The Nation Newspaper

Tag: APC

  • APC: Fani-Kayode lied on our comments on Boko Haram

    APC: Fani-Kayode lied on our comments on Boko Haram

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked former Aviation Minister, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, to retract his comment that the party, through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, condemned the Federal Government for proscribing the terror group, Boko Haram.

    The party said it would sue the former minister, if he fails to retract his comment.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos by Mohammed, APC said at no time did it issue a statement condemning the proscription of Boko Haram.

    The party challenged Fani-Kayode to produce the statement he alluded to, if he was sure the APC issue it.

    Mohammed said: “I have caused my attorneys to formally write both Fani-Kayode and Channels Television, where he made his allegation, to retract the statement and apologise, failing which I will sue for defamation of character.

    “Our position on Boko Haram has been well articulated for anyone who cares to know, but at no time did we condemn the government for proscribing it. When the state of emergency was declared on three Northern states (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe), we criticised it, and we stand by that. But we did not condemn the proscription of Boko Haram. We are not Boko Haram sympathisers and we cannot be under any circumstance.”

    The party also condemned Fani-Kayode’s description of Boko Haram as the armed wing of the APC.

    It noted that the former minister’s statement was most irresponsible, uncharitable and baseless.

    APC said: “Equally irresponsible and condemnable is Mr. Fani-Kayode’s deliberate distortion of the statements made in the past by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to mean that he or his party is a sympathiser of Boko Haram.”

    APC said Fani-Kayode’s latter day castigation of opposition politicians, after he returned to his vomit and repudiated all the damaging statements he made publicly on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Goodluck Jonathan administration, was not based on any altruistic considerations.

    “It is common knowledge that Mr. Fani-Kayode has been charged by the Federal Government with money laundering. The trial is almost ending, and he knows he faces a certain jail term, if convicted.

    “It is, therefore, not impossible that Mr. Fani-Kayode may be seeking to ingratiate himself to the Federal Government by using various media platforms to destroy the APC through accusing its leaders of being Boko Haram sponsors or that the party is bent on fielding a Muslim/Muslim ticket in next year’s presidential elections.

    “Unfortunately, in his eagerness to please the Federal Government and cut a deal to avoid going to jail, he has resorted to pathological lies aimed at calling the dog a bad name in order to hang it. “Whatever evidence he has to prove that our party is a sponsor of Boko Haram, he should be prepared to tender such in court,” APC added.

     

     

     

     

  • We’re not worried about Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    We’re not worried about Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    THE Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) is not worried about the loss of the party’s candidate, Governor Kayode Fayemi n June 21 Ekiti governorship election, it said yesterday.

    Its publicity secretary, Mr. Sola Lawal, in a statement, said the party was confident that verifiable infrastructural rebirth effected by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun administration in Ogun would always be translated into electoral victory.

    It debunked suggestions that the Amosun administration embarked on panicky welfarist measures following the trouncing of APC in Ekiti State, saying that recently executed policies were earlier planned.

    “For instance, the public distribution of severance gratuity cheques to more than 200 past political office-holders by the administration on Tuesday June 24, barely 48 hours after the Ekiti election, could not have been planned, processed and executed in such a limited period of time if it was informed by the outcome of Ekiti election,” the party stated.

    APC said the governor noted that the exercise was delayed by the insistence of his administration to ensure payment of backlog of pension and gratuity of civil servants before turning to past political office-holders.

    The party stated that the interactive parley the governor had with civil servants the following day could not also have been informed by the Ekiti electoral saga, since the event was part of the Civil Service Week that ran from June 16 to 22.

    It added that other items on the week-long event, included tour of government projects and friendly football tournaments.

    “Similarly, the Civil Service Week also featured hand over of 200 units of affordable houses to civil servants in the state in furtherance of the administration’s policy of promoting better standards of living for civil servants.

    “No magic could have achieved this barely two days after Ekiti if the idea was a stampeded reaction to the election in question,” the party said.

    According to the APC, the Amosun administration, since assumption of office, has always paid salaries promptly, including the extra one month salary every December – a feat never achieved by any past administration before him.

