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Tag: Ayo Fayose

  • Ekiti Kete, how market?

    Nothing more perhaps, depicts the starkness of Ayo Fayose’s Ekiti, than two pictures, of two governors, from two states, with two contrasting tempers: one forward-looking, the other firmly fixed in the past.

    Kaduna’s Nasir El-Rufai: with construction experts, at some work site, studying a sheaf of diagrams.  The imaging?  A 21st century futuristic governor.

    Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose: at an Ado Ekiti market, pricing ponmo and allied orisirisi, with his darling hoi polloi roaring; and salivating a putative life-time treat of gubernatorial stew!  Abiding image: a crude throw-back into the Medieval, if not outright, Stone ages!

    Yet, El-Rufai and Fayose are governors in today’s Nigeria.

    Ekiti Kete, famed land of professors, how market?

    Fayose, no doubt, is a master of full emptiness.  When the  barbarians over-ran Alexandria in ancient Egypt, their public enemy number one was the 700,000-scroll Royal Library of Alexandria.  So pronto, they razed it, for nothing scares a barren mind more than even the most routine of ideas.

    Like Barbarians in Egypt, like Fayose in Ekiti.  So, when others levitate the clouds for ideas, seeking solutions to developmental problems, Fayose plumbs deep into empty stunts, stunts he hopes would tantalise his people, and freeze their thinking, even but for a little longer.

    This is why El-Rufai would study maps; and Fayose would, with glee, price ponmo!

    Ekiti Kete, how market?

    Indeed, in Fayose’s Ekiti, it would appear morning yet on a long, long night.  At the beginning, it was loud emptiness muscling out quiet ideas.  But now, it is equal-opportunity vacuity, of different shapes and sizes, and rippling muscles, in a vicious combat for hegemony.  Fayose, formerly undisputed lord of manor, is therefore constrained to up the ante.

    First, a bitter rival for public attention rather audaciously decided to beat Fayose to his own game.  At his first coming, Fayose dazzled Ekiti with tanker loads of free water, the water of forgetfulness, which Ekiti drank to forget its essence.  By the time they woke from the watery drug, Ekiti Kete was almost undone.

    Now, that rival has reached for the jugular, Fayose’s beloved Okada riders, and declared free fuel for all, in this jungle of rough-and-tumble politics.  When the dust cleared, the riders reportedly declared themselves ready to be spoilt silly by whoever supplied free petrol, even — heresy of heresy — asking Fayose to stand up for the new champion of dramatic emptiness!

    Then, a renegade former “Speaker”, who was a rebuke to the law, his own conscience, decency and even common sense, suddenly remembered he had principles, alleging that he was a victim of Fayose’s use-and-dump tactics!  He declared himself liberated from Fayose’s potent spell of one-man show.

    Even, some elements in the Ekiti Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have joined the restiveness, with a splinter group and youth vanguard declaring themselves ready to confront the hitherto popular — more of notorious — Leviathan of Ekiti streets.

    Geez, the Fayose revolution seems set to devour own scions!

    But for the rambunctious Fayose, it is time to up the emptiness.  First, was the ponmo show, of the latest gubernatorial cook in town, boasting a glittering CV of an illustrious career as Danfo driver.

    Then, the latest outpouring of gubernatorial tomfoolery: the appointment of a 72-year-old reported “illiterate” as local government caretaker chairman, with a graduate as blissful personal assistant!  Whatever the illiterate lacked, the graduate sidekick can make up, right?

    Can any contender, in all of Ekiti, beat this audaciously dramatic gubernatorial clowning?

    Ekiti Kete, how market?

  • Fayemi is better than Fayose – Ex- Speaker

    A former factional Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, has warned Governor Ayo Fayose to “stop adopting use-and-dump tactics” as one of his styles as a politician.

    Olugbemi, who rejected his appointment by Fayose as a member of the House of Assembly Service Commission last week, expressed dismay that Fayose did not appreciate the sacrifices he made to keep him on office as governor.

    Having worked with both former Governor Kayode Fayemi and Fayose as a legislator, Olugbemi declared that the two of them are incomparable saying, “the worst of Fayemi is better than the best of Fayose.”

    He declared that the rejection of the appointment was based on principle and to send a message that “the era of sole administratorship has become outlandish and democratic ethos must be imbibed in the running of government.”

    Olugbemi spoke with reporters on Saturday on the heels of the heat generated by his rejection of the appointment and shunning of the screening and confirmation of HASC nominees by the state lawmakers last week.

    The ex-factional Speaker vowed to henceforth challenge what he called “any undemocratic tendency of Fayose through strong and constructive engagement.”

