It’s rather exciting that the authors of the Ekiti debacle are regrouping to fix their mess. Is July 14 then redemption day — or yet another hope deferred?
At the very Genesis in 2007, Dayo Adeyeye stormed out of the old Action Congress (AC), the vibrant part of the comatose Alliance for Democracy (AD), and forebear of the legacy Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), that fused with other legacy parties to form APC.
Prince Adeyeye’s protest was on Ekiti gubernatorial nomination matters. His exact ire was this same Kayode Fayemi, who he alleged the AC top hierarchs had given undue edge.
Though Adeyeye was a dashing progressive and, as the nimble national publicity secretary of the then formidable Afenifere, a veteran of the NADECO-era anti-Abacha war of attrition, he felt piqued enough to jump in with the relatively conservative PDP.
Besides, at Ayo Fayose’s second coming in 2014, while others were still disputing his nomination, Adeyeye was the first to strike a deal with him. That took the wind out of that protest, and sort of cemented the Fayose encore. But it’s good Adeyeye is back, and is part of the salvage mission.
The same, with former Governor, Segun Oni. Chief Oni, a quintessential gentleman if ever there was one, was another former progressive that found warmth in Ekiti conservative duvet.
Oni was part of the Ekiti elite that fought Fayose to a standstill, at those ultra-dangerous times, of free-wheeling killing and maiming, of Fayose’s first coming. But somewhat, Fayose had fled town, on account of a controversial impeachment, so rife during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term, of organized anomie.
Somewhat still, Oni popped up, as gubernatorial candidate for the same party, on whose behalf Fayose had run down Ekiti. Like Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, who claimed he didn’t hate Julius but loved Rome for partaking in Caesar’s murder, some folks claimed Oni didn’t hate Fayemi but just loved himself more!
So, he rode to office with a huge dose of perceived opportunism. Not only that, his “progressive” whiff watered down the AC Ekiti progressive franchise. So, when that election was comprehensively stolen, no thanks to the 2007 Obasanjo do-or-die electoral salvo, the Ekiti progressives were bitterly divided.
Well, after more than three years, the court ruled Oni’s win was a heist; and restored Fayemi’s mandate. One thing led to the other, including PDP’s self-destruction and Oni’s defection. Now, Oni is back “home”, among the Ekiti salvagers.
Now MOB — Michael Opeyemi Bamidele — who almost became victim of a policeman with a mob mentality, at Fayemi’s campaign launch on June 1, no thanks to a reported accidental discharge that hit him and others. May the Almighty grant them all complete healing.
Were it not so tragic, MOB’s shooting could pass as a heroic spilling of blood, for a very grim rescue mission, which success or failure could make or mar Ekiti.
Yet, both MOB and Dr. Fayemi must take the full blame (aside from the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency that cashed in, with rogue “federal might”), for Fayose’s second coming.
MOB insisted on challenging Fayemi for governor, despite a sitting governor’s right to second term.
His grouse? Fayemi allegedly failed to consummate agreed political trade-offs, which led to MOB giving up his Senate aspiration (which Femi Ojudu eventually got, incidentally defeating Fayose in that election), and Jimoh Ibrahim, an Ado-Ekiti politician, who ran a joint campaign with MOB — MOB for Senate, Jimmy for Reps — to give up his Federal House ticket (which MOB got) for promised party patronage, that allegedly never came.
Aside, asked why he couldn’t just wait till 2018, MOB claimed he had cause to believe Fayemi had zoned him out; and parcelled the governorship to another. So, he exited to Labour Party (LP) to stake his claim. Needless to say, the ACN in-fighting back then gave Fayose the edge, aside from Jonathan’s “federal might”.
Well, again MOB is back in the house, to join in the Ekiti rescue — and again, may God grant him fast and full healing from his gunshot wounds.
Fayemi’s contribution to the Ekiti debacle was his rather perplexing gubernatorial medley of brilliant policies and toxic politics.
Dr. Fayemi achieved unprecedented developmental strides in Ekiti. His urban upgrade lifted Ado from at best a big rural town, at worst a sprawling big village, to a modern metropolis. His street-lighting gave security a healthy jab in the arm, aside from boosting night city beauty.
His education policy would mature and yield wonderful fruits, ironically during Fayose’s second coming, thus acting as an oasis of Renaissance in a desert of unbridled barbarism. His N5, 000 payout to the poorest and most vulnerable Ekiti elders was the most ambitious in Ekiti’s history, despite the state’s humble purse.
His tourism policy, trying to transform the Ikogosi Warm Springs into a hub of nature leisure all-year and a summer scholarship retreat, to rebrand Ekiti, was a serious study in structured development.
But not all these would appear to matter, as his perceived toxic politics turned almost every developmental asset into an electoral albatross. Though Fayemi always insists he didn’t really fairly lose the 2014 polls, a good segment of Ekiti, with zest, embraced Fayose’s manic gallop into the past, than Fayemi’s carefully calibrated path into the future.
Even if Fayemi wins on July 14, he must fundamentally revamp his politics to earn the plaudits his policies deserve. Otherwise, his political future could be bleak. But again, it is good too that he heads the salvage mission, for a debacle he helped to create.
Before you charge Ripples with stark Manichaean presumption — Fayemi is good, Fayose is evil; progressives are good, conservatives are bad, etc — let it be known this column is driven by the ideology of development.
And if you want to know how bad Ekiti is faltering on that scale, just contrast how Ekiti has regressed under Fayose with the advancement the neighbouring Osun has chalked under Rauf Aregbesola. Yet Ekiti, under Fayemi, had a few months head start, retrieving its stolen mandate than Osun, in 2014.
In eight short years, six of which were economically lean, if not outright perilous, Aregbesola has primed Osun with the critical infrastructure — physical and social — needed to modernize its economy, propel productivity and earn genuine prosperity: futuristic schools, critical and ultra-modern road networks Osun had never witnessed, and the signal schools feeding programme, so beneficial the Federal Government has copied and implemented it in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Ekiti? It’s the direct opposite. Fayemi’s four development-savvy years have been blown away by Fayose’s four of the barbarians — barbarians of cascading backwardness, in almost every sphere of life — with the empty whoop of “stomach infrastructure”
Imagine what Ekiti would have been today, if Fayemi, warts and all, had secured a second term, based on his developmental agenda?
That is the race against time Ekiti faces on July 14. But it’s good the authors of the debacle are back, in a tough battle, to make good.
It’s all left to Ekiti to, four years after Fayose, yet again choose salvation or perdition.
