The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fayose

  • Fayemi to Fayose: pay workers with N5.5b June allocation

    •N34.5b IGR allegedly kept in ‘secret account’

    Ekiti State Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi has advised Governor Ayo Fayose to use the N5.5 billion June allocation from the Federation Account to pay workers’ salary and pensioners’ entitlements.

    Fayemi also advised the governor to use the N34.5 billion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) cash that had accrued to the state since October 2014, which had allegedly been kept in a secret account with an old generation bank, for the benefit of the people.

    In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, by the Director of Media and Publicity of Fayemi Media Office, Mr. Wole Olujobi, the governor-elect urged Fayose to make accountability and human face critical factors in the policies of his outgoing administration.

    The statement said: “Information available to us suggests that Fayose, at the weekend, called all the directors in the state service to a meeting in the new Governor’s Lodge, pleading with them not to release sensitive information to the opposition, including non-disclosure of the state’s finances.

    “But we want to say that the state has received N5.52 billion as Federal allocation for June. We demand that the money be spent to pay salary. It should not be subjected to the circus of lies and deceits that often accompanied the sharing of the allocations in the past, whereby local governments were given their shares in the morning and in the night they would be coerced to return the money to the Governor’s Office while local government workers remained unpaid for nine months.

    “Fresh reports on the status of the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) have indicated that between October 16, 2014 to date, the state has a revenue profile of N34,560,000,000 kept in secret accounts in an old generation bank account and another new generation bank account. Yet, there is nothing to suggest that the money was spent for the benefit of Ekiti people.

    “This revenue profile in the two banks is outside the traffic and environmental offences, fines and charges reportedly kept in accounts unknown to the state’s accounting and financial system at an old generation bank at Ijigbo area of the state capital.”

    Regretting that cloudy manner of doing government’s business had rendered the state’s economy comatose, Fayemi said evidence showed that massive fraud existed at the Water Corporation and Sports Council, where government’s cash and vehicles had allegedly disappeared without trace.

    He said: “At the State Water Corporation, where an opaque financial management has left the system in ruins, Ondo State had paid its counterpart fund of N40 million for the upgrading of Egbe Dam, but the Ekiti State government has refused to honour its obligation to the project, even as the money paid by Ondo State cannot be traced to any government’s account.

    “At Ero Dam, despite releasing N1 billion on paper out of N1.4 billion budgeted for the dam’s expansion, there is no sign of work going on there as we speak, while in the same Water Corporation, two multi-million naira serviceable trucks were taken to Afao-Ekiti country home of the governor several months ago under the pretext that they were being taken there for repairs. But up till now, the trucks are still not in the service of the Water Corporation.

    “This followed the same pattern whereby the state lost five unserviceable vehicles at the State Sports Council to new owners without any public bidding and auctioning to take possession of the vehicles.

    “For instance, reports indicated that three Toyota Hiace buses, one 504 Peugeot and one Nissan 120Y had disappeared from the premises of the corporation on the alleged order of the governor.

    “This is besides illegal auctioning of several government vehicles at ridiculous prices to cronies, who later assembled the same vehicles at a motor showroom in Ibadan (Oyo State) for resale to the public.”

    Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, did not react to the allegations last night.

     

    Workers give governor 14 days to pay them

    Ekiti State workers have issued a 14-day ultimatum to Governor Ayo Fayose to pay their salary arrears and pensions of retirees.

    Acting under the aegis of Ekiti State Organised Labour, the workers said the Fayose administration must clear all arrears of workers’ entitlements before a new government takes office on October 16.

    The workers’ demands were contained in a bulletin issued on Saturday.

    Their demands also include payment of over seven months’ deductions, payment of nine months of arrears to local government workers and primary school teachers.

    The bulletin reads: “Workers in the public service of Ekiti State have been suffering over the years with nobody to rescue them in relation to payment of salaries, pensions and other benefits.

    “The import of this is that the condition of service of an average worker in Ekiti is deplorable or poor, despite the huge funds allocated to Ekiti State from the Federation Account between 2014 to date.

    “In view of the present development in the state, occasioned by the result of the governorship election, it has become necessary to assess the implication on welfare of workers, vis-à-vis the arrears of unpaid salaries.

    “To avoid a situation whereby the incoming government may wish to foot-drag on the payment of the arrears of salary on the premise that the organised labour was inept to the payment of same by the outgoing government, thus amounting to a huge financial burden on the new government.

    “The state government is hereby given a 14-day ultimatum to meet these demands.”

  • Fayemi to Fayose: Be ready to account for Ekiti funds

    •Warns against illegal appointment at EKSU

    Ekiti State Governor-elect Dr. Kayode Fayemi has explained why he would probe Governor Ayo Fayose.

    The probe, he said, is not a vendetta mission but an attempt to know how the state finances were managed when he takes office on October 16.

    Fayemi said there is need to know why the state government owes several arrears of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ benefits after receiving three tranches of bailout funds, Paris Club refunds, Budget Support Funds and secrecy with which the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is shrouded in the last four years.

    The governor-elect also warned against illegal appointments at Ekiti State University (EKSU).

    He said: “The ongoing staff upgrade at the university to create vacancies for employment is a subtle means to ensure that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s political agents occupy strategic positions they may not have competences to hold.”

    Fayemi was replying to an allegation by the administration of Fayose that his plan to probe the management of the state finances, assets and liabilities by outgoing government was a mission of vengeance and vendetta.

    The governor-elect also urged Fayose and his media handlers to accept defeat in good faith after Ekiti people had realised that they had been dealing with a deceitful governor who can no longer fool them.

