This article was first published, over two years ago, on 19 February, 2017, and, for full disclosure, to be republished today, it had to reach my editor’s table many hours before the conduct of last weekend’s rerun of the botched Ekiti APC primaries. This then means I haven’t the slightest means of knowing who will emerge the winner.
Unfortunately, the suggestions I made in the article towards averting the near disaster of Saturday, 5 May, 2018, remain what they were – mere suggestions. And this I must say, is for two main reasons. The first is the indescribable weakness of the APC national leadership under Chief John Oyegun, a leadership subsumed in a crass incompetence that, even now, still runs through it. Granted that, driven by the grim determination to oust the extremely corrupt and clueless Jonathan government, the new party couldn’t waste precious time crossing all the T’s and dotting the I’s, 3 solid years is more than enough time to have worked out the basis of a relationship of mutual understanding amongst the various entities that bonded together to form the party.
It is, however, absolutely nauseating, if not puke inducing, that it is the nPDP, which has constituted the greatest enemy to Buhari’s government, shackling it at every point, but especially at the National Assembly where its leader, Saraki, ingenuously plotted the party’s demystification , from day one, that would now come out, sabre rattling, and giving ultimatum. Were I President Buhari, I would, even at the expense of losing the forthcoming election, tell them to just go do their very worst. Let them head back to their vomit, the PDP, and let Nigerians decide as to whether they want their very lives stolen all over again. Or who does not know that Senate President Bukola Saraki and his colleagues, most of whose mouths he has deftly sealed with senate committee memberships, have since kissed APC good bye? Lest the party permits itself to be conned by these very sly politicians, nothing it offers these garrulous self seekers would ever stop them from moving , en mass, out of APC.
The other reason, equally unfortunate, is the increasing vacuity of non political leadership in Ekiti. In January, 2018, I addressed a mail to 3 eminent Ekiti sons, who will remain nameless here, asking them to please let us try to moderate what is most likely to be a rancorous governorship election in 2018. This we were to do by, first expanding our number, and from there work out modalities to ensure we could , at least, have a citizen’s input into the process. These gentlemen are hugely respected across board but the effort floundered on the ground that they are not politicians.
I digress.
Below then, is the slightly edited article.
O yes, PDP can win in Ekiti again, and heavens will not fall. This, however, will not be because of anything Governor Ayo Fayose, the quintessential, practical Nigerian politician, does, or does not do, but principally because of the complete disharmony that now envelopes the Ekiti chapter of the APC with its current 26 but still growing, number of wannabe governors. Let me quickly say, though, that this piece does not contemplate a serious look at the forthcoming governorship election. That will come sooner than later, God willing. Rather, it should be seen as an essential input into efforts to properly reposition the party ahead of the election which will obviously not be a walkover, incumbency at the federal level, or not. It therefore seeks to encourage party members to ensure that synergy returns to the party ahead of the 2018 election. There is an urgent need to dissuade many of those indicating interest . It is a mad house as it presently stands. The APC leadership must therefore move, pro actively to see that the Ondo crisis, is not allowed to repeat itself in Ekiti. It is sincerely hoped that APC is a serious enough party to know that the huge number is no indication of party popularity. Rather it demonstrates a putrefying self interest.
Ordinarily, the party should not have been in the current mess in Ekiti but for an unexpected misunderstanding which erupted shortly after the 2014 governorship election but which, happily, appears to have since run its course. Had that not happened, the party should, by now, be at its strongest ever. Not unexpectedly, therefore, party activities was in the doldrums for quite some time. This situation continued until a measure of anxiety led some respected elders like former governor Bamidele Olumilua to step in to forge a rapprochement which was well received by the traumatised party members, and supporters. But gubernatorial ambitions would appear to have returned matters to the status quo, ante bellum.
While most of these contestants are men of honour, in Ekiti, we sure know ourselves. Our people will, therefore, have no difficulty in identifying those who are mere place holders, just as they know the jokers among them who are hardly of any significance, even back in their own home towns. They equally know those whose primary motive is to use the occasion to rake in money from friends, far and wide. The question to ask, therefore, is why such persons would like to deliberately imperil the chances of the party in an important election like this.
It is called enlightened self interest.
To properly situate the huge joke going on in Ekiti APC right now, there are already 26 names of would – be contestants presently circulating in several Ekiti WhatsApp groups with none of them denying it. One of Ekiti’s most poignant philosophical sayings is: Aan tan ra oni je, I rure, meaning you can never profit from deceiving yourself. It is analogous to the farmer who planted 200 heaps of yam but claims he has a thousand heaps. He deceives only himself. There is no reason, whatever, to think that our people will be deceived, this time around.
It is hoped that family members – parents, wives, even children, will critically examine the chances of their interested family member, and since two heads are better than one, appropriately counsel him/her as to wisdom, or otherwise of him contesting. At a recent social outing in Lagos, I ran into a friend who contested as the governorship candidate of a major party in the state, and indeed, performed creditably well, but never mentioned a word of what he was getting himself into, to his wife until he has spent over N250 Million. Because these things do happen, relations of those involved in this show of shame in Ekiti should please truthfully advise them. This is a contest you do not get into in a flight of fancy.
The most critical reason for this article is to draw the attention of the party leadership, both at home in the Southwest, and nationally, to what could, very well, be far worse than the Ondo conundrum. Writing to me from London this past week, Banji Ogungbemi, former Managing Director of the Republic of Benin National Oil Corporation, wrote: “Egbon, this motley crowd brought memories of Lagos just before BAT chose RAF. I am still amazed at how the “me-too” succession chaos was managed without any collateral damage to the party in Lagos. However, because of our unique Ekiti characteristic of obduracy, the APC risks real acrimony, and fragmentation, that may give the incumbent governor the chance of installing his man”. This is why APC must allow history be its guide. Many of those indicating interest are decampees from the PDP. While it is true that politics is a game of numbers, it must not escape the party leadership that back in 2007, about 12 members of the AD, including some of these present ones , left the party to join PDP directly after they lost at the primary election. Many of them subsequently rose into prominence in the PDP, a party that is now aggressively going round the country, wooing its former members, among them, juggernauts like former Vice Presidents, Alex Ekwueme , Atiku Abubakar and Senate President Bukola Saraki, not to mention several governors. APC should, therefore, be extremely careful as the PDP will eagerly be awaiting their members defeated at the APC primaries .
It must also be remembered that Ekiti politicians are uniquely obdurate, and fight to the death. Towards the 2011 elections, I served as a member of the national Screening Committee of the A C N, for Ekiti. Of all the constituencies, it was only in Gboyin, where Dr Wale Omirin, later Speaker, comes from, that they had a consensual arrangement. Every where else, because of our congenital inability to agree on anything, virtually all towns presented contestants for every elective position, sometimes, 2 or 3 from the same town for the same position. The party must therefore not expect any gentlemanly agreement to reduce the number.
As a first step, the party should set up a committee of solely, non-Ekiti members to weed the field. The committee must call for a comprehensive bio-data of every contestant, which a sub committee of the state chapter, with the assistance of security agencies, must forensically ascertain, before they are forwarded to the national headquarters. Given the unwieldy field, APC must improve on PDP’s requirement of a minimum of two years unbroken membership, or a waiver, to qualify to contest elections. This must be increased to a minimum of 3 calendar years for new members because it is a lot less painful to be disqualified early, when a contestant has not spent much, or sold property, than to try to appease him after losing at the primaries.