    He listed some politicians allegedly betrayed by Fayose after benefiting from them to include former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Osun, Senator Iyiola Omisore, former Ekiti Assembly Speaker, Femi Bamisile, former Ekiti PDP Secretary, Tope Aluko and House of Assembly candidate, Odunayo Talabi.

  • Iroko vs Osoko    

    Iroko versus Osoko — that is the latest inanity in the plate of the South West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Ayo Fayose, the excitable Ekiti governor, seems to have issues with Segun Mimiko, the opportunistic Ondo governor, over Mimiko’s election as chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, which a newspaper promptly reported as “a fresh crisis …” in South West PDP.

    Hardball is not quite sure, what it was: reporters’ penchant for combat to spice the news?  The customary hyperbole to achieve news raciness?  Or just a question of cliché in news reportage?

    Whichever, a Fayose/Mimiko clash is certainly no crisis; and even if it were, it is certainly a crisis on nothing but inanity — and how can excitement on inanity be “crisis”?

    But make no mistake.  Hardball would not be bothered however Osoko and Iroko clobber each other.

    The one is an ever excitable vacuum, eternally in search of the empty noise to distract the polity; his own unique way of seeking relevance by playing the nuisance.

    The other is an ever meticulous power schemer, the ultimate Machiavelli; and poster boy of power for power’s sake.

    Both, in Hardball’s humble opinion, are bad for the polity.

    Still, for the sake of public good, it is necessary to put the records straight.  Fayose claims Mimiko’s emergence didn’t follow due process.  How?  Because, he claims — and indeed, that claim is true — Mimiko just defected to PDP, from Labour Party (LP) last year.

    And so what?  Didn’t Mimiko earlier in 2007 defect from PDP to LP, after earlier betraying his old Alliance for Democracy (AD), simply because he didn’t get the party’s 2003 gubernatorial ticket?  Of course, the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) has reportedly promised to look into Fayose’s grouse.  Well, let them!  A chronic Post-Power Withdrawal Syndrome (PPWS), laced with idleness, is a terrible combo.  Better be busy with Fayose’s inanity than engage in costly national political mischief!

    Still, the PDP NWC had better take itself seriously by not taking Fayose’s seriously.  The Osoko’s diagnosis is simple: an infantile megalomania that assumes that, after staging an Ekiti political comeback, every power and principality, in PDP and beyond, must bow at his grubby feet!

    The same infantile megalomania, that made Osoko declare himself South West PDP leader, over and above former President Olusegun Obasanjo (no Hardball role model!), thus precipitating the old man’s untimely retirement from politics and peculiar self-promotion as “statesman”.

    The same infantile megalomania that made Fayose throw all decorum to the winds, in his morbid death wish for President Muhammadu Buhari, passing as electioneering adverts in Fayose’s troubled soul.

    Now that the Ekiti APC legislators and their potent threat of impeachment have been vanquished, it is the same infantile megalomania that spurs Osoko, like a wild horse, to challenge the Iroko’s chairmanship.  With nothing to offer, this dubious campaign is as good a nuisance bit as any other!

    But here lies the bitter truth — the Yoruba bit about being fun to cheer a lunatic display, even if no one is happy his offspring is the looney pulling the stunt.

    The long and short of Fayose’s suspect campaign is that he considers himself, as self-named  “South West PDP leader”, more qualified to clinch Mimiko’s diadem.

    But even after subversive cheer of Fayose’s daily display of how not to be a governor, it must hurt the Osoko that even his PDP peers cannot tolerate his gubernatorial rascality outside Ekiti borders!

  • Ikere royal families: no to imposition

    Royal families in Ikere-Ekiti in Ekiti State have warned that the community could go to  “war”, if a  non-royal candidate  is imposed as the monarch.

    The placard-carrying royals, who are also known as  Omo Owas, marched on the streets yesterday.

    They called on Governor Ayo Fayose not to impose Jimi Adu as the monarch, insisting that he is not a member of any of the royal families.

    They maintained that the purported selection of Adu by some kingmakers was unacceptable.

    They urged Fayose to order a fresh selection process using the Ifa oracle.

    Some of the placards read: “We want Fayose to call for fresh nomination”; “Adu is not a prince in Ikere”; “Ikere needs peace”; “No to Jimi Alagbado”; “No to imposition of Ogoga”, among others.

    The Omo Owas, who are princes and princesses from Ogbenuote and Agabaola royal families, claimed that Adu hails from Okekere Quarters, which, according to them, had never produced a king.

    The Ogoga royal stool became vacant on August 22 last year, following the demise of Oba Samuel Adegoke Adegboye, who reigned for 43 years.

    Addressing reporters, Prince Francis Aladejobi said it was unheard of for somebody who is not from a royal family to be installed as king.

     “Such would set a bad precedent not only in Ikere- Ekiti but also in Yoruba land.