    A statement yesterday by the Director of Media in the Office of the Governor-elect, Wole Olujobi, also urged Fayose to be prepared for life outside office and answer various alleged criminal cases hanging on his neck.

    Fayemi said: “We are not surprised that it is now that Fayose is saying that he is ready to open the state’s books for probe and we wonder why he had refused to let Ekiti people know the state’s IGR figures in about four years while nobody knew how he spent budget support facility, Paris Club refunds and bailout cash.

    “Rather than continue to brag shamelessly and issue tissues of lies as press releases as he has been doing in the last four years, Fayose should bury his head in shame for misusing the opportunity of redeeming his battered image.

    “Fayose is one of the luckiest men in history, who has a second chance to redeem himself but he blew it because of greed, arrogance and covetousness.

    “We are also surprised that a beneficiary of 2014 poll fraud through criminal manipulation of Federal resources is the one now describing the free and fair election that produced Fayemi as flawed after Ekiti people went to poll to take their destiny in their hands by voting for Fayemi who can be trusted with power and resources of the state unlike Fayose who secretly collected N117b loans but refused to pay workers their salaries and pensioners’ entitlements.

    “We advise Fayose to brace up for life after government, especially to render accounts of his stewardship to Ekiti people in the last four years and must also be prepared to defend himself over a plethora of criminal cases hanging on his neck.”

    He advised him to accept defeat and be prepared to face the law over his alleged infractions against the law while he was governor instead of launching blackmail against the plan to probe him.

    Fayemi cautioned EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof Samuel Bandele, against pandering to the preferences of the governor in the running of the university.

    He added: “We know that the strategy is to create more problems for the incoming administration, more so that the decision to employ more hands was taken after the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost the last governorship election to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “The manner of the ill-motivated appointments lacks merit, coming at the eclipse of Fayose’s administration after failing to recruit staff in the last three years during which time staff were not motivated and infrastructure left to rot away.”

     

  • Fayose: Outgoing governor’s catalogue of comedies

    HE started his tenure on a note of high drama. It should therefore come to no one as a surprise that it is ending the way it began. If outgoing Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, had opted for Nollywood four years ago, he would by now be celebrated in the league of Omotola Ekeinde and other top actors and actresses that make the movie industry tick.

    But he opted for the Government House, Ado-Ekiti and sought to turn the glorious edifice into a circus centre. Unfortunately, there is a clear dividing line between governance and comedy. Hence, rather than being celebrated as a successful administrator, he is taunted as a joker who turned the serious business of governance into comedy.

    While the idea of equating governance with comedy initially appeared to resonate with the people, they later saw through the antics of the outgoing governor and came to the realization that the ablution of the cat is nothing but a strategy to steal meat.

    Mystic of a ‘people’s governor’

    Against the barrage of criticisms trailing his perceived low performance in key areas of economic growth, unremitted pensions of retirees and civil servants’ outstanding salaries, which at some point extended for as long as seven months, Fayose resorted to bizarre measures to sustain the loyalty and trust of his people.

    He stormed public markets and sidewalks to purchase ponmo (cow hide), pepper, tomatoes, fish and palm oil, thus usurping the duties of State House kitchen and auxiliary staff.

    In a recent incident, he set the social media agog, posting photos taken of him at the Elegberun Market in Ikere Ekiti, where he ditched official protocol to purchase soup ingredients. In a tweet via his handle @GovAyoFayose, the governor said: “I am at Elegberun Market, Ikere Ekiti, today, to look at the ongoing construction work in d market. I also bought soup ingredients.”

    Fayose thus endeared himself to the electorate, not by exemplary performance, but for his adroitness at cozying up to the people. He roasted boli (plantain) on the streets; he hobnobbed with market women, ate at local bukas; and made frequent stops at agbo jedi (local herb) stalls to drink with the men.

    This endeared him to the people, who preferred his presumed earthiness to the formal, haughty disposition of his peer, and Fayose exploited this to advantage. Thus while other governors got pelted with reproach and vitriol, for owing salaries and a slew of other  shortcomings, Fayose enjoyed a pat on the back by Ekiti’s impoverished electorate. Such was the charm of his theatrics.

    Vintage Fayose boasts in defeat

    Even in defeat, the outgoing governor of Ekiti State is dreaming of having “the last laugh” and has vowed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Following the loss of his deputy and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Kolapo Olusola, at the state’s July 14 governorship election, Fayose has told President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he will “reclaim the stolen mandate in court by the power of God.”

    The APC candidate, Kayode Fayemi, polled 197, 459 votes against Olusola’s 178,121 votes, thus defeating him and emerging Ekiti’s new governor-elect. But in a statement signed by Fayose’s Chief Press Secretary, (CPS), Idowu Adelusi, on Monday, July 16, the governor boasted: “I am Peter Ayodele Fayose, I hold my head high. I can never

    will laugh last,” he said.

    Fayose disputes Fayemi’s victory, arguing that “if APC has truly won, why is it that there is no jubilation in Ekiti? The victory of Kayode Fayemi is pyrrhic.”

    The statement trimly portrays the quandary of the outgoing governor, in the wake of the July 14 elections. Fayose loathes submission in defeat. But it is his propaganda, not his reality, argued pundits and opposition figures.

    The presidency held that the defeat signaled the political extinction of the outgoing governor. “The people of the politically important state of Ekiti have spoken out against their governor, outgoing governor Ayodele Fayose, who told them that the presidential election was a referendum on President Muhammadu Buhari and candidates Kayode Fayemi and Kolapo Olusola are chess pieces, and he and President Buhari are the actual candidates,” said, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.