    The party also observed that the administration had committed itself to clearing of backlog of pensions, leave bonuses, allowances and areas of salaries ever since assumption of office, adding that workers’ subsidised transportation scheme has become operational more than a year ago.

    “On the educational front, massive investments in schools’ infrastructure, such as intra-school road network and new modern classrooms have been effected, while bursaries have been astronomically increased and promptly paid apart from scholarship and grants to challenged students,” the party concluded.

     

  • We’re not worried over Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    We’re not worried over Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC), Ogun State Chapter, has denied being worried over the loss of the party’s candidate, Governor Kayode Fayemi to Mr. Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last month’s Ekiti governorship election.

    Its publicity secretary, Mr. Sola Lawal, in a statement, said the party was confident that verifiable infrastructural rebirth effected by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s administration in Ogun would always be translated into electoral victory.

    It debunked suggestions that the Amosun administration embarked on panicky welfarist measures following the trouncing of APC in Ekiti State, saying that all recently executed policies were earlier planned.

    “For instance, the public distribution of severance gratuity cheques to more than 200 past political office-holders by the administration on Tuesday June 24, barely 48 hours after the Ekiti election, could not have been planned, processed and executed in such a limited period of time if it was informed by the outcome of Ekiti election,” the party stated.

    APC said the governor pointed out that the exercise was delayed by the insistence of his administration to ensure payment of backlog of pension and gratuity of civil servants before turning to past political office-holders.

    The party stated that the interactive parley the governor had with civil servants the following day could not also have been informed by the Ekiti electoral saga, since the event was part of Civil Service Week that ran between June 16 and 22.

    It added that other items on the week-long event, included tour of government projects and friendly football tournaments.

    “Similarly, the Civil Service Week also featured hand over of 200 units of affordable houses to civil servants in the state in furtherance of the administration’s policy of promoting better standards of living for civil servants.

    “No magic could have achieved this barely two days after Ekiti if the idea was a stampeded reaction to the election in question,” the party said.

    According to the APC, the Amosun administration, since assumption of office, has always paid salaries promptly, including the extra one month salary every December – a feat never achieved by any past administration before him.

    The party also observed that the administration had committed itself to clearing of backlog of pensions, leave bonuses, allowances and areas of salaries ever since assumption of office, adding that workers’ subsidised transportation scheme has become operational more than a year ago.

    “On the educational front, massive investments in schools’ infrastructure, such as intra-school road network and new modern classrooms have been effected, while bursaries have been astronomically increased and promptly paid apart from scholarship and grants to challenged students,” the party concluded.

     

  • APC’s Ekiti defeat

    APC’s Ekiti defeat

    No one can sensibly challenge the right and freedom of Ekiti people to vote into office whomsoever they like. Two Saturdays ago, they exercised that right effectively, admirably and remorselessly to enthrone their 2006 reject, Ayodele Fayose. The balloting – not the processes – was done freely, and it largely reflected the will of the people. Many nations and peoples have similarly and lawfully exercised the same right. Germany voted in Hitler in 1933, France first denounced and later embraced De Gaulle; and even more appositely, in 1945, Britain rejected their heroic war leader, Winston Churchill, who had just led them to victory in World War II. Moreover, more than 2000 years ago, Jews also rejected Jesus Christ and preferred that their Roman overlords release the criminal, Barabbas.

    In the June 21 poll, Ekiti took a good look at itself in the mirror and didn’t like what it saw. It saw in Kayode Fayemi, the incumbent governor, a reflection of themselves as aloof, inconsiderate, egotistical, elitist, cruel and sanctimonious. Promptly, Ekiti cut its nose to spite its face. I am persuaded they will rue the choice they have so cavalierly made, for they have shown neither the learning nor the strategic reasoning Ekiti needs to engage and project the finer values and virtues of the Southwest, values and virtues they were for a long time the palladium of. It turns out Ekiti is human after all.