    “Adu is from Okekere, he cannot claim to be from any of the royal families.

    “All the princes and princess in Ikere Kingdom know themselves and we will not allow any outsider to ‘gatecrash’.

    “How can a person who is not a member of any of the royal families be imposed on us as the Ogoga?

    “ Jimi Adu is not a member of any royal family, hence he is not eligible for selection and installation as the Ogoga.

    “Adu is not a biological member of the Ogbenuote or Agabaola ruling houses. His purported selection was a flagrant debasement of tradition and the royal stool of Ogoga.”

    Aladejebi advised the government “to do the needful” by commencing the process of selecting the Ogoga afresh to bring down the tension that had gripped the town.

    The Olori Omo Owa (head of princes and princesses), Prince Adegboye Akapinsa, said it was wrong for Adu to claim he is from Ogbenuote and Alagbado ruling houses while also filing his intent to vie for the stool through the Agirilala dynasty.

    He said:  “We are begging Governor Fayose to prevent calamity in Ikere-Ekiti.

    “There won’t be peace in a situation where a non-royal, somebody without royal blood, is installed as Ogoga.

    “In his emergence, Ifa was not consulted apart from the fact that he does not belong to royalty.

    “We challenge Adu to come out and point to his royal family in Ikere-Ekiti.

    “We witnessed peaceful reign under the late Oba Adegboye, who was from Akaiyejo ruling house because the town wanted him.

    “We all supported his nomination. Anything short of transparent selection is unacceptable to us.

    “We want our governor to warn those fanning the embers of discord, those bent on imposing their preferred candidate not minding to beware.

    “We don’t want war in Ikere because this desperate attempt will cause war in this town.”

  • Fayose’s devil on the cross

    To Ayo Fayose, Adamu Mu’azu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, is a devil that must be nailed on the cross — and nailed hard.

    And trust the Ekiti abrasive one (not famed for any deep thinking, lay or intellectual, but only a relay of reflex thought bounces), to make a facile comparison between election fortunes and misfortunes in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

    “Haven’t we now seen what operates in saner climes, with the resignation of the British Labour Party and Liberal Democratic leaders?” he roared, referring to the duo’s crushing election losses to the ruling Conservatives in the May 7 general elections.  “Shouldn’t our party national chairman also take a cue from this and allow for fresh minds to steer the ship of the party at this difficult time?”

    Of course, Burlesque Fayose would be incomplete without Trademark Fayose: graceless gloating.  “I am … not operating here on empty boast because Ekiti State was delivered to the PDP 100 per cent. …” he further growled.  “Imagine the PDP not getting up to five per cent … in Bauchi State, the national chairman’s home state, and someone is still not being honourable enough to resign”.

    Honourable enough!  Saner climes!  The grave irony of this twain clearly is lost on Triumphalist Fayose!

    Saner climes!  Did Ed Miliband, the British Labour Party leader, have in his camp a Mr. No Apology, with a penchant for insane adverts, that coarsely projected a principal opponent’s sure death, and harvested for his party mass hatred, among those who had the putative electoral numbers?

    And honour!  What has been honourable in Mr. Fayose’s conduct since his unfortunate second coming in Ekiti?  Besides, is it not tragic narcissism, powered by unconscionable villainy, to work on over-drive to lose northern votes, yet crow over delivering Ekiti votes 100 per cent — Ekiti votes, the minority of minorities of electoral numbers in the South West?

    Ripples would not be bothered by whatever pains bickering Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hierarchs inflict upon themselves, in their post-defeat feuding.  For all the havoc they socked on the country, they sure had it coming.

    Besides, the recrimination is almost spiritual.  You don’t mess up millions of longsuffering Nigerians and exactly expect to live blissfully ever after!

    But it is a conceptual matter.  PDP may well have been a useless ruling party, that has led Nigeria to nowhere but perdition.  By the way its partisans fall upon themselves, it could even be a far more useless opposition prospect, since its only glue is power without responsibility; its only life, humongous greed for the common wealth.

    That seems to explain the mutual allegation of soulless money sharing, between party and presidency, with each combatant in each camp grossing no less than N30 million each. And the more that illicit pork appears slipping away, the more hysterical and distracted PDP is likely to become.

    Still, we have a democracy to run.  On May 29, roles would change, with the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) becoming the new federal ruling party.  But the PDP meltdown is self-evidence that a multi-party democracy, without vigorous opposition, is nothing but an endangered species.  So, for the polity to develop, and democracy to deepen, there must be a strong and vibrant alternative.

    PDP appears best suited, if not most suitable, to play that role.  But with its emotive in-fighting, it is fated to lose focus even more.  So, it is in the polity’s enlightened self-interest to try to refocus this stranded, bad-tempered giant, lest it becomes the polity’s collective burden.