    He said: “The people of the state have sent a clear message. The politics of brinksmanship, assaults, insults, abuses and Robin Hoodism disguised as stomach infrastructure has been rejected in favour of politics of inclusion, development, responsibility and good governance.

    “An old proverb says you can’t beat something with nothing. After all the noise, theatricals and drama, Fayose’s fall came with a thud, not a bang: a high-powered nothing.”

    The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), hailed the ouster of the PDP in Ekiti, adding that it would mark the end of “stomach infrastructure.”

    Sagay said this in a post-election interview, describing Fayose as a person who exploited the poverty of his people for personal gain.

    He said: “I think Ekiti people have restored their sense of self-respect and dignity because to have elected a Fayose was a self-inflicted insult and he insulted them by saying he won election on the grounds of promising them stomach infrastructure.

    “It was a very big insult because what he was saying is that Ekiti people live solely for the sake of eating. That is why stomach infrastructure was a very big insult. And he insulted them for four years; he ran the state down.

    “He didn’t pay salaries. Altogether, he was a disaster. So, this election was a way of voting Fayose out because I don’t think his deputy was the real candidate. In voting out Fayose, Ekiti people have restored their sense of self-respect and we will no longer call them stomach infrastructure state but as a serious people who look at their progress instead of food.”

     

    Making sense of Fayose’s ‘stomach infrastructure’

    Ordinarily, “stomach infrastructure” evokes imagery of entrails, comprising the oesophagus, kidneys and intestines down to the rectum in the human physiology. But at Fayose’s dramatic reemergence in Ekiti, in 2014, the concept assumed new meaning.

    To rout the then incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi, Fayose leveraged on a culture of tokenism, comprising the seduction of prospective voters with rice, chicken, and a few bank notes.

    This was an improvement on his gift of tankers of water to thirsty neighbourhoods months before the 2003 polls, where he similarly secured an electoral upset over incumbent Niyi Adebayo and assumed leadership until his infamous impeachment three years later in 2006.

    Having rode to power through the instrumentality of “stomach infrastructure” and enablement by a compromised electoral process and security agencies, Fayose enjoyed the rare privilege of a second chance in power.

    Whatever his inadequacies at his first coming in 2003, the brassy governor could achieve redemption, argued pundits. But contrary to notions that the 57-year-old would seize the opportunity to salvage Ekiti through humane governance and progressive policies, he immersed in cutthroat politics.

    Few months into his regime, it became difficult to identify who actually was the spokesman of the then ruling party. Miffed by the emergence of then APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, Fayose mounted hostile opposition, quoting the scripture, and prophesying Buhari’s unavoidable doom.

    He vowed that the latter would not live through 2015, due to some debilitating ailment. Fayose sponsored a front page advertisement across major newspapers, suggesting that Buhari would die in office if he was elected president.  The advertisement, containing pictures of Murtala Mohammed, Sani Abacha, and Umaru Yar’Adua – past Nigerian leaders who died in office – was accompanied by an excerpt of the biblical book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, Verse 19: “Nigeria…I have set before thee, Life and death. Therefore, choose life, that both thee and thy seed may live,” it read.

    Describing Buhari as ‘death’ and his rival, then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, as ‘life,’ the advert stated: “Will you allow history to repeat itself? Enough of state burials.”

    At Buhari and APC’s victory at the March 28, 2015 presidential elections, however, Fayose assumed the role of a gadfly, touting himself as a fearless opposition figure cum the nation’s conscience. If government had to do with acting, the political arena became his theatre.

    The self-acclaimed ‘Rock’ of Ekiti politics orchestrated absurd drama out of the banal. He entertained the polity with theatrics and what pundits home and abroad described as “megalomaniac” tendencies. While other states attained eminence by giant strides in commerce, agriculture and other indices of economic growth, Fayose led Ekiti to exult in ludicrous politics.

    “Until this day, it appears the sole stamp of his second-coming would be the newly built governor’s office, and the 1.3 kilometre Fajuyi-Ojumose overhead bridge that cost the state some N6.4 billion. In about three years of his superintendence, the debt profile of the state jerked up to some N56 billion as reported by the Debt Management Office (DMO) in a 2017 bulletin, thus setting backward the developmental clock of the state,” argued Nkannebe Raymond, a political analyst.

    Crunch politics

    At the twilight of his tenure, Fayose  sought a successor whose loyalty he could vouch for. He found this in his deputy, the soft spoken Olusola. A man who contrasted him in so many ways.

    In the days leading to Ekiti’s July 14 governorship polls, Fayose, waxed prophetic and tough, in support of Olusola. During an appearance on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today,’ the governor bragged about his party and ‘anointed’ candidate’s chances at the forthcoming polls.

    He said: “With all humility, before Ekiti people, if I support anybody, whether it is from my household, they will still support that person.”

    Affecting immense bluster, he continued: “I am telling you; I am more than popular with my people…I’ve said it severally [sic], I am the first Ekiti son to win and defeat two incumbents in this country at two different attempts. My name is Ayo Peter Fayose.

    “Despite all the wars they waged against me, I’m the first Ekiti son to become Governor twice in Ekiti. Seun (the interviewer), it might interest you again that I will be the first Ekiti governor that will have a successor from his own party.

    “I’m telling you again, write it down. If APC, if they are mad in the head, their madness will not enter Ekiti o. I heard what they are doing, I am watching them like a bat. I’m like a bat…I am a politician of note. You see, yesterday, I was frying garri (cassava flakes) with some women. Let them also go and meet people now.

    “This oyinbo (English) they are speaking all around will never do anything. I don’t have time for them. July 14 is almost here. Let them bring INEC behind them, bring Chief of Army staff… I’ve heard all their planning, you understand. But when you carry fire, the moment it comes in contact with water, that fire will die.”