    After its candidate in the just concluded Ekiti governorship poll gracefully and heroically conceded defeat, and was praised for the unusual gesture, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has unexpectedly announced its readiness to challenge the constitutional breaches that attended the election process. The party identified at least seven of those breaches. Nothing will of course come out of the court case. The petition will neither affect the poll result itself nor make a dent on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose adrenaline in the Southwest is surging to a crescendo. Nor, it seems to me, can a court in the land be found to make any philosophical or nuanced constitutional pronouncements on the noticeable breaches. Rather than serve any useful purpose, therefore, the court case may prove futile, even dampen the value of the statesmanlike action of Governor Kayode Fayemi in conceding defeat, and distract from the more cogent discussions of Ekiti’s post-election future and the unsuitability of the PDP candidate in that election, Mr Fayose.

    There have been many analyses of what went wrong for the APC in the poll, most of them, save one or two, put squarely at the doorstep of Dr Fayemi. He probably accepts blame with the same aplomb with which he concedes defeat. Idiosyncratically aloof, too cerebral, inflexible, and insufferably apolitical are among the many faults attributed to him. In consequence, his transformation agenda for civil servants, teachers, local governments, and educational sector were said to have cost him thousands of votes and the election. When he conceded defeat and read his statement on television, he appeared shaken, as anyone who has just lost an election would be. But whether he regrets his policies, most of which have borne and are still bearing fruits, is hard to say. We couldn’t tell from his television address or from his melancholic look. He however claimed credit for redefining governance and setting a solid foundation for the state. He hopes posterity will judge him fairly and probably well.

    The APC will regard this defeat as a setback both for its political agenda in the Southwest and its national ambition to form the next government at the centre. Indeed, they may fear that the loss of Ekiti could trigger the loss of other APC states in the Southwest. Conversely, the PDP has begun to express the boundless enthusiasm that the winning of Ekiti may lead to the gaining of more states for the PDP in the region. They speak expressly of the vulnerability of Oyo, Osun, Ogun and even Lagos. Indeed, Information minister, Labaran Maku, PDP chieftain Buruji Kashamu, Governor-elect Mr Fayose, President Goodluck Jonathan himself, and other top PDP leaders indicated a few days after the election that the regaining of the Southwest was imminent. How they can hinge such gargantuan ambition on one election is difficult to tell, and especially without a concise programme, manifesto, ideology or even philosophical direction for the present and the future.

    Mr Fayose himself, it will be recalled, won the Ekiti election without articulating any programme. He had enough time to do so. That he chose not to present a programme is perhaps a function of his general paralysis and disinterestedness in intellectual exercises, and the plain fact that he is an impulsive and spontaneous politician who lacks both the discipline and the sagacity to form and conform to a systematic body of thoughts. He ran on the basis of appealing to the emotions of frustrated voters, voters long overrated by analysts and politicians alike. He deftly exploited their anger against Dr Fayemi who was accused of a disconnect between himself and the Ekiti people. If Dr Fayemi was accused of hiking school fees, then Mr Fayose, in his sophomoric dualism, would promise to slash them. If Dr Fayemi was accused of eating, then Mr Fayose would starve. If Dr Fayemi acquired knowledge, then Mr Fayose would acquire ignorance, literally and metaphorically. Dr Fayemi’s policy of industrialisation, said Mr Fayose incredulously to cheering Ekiti electorate, was a trap and a fallacy.

    Well, from October and for the next four years, Ekiti will be ruled by a man besotted to hunches, plebeian tastes and boyish and proletarian fantasies. After Mr Fayose was announced winner, there was some jubilation. But on the whole, Ekiti seemed transfixed and sobered by their fateful choice, for they know full well that having ordered the crucifixion of Dr Fayemi and asked for the release of Barabbas, the mortification that follows the betrayal of the irrefutable legacies of Ekiti’s proud and learned past is inevitable. The election of Mr Fayose twice in 11 years is already prompting hard discourses about the constituents of Ekiti persona and tradition. Even if they were angered and mystified by things too deep for them to comprehend, which things were enunciated by Dr Fayemi, was it a sufficient reason to embrace the proven tomfooleries of Mr Fayose? If, as Dr Jonathan said of the Ekiti, they had more professors per capita than any other state, could that professorial gravitas have failed to permeate the entire Ekiti society? These and other questions will be answered in the near future, for the state Mr Fayose so spectacularly misgoverned barely eight years ago has morphed so comprehensively under Dr Fayemi that the difference between the two gentlemen could become tragically stark.