    Chairman Mu’azu may have led his party to electoral slaughter.

    And the quad of First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, Governor Fayose, Femi Fani-Kayode, and Doyin Okupe may well be the real devils to be nailed hard on the cross, for strafing and bombing their party with reckless electioneering.

    But they all were a symptom of President Jonathan’s sickening craving for power — power to which he had proved most inept and sorry; but to which he must, do-or-die, reclaim for four more years.

    Never, in the history of Nigeria, even with its serial disappointment in leadership, has any leader manifested such crassly inordinate hunger for power .  Not Ibrahim Babangida, not Sani Abacha, and certainly, not Olusegun Obasanjo, even with his doomed attempt at third term.

    The trio of Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo were certainly no saints where Jonathan was the very devil.  But under none of them did the Nigeria virtually collapse as a state, with Boko Haram bombing at will, capturing territories and kidnapping citizens, and Jonathan having absolutely no solution.  Yet, the president, and his deluders, were adamant he had earned a second term!

    This single-minded hunger for power, if not for service, was what induced old man Bamanga Tukur to risk a PDP collapse on his head, rather than confront Jonathan’s power demands.  Alhaji Bamanga ended up the fall guy, but not before the Governors-7 had rebelled, and the Governors-5 defected, thus sending a collapsing PDP on a journey of no return.

    This tragedy also hall-marked the emergence of Adamu Mu’azu, hailed then as “game-changer”, for somewhat helping to stanch the bleeding.  It is ironic now that he is being nailed over an electoral game-change, that nailed the PDP coffin and snapped it out of its grave hubris.  He likely would get the sack as Alhaji Bamanga before him.  But that would just be chasing shadows.

    In all of these though, Goodluck Jonathan is the mathematical constant.  Fortunately, Nigerian voters have given him the tortoise treatment — wasn’t it the tortoise, in Yoruba folklore, that swore not to return from his trip until he was disgraced?

    Still ironically, Jonathan was only the victim of past excesses of the Obasanjo era.  His chief offence is nothing but rank opportunism.  To cast PDP in his own image, Obasanjo created the rather fraudulent title of party “national leader” — a euphemism for being over and above the party that nominated him for presidency.

    Jonathan inherited this fraud and decided to milk it to the hilt.  On that, he spurred old man Bamanga like a wild horse; and savaged Chairman Mu’azu with the embarrassment of making his gutless National Working Committee (NWC) claim the party only printed one presidential nomination form, and the sole form had been annexed by the national leader — so paranoid was Jonathan to coral the PDP presidential ticket!

    Jonathan, the party leader, badly wanted that form — and before that request, every party knee must bow!

    Unfortunately, Jonathan lacked neither the brutal savvy nor the native intelligence — or even the routine policy bragging rights! — to impose his will.  The result was the crashed PDP humpty-dumpty; and the evaporation of its dream of ruling in perpetuity — 60 years to start with!

    So, the Fayoses of this world, who bay for Mu’azu’s blood, only savage the puppet.  But the puppeteer is their real quarry.

    The Jonathan debacle must teach the Nigerian party system a stiff lesson.  Never again must a president be so powerful to subvert collective party interest.

    APC must put a president on its platform under some form of party leash, if it must escape the PDP fate.

    ‘The Fayoses of this world, who bay for Mu’azu’s blood, only savage the puppet.  But the puppeteer is their real quarry’

  • PDP’s moment of angst

    PDP’s moment of angst

    Led by the vituperative and mendacious Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, many top Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) officials have started to call for the heads of their party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members, especially that of the party chairman Adamu Mu’azu. Perhaps they will have the heads on a platter. But without needing to be sympathetic to the PDP chairman, it is well known that Mr Fayose lied when he said he had evidence the embattled chairman was in league with the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last polls to bring President Goodluck Jonathan’s reelection project to grief. Mr Fayose is a disturbed mind; he will rock the boat of his party for as long as he remains either in the party or as a governor. The accusations and counteraccusations between leading PDP officers came moments after both Dr Jonathan and Senate President David Mark futilely warned that unrestrained acrimony could destroy the party.

    Opponents and haters of the PDP have exulted over the destructive rage going on within the party. They surmised gleefully that all it took to unnerve the self-styled largest party in Africa was just one loss, a loss that has now so discomfited the party that it is sundering dangerously at the seams. They observe that such bitter and acrimonious fights are symptomatic of a defeated organisation, be it a country or a political party. Some PDP members, including Mr Fayose, have latched on to that logic by suggesting that it is customary for party officials who lead their parties to defeat to fall on their swords and give way for the emergence of new leadership. Their arguments are reinforced by the quick resignation that rocked the losing parties in last week’s British election. Alhaji Mu’azu and his colleagues on the NWC, however, retort that the provisions of the PDP’s constitution, unlike the post-election convention in Britain, are clear on how leadership changes should be effected.