     

    And the ‘Rock’ melts…

    Despite his tough talk, few hours before the election, Fayose experienced the jitters, and he expressed his fears in the most unusual way by shedding tears. The self-acclaimed “Rock” of Ekiti broke down in tears before media men and a global audience.

    His attempt to hold a rally against police advice had sparked heavy shooting in Fajuyi area of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital and Fayose reportedly experienced a raw deal from riot policemen while attending to complaints by PDP members over denial of access to the Fajuyi Pavilion, venue of the proposed rally.

    Tear gas canisters fired from outside the Government House reportedly landed very close to Fayose, who allegedly inhaled the chemical and collapsed.

    At the backdrop of reports that he was revived by security aides and party members, and afterwards taken to the State House clinic, the governor reemerged with a neck brace, to address party members.

    “My people, the Lord will fight this battle; the MOPOL of Nigeria Police, IGP and AIG ordered that the governor should be killed.

    “I was slapped by a policeman, I was  kicked and I was shot at. Be of great courage, be not dismayed, this battle will be won.

    “This is an army of occupation. This is not the democracy we fought for. My people, don’t be afraid, I pray they will not cause the 1983 problem in Ekiti State.

    “Ekiti is under siege. How can I be governor of Ekiti State and they treated (sic) me like this? My people, stand and keep standing. I will go back to the hospital and remain there. I want you to stand by Eleka (Olusola).

    Fayose, later got emotional and wept while being interviewed by journalists. He said: “I am in severe pain, I am in severe pain, should anything evil happen to me, the Inspector General of Police should be held responsible.”

    But Fayose should really be held responsible for the PDP and Olusola’s loss, argued a chieftain of the party. Pleading anonymity, he stated that the outgoing governor’s “underperformance and antics” cost the party the Ekiti governorship.

    Post-election analyses attribute PDP’s loss to Fayose’s attempt to “rule Ekiti” and serve as the “major voice of opposition” in the country. By assuming such tasking roles, he unwittingly combined two incompatible realities, like unstable atoms in a molecule whose resonance manifests as a blowback.

    Fayose’s blowhard, undeniably, failed to dull the consequences of a political blowback.

    Nonetheless, he looms as an element cum actor chock-full of characters, which is the very essence of his politics. His apologists argue that he is unconcerned with image or personality, hence, his characters seem generalised and typecast.

    A more studious glance at his theatrics, however, reveals that the outgoing governor of Ekiti State exploited idiosyncratic experience, often to advantage. He sought to make the personal, or eccentric if you like, universal.

    In the huge corpus of his theatre, there was hardly a defined, discernible portrait; experience mutated in the flurry of his antics and coarse presentations. Critics flay him for making a caricature of governance, but loyalists commend his “courage” and “steadfastness” against all odds.

    As his tenure draws to an end, speculations abound about Fayose’s next act. Will he “reclaim” the PDP’s “stolen mandate in court by the power of God.” Or will he reprioritise and make good his pledge to become president in 2019?

    “I’m going straight to that Villa. I’m the next president,” he said, few months ago, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.

    “I have a penchant for taking powers; that one in President Muhammadu Buhari’s hand, I will take it,” said Fayose, in a letter addressed to PDP leaders.

    The outgoing governor explained that his ambition to be president was without prejudice to the party’s position, but in the overall interest of the party and the country.

    But that is in the long run. This minute, Fayose sits uneasy amid the lavish trappings of office. Although he is never far from doting courtiers and aides in Ekiti’s Government House, springboard of his bizarre, feral escapades, he knows that his time is up. A good number of the electorate feels the same way.

  • Ekiti: Fayose’s loyalists desert govt house

    Success, they say, has many fathers while failure is an orphan.

    That seems to be the scenario at Government House, Ado-Ekiti, where the crowd of friends and associates of the outgoing Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, who used to besiege the place on a daily basis are thinning out by the day.

    Fayose’s bid to install his own successor failed in the governorship election that took place in the state last Saturday as his deputy and anointed candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, who flew the flag of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was defeated the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

    Although Fayose was not a candidate in the election, political observers believe he was the bigger loser as Olusola was merely his protege and he (Fayose) had boasted that it was a test of strength between him one hand and APC and President Muhammadu Buhari on the other hand.

    A source at the Government House in Ado-Ekiti told our reporter that Governor Fayose  was gradually coming to terms with the reality of his imminent exit from his exalted office.

    The source, however, said the decision of many Fayose’s supporters and loyalists who used to throng the Government House on a daily basis might not necessarily be because the governor’s candidate failed in the election.

    “You know that the governor is having a lot of problems with security agents. I think the people are staying away because of that and not because he lost the election.” the source said.

    She, however, admitted that the last time the governor’s loyalists trooped to the seat of power was on July 13, a day to the governorship election when they came to collect election money.

    She noted that the defeat they suffered at the poll must have dampened their morale as much as it the governor’s.

    It had taken Fayose about three days to find his voice after the poll. And when he finally spoke, it was at the palace of the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, with whom he had a verbal confrontation in March over the urban renewal programme of the Fayose government, which necessitated the demolition of buildings in the state capital.

    Fayose, who had trekked to the palace without the full compliment of his security aides as they were yet to be restored after they were withdrawn about 48 hours to the election, told the Ewi of his ordeal 72 hours after his party lost the governorship poll.

    This time, it was a sober Fayose who waited patiently at the palace until the Ewi emerged from his inner chambers to attend to him.

    Upon the Ewi’s appearance, Fayose prostrated in a show of maximum respect for the Oba and also remained on the floor until the Ewi told him to get up and have his seat.

