No, Ekiti streets are not paved with gold nor are all the roads yet what Ekitikete desire as that is work in progress.
But what today is the use of a glittering 8 – lane express road to Gazans in the face of a ferocious, murderous Netanyahu and his killing armada or to Libya, Afghanistan or Yemen where peace has long taken flight? For me peace trumps infrastructure, necessary as they are.
Although the chaos which politics engendered in pre- BAO Ekiti may not have been comparable to the utter chaos in the afore- mentioned countries, it was enough to gift Ekiti a one- day governor, an inchoate, and therefore, totally meaningless impeachment, several assassinations and attempted assassinations, not to mention the sheer impossibility of accomplishing the necessary socio- economic development those many years would have witnessed.
These are the negativities BAO’s ingenuity, and good breeding, not a prophet or any divination, has seen banished from Ekiti in a short space of two years.
One is not suggesting here that there should hsve been no political opposition or contestation, but no state, no matter how well endowed, could have prospered with the completely atrocious inter and intra- party politics which predominated Ekiti in those years when some senior members of the same party, talk less of opposing parties, were not on talking terms and every election cycle was the equivalent of war, as former President Obasanjo famously defined the elections over which he superintended.
To properly situate the period under review, and the rationale for the caption of this article, I crave the reader’s indulgence to go back all the way to my article of 3 April, 2014 which, I believe, succinctly described the archetypical socio-political conundrum which predominated the state.
Titled ‘Of Impunity and Lies as Campaign Strategy” (slightly edited), it reads:
“Fehingbepon and ‘Tipa ti kuku’ are two Yoruba words that not only have the same etymology but, indeed, mean about the same thing – i.e impunity. They are words that best describe the PDP attitude to elections in Nigeria, especially in Yoruba land, with Ekiti as the cynosure.
That was what President Obasanjo deployed in having PDP declared victorious in elections in the state just as it underpinned ‘Mama Ayoka’s macabre dance of ‘conscienceless conscience’ in the Bye -election of 2009. It was the same philosophy which underpinned the late Buruji Kashamu’s ‘I will make Ekiti an example’ speech in Ibadan. They were equally the days when the shoeless President Goodluck Jonathan, having bought into Obasanjo’s ‘Tipa ti kuku’ satanic strategy, made elections in the entire Southwest, not just Ekiti, a killing fiesta as we saw in the election that produced Olagunsoye Oyinlola as governor of Osun state.
There were many more of such Jonathan’s schemes against mainstream Yoruba interests, an example being his deployment of his two new ministers, of Yoruba extraction, to security portfolios.
By then, he had already begun a massive funding of his captured wing of Afenifere for overt purposes to which elements of Labour and Accord were also allegedly financially induced.
Arrests of APC leaders and supporters in Ekiti by the police on spurious charges are most likely to begin ahead the elections, just as the PDP intends to embark on a massive buying of voters cards. This, in particular, should tell Nigerians where the billions being daily stolen are headed.
As earlier mentioned, PDP is relying on ‘Tipa ti kuku’ which is being stream rolled, like a war machine, direct from the Villa. What to expect: courtesy the presidency, INEC and all the security agencies will now kowtow to the PDP. The President has started that process by making the ministry of Police Affairs hereditary to the Southwest.
The compromised man in charge will do just about anything he is directed to do. In collusion with INEC, they will do everything to rig in the remote areas, the police and other security agencies will have instructions to overlook their evil machinations. On election day, APC strongholds will be deprived of ballot papers and when materials come at all, they will arrive late, and in insufficient numbers. Even at its topmost level, PDP will not shy away from asking INEC to simply announce its candidate the winner, boasting: ‘nothing will happen”.
I was not going to remain silent in the face of this sheer cruelty and approaching danger confronting ekiti
in an election year.
I therefore wrote to Ekiti’s leading members of the senior bar (SANS), namely, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Elder Dele Adesina and Mr Femi Falana, all of who I had intended to bring under the leadership of Professor Akin Oyebode, urging them to take some urgent, pro active steps to ensure that Ekiti avoids the looming catastrophe, a catastrophe which seems inevitable should election take place under current circumstances.
To the last man, they all demurred, not wanting to intervene in an Ekiti politics that had become brutally toxic.
As patriotic and respected Ekitis in their own right, I agreed with their position and, therefore, no longer contacted Professor Oyebode.
In fairness to the three distinguished gentlemen, politics in Ekiti had become so cantankerous there was no way they could have left unblemished, no matter what they told the feuding politicians.
Nor would that be my last effort at trying to bring a modicum of peace to Ekiti politics.
On 7 June, 2015, consequent upon the crisis that erupted after the 2014 elections which Fayose won, but ACN members of the state House of Assembly were insistent on impeaching him,
I wrote again as follows: “I therefore did not stop at just writing the article but went ahead to contact, not less than 15 highly regarded Ekiti leaders and distinguished individuals, whose names I need not mention here, to help in facilitating a ‘modus vivendi’, an entente of sorts, between the warring politicians for the sake of Ekiti in general. Underpinning this move was my belief that four years is not eternity, and that governor Fayose would not rule for ever, nor will Ekiti vaporize at the end of his four years.
One direct result of the contacts was the joint meeting of the Ekiti Elders committee and the rump of the Committee for the creation of Ekiti state, convoked by Chief Deji Fasuan to address the issues raised in my article.
Also, Aare Afe Babalola would later, but on his own, call another Elders meeting which, unfortunately got stalemated.
From that point on, the pugilists were left to their own devices but with the swearing in of the new PDP controlled House of Assembly, impeaching governor Ayo Fayose by the now former APC – controlled House of Assembly, had become an impossibility.
But for all Ekiti stakeholders -the political parties and Ekiti people at large, it would have been the very height of an illusion to think that was the end of our problems in the state.
Which was why I again counseled as follows in another article: “Honestly speaking, effective from today, given the Supreme Court decision, I will candidly advise as follows: Let everybody, party and individuals, reach a consensus that governor Fayose would run his full term. Let him in turn climb down from his high horse and promise that henceforth, he will conduct Ekiti affairs peaceably. Let him try everything to return peace to Ekiti.
On the other hand, let the G.19 drop the impeachment process completely 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.
The governor must genuinely set out to restore peace to Ekiti.
He should use his victory at the Supreme court to usher in peace in Ekiti. Ekiti has lost a lot. We have become the butt of jokes all over Nigeria.
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 and community as well as the people, in general, to join him in starting a new era of peace and understanding in Ekiti.
I have been a constant critic of Governor Fayose but all that is now in the past. We must now put a closure to all that for the sake of Ekiti. Indeed, as a result of my many articles on Ekiti, my colleagues on The Nation’s commentariat nick- named me the Ekiti columnist. For me it was all worth it. Today that dream has become a reality as BAO has united all his predecessors and they are all now, together, focused on the state’s development.
As God would have it, Governor Fayose can, with considerable justification, be described as the cheerleader of Governor Oyebanj’s ramifying peace momentum.
I have gone to all this length to show that my commendation of BAO’s gritty peace efforts is not a flash in the pan; rather it comes straight from my heart and, without a scintilla of doubt, I believe that he will achieve sustainable peace in Our Land of Honour during his imminent secopnd term.
