This is an apt time to look back at some of the things former Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose did in power, and some of the things he did with power. A presidential aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he was reported saying he would appoint a “Minster of Stomach Infrastructure” if elected president in 2023.
He told journalists, on April 29, after a session with the party’s Presidential Screening Committee in Abuja: “I made it clear that I will have a minister for stomach infrastructure and welfare of the people.”
He offered an explanation, saying “For me, stomach infrastructure is part of being supportive of the ordinary Nigerian. Stomach infrastructure under my watch as president of Nigeria will be a major theme.
“No one is saying here that you will not do the needful in terms of developing the country, part of development is the welfare and well-being of the people.”
He had introduced the picturesque phrase “stomach infrastructure” when he came to power in 2014, emphasising that “putting food inside this stomach is very important.” Among his first appointments at the time was a “personal assistant on special duties and stomach infrastructure.”
In 2015, he made a fashion statement and a power statement at the Ekiti State House of Assembly when he appeared to present the Appropriation Bill dressed in a pair of Jeans trousers and a T-shirt, going against the idea of “dressing properly for the occasion.”
On the same occasion, he grabbed the gavel and employed it to “pass” the budget he had presented into law, which was an absurd violation of the concept and practice of separation of powers.
In 2017, with Christmas just around the corner, he played Father Christmas, announcing that he would buy Christmas clothes for 10,000 children “as a mark of showing Ekiti children love to partake in the sharing of the state’s wealth.”
At the time the main opposition party reminded him that his administration owed “eight to nine months’ salary and pensions’ arrears,” and accused him of “buying cheap clothes at exorbitant costs, more than half of which will end up in private pockets.”
In 2018, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepared to officially announce the governorship election result in the state, Fayose, the outgoing governor, illegally and incorrectly announced on the Ekiti State Broadcasting Service (EKBS) that the PDP candidate had won.
His plan to reintroduce “stomach infrastructure” if he becomes president shows that he has not realised that distributing free food to the people is a no-brainer compared with creating an enabling environment, through development, where the people do not need free food from the government.