    In an emotion laden voice, Fayose urged the monarch to help him appeal to the federal authorities to stop alleged siege to his official residence.

    Fayose said: “I have come to officially tell your sir, as the paramount ruler of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, that the Government House was invaded by the police.

    “Over 400 of our (party) members are being detained as we speak now.

    “After the poll on Saturday, my wife was prevented from entering the Government House for about 45 minutes.

    “Since last Wednesday, security agents had laid siege to the Government House and were subjecting people to untold hardship coming in or going out.

    “The poll has come and gone, irrespective of what we went through. The Constitution says I am still the governor till October 16 this year.

    “Our state radio and television stations have been shut down, and there has been no means of getting across to our people.

    “It was only this morning that security agents at the entrance of the Government House were withdrawn.

    “If we have been robbed, I still have a right to life and my family has a right to life too.

    “The man that won has three units of the police protecting him. All my security men have been withdrawn since last Wednesday. I am only left with just a few.

    “Harassing me is not in the interest of democracy. People must intervene before things go out of hand.

    “I don’t know why we should be in this situation in 2018.”

  • Fayose: But we warned him

    Last Saturday in Ekiti State, Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose was effectively pulled down from his high horses and made to fully come to grasp with the transience of power. Nothing lasts forever. Not even mendacious idiocy the likes of which the Fayoses of this world epitomise. For me, beyond the gloating over the humbling of man that calls himself ‘The Rock”, those who connived together to bring him to that ultimate reality should learn a greater lesson from his humiliation. Perhaps, if he had applied the brakes when some of us warned him against being a victim of the inevitability of pride coming before a shameful fall, Fayose would not the laughable, deflated and powerless rabble rouser that he has suddenly become with the defeat of his candidate in last Saturday’s election by Dr. Kayode Fayemi. In a piece titled “Immunity, impunity and Fayose’s angst” published in June 25, 2016, I had warned the irascible irritant to be mindful of actions that spell doom for him. But do they ever listen? Read on…

    “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. When Prometheus, Henry Longfellow’s character in the 1875 poem, “The Masque of Pandora”, uttered those timeless words, the author never anticipated a Mr. Fayose of Nigeria putting life into such immortal lines in 2016 and beyond. However, driven by the imps of gross miscalculation and wanton lust for reckless ‘popularity’, Fayose has audaciously sallied forth from one needless controversy to another – criticizing, pontificating, puffing, huffing and making allegations that elicit the amazement of both contemplative citizens and featherbrained fans. Yes!

    Fayose’s rascally impetuousness and sheepish political pranks are well documented both in words and in life images captured in videos and skits. His   self-professed   disdain   for   a   Muhammadu   Buhari   presidency explains   the   relentlessness with which he stalks every move made by the administration. At the silliest height of his rant, he invoked the spirit of death against the President. Fayose it was who told a stunned nation that octogenarian   Buhari   should   be   on   diapers   just   like   his (Fayose’s)   mother!   He   equally   has   ranted serially about a presumed life-threatening disease impeding the ability of Buhari to govern well. He has accused the President of leading a herd of corrupt people to ‘ruin’ Nigeria. As long as the topic is Buhari, Fayose has never failed to unleash bareknuckle punches. For him, Buhari is not just the gravest mistake in Aso Rock; he is a tragedy in governance.

    As a prominent figure in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Fayose’s form of criticism is clinically deadly, hate-filled, infused with peppery bile and vitriol. As a serving governor conscious of the powers the immunity clause confers, Fayose takes advantage of that rare privilege to the fullest. Egged on by a coterie of praise singers and knowing that   the President is constitutionally demobilised even if he desires to move against him, the man they call ‘Spotless’ has become a thorn not only in the flesh of Buhari but his policies, associates and the All Progressives Congress. Therefore, while Fayose barks and bites, the Presidency merely   gawks   at   him   in   stupefaction.   Such   is   the   overriding   power   of   a   questionable immunity that our Constitution confers on the President, Vice President, state governors and their deputies. Fayose regaled in it. Hardly a week passes without him treating the public to his rabid and ferocious attack against Buhari or his family. It was as if that was his primary duty as a state chief executive. And it is one job he relishes.

    It was, therefore, not surprising that the natural victim of Fayose’s spirited defence against the restriction order placed  on his personal  accounts  by the Economic and  Financial Crimes Commission would be Buhari and, of course, his wife, Aisha. In fact, it would have been shocking if the governor had linked his latest woes to anyone else order than the man he loves to hate. By the way, this is not about the farcical drama scripted, directed and acted by Fayose when he invaded the premises of the bank in Ado-Ekiti earlier in the week to demand statements of his accounts. It is more about the lame excuses the governor gave to justify why an institution saddled with the arduous responsibility of checking graft should not be on his case. It is about the shamelessness of grappling last straws to wish away the mendaciousness with which otherwise responsible and trusted public officers continue to rape the national treasury.  It beggars belief that Fayose would expect the EFCC to steer off his financial dealings in the last two years until the end of his tenure on the laughable submission that immunity confers on him the powers to do and undo all that he wills. With his ‘spotless’ posturing as the untainted political gadfly in the PDP and  Buhari’s Achilles heel, wouldn’t it have been nice if Fayose had punctured EFCC’s claims of humongous and strange lodgements in his accounts in the run-up to his election instead of whining about a nebulous immunity clause that only legitimatises the larceny, lawlessness and crass abuse of power?

