The governor of Ekiti State Kayode Fayemi has been placed in an historical context not of his own making. He would obviously have preferred another course. Nevertheless, the course of events which he did not ask for has edified him.
When the history of our times comes to be written, his tenure as governor will be measured more by the manner in which he conceded defeat on Sunday morning June 22. The urbane intellectual might not have broken the template for the future.
But for Nigerian politics, it is remarkable departure. Actually, for all those who had the misfortune of living through blood and thunder in the past, it is a truly astonishing development. It is to be hoped (touch wood) that Fayemi has set a trend. This is because for a country in which the political economy of the stomach reigns supreme, Fayemi must be commended. One cannot but remember in contradistinction an infamous concession speech made in the United States decades ago. Defeated in a re-election bid to return to the federal House of Representatives, Arizona congressman Morris (Mo) Udall thundered, “The people have spoken, the bastards!”
In a reinter state like Nigeria loss of access to the exchequer means the loss of everything. Fayemi is aware of this. For the leeches and hustlers will soon depart for the “new kid on the block”, to borrow a cliche. The incoming governor in this case Fayose, will have a full house now. Very much standing room only.
The events in Ekiti have certainly upset the electoral calculus. Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot hold on to a key state in the South-West, the strategists in Wadata Plaza must think that Christmas has come early. Ekiti did not go for the ACN presidential candidate Nuhu Ribadu last time round. With the charismatic Fayose in the saddle, it is going to be an uphill task for the APC’s presidential candidate next year.
The governorship election in Osun State now looms large. The street-smart politically savvy Rauf Aregbesola should get through against a resurgent and reinvigorated post-Ekiti PDP. Nevertheless, nothing is certain anymore. The picture on the front page of The Tribune on Monday told its own story. Poignant with meaning, we had on the paper’s cover, Governor Aregbesola, party leader Tinubu et al smooching former Governor OlagunsoyeOyinlola.
The picture shows how far things have changed; even a sure-fire win for the APC in Osun is no longer taken for granted. The conjecture beckons. A critical issue now is what happens to the greatly touted, integrated political economy of the South-West.
This on paper is a laudable, indeed desirable objective. Unfortunately, it has been sold as an APC initiative. This portrays not just an absence of the required intellectual confidence. An assumption had been made that the South-West will be forever within ACN/APC axis. This is delusional. It has now been exposed as such.
Unfortunately, it is this sort of muddled up delusion that has clearly revealed inability of the leadership of the APC in the South-West to handle success. The much maligned Ondo State helmsman Olusegun Mimiko is certainly not on board any regional integration bandwagon. Similarly, perish the thought with the similarly greatly abused Ayo Fayose.
There is a clear inability here to understand the pattern of success. As Maximilus Aurelius said to Hannibal of Carthage, “You know how it is to achieve a great victory, but you do not know how to use it.” It is unfortunate that the vitally needed regional integration is now a causality of lack of expressiveness and the ability to handle success.
This is very unfortunate because a quasi-federalism regional integration is imperative. The region itself is now very wobbly. Oyo has always been a swing State with one-term governors. It will be a decisive battle ground next year. Even the economic base Lagos State is no longer a “sure-banker.” A charismatic PDP candidate in Lagos state next year could be quite menacing.
This is a time to rethink. Not in the crass opportunistic way as enunciated by Senator Babatunde Ojudu after last week’s election. Ofudu was right in the Fayemi campaign. Why didn’t he proffer an alternative solution then? Deeper thinking is required at times like this than self-serving mendacity.
“All political careers” said the English politician, John Enoch Powel, “unless of course they are cut off in midstream at a critical juncture always end in failure.” Frankly speaking, after recent events quite a few people located in strategic positions should try and decipher the import of what Powell was saying it might even be desirable for the polity if they do so.
What distinguished the secular saint, Nelson Mandela is that he knew exactly where Powell was coming from.