    Overall, however, the value of the Ekiti election will be felt more by the chastened and chafing APC than even the exultant PDP. The PDP of course hopes that Ekiti will open the door dynamically rather than ideologically to the Southwest. Iyiola Omisore is loosely perambulating in Osun, naturally without a concise programme or vision. And seeing how Mr Fayose returned to office, the PDP is priming Adebayo Alao-Akala for a return to Oyo. He will rely on federal might and the conspiratorial actions of the Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, and the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan. It is the future replay of this conspiracy that the APC hopes to prevent by challenging the Ekiti election processes in court. In their first coming, the PDP had no programme or vision for the Southwest. They hope to enact a second coming on the same aversion to programmes, ideas and vision.

    The APC on the other hand needed the Ekiti defeat in order to prevent electoral disaster in 2015. Had they won, they would probably have smugly and blithely walked into a trap, if not total disaster, in 2015. Now, I think the party will be better able to gauge the quality and worth of the voters it hopes to convince to abandon their superstitions, prejudices, ignorance and sham reasoning. APC leaders must now look inwards to find the inner strength, resilience and intellectual subtlety needed to face what is certain to become a steamrolling, ungainly and coarse PDP. They must pay closer attention to how the states under their control are governed, find a balance between their vision and mission, and engineer a delicate equilibrium between leading and kowtowing to the electorate. Importantly too, they now more than ever need to reassess their programmes in order to convince themselves that the integrity of those programmes is worth defending, even at the risk of losing an election.

    There are moments when I hope that what transpired in Ekiti is that Dr Fayemi knowingly and stoically stuck to the integrity of his programmes even when he knew the pitfalls. But at other times, I fear that he was in fact politically naïve, a feeling underscored by his reported desperation to woo the electorate in the closing weeks of the campaign, when the signal of defeat had broken through his characteristic imperturbability.  If, however, he was appalled by the political behaviour of the Ekiti electorate; if he mocked and defied the offensive vacuity of his opponent; if he superiorly refused to engage in the demeaning ritual of seducing voters with the same kind of sorcery Fayose used, then he can in the truest Kiplingian sense say his costly defeat sneers at the cheap victory of his opponent, and that he had become a man in a sea of political and ideational dwarfs.

    It is also argued that Dr Fayemi lost as a result of the obtruding politics of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This position was advanced on television and in newspapers a few days after APC’s Ekiti debacle. But the fact is that Dr Fayemi, knowing the people he governed, and sensing negative campaigns in Ondo and elsewhere, actually distanced himself from Asiwaju Tinubu. But neither his efforts nor that of Bourdillon – mythically so-called – has mitigated the campaigns. The truth is that there is nothing anyone in APC can say, and there is nothing Bourdillon can do, to erase the impression that Asiwaju Tinubu meddles in Southwest states. On the contrary, what APC leaders need to do is fine-tune their programmes, push the Southwest legislative houses closer to civic culture where Houses of Assembly stand up to their governors and offer the checks and balances the region has been famous for even before the signing of the English Magna Carta, and courageously and with equanimous firmness enact such developmental feats that those who now call for paradigm shifts will know that paradigms indeed shifted many years back.

    I have always indicated in this place my sympathies for the APC because I shudder to think what four more years of mediocrity and inaction by Dr Jonathan’s government could cause Nigeria. I would therefore advise APC leaders to approach the loss in Ekiti with the same fortitude great leaders faced setbacks. Let them convince themselves and their consciences that their programmes, their humanistic politics, and their vision for the country are impeccable. If they waver, their programmes could become diluted and diffused, and they would be unable to enjoy in the long run the approbation which only iconoclastic posterity can give.

    Dr Fayemi himself, notwithstanding his “insufficient politics”, has a great political future ahead. Mr Fayose, who is already thundering boyish vituperations and inflating himself with the vaulting ambition to eradicate APC from the Southwest, can be trusted to make Ekiti sorry to let Dr Fayemi go. And if some opinion leaders in the Southwest, many of them Dr Jonathan’s lapdogs, still see the rapprochement between Southwest politicians and Northern politicians as an unsustainable and unsuitable alliance because of the prejudices and bigotries of the past few decades, then they deserve our pity. If the APC stays the course and holds firm; and if they produce the right candidates for the defining elections of 2015, then notwithstanding the Ekiti setback, a new Nigeria could still emerge, perhaps against the run of play.