    Given that Nigeria’s immunity clause effectively arms those that enjoy it against prosecution of any sort, should it also infer that such persons could not be investigated and then tried after they might have vacated the office? In this simple question lies Fayose’s dilemma and the source of an endless chronic idiocy. Listen to him: “I am a sitting governor and under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, I enjoy immunity. This government has no respect for constitutional provisions. They should not be in a hurry. In 2018, I will be done. I will come to them myself. I have become a figure in this country that I have nowhere to go. The rascality of EFCC must stop. Did they not contest election? Where did they get the funds from? Is it because they are the sitting government?”

    How I wish Fayose could remove the log in his eyes before offering to blow out a speck lurking in a friend’s eye. No one, in the entire life of this democracy, has displayed specious rascality and prudish bellicosity than Fayose. To my understanding, the section in question did   not,   in   anyway,   forbears   the   relevant   agencies   from investigating the individuals covered by immunity clause.

    If I may ask, would Fayose had preferred a situation where the EFCC turned its sniffing noses   against   a   whistle-blower’s  report of premeditated  looting  in   the   run   off   to   the   Ekiti election? Aside the legalese which empowers the governor to hold on to straws, demanding that he should be spared the burden of investigations and prosecutions based on his present status, morality demands that this advocate of equity and hater of political rascality ought to come to equity with squeaky clean hands. It is, to say the least, rascally to hide under immunity clause and perpetuate such grave monstrosity. In any case, the EFCC has not flouted any rule by doing its job without disturbing the governor’s comfort. It only sought and got a court order to freeze His Excellency’s   accounts   temporarily   to   enable   it   put   its   case   together   for   a   post-tenure prosecution if the evidence can sustain such. So, why is Fayose angry and belching gibberish about the President and his wife as if he is eternally immune from answering questions on his misconduct if any? Why, for all the stolen money in private hands, should the EFCC wait until 2018 for him to report himself? Is it not puerile arrogance for Fayose to assume that because the other party got external funding from suspected looters, the glaring larceny uncovered by the EFCC on how he rode roughshod to the Ekiti State Government House should also be shrouded under the orbit of a questionable immunity clause?

    Having said this, the onus lies strictly on the shoulders of the EFCC to prosecute all hi-wired cases of looting before it to a logical conclusion. Truth be told, Nigerians are tired of EFCC’s harvest of media trials that only turn influential politicians into demagogues while the would-be culprits merely thumb their noses at us, exploiting the gaping gaps in the prosecutor’s evidence! And, acting true to type, the EFCC may yet bungle what it called a watertight case with the senseless tweet on its website, indicating that it was set to roast Fayose when he becomes an ordinary citizen in October. This man that once boasted that he would hand himself over to the authorities for probe may likely take the tweet as a warning to take the next available exit out of the country. If that happens, the Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC has itself to blame for paving the way for a coward, who cried blood and sweat over a phantom allegation of being beaten up, to flee justice like many others in the past. But then, didn’t we warn him to stop setting himself up for an unceremonious ending of his hollow noisemaking? They never listen!

  • Why we’ll probe Fayose – Fayemi

    Ekiti State Governor-elect, Kayode Fayemi, on Thursday explained why his administration would look into the financial records of the outgoing Governor Ayo Fayose’s administration.

    He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed-doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Fayemi also denied the accusation that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was involved in vote buying during the July 14 governorship election in the state.

    According to him, the essence of looking into the financial records of the state was not targeted at the outgoing governor, but to find out why the government was unable to pay workers’ salaries.

    He said: “We are in the business of putting the government together. We are in the transition stage and we are beginning to look into the record of the state, its assets and liabilities. We expect the outgoing government to extend its hands of cooperation to us.

    “We will engage also all of our professionals to ensure that we deliver good governance to Ekiti people. That is what they voted for and that is what we intend to give. So, basically, these three months will be used for this purpose.

    “What sold us to the people were really the track records of our commitments to social investment, good government, transparency in government, extensive infrastructure and community involvement. These were the things.

    “Everywhere we went during the campaign, we were able to show what we did for each community. All of our 132 communities, there were projects in all of them and they knew that our government was regular in payment of salaries and support to the weak and vulnerable in the society. That was what really sold us.

    “We have always been interested in seeing that our people live a decent life, a life without hunger, with social support and that is why we were paying social security benefits to the elderly. We provided youth graduate scheme for the recent graduates and provided support for the communities.

    “For us, we never saw stomach infrastructure from any pedestrian manner that the current administration has lived it up to. For us, it is about total development of our people, human and capital development in education, health care, in social services and infrastructure development.”

     

     

  • Police helicopter threatening my life – Fayose

    Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on Wednesday raised the alarm over aerial surveillance of the Government House, Ado-Ekiti by a police helicopter.

    Fayose said the police chopper has constituted danger to his personal safety, his family, workers and visitors to the Government House.

    He expressed dismay that aerial surveillance of his official residence and office has continued unabated even after the July 14 governorship election in the state.

    In a statement issued on by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor described the development as “brazen show of naked force and abuse of power by the Federal Government.”

    He also accused the nation’s security forces of allowing themselves to be used to intimidate political opponents despite being funded with tax payers’ money.

    According to him, security agencies must be apolitical and not turned themselves to willing tools in the hands of powers that be.

    He, however, vowed not to be intimidated by the alleged clampdown, adding that he would continue to speak against injustice and advocate for liberty of Nigerians.

    Fayose said: “They continue to fly helicopters over the Government House and Governor’s Office in a way that compromises the safety and well-being of residents and workers.

    “The helicopter flies so low that it runs the risk of crashing into high-rise buildings and masts within the premises.

    “The noise pollution this causes is enough irritation. This brazen show of naked force and abuse of power is as ungodly as it is undemocratic.

