Tag: Fayose

EKITI State governor, Ayo Fayose, was in a buoyant mood last Monday when he addressed beneficiaries of his government’s N5,000 monthly stipend. Recalling that his tenure would expire next year, he asked his audience to think of Lagos State when they head for the poll next year. Lagos State, he said animatedly, always voted for continuity and consequently enjoyed tremendous economic development. Voting for someone of a different political party, the governor suggested, could jeopardise the development of Ekiti.

Hear Mr Fayose: “Continuity is vital. Look at Lagos. No, I don’t belong to All Progressives Congress (APC) and I won’t belong there. But when we see something good, we should say it. Look at what continuity has done for Lagos. The state has been progressing because a particular party has been in government there. We need such in Ekiti.”

He was not done. “That is why I am calling for your support in the next election. We don’t want a governor that will not be there for the people. We need a governor that will not be far from the people; someone that can relate with you at Ilejemeje when you call, one that can dash down to Emure when you need him. We don’t want a foreign governor that will be saying he has a meeting with Obama.” It is not clear which foreign governor he was referring to, nor why someone who knew former president Barack Obama or current president Donald Trump would prove a disadvantage to Ekiti.

Then he concludes: “…You are the ones that will choose who you will support and vote for in the general election. When a wrong person is appointed he will destroy all the good works we have done. Never should a wrong person that will leave us in debt be appointed again.” Perhaps on some fortuitous tomorrow, Mr Fayose will adumbrate ‘the good works we have done’ and have the courage to clearly indicate ‘the wrong person that will leave us (Ekiti) in debt’ again. For now the governor has spoken in codes, and his people have probably understood him.

Apart from his innuendoes, one major fact emerged from his address to the stipend beneficiaries: his talk of continuity which Lagos State has seemed to perfect. If it is granted that that continuity has helped Lagos considerably, surely Mr Fayose is sensible enough to know that other factors relating to that continuity are even more important than the mere fact of continuity. There is crucially the factor of the human foundation of that continuity, and even more transcendentally, the factor of the ideas undergirding that foundation. Mr Fayose needs to be able to decipher both the role of the foundation and its ideational leitmotif in order to appreciate what happened and are still happening in Lagos. It is only after he has understood these things that he can determine whether he fits the bill and can be trusted to point the direction, and of course the successor, to the state.

It is easy to quote and enthuse about parallels. Yes, the Lagos parallel is brilliant. But does Mr Fayose understand it? It was not just enough that Lagos had a brilliant and futuristic foundation/blueprint in 1999, one that paid great attention to financial re-engineering and ideological and bureaucratic signposts, Lagos also yearned for that foundation, particularly the leader that personalised it, to possess an uncanny ability to identify a great successor. And that successor must prove both relevant and adequate for the times. The all-important question to ask Mr Fayose is where is that foundation in Ekiti that he has laid, and is it coherent and consistent with the lofty principles of economic and social development? Does he think he has competently personalised that foundation?

Both in his first and second terms in office, Mr Fayose has not given any indication of being that watershed, nor of possessing the visionary idea a state like Ekiti needs. He has not re-engineered the finances of the state nor shown the discipline to adhere to the futuristic principles by which he expects Ekiti to shine like a million stars in a decade or two to come. Mr Fayose is in fact destitute of ideas and lacking in both balance and intellectual rigour. If Ekiti is to seek continuity, the state must perceive that he has laid a great foundation they can connect with, and propounded the ideas they can take possession of and sell enthusiastically to one another.

Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has hinted of his readiness to quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over factional crisis.

He displayed new campaign buses, with no PDP name and logo, fuelling speculations he had perfected plans to defect to another party.

The buses have the following inscriptions: “Support Continuity 2018, Fayose Wherever You Go, We Will Go”; “Ekiti 2018…Continuity, Fayose Leads, We Follow.”

Buses, including a 35-seater Toyota Urvan and an 18-seater Toyota Hiace, otherwise called Toyota Hummer bus, are parked on the premises of the Government House.

The buses, painted lemon green, are embossed with the picture of a smiling Fayose wearing a black “danshiki” with red embroidery, waving.

The governor, who hosted students and youths yesterday at the Government House, said he would not wait a day longer in PDP if his faction lost at the Supreme Court.

Many of the students, who were attracted to the Government House by Fayose’s promise to give the first 300  laptops, went home disappointed when the promise was not fulfilled.

The governor promised to organise a raffle draw to select the laptops’ winners.

He said: “I’m still a member of PDP and the chairman of its Governors’ Forum. There are no two sides to it.

“But the strategy for 2018 election is my business. No law says I should not run on the platform of another party if PDP is no longer a right direction.

“If they are bent on destroying PDP, let them go ahead. I will never have anything to do with Senator Sheriff. The party is like a vehicle and the vehicle can’t be more important than the driver.”

PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman Makarfi has said he did not ask any member to defect.

In a statement yesterday, he said: “Our attention has been drawn to a story that we advised members to defect. It becomes necessary we issue a statement because of the rumours spreading that we have directed people in Lagos State to vote for APGA. We never did so. It should be noted that we at the national level have never asked anyone to defect to another party.”