  • APC youths to FG: drop analogue security strategies

    APC youths to FG: drop analogue security strategies

    The National Youth Caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday advised the Federal Government to tackle Boko Haram insurgency with a modern security strategy.

    Condemning government’s approach to the menace, the youths said: “We urge the Federal Government to stop applying an analogue solution to a digital problem.”

    The group noted that it has discovered that the government is fighting the insurgency on the basis of mindset  instead of its origin.

    Addressing reporters in Abuja, former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Youth Leader, Comrade Ebikinina Miriki, said: “We realise that the Federal Government fights the insurgency and insecurity from its conclusion instead of fighting it from the introductory aspect.”

    He wondered why government keeps applying curative measures instead of preventive ones which, according to the group, is totally wrong and an unfortunate abberation of good governance.

    The APC youths warned the Federal Government to stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.

    “We urge all our political leaders, irrespective of party affiliation, to cooperate with security agencies in bringing an end to this wanton destruction of lives and property in the name of Boko Haram,” Miriki said.

    Making a veiled reference to the controversy surrounding the age of the APC  National Youth Leader, Ibrahim Dasuki Jalo Waziri, Miriki insisted that Jalo was born in on April 13, 1971.

    The group commended  the party on his election.

    The youths, who defended the integrity of their leader, likened his flair for good governance with that of the late Sir Tafawa Balewa,  Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

     

  • ‘Don’t be discouraged by Ekiti poll’

    ‘Don’t be discouraged by Ekiti poll’

    Supporters of the All Progressives Congress(APC)in Ondo State have been urged to gear up and reconnect with the people to build the party.

    The chairman of the party, Isaac Kekemeke, said the outcome of the Ekiti governorship election should not rather than demoralise them, adding that they should unite to build an electorally prosperous APC in the state.

    He said the lesson of the Ekiti polls is that it is impossible to take the voters and supporters for granted, adding: ”We must constantly reconnect and reboot with our party supporters and the people.”

    Kekemeke spoke in Akure during the inaugural meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC).

    According to him, the executive committee was the product of arrangement of consultation, balancing and joggling with different tendencies in the party by the Femi Pedro-led State Congress Committee (SCC).

    He urged party men and women to accept the final outcome and to work for the victory of the party at subsequent polls.

    The former Secretary to the  Government (SSG) identified the challenges facing APC which he however said is surmountable.

    He said: ”Our party was registered barely a year ago on July 31 and in opposition at the Federal and State level,the new party is bedeviled by rancour and factions,indiscipline and disrespect for constituted authority as well as absence of a winning mentality with the leadership and followership.

    “This is why we offered ourselves for the offices for the offices we are presently occupying. We, therefore can not afford to be part of the problem or be promoters of these same problems,if we are then,we have no moral right to the leadership positions we have been entrusted with.”

  • Benue APC hails Odigie-Oyegun

    Benue APC hails Odigie-Oyegun

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has congratulated the National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun, on his election.

    Its Publicity Secretary, Ayem T. Atsem, said the emergence of the technocrat will put the party in a better stead to wrestle power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Ayem called on supporters to remain committed to the party.

    He warned them to be wary of the antics of the PDP, which are meant to destabilise the party.

    The party also lauded the leadership qualities of the State Chairman, Abba Yaro, noting that his leadership qualities would be used to the party’s advantage.

     

  • APC accuses PDP’s thugs of killing member

    APC accuses PDP’s thugs of killing member

    •Police deny murder

    THE Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused some suspected thugs of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of killing one Mr. Ojo Olujobi during an attack after a peaceful rally.

    According to the APC’s spokesperson, Mr. Segun Dipe, the late Olujobi, who was described as a middle-aged man and a party member, was clubbed to death at Isinbode after an attack on its campaign team returning from Ikota, a community in Ekiti East Local Government Area.