    “If the security forces belong to all Nigerians and not to President Muhammadu Buhari and APC, it should not be biased in this blatant manner

    “It is unprofessional of the security forces to allow themselves be this debased, running APC errands when they are funded with resources that belong to all of us.

    “They are obligated by the Constitution to be apolitical and not willing tools in the hands of the powers-that-be

    “Once again, I say I will not be intimidated. I will stand on my feet until every injustice is upturned and the freedom and liberties of our people are restored.

     

    “The thief runneth when no one pursueth. They are afraid of their shadows.”

  • Govt House invaded, Fayose tells Ewi

    •We want peace in Ekiti, says Ewi

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose appeared in public yesterday for the first time since his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, lost last Saturday’s governorship election.

    Olusola, who contested as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, was defeated by Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Fayose spoke at the palace of the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe.

    The governor said he and his supporters were still being persecuted by the Federal Government after losing the election.

    He said: “I have come to officially tell you, sir, as the Paramount Ruler of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, that the Government House was invaded by the police.

    “Over 400 of our members are being detained as we speak. After the poll on Saturday, my wife was prevented from entering the Government House for about 45 minutes.

    “Since last Wednesday, security agents have laid siege to the Government House, and they were subjecting people to untold hardship, coming in or going out.

    “The poll has come and gone, irrespective of what we went through. The constitution says I am still the governor till October 16 this year.

    “Our state’s radio and television stations have been shut down. And there has been no means of getting across to our people.

    “It was only this morning (yesterday) that security agents at the entrance to the Government House were withdrawn. If we have been robbed, I still have a right to life and my family has a right to life too.

    “The man who won has three units of the police protecting him. All my security men have been withdrawn since last Wednesday. I am only left with just a few.

    “Harassing me is not in the interest of democracy. People must intervene before things go out of hand. I don’t know why we should be in this situation in 2018.”

    The Ewi sympathised with Fayose and promised that the traditional rulers would intervene and make representations to appropriate authorities.

    Oba Adejugbe said: “As if we knew, monarchs arranged many meetings before the election and pleaded with everybody that before, during and after the poll, we don’t want any trouble.

    “We said then that whoever wins, there should be no problem. The way I see you, I know something is happening. You rarely wear this type of dress to the palace.”

     

     

  • Ekiti: The morning after

    It is all over now in Ekiti, bar the sulking and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth in Governor Ayo Fayose’s camp, and the exuberant rejoicing in Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi’s circle — a mirror image of the outcome of the 2014 Ekiti gubernatorial election.

    When one placed Fayemi and Fayose on the scale in that contest, one saw in Fayemi an incumbent whose record spoke eloquently for a second term, as did his overall approach to the business of governance:  urbane, deliberative, steeped in the detail and nuance of policy, goal-oriented, and unobtrusive for the most part.

    In Fayose one saw a brash challenger who had had his chance as governor and blown it spectacularly, a bumptious con-artist whose idea of governance consists in staging stunt after tawdry stunt, given to cheap populism and not a little demagoguery, and withal not foresworn to violence as a means of winning and retaining support.

    Fayose’s scandal-plagued first term had ended after only two years in impeachment and self-imposed internal exile.  Politically, he was washed up.

    Given a choice between Fayemi and Fayose, surely, the learned and discriminating people of the “Fountain of Knowledge” who know only too well the antecedents of the twain, would heartily renew the mandate of the one and indignantly reject the advances of the other.

    So went the conventional wisdom.

    The outcome is history.  Fayemi took a comprehensive shellacking, winning none of the 16 local governments in contention.  Eight years after being disgraced out of office, Fayose returned in one of the most amazing political comebacks in Nigeria or anywhere.

    The Nobelist, Professor Wole Soyinka, was one of the few who questioned the outcome of the election sharply, saying that it was a mystery and that the truth would be known one day. But his skepticism was drowned in the schadenfreude that pervaded the corridors of Federal Might.

    Fayemi also had his doubts.  But “the people,” he said, “had spoken.” And that was what counted.

    Thanks to Captain Sagir Koli of the Nigerian Army, who had witnessed the entire scheme from inside and secretly recorded it, we now know that “the people” had played no part in that outcome.   The election had been rigged with scientific precision on a scale almost beyond belief, and the result was fake through and through.

    Thanks to the perversity of the Constitution, Fayose kept his gubernatorial perch.

    But instead of parlaying his comeback into an opportunity to redeem himself and atone for the depredations of his first coming – a murder rap, and a poultry project that gulped more than N2 billion without producing an egg, to mention just two such — Fayose waged war ceaselessly on all that is honest and just and decent and wholesome and of good report, and kept Ekiti permanently on the boil.

    He governed on the Caligula Principle:  “You can hate us, so long as you fear us.”  High court judges failed to do his bidding at their peril.  Bank managers soon learned that to carry out his instructions without fuss was the beginning of political wisdom.  Serving civil servants and eminent sons and daughters of Ekiti who dared to criticise him and traditional rulers who refused to genuflect before him learned a bitter lesson.

    He sank deeper and deeper into infamy, bringing into disrepute virtually everything he touched and every idea he embraced. The “stomach infrastructure” agenda that was thought to have blinded the electorate to his unsettling inadequacies became an empty slogan, then vanished altogether.

    Following a re-match this past weekend, it is in Fayose’s camp that they are sulking and wailing and gnashing their teeth. In Governor-elect Fayemi’s camp, there is exuberant rejoicing and a triumphal air.

    What a difference an election cycle makes.

    Fayose, it is necessary to state, was not an official candidate in the election just concluded, but you could not tell from the way he carried himself.  He had framed it as a contest between good and evil, as a test of strength and power and will between himself and President Muhammadu Buhari, between  the APC and the PDP, and finally between himself and Fayemi.