    It will be naive to expect that the battle to enthrone new leaders in the PDP would cease simply because some concerned party leaders admonish their colleagues to embrace peace and think altruistically of the best interests of their distressed party. The PDP is unaccustomed to defeat. They will need to establish a convention, sans their party constitution, on how to behave in victory and defeat. We are fairly conversant with how they celebrate victory, and how the spoils of war are shared among them. How they mourn or cope with defeat, however, remains the grey area of their party culture. Dr Jonathan himself, in descending on his appointees with the fanatical zeal of the Spanish inquisition, axing and beheading those who crossed his emotions and drew his brittle ire, appears to be laying a curious, somewhat malevolent precedent. With practised ease, almost as if he had forgotten he would be vacating office in less than three weeks, he has also appointed new state officials. He is unconcerned about what his successor might do to or with his last minute appointees.

    The internal battles within the PDP may get worse before they get better. With men like Mr Fayose in the PDP, unscrupulous, impertinent and acerbic, the party will be constantly roiled by brutal internecine conflicts to assert hegemony. And with men like Alhaji Mu’azu who can call their souls their own, there will be no let in the war. Alhaji Mu’azu and his colleagues will give much more than they can take, and they will also be unsparing. But no matter how vicious the war, the bone of contention, to wit, who is to blame for the defeat, will never be resolved. Even a harmonised, face-saving and fence-mending sitting of the combative officials is unlikely to produce peaceful resolutions or agreements. The next few weeks, full of figurative bloodletting and bitter recriminations, will be the PDP’s greatest moment of angst.

    Both sides to the PDP war are of course wrong to presume, judging from their analyses and what they have said, that they appreciate the real reasons for the PDP’s woeful performance. Mr Fayose’s vindictive scaremongering is of course far from the truth. Neither Alhaji Mu’azu nor any other PDP NWC member schemed against his own party. They might wish that the PDP should not be rewarded for hateful campaigns, given the portentous electioneering embarked upon by divisive and petulant characters like Femi Fani-Kayode, Doyin Okupe, Mr Fayose himself, and more tellingly Dame Patience Jonathan. But it would be far-fetched to argue that the urbane leaders of the party actually worked for the APC’s victory. It may also be true that some northern leaders of the PDP, particularly governors, pulled their punches in the campaigns, but it is unlikely they did so simply because they loved the opposition or their candidates, especially Gen Buhari. Given the context in which the March and April elections were held, particularly the northern milieu, there was little any PDP leader in that region could have done to stymie the revolutionary momentum unleashed by the candidature of Gen Buhari.

    Conversely, too, it will be simplistic to suggest that hate speeches and campaigns alone undid the PDP and doomed Dr Jonathan’s reelection chances. While hate campaigns contributed immensely towards the failure of the party, the voting pattern in the last polls suggests quite clearly that a number of other factors were responsible for the revolutionary outcomes never before witnessed in these parts.

    Rather than bicker, and because the country needs a virile, sensible and credible opposition, the PDP must be encouraged to engage in hard-nosed analyses of why they failed. There is nothing wrong in the ongoing internecine battles within the PDP continuing for a little while. These battles are needed to enable the party produce real and intelligent leaders for the next four years of its life, at least in the first instance. Once produced, the new leaders will impose discipline on the party, restore unity, and redirect the party to work for and achieve realistic goals and salient objectives. While the party will need to sanitise its internal mechanisms and codify its methods and values, there is little doubt it will also need internal opposition, the kind vaguely represented by Mr Fayose. But the party and its new leaders will have to determine whether Mr Fayose is not a dangerous and needless throwback to atavism.

    It is not immediately clear to outsiders who among the many claimants to the PDP leadership is suited for the party’s next decade. It needs party philosophers, but we cannot immediately see any in its ranks. It needs a disciplinarian, but the sensible, disciplined and moderate Alhaji Muazu has a chink in his armour by reason of the defeat it was his lot to lead the party. It needs new values, new sets of beliefs and programmes, and new national focus, but we cannot see anyone enunciating, projecting and championing these. And until they produce great men and leaders who can aggregate these principles and values whatever wars they fight will only bathe their party in blood rather than the revitalising elixir sorely needed to move the party forward and offer credible and toughened opposition to the victorious and fairly more ideological APC.

    By all means then, let us encourage the soul-searching and war of attrition going on in the PDP. No one takes perverse delight in weakening or destroying the PDP. The fact is that the country needs a strong PDP; but this new PDP will not come without the party passing through the furnace in order for itself and its ideas to be refined. The process of renewal and rebirth is not of course inevitable. If it chooses to bicker to the death rather than be refined to a new life, then perhaps a new party, rather than the PDP, would be needed altogether.