    The killing, it said, came less than one week after an attack on Governor Kayode Fayemi.

    Dipe said the APC leadership in Ekiti sent a fact-finding group to the community when it was informed about the fracas.

    The party said it was informed by the Isinbode traditional authority that Olujobi, after the rally, was sitting in front of his father’s house when some rampaging PDP thugs attacked him.

    Dipe said the thugs, who had earlier caused havoc at the Ikota area, moved to Isinbode where they attacked APC members who were returning from the rally.

    Dipe said a local member of the PDP in Isinbode led the violent attack on the APC members.

    “Olujobi was hacked to death yesterday evening by PDP thugs. His father collapsed when he heard about the murder of his son. This is the second incidence of direct attacks by PDP thugs that have led to the death  of our members in the past two months since Mr. Ayodele  Fayose was nominated to lead the PDP campaign in Ekiti State,”  Dipe said.

    The APC said it has lodged complaint with the police authority, adding that the PDP in the past few weeks has launched a calculated onslaught to scare away voters and create a state of siege.

    The party’s spokesman listed Taiwo Akinola and Olujobi as the two indigenes that the suspected PDP thugs murdered.

    He said this was apart from the various cases of violent attacks on APC members like the assault on the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mrs. Ronke Okusanya and the Commissioner for Regional Integration, Mr. Niyi Afuye, which led to the arrest and illegal detention of the later.

    “In this moment of grief, we stand hand-in-hand with the family of Olujobi.  We call on Ekiti people to remain calm in the face of deliberate provocation. We assure Ekiti, Nigerians and the international community that those perpetrating these grievous crimes against humanity will be brought to justice,” Dipe said.

    But the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Victor Babayemi denied the alleged killing, saying the disturbance did not lead to any loss of life.

    According to Babayemi, the violence had been contained, although valuable properties were destroyed in the confrontation in which no one was reportedly injured.

    His words: “Some arrest have been made and normalcy has returned as a sizeable number of anti-riot police have been drafted to man the town to maintain law and order.

    “While the police hereby encourage people to go about their lawful duty and businesses without fear, we also warn that the command will not tolerate lawlessness in any form. Whoever is caught fomenting trouble would be visited with the full weight of the law.”

  • ‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

    ‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on preparations for the governorship poll, campaigns and violence as well as concern for free and fair election. Excerpts:

    You have gone round the towns and villages for campaigns. What has been your message to them?

    Basically to thank them for their support in the past three and a half years, to solicit their support in the coming election and to highlight what the government has been able to achieve, specifically in their communities and collectively for the state.

    Luckily for us, there is a track record that is palpable and tangible. When I get to any community, before I say anything, one of the things the royal father touches on is what we have been able to do to make a difference in the lives of his people.

    Of course, these are not wealthy communities in terms of material wealth but they have genuine intentions.  Government has helped by giving them money for what we call community projects specifically and they have been able to make a lot of difference in their communities.

    Then, of course, I tell them that this election is going to be about character, it is going to be about integrity, it is going to be between light and darkness  and the choice is with our people.

    I ask them, ‘do we want a government that is driven by integrity or we want a government that is   driven by people of low moral fibre, people that do not represent the values that Ekiti has been known for over the years, people who will not be accountable to them? And the reception has been great and I really must thank God and our people for that.

    Every single community that we have been to, we have not had a negative reception. We have had surprising reception in some places we visited feeling that because some opposition figures come from their, we would receive lukewarm reception. That has not been the case. The work of the government speaks for it everywhere we go.

    What will be your administration’s focus in your second term?

    The vision to roadmap to Ekiti recovery was to make poverty history in Ekiti   and, clearly, we have achieved a major dent on poverty; you can judge this from some of the results we are garnering from our social welfare initiative.

    This is a government that is ideologically rooted in social democracy; we believe that everyone cannot be for himself.

    We must have an unbreakable bond that enables society to strengthen itself and government has a responsibility to help the weak and vulnerable.

    You refer to the social security benefit scheme; you refer to our free education, our free health scheme. These are initiatives tied to our anti-poverty strategy and it has achieved a tremendous difference in Ekiti State.

    What we are now doing is not jettisoning any of those eight-point agenda. We are consolidating and strengthening them in a manner that they become a way of life. We want to do it in such a way that no government will come and say security is not my priority, I don’t have money for free education, I do not have money for free health care. We have used the last three and a half years to build infrastructure, but we now need to consolidate on that by focusing more on jobs for the people and that is why we are extending our coverage on education to ‘Ekiti Knowledge Zone, ‘ which is a free zone because education is our industry and we believe we can achieve a knowledge economy that is productive and can utilize a lot of the young people who have degrees but have no skills. We need to build them up.

    We are going to focus on employment and empowerment more than what we are doing now because we have 20,000  jobs, directly or indirectly, out there in the youth and commercial agriculture, in the volunteer corps and in our various initiatives.

    We have that but we believe that we can even elevate the kind of jobs we make available to our young people so that they will improve on their sense of self-worth. So you see a huge focus on employment, you see a greater focus in agriculture and an additional focus on tourism as vehicles for economic prosperity in our state.

    Then, we will of course not shy away from the education sector. However, we are going to introduce free meals in primary schools. Our enrolment in Ekiti is good, our enrolment figure is the highest in the country but we still feel that there is a lot of dots to connect in terms of nutrition of our young people so that they grow at the rate they are supposed to grow, their brain develops at the rate it is supposed to develop and we also create an economy around the feeding of our children who go to school.

    How have you steered APC members from eschew violence?

    As a rule, we do not get involved in violence in APC, we are very clear on that. We even developed a code of ethics which really makes our abhorrence of violence indisputable and equivocal.

    That we have done at the level of a baseline and this is the minimum irreducible for us. We held a mega rally and not one incidence of violence was recorded because we do not have a culture of violence and we do not tolerate it. However, even when you do not have a culture of violence and violence is brought to your door step by people who belong to other political tendencies, how do you restrain people from reacting when they are attacked? This is a challenge and it is a challenge I cannot tell you I have an answer to. I cannot continue to tell my people to turn the other cheek when they are being attacked. I am the governor; I could unleash massive force on many of these characters who do these things.

    If I were not to be the person I am, we would have really seen a degeneration even worse than some of the skirmishes you have noticed but because of who I am and because I believe leadership also calls for restraint, I have been a major restraining influence on my campaign, on party members, who are attacked unprovoked since almost a month that we have spent traversing the length and breadth of this state.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allegedly reduced the voters’ strength for both Ekiti and Osun states. Do you suspect any foul play?,

    Well, I do not know if there has been a reduction in the voters’ figure in Ekiti. I know that INEC released a figure recently and I know that the draft was released to parties and it is pretty close to what we used to have in Ekiti even in 2011.The voters’ figure is 762,000 or thereabouts and that is sizeable; even if those in that register vote, it would amount to a significant number.

    I know, however, that from what I have read in the newspapers and from what my own monitors have told me, from card collection across the local government areas, the collection rate is not what we would like it to be. We are closer to 60 per cent now.

    Our problem with the INEC is not that; our problem is the credibility of this Permanent Voter’s Card that has not been used without electronic readers and that is the point we have consistently made. As advocates of one man, one vote, the only way a Permanent Voter’s Card becomes interesting to some of us, is if it can be machine readable and that it can detect multiple voting, multiple registration and fake user of the card.

    That is the relevance of the Permanent Voter’s Card. If it is not going to be used in a manner that the Presiding Officers and the party agents can detect that ‘this card does not belong to Kayode Fayemi, so why is he using it?’, I do not see the big deal in a Permanent Voters’ Card.

    I think INEC should listen to us because if you cannot use a PVC in a machine readable manner for an election as tiny as Ekiti and Osun states, how are you going to pilot for 2015 when you now claim you want to use it?

    I do not find that believable, I do not find it credible and our party’s position is very clear, we have said it consistently that the only condition that would reduce the level of fraud in this election, is to use the machine because we have believable information that these PVCs are being cloned.

    These cards are like ATM cards. What is the beauty of an ATM card? If you have N500,000 in your account and you remove N20,000, the time you removed the N20,000 and the amount you removed is there. That is the beauty of the card reader. You cannot now come to your bank and deny that you did not take the money.

    So, this is common sense because almost every village has an ATM machine. When you put the card that they give you in your bank to use in an ATM, it records the time and the amount you collected money, it reduces it from your money in your account.

    This is what we are saying Professor Jega should do because these PVCs are like ATM cards. Why do people like treating us as if we are still in the stone age? It is only people who are afraid of genuine voters that would not want an electronic machine reader used for this election.

    Does that form part of your fears for this election?

    We have concerns; we do not have fears because we build scenarios. I am saying that this election will be easier fought, by all concerned, and it will give the INEC greater credibility, if they conform to the basis of issuing PVCs. The only relevance of the PVC is it enhances the credibility and integrity of the process and there is only way it can do that and that is if it is read by the machine. So, it is a concern, it is not a fear and the onus is on INEC to convince us as to why they cannot use the card reader.

    How many machine readers do they need for Ekiti and Osun states because the elections will not take place the same day? Let us assume they will need 3,000 machine readers, will that make them sacrifice the credibility  of the election? I believe it is in Professor Jega’s interest to listen to us because we are even his best advocates by insisting that things should be done properly.

    Former Governor Segun Oni has defected to your party. How do you see his support for you?

    What most people do not actually remember is that, of all the people who were on the PDP side, way back in 2007, the one person that I had the closest affinity to was Governor Segun Oni. It is not just because we were members of E-Eleven, a group of Ekiti stakeholders, but also because of his mien.

    I have had cause to tell people over the last few weeks since he moved over to us, that even in the heat of the moment when tempers were flaring all over the place, I never had a personal negative word against Governor Oni. I always talked about his party and his government and not him because I have always known him to be a decent person. This is not a contradiction.

    What he has even done now has really shown how much of a leader he is because he has gone beyond personal issues and pettiness. There are a lot of people who will not do things for you because you have gone to say hello to them in their house.

    Governor Oni has gone way beyond that and if you listened to his speech, it was the most impactful at our rally because it demonstrated sincerity, candour and not being petty. He said we are erecting a new platform and it is about the future of our children and our state, it is not about us. Nobody is perfect.

    It comes back to what I have been saying that this election is not going to be about performance because performance is not in doubt. Nobody challenges whether Fayemi has performed or not anymore, I think the icing on the cake is going to be about character.

    That is the point Governor Oni made in his remarks that character matters and, particularly in Ekiti, our people cherish integrity and they are not going to leave a gold standard to follow sand; they are not going to leave a dual carriage way and go into the bus.

    I can tell you that Governor Oni’s coming has shifted the dynamics in critical local governments, he remains a factor because you cannot be governor for three and a half years and not have anchors of people. So, on number base, it is a plus, on character  definition, no one can do a better job than him.

    As the election draws near, what are your expectations?

    My expectation from the police and security agencies is that they will do everything to protect the integrity of the election. I know that, once INEC has done its own job, the police and critical segments of the security agencies will be involved in protecting the integrity of the election. If they are not allowed to do their own responsibility, it can be a problem.

     

  • Fayemi takes to twitter

    Fayemi takes to twitter

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi yesterday took his final push for votes in Saturday’s election to twitter.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in seven tweets gave an outline of what he has done to deserve a second term.

    He tweeted:

    “Dear Ekiti people, it is four days to that day when we have to choose wisely. Let’s remember it’s one man, one vote as we cast our votes.

    “For almost four years now, my team and I missioned on restoring public confidence in government by putting the people first.

    “We put the people first in development planning and execution by interacting with them on what their NEEDS are.

    “We reformed governance on the basis of OPENNESS, TRANSPARENCY, SELFLESS-SERVICE, PRIORITY&ACCOUNTABILITY in the management of public funds.

    “The results are there for all to see in the programmes and social welfare that we have delivered on so far.

    “I am inspired by and urge those of you who strongly believe in the values of ‘honour’ and integrity to continue to cast your lot with us.

    “Those of us who are tested in guaranteeing the peace of lives and property in Ekiti, and who will keep making our resources work for us.”