The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Governor Ayo Fayose

  • Seven is a number

    Absurdity has reached new heights in Ekiti State under Governor Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is beyond belief that seven PDP members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, in a move that turned the Constitution on its head, ostensibly passed the state’s 2015 Appropriation Bill into law despite the clear lawlessness of the act. That the lawmakers conducted themselves in a dishonourable manner cannot be in doubt because they did not form a legal quorum in the 26-member legislature.

    It is unsurprising, and indeed appropriate, that the embattled Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, described the empty show as “one in the series of comic tales by farcical politicians holding the reins of governance in Ekiti State.”  Omirin and 18 other APC members of the House of Assembly are currently fighting to re-establish sanity in the legislature after their dramatically undemocratic marginalisation and the emergence of a dubiously dominant group of lawless lawmakers.

    It is interesting that the power-backed seven reportedly approved N80.94 billion as budget, which was about N160 million higher than the figures presented to them by Fayose. The governor’s proposal was N80.77 billion. The group leader, Dele Olugbemi, was quoted as saying, “We decided to increase the budget estimate not for any reason but to prove that we are independent.” The difference in the figures was said to be for fixing the leaking roof of the Assembly complex. Even allowing for the benefit of the doubt, considering the ugly history of large-scale official corruption in power circles across the country, it might not be out of place to smell a rat in the narrative.

    Also, there was something fishy about comments credited to Fayose who spoke to journalists at the Murtala International Airport, Lagos, on his return from a foreign trip. Speaking about the 19 legislators who are in his administration’s bad books, Fayose was quoted as saying, “The Speaker just called me recently and asking for their Christmas gifts. I told him they should collect from Lagos and Osun State governments or the Speakers of those states.” Isn’t it food for thought that Fayose referred to Omirin as Speaker, suggesting that Olugbemi is merely being used for the spoiler’s role?

    Again, even allowing for the benefit of the doubt, considering the mud-slinging that has marked Fayose’s approach to governance, his remarks are more likely to be a continuation of the smear campaign against the opposition. It sounds far-fetched that the lawmakers on the other side would approach him for Yuletide presents, knowing full well that he is the kind of character who would readily use such a move to score political points.

    Fayose further said: “But in my state, you were elected by some people and the people had read the riot act to them that they will not come and destabilise the state. If you attempt it, the power of the people will rise against you because their power is higher than those of us who are in power.”

    No one is fooled by Fayose’s democratic posturing. The 19 beleaguered legislators are themselves representatives of the people, and their exclusion through undemocratic means is a reflection of megalomaniacal politics.

     

    •This article was first published on January 8

  • PDP: we ‘ll stand by Ekiti governor

    THE leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the impeachment move against Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, saying the party will stand by the embattled him.

    A statement yesterday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, described the impeachment notice served the governor by the state’s House of Assembly as “emerging height of political recklessness”.

    The PDP called on Nigerians to stand up against what it termed “anti-democratic tendencies” and “senseless and unpatriotic impeachment move” against Fayose.

    “The PDP totally and unequivocally rejects the flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations concocted by the APC legislators against Governor Fayose. We state in very clear terms that we will stand with him and bear our full weight in defence of the mandate freely given to him by the people of Ekiti State,” the statement said.

  • You can’t talk about Rule of Law, APC caucus tells Fayose

    The Action Group of the Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday that Governor Ayo Fayose lacked the moral right to talk about the rule of law.

    It was reacting to calls by the governor that the people should rise for him following the impeachment notice he and his deputy, Olusola Eleka, got from the state lawmakers at the weekend.

    The group’s reaction entitled: “Fayose must do equity before asking for equity”, reads: “The Action Group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked Governor Ayo Fayose to first do equity before asking for equity.

    “In a statement by its spokesman, Segun Dipe, APC Action Group wondered why the erring governor has been crying foul when he himself was impunity personified.

    “The group argued that Fayose cannot at this point be talking about law and legality when he had dealt a big blow by his many constitutional infringements.

    “It urged all Ekiti sons and daughters to ignore Fayose’s false alarm and see his looming impeachment as good riddance to bad rubbish.

    “Ekiti is bigger than Fayose and Fayose, Mr. Impunity is unfit to govern Ekiti State.

    “Fayose wants to come to equity with soiled hands, said the group in its reaction to the various inciting statements he made on the programme “Meet Your Governor” where he was whipping up sentiments regarding his looming impeachment.

    “Or has he forgotten that G19 APC lawmakers that he has been hounding from performing their legislative functions were also representatives of their people?

    “It is, therefore, laughable for Fayose to have described  illegal, the notice of gross misconduct and abuse of office issued to him by the  Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, and the group of 19 APC lawmakers.

  • ‘Baby Doc’ Fayose: usurper, propagandist, despot

    ‘Baby Doc’ Fayose: usurper, propagandist, despot

    Justifying the coup he plotted and executed in the Ekiti State House of Assembly last Thursday, the same day a similar madness was unfolding in Abuja, Governor Ayo Fayose claimed the leadership of the assembly had abandoned work. He was uninterested in what the constitution says, or the fact that he virtually drove the lawmakers out of town. Seven lawmakers out of the state’s 26 lawmakers could unseat Speaker Adewale Omirin and other legislative leaders, the governor and his rebel lawmakers argued. They also suggested that the circumstances of their rebellion and the continuing opposition of the APC lawmakers to the governor were more salient than the issue of whether or not seven members formed a quorum when they sat, or whether or not the constitution supported their actions.

    Mr Fayose’s style is straight from Nazi book of propaganda. First demonise the victim using the most dismal forms of misinformation and disinformation, then savage him by unconscionably distorting the law and constitution, and then finally keep the electorate tethered to lies and sated on a diet of sweeping propaganda, creating a siege mentality and predicating subsequent subversion of the constitution on the victims supposed sins. After Mr Fayose was sworn in I had thrice attempted to draw the attention of Ekiti to the style of their governor and the complex he suffered from. But somehow, they had convinced themselves that the state’s enemy is somewhere in Lagos, as the governor alleges, and the resources of the state are plundered by that unseen and distant enemy.

    Having found the formula efficacious, Mr Fayose is likely to deploy it in all its bitter severity until the state is fed up with his atavism, the upheavals he is stirring, the decay enveloping the state’s democratic and judicial infrastructure, and the extension of his abuse of power to include his erstwhile supporters. Recall that he began his manipulation of the state even before he won the election and before he was inaugurated. He made a bogey out of APC leaders and accused former governor Kayode Fayemi of kowtowing to them in Lagos. He also accused Dr Fayemi of building a palatial mansion and founding a university in Ghana at the expense of Ekiti people. Once he won the election, and knowing he had neither a programme to govern nor the acumen to offer civilised leadership, he began to inflame the Ekiti mob, priming them for attacks against his enemies. Soon he was marshalling an attack on the judiciary, virtually intimidating them into silence. And he has now turned his gaze on the legislature to weaken it and destroy it by a series of intimidating measures. Rather than build Ekiti and make it a pride among states, he is set on destroying its image, dividing its people and wrecking whatever is left of its weakened institutions.

    Mr Fayose, at his inauguration and at other fora, said he was a changed man, sobered by age and his Christian ethic. His government, he promised, would be inclusive, and he would offer Ekiti the leadership it yearned for and probably deserved. Mr Fayose has not only refused to change; his inchoate ethos has in fact considerably declined, even as he has exhibited none of the wisdom and temperament that come with age. If he has any Christianity in him, in view of the spectacular thanksgiving he offered after his inauguration, it is not clear which verses of scriptures he rