing money to make vests for the election of the candidate of his choice in Ekiti? No wonder Fayose is like a symbol of Ekiti grassroots politics.
Watching Fayose on national television on Wednesday, July 11 shedding tears and lamenting assault by the police right inside Government House made me sad.
It made me ruminate on the kind of system Nigeria runs, and more significantly, the people who parade themselves as leaders.
With tears gushing down his eyes (some will deny seeing the tears anyway), Fayose, the Chief Security Officer of his state, was made to wail before an assembly of Ekiti leaders and even the led as he narrated his ordeal in the hands of policemen sent to monitor Saturday’s governorship election.
He said: “I was shot at and manhandled by security agents. I am in pains, I am in severe pains. I cannot take this anymore.”
“I call on the international community; Ekiti is under siege.
“How can I be Governor of Ekiti State and be treated like this in my own country? My people, I call on all of you: stand and remain standing.
“I will go back to the hospital for a while to rest… I am having a lot of pains, but I prefer to bear these pains because of you. I prefer to bear these pains because of you…,” Fayose cried as he crawled away from the crowd assisted by his aides.
Fayose, though a man of idiosyncrasy and drama, was not acting this time.
I also watched Channels Television on the night of July 11 to listen to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operations, Habilal Joshak.
He is the leader of the 30,000 police officers deployed to Ekiti by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, solely to monitor the vote. He talked tough and spoke like one with a prepared script from his masters to act.
Joshak was sandwiched between an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), H.H. Karma, the Commissioner of Police in charge of Police Mobile Force (PMF), Eche Eche, and three other Commissioners of Police – Ali Janga, J.B. Kokumo and G.B. Umar – who will man each of the Senatorial Districts in the state.
In what looked like a pep talk, Joshak said the security details of important personalities in Ekiti will be withdrawn on election day, Saturday, July 14.
He said they have contacted security details of Fayose and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kayode Fayemi, and other top government officials to report at 6am at police headquarters in Ado-Ekiti on July 14.
“Those who want to create posts where votes are going to be bought will be disappointed. We are not going to allow it,” he warned.
“If you cast your vote, you can keep a distance and protect your vote, but if you snatch the ballot, we will cut off your hands; if you run with it, we will stop your legs.
“If you come out with a masquerade on the day of election, we will get it arrested and unmask the man behind it.
“My men will be civil, so people are free to come out to vote. Nobody will be harassed, that is not part of our duties.
“Our duty is to secure not only the electoral materials but all the citizens. We are going to be professional and watchful because we don’t want to be bedeviled with cases of hooliganism, ballot snatching and hate speeches before, during and after this election.
“We won’t allow anybody to go to the polling booth with armed men. This is a breach of the Electoral Act.
“We have contacted them and they have to be here before election commences. This election must not be compromised. They will be documented and whoever defies this will be sanctioned because they have been contacted.”
Ahead of the day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) directed parties to end their campaign and rally, the police stopped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from doing so, claiming it did not apply for permit.
Policemen were seen on television shooting teargas canisters in the direction of PDP supporters. Many scampered to safety while others received injuries.
Former Deputy Governor, Biodun Olujimi, now a Senator, had to address the supporters with extra effort probably due to the dose of teargas she inhaled.
Fayose was not as fortunate going by his viral images on social media on Wednesday where he gasped for breath when he fainted and efforts were made to revive him.
How come the rally by Fayose and his party on Wednesday curried the anger of the police?
At what point did the police decide not to allow political parties, and in this case, the PDP, stage a rally except the party got approval, as all parties have been holding rallies unmolested this last week of election?
The Electoral Act allows parties to hold rallies to solicit votes, and in the Ekiti governorship election instance, till Thursday, July 12.
Is it not possible that the police made up their mind to stop PDP supporters from holding their rally on Wednesday, July 11 which culminated in the assault on Fayose and others?
How justifiable was the excuse by the police that they stopped the rally to forestall violence between members of the PDP and the APC?
In one breadth, Joshak claimed the police did not assault Fayose, and that Ekiti Government House was not blocked (rather the entrance leading to the Secretariat). In another breadth, he conceded that they stopped the rally.
Joshak said: “We are not here to usurp the authority of Governor Fayose. We are not here to rubbish him because he represents the people.
“But we are not going to allow any rally that can trigger violence in the state. You can see that the state is tensed up.
“As law enforcement agents, we must be proactive and take actions that can prevent crisis rather than trying to quell it after it might have broken out.”
The statement signed by Caleb Okechukwu, the Police Public Relations Officer for Ekiti State Police Command on behalf of Joshak, justifying why the rally was stopped said it all.
He said: “In furtherance to the presence of police officers around the Olusola-Eleka Pavilion at Fajuyi today, two political parties intend to have their rallies at the same date and in Ado-Ekiti metropolis.
“But the Commissioner of Police advised the political parties in writing on the need to have their political activities at different times and because of the security implication ….”
Police told a blatant lie that they did not invade Ekiti Government House or block the entrance.
Joshak was also economical with the truth when he said on Thursday that he did not direct what happened a day earlier.
He and his army of cops were aware that the APC was not planning another rally on Wednesday but brushed that piece of information aside.
“I am not aware of any planned rally. Nothing of such has been brought to my notice,” Taiwo Olatunbosun, Ekiti APC Publicity Secretary, insisted.
What happened in Ekiti on Wednesday is unfortunate and unbecoming of the police paid with taxpayer’s money.
The police are to protect the lives and property of every Nigerian. But those at the helm of affairs are yet to come to terms with this primary role in a complex society like ours.
The international community will be wondering what the police are doing with 30,000 officers in a small state like Ekiti with less than three million population, and about 700,000 voters who have collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
The concern of the international community will be strengthened by the fact that Nigeria has a bigger security challenge, particularly in the North where the police ought to show strength in human capital and application of strategic force.
During the week, 30,000 persons were murdered in Sokoto State in such bizarre manner that the police in the area simply stood-by and watched.
The Sokoto incident is one in a series of killings across the country that require the police to prove their mettle, but all Nigerians get from them are excuses on why they cannot perform.
Rather than confront Nigeria’s major albatross – herdsmen and insurgents -, the police under Idris are fighting a war of “Occupy Ekiti” because they are bent on getting one man whose tenure will end any moment from now but Ekiti will remain.
But does anyone blame the police?
All Ekiti indigenes should see the demonstration of force as an outing that will do no one any good on the long run.
Fayemi should be as bothered as Fayose and other Ekiti personalities about how the police humiliated the Chief Executive of Ekiti who also is the Chief Security Officer of the state.
In Nigeria where politics is not based on ideology, is there anything that suggests that the man who is in the ruling party today in Ekiti cannot find himself in the opposition and the tide will turn?
What is the guarantee that the same police undermining the office of Fayose will not also do so to Fayemi if he wins the election?
Those raking-up the circumstances of the Ekiti governorship poll in 2014 to justify the fate that has befallen Fayose or the PDP are enemies of the state and should be dreaded as apostles of hatred.
However, it was anticipated that desperation will take the centre-stage in this contest.
The circumstances that threw up the candidates of the major political parties were crisis-ridden with some of the victims still nursing the wounds received during and after the primaries.
Even as the Ekiti election holds the ace as far as the 2019 general election and President Muhammadu Buhari’s chances are concerned, it is foolhardy for anyone to use the state as a test case for violence the way police are doing.
Ekiti people crave good governance. They are hungry for genuine and sincere leadership as Femi the carpenter said.
But the democratic setting of our country completely lacks genuine leadership due to the selfishness of our so-called leaders.
Those using Ekiti to determine their political fate in the 2019 national election are enemies of the state. Ekiti people must understand that fact.
We are all witnesses to the decay in infrastructure in the East, West, South and North of this country.
This is caused by the same desperate political leaders interested only in satiating their appetite and those of their family and political associates whenever they get into office like they want to do now in Ekiti.
Why the police always position themselves to be used for dirty deals still baffles.
Until Idris announced that he was deploying 30,000 policemen to monitor a standalone election in Ekiti, many thought the police did not have the manpower to go after herdsmen and insurgents killing Nigerians in Adamawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Borno, Benue, Plateau States, among others.
Unlike what happens elsewhere, monitoring election has become part of the major function of the army, the police, the Civil Defence, and other security agencies in this country.
If their leadership do not see that as misplacement of priority it is quite unfortunate.
If Buhari is serious about tackling crime, he would have sacked Idris the moment the IGP announced the number of officers to monitor Ekiti election when Nigerians are killed like fouls, with the police claiming to lack the resources to deal with the situation.
That Buhari is comfortable with the arrangement underscores the thinking that he is working together with this non-performing Idris.
As for who governs Ekiti after Fayose, let the people decide. That is the only way they can secure Ekiti of their dream outside the lip service of the police.