  • Ayo Fayose: Before it is too late

    Ayo Fayose: Before it is too late

    Of  all those I spoke to, not a single one  was convinced Governor Fayose would honour his word…

    Let me state from the outset that this is a dangerous undertaking I am getting into; not from the point of view of safety of life – that is in God’s hands – but rather from the multiple interpretations that could be given to what you will be reading in this article.  The Yoruba, in their millennial wisdom have this saying: oun to wa lehin ofa, o ju oje lo – which can literally be translated as there is so much that is unknown.  I expect that Governor Ayo Fayose, as a free born Yoruba, should understand that perfectly.

    Left to those watching the  running, macabre drama playing out in Ekiti from a distance, the governor is not only well loved by Ekiti people,  he has, in fact, become a demi god. After all, didn’t he win the June 21, 2014 governorship election 16:0, followed it up with two successive wins in the  2015 general elections and capped it up with the victory at the Supreme Court; serving as  an icing on the cake? And by the way, didn’t the whole city of Ado-Ekiti poured out on his victory parade through the state capital? At a stage in his life, Charles Taylor could have had the entire Liberian population line up the streets, in scorching sun, to sing panegyrics in his honour. But on Thursday 26, September 2013, Charles Taylor lost his appeal against a war-crimes conviction as judges confirmed a 50-year jail term against the Liberian ex-president for encouraging rebels in Sierra Leone to mutilate, rape and murder victims in its civil war, holding that “the  primary purpose was to spread terror, and that brutal violence was purposefully unleashed against civilians with the purpose of making them afraid, afraid that there would be more violence if they continued to resist.”

    On that day, not  a single one of  his  crooning Freetown crowd was anywhere in sight as Presiding Judge George Gelaga King pronounced those words. Lesson: Governor Ayo Fayose should desist from encouraging acts of brigandage in Ekiti state.

    I am aware that Governor Fayose has reacted, soberly, to his Supreme Court victory and among other things he said, and I quote: “to my opponents, I plead with you to sheath your sword and join me in the development of Ekiti State. If truly our struggle is about service to our dear State, it is time to come together and channel all our resources towards the development of the State. I am irrevocably committed to the protection of all, including the opposition in the State. Nobody is infallible, and I am not a perfect being. The only one that is perfect is God…”

    Before I set  out to write this piece at all, knowing my views could be given a million interpretations, especially at a time PDP  could not  have completely expended all its dollars, I consulted a variety of Ekiti stakeholders, deliberately avoiding speaking with any of  our politicians. Of  all those I spoke to, not a single one  was convinced Governor Fayose would honour his word, going by what they claim to have come to know about  him. When I posited that a wise one like him should understand, and appreciate, the  probable consequences of  May 29,  one of the individuals, a Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon who told me he had  studied Fayose closely since his first coming,  told me: Oga, with all due respect, you would believe anything  if  you took the governor’s words for it.

    I consider these testimonies a major character flaw and a possible hindrance to how much my suggestions  would go in resolving the logjam since they would require trust and  fidelity on both sides of the divide. Trust is of the essence as,  without it, Ekiti as well as its poor people would literally rot in this unfortunate conundrum.

    On  the Ekitipanupo web portal, an indigenous intellectual forum , Wednesday, 14 April 2015,  a forumite, Port Harcourt-based Tope Ojo, directly asked from me: ‘What is the way forward,’ in this long running, profit-less battle between PDP and the APC, each  of which has ruled Ekiti for 8 years? I replied, with some editing, as follows:

    ‘Thanks Tope. Let me react to the most important part of your  mail: the way forward. Honestly, effective from today, given the Supreme Court decision, I will candidly advise as follows: Let everybody, party, organisation and individuals reach a consensus that governor Fayose should run his term. Let him in turn climb down from his high horse, apologise  to Ekiti  people, via a television broadcast,  for all the obvious illegalities he has committed and promise that henceforth, he will conduct Ekiti affairs  decently like any other governor in the country. I am sure that  those who neither like nor trust him will be willing to forgive while those who love him will do so the more. Let him try everything, together with all stakeholders, to return peace to Ekiti.  On the other hand, let the G.19 drop the impeachment process all together in the full knowledge that four years, even ten, is not a life time. We cannot fight one another forever as we have done for the last 10 years at the expense of the state’s overall development. It is time to sheath our swords’.

    ‘There is a lot more to do for genuine peace. For starters, Governor Fayose should pay all outstanding emoluments due to the G.19 as well as pay the outstanding salaries, and severance packages, of the political appointees of the last administration. Whoever was relieved of his/her job for political reasons should be promptly recalled.  The governor must genuinely set out to restore peace to Ekiti. It has been shown abundantly in the bible that God can use anybody for His purpose. Governor Fayose should not see the Supreme Court judgment as an opportunity for gloating. Rather, he should use it to usher in peace and cordiality in Ekiti. We have lost a lot. We have become the butt of jokes worldwide. Let him initiate a rapprochement, first with all the former governors, and then, with Ekiti leading lights across board. Let the interest of Ekiti take centre stage. He must make the first move for others, our Obas and leading lights in commerce, church and community as well as the people, in general, to join him in starting a new era of peace and understanding in Ekiti. He is not a sole administrator and must never see himself as such. I have been a constant Fayose critic but I think we must now put a closure to all that for the sake of Ekiti. May the good Lord help us. Amen’.

    Nobody needs be told that there has been nothing like governance in Ekiti in the past six months. Enough should be enough. The era of brigandage should be over. Governor Fayose must provide an enabling environment for every arm of government  to operate and Olugbemi and his  gang  of  7- man rogue parliament must be put exactly  where they belong.  I regret being a member of the state ACN screening committee that cleared that man for elections in 2011. The G.19, as w all saw in the recent elections, must have realised that in politics, as in life generally, you cannot win all the time. They too must embrace peace. Ekiti has suffered enough and  one of the topmost Ekiti lawyers I spoke with does not think the impeachment attempt stands a chance in a million of being concluded before the end of their term. That is even, if all approaches to their hallowed chambers were not to be barricaded as we have once seen. It should be time for governance which many of those I spoke with said Fayose is incapable of. He must now prove  such people wrong. He must realise he is the face of Ekiti and come May 29, he would look for, but not see any of those roughnecks currently at his beck and call if they do not want to spend time in jail.  Governor Fayose, in case he does not know, is himself under some close watch by the Human Rights community, whatever the braggadocio of his spokespersons.

    Finally, I plead with all well meaning Ekiti, across board, to buy into this peace process and let us see Ekiti take its rightful place in the progressive and totally development-oriented government General Muhammadu Buhari is set to usher in effective 29, May 2015.

    Ure Ekiti a soju kete ra o. Amin.

  • Fayose denies receipt of impeachment notice

    Fayose denies receipt of impeachment notice

    •’I can’t be removed from office’

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has denied receipt of impeachment notice from the members of the House of Assembly, who have accused him of committing eight impeachable offences.

    Speaking yesterday evening during his monthly media chat, Meet Your Governor, aired on all major broadcast stations in the state, Fayose boasted that nobody can remove him from office because he holds a mandate given to him by the people.

    He said before anybody can succeed in removing him, that individual would have to remove God first and the people of Ekiti before removing him. Fayose called on his supporters to defend their mandate with all their  strength.

    The governor also dismissed the rumour that he had been advised by President Goodluck Jonathan to resign honourably from office before being impeached.

    According to him, the move to remove him and his deputy, Kolapo Olusola, showed that the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers have an ulterior motive to install the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, as Acting Governor.

    He said all the attacks on him were because of his support for President Goodluck Jonathan in the run-up to the March 28 presidential election, adding that he has no regrets for his support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.

    Responding to a question from a viewer on the invasion of the Assembly premises by PDP loyalists and suspected thugs, Fayose said: “I don’t know of any invasion. I don’t know of any threat to the House of Assembly and I am not aware of any impeachment process. I am aware the House is on recess and Omirin is in court challenging his impeachment in Lagos and Abuja.”

    Picking holes on the circulation of the impeachment notice, the governor claimed that he only read online that he had been served.

    He said: “They claimed to have served me on Easter Day; can you imagine that? Who did they serve (the impeachment notice) and who received it?

    “The enemies of Ekiti people are at work again. I left in 2006, eight years ago and God in His infinite mercy brought me back the same day, the same month that I was removed.

    “They are waging war against my people, those who voted me in. Nobody has served anything (impeachment notice). I read it on the Internet the same way you read it on the Internet.

    “Because Buhari won an election, they are waging war against me. When I won an election, that was the same thing they did. They are not doing it for the love of Ekiti people but for their personal interest.

    “Omirin wanted to become Acting Governor but the Bible says who art thou oh mountain before Zerubbabel, thou shall be removed. They employed every trick to frustrate my inauguration, they failed and I know they will fail again.

    “My people, stand firm; don’t be afraid. These Egyptians you are seeing today, you will not see them again. I know the route you are coming from, I am monitoring your movement.

    “If you will remove me, you will have to remove God first who put me there. You can’t unseat God; nobody can unseat me. No matter their number, they can’t remove me.

    “I am Peter, it is on this rock that God has built me. The battle is not won by the strength of the Army but by God’s grace. Goliath had all the power but David had only a catapult but he overcame the giant. I am not destabilised.

    “I am not the one they want to impeach; it is the people of Ekiti State they want to impeach. I did not run away; run away to where?

    “The House is on recess and Omirin has gone to court to challenge his impeachment why can’t he wait for the determination of his case?

    “You want to remove the governor, you want to remove the deputy governor, there is a motive there. Omirin wants to become Acting Governor; you can’t come through the back door.

    “Their strategy, which succeeded in 2006 won’t succeed this time around because I am not the one who put myself there, I was elected by the people.”

  • APC lambasts Fayose for attack on Buhari

    APC lambasts Fayose for attack on Buhari

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has said Governor Ayo Fayose lacks the moral rectitude to query the right of its presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to occupy the nation’s highest office.

    The party, in its reaction to Fayose’s description of Buhari as a liar, said the governor’s action gave him away as an “unconscionable character who ought to hide his head in shame for activities that marked him as a dishonest fellow”.

    The APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, in a statement yesterday described Fayose as “the most integrity-challenged governor in Nigeria”, saying the Ekiti chief executive is not competent to impugn on Buhari’s integrity and character.

    Olatubosun said Fayose’s first stint as governor witnessed incidences of violence, attacks and murder attempts on the lives of many Ekiti citizens and cases of fraud that are still in the courts.

    He said the governor’s “second coming” has been marred by attacks on  courts, judges, lawyers, judiciary staff, emasculation of the legislative arm and acts of impunity.

    Olatubosun said: “Lying is a question of integrity. A liar does not have integrity. Lying leads to deceit, stealing, conspiracy, murder and other vices.

    “Buhari has never and would never be associated with any of these vices, same cannot be said of Fayose.

    “His latest lie is the denial of his involvement in the  Ekitigate scandal.

    “Fayose ‘led’ thugs to attack the judges and tear court records in the chief judge’s office last year.

    “On May 29, 2005, he  led thugs to attack the Alliance for Democracy (AD) rally at Mugbagba in Ado-Ekiti.

    “Chiefs Ojo Falegan and Segun Oni nearly died of teargas fumes after they were beaten by government agents.

    “Taiye Fasuba, the Chairman of Ado-Local Government, was illegally removed after he refused to surrender council funds for a fraudulent poultry project.

    “The late Atta of Ayede-Ekiti, Oba Adeleye Orisagbemi, was arrested for his  alleged refusal to support Fayose.

    “The Elekole of Ikole-Ekiti, Oba Adetunla Adeleye, was forcefully dragged out of his car for his alleged refusal to support the governor.”

    Olatubosun said only an “integrity-challenged” man could have all these “vices” around his neck and still seek leadership position or criticise leaders with impeccable records.

    He advised Fayose to start thinking of how to plan a life after paying for his alleged crimes, noting that Buhari’s presidency was a reality that could not be stopped by Fayose’s tantrums.

  • ‘Fayose should stop creating confusion’

    EKITI State Governor Ayo Fayose has been urged to face instead of creating confusion.

    The ex-chairman, National Action Council (NAC), Otunba Segun Kolawole, gave the advice against the backdrop of calls by the governor that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was fit to run.

    Kolawole, who is from Ekiti State, said such calls bring the state and its indigenes into disrepute, among other odium.

    He recalled that Fayose promised to turn a new leaf from his old ways, adding that the governor also said so during his swearing-in last year. “But, what is happening shows acts of immaturity by the governor. Every  one can go to the hospital. What is wrong with Buhari doing so? If Fayose is asking Buhari to swear with the Koran, I ask: ‘Can he (Fayose) also swear with the Bible that he had not gone to the hospital? Doesn’t Buhari need treatment or medical check-up after the long campaigns? At 72, I think Buhari does and it is not too much, if he did go for treatment.’’

    Kolawole urged Fayose to note that no condition is permanent in life, adding that he should not be disrespectful to  Buhari as if their ways would not cross again. He cited the immediate past governor of Ekiti State Dr Kayode Fayemi, who was asked to probe his predecessor Segun Oni. He said, at the moment, both Oni and Fayemi, are in the same party. “Fayose should think of tomorrow,’’ he advised.

    Kolawole said the governance is so enormous that Fayose should not have time for frivolities. “Ekiti indigenes are recognised for their academic prowess and knowledge. But today, education as an industry, is not doing well as it used to. People outside the state are not happy with the comments of the governor on Buhari. No doubt, Ekiti people love Fayose. But he should not waste the goodwill they have for him. He should focus on how Ekiti would develop by bringing in new ideas and how he could move the education sector forward.

    “He should try and promote the unity of the state by working for its peace. The state has many resources. He should try and focus on these. He should remember the grassroots where are no hospitals, good roads, among others. Also, if only he can focus on agriculture, this would boost the revenue of the state. I pray that God would help him.’’