    Fayose’s lackluster deputy governor, Professor Kayode Olusola whom he had foisted on the PDP as the party’s candidate for the election might just as well have been a poodle.  If he had any ideas of his own, he never gave them utterance.  He was content to tag along and nod in consonance with his principal’s inanities and profanities du jour.

    He was at bottom a prop for Fayose’s third-term gambit. He would be practically unconscious not to know that.  But he went along all the same. They went into the election with little to show for Fayose’s four years in office, only stunt after harebrained stunt.

    This time, there was no Jonathan, no PDP machine, no rogue senior military and police officers, no contractors in hock to the establishment, no fixer to turn loser into winner and winner into loser.

    The figure from the spirit world who feeds on jollof rice has been demystified.  A return to political office now seems unlikely for Fayose.  But it would be unwise to count him out.

    Look closely at the results.  The Fayose/Olusola ticket took 47.4 percent of the vote, to Fayemi’s 52.5 percent, the precise margin by which NOIPolls had called the election for the  Fayose/Olusola ticket.  In plebiscitary terms, that is a decisive loss.  But the ticket won in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, and scored impressive victories in four of the 16 local government areas.

    It was probably not true then and certainly not true now, contrary to Fayose’s claim at his post-election news conference four years ago that if he raised his hand high, “the people” would cheer vehemently, and that if he lowered it, the cheering would subside. Or that if he pointed in one direction, they would go in that direction.

    But he has a significant base that makes up in what it lacks in numbers with passionate intensity.

    The challenge before Governor-elect Fayemi is to strive to unite Ekiti; to cater not just to his own base, but the entire electorate.  He must see his return to power as a mission of reconciliation, not revenge.  Without resorting to his predecessor’s cheap populism, he must be engaging.

    It is no surprise that the PDP has vehemently rejected the election outcome.  Weeks before Election Day, its well-oiled propaganda machinery had asserted over and over that the poll would be rigged by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the benefit of the ruling APC and the Federal Government.

    It even went so far as to alert the “international community” to that prospect, and to paint before the world an apocalyptic future for democracy in Nigeria. Having boxed itself into a corner, it has no alternative than to insist that the election was indeed rigged.

    Now it claims, with a fringe advocacy group, that it has iron-clad proof of election skullduggery that it will set out before the courts at the appropriate time.

    To which the APC and the Governor-elect and his supporters rejoin:  Bring it on.  That is to be preferred to Fayose’s lawless announcement of fake results of an election in progress.  That which could have plunged Ekiti into turmoil, or was most likely designed to achieve that very end, if the National Broadcasting Commission had not moved quickly to terminate broadcast.

    Even in the face of bitter disappointment, Fayose can still render a lasting service to the Ekiti people whose name he has taken in vain, and whose values he has desecrated with impunity, by ensuring a peaceful and orderly transfer of power, and by creating a climate in which Ekiti State can realise its potential and pursue its destiny.

  • Ekiti 2018: Fayose faults Buhari on Fayemi’s victory

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari for applauding and hailing the conduct of last Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election.

    Fayose said Buhari’s action of endorsing the poll he described as a “charade” shows that the President lacks democratic credentials and is not a democrat.

    Despite the defeat suffered by his deputy and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, Fayose said: “I hold my head high and I can never be suppressed.”

    The Ekiti governor was reacting to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, in which Buhari endorsed the victory of the governor-elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

    The statement conveying the Presidency’s reaction on the Ekiti poll was entitled “Fayose: In the end, a high-powered nothing.”

    Fayose, in his reaction through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, wondered why Buhari endorsed an election he alleged was marred by violence, use of brute force and harassment of PDP members.

    Fayose accused the Police, Army, Civil Defence Corps and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of criminal alliance to snatch the ‘mandate’ given to Olusola.

    He said: “President Muhammadu Buhari should not be happy and applaud this situation whereby the police, army, civil defence and INEC were used to snatch the collective mandate freely given to the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola and delivering it to the All Progressives Congress candidate which Ekiti people rejected.

    “Can you call that election? Of course not, it was a contest between Olusola and the INEC and security agencies.

    “There was indiscriminate arrest of our party leaders, harassment and brutalisation of voters in a massive scale especially in Ado, Ikere and others areas.

    “The thugs imported by the APC operated freely under the cover of security agencies to snatch ballot boxes, create confusion, cause mayhem and drive away voters in PDP strong holds. Our party agents were driven away with gun.

    “Buhari has demonstrated truly that he is not a democrat, but a dictator who is yet to get over military mentality. Muscling of democracy in Nigeria today by the Buhari administration is not about Ekiti alone.

    “Presidential aspirants and PDP states should prepare to have taste of brutality of this administration. This is why we all need to stand up to rescue Nigeria from Buhari.

    Read Also: Ekiti: We will reclaim mandate in court, says Fayose

    “I am Peter Ayodele Fayose, I hold my head high. I can never be suppressed. I don’t lose battles and I will not lose this. I will laugh last. Those waiting for me, will wait in vain.

    “They should remember what the prophet said to that heady king in the Bible, which applies to them. He that wears the armour should not boast as he that removes it.”

    “It is only Buhari that will pride himself with the security shooting sporadically at polling centres, scaring people to pave the way for the APC thugs to snatch ballot boxes.

    “What Buhari has won as referendum from Ekiti people, Nigerians, and international community is shame. If APC has truly won, why is it that there is no jubilation in Ekiti?

    “The victory of Kayode Fayemi is pyrrhic. We will reclaim the stolen mandate in the court by the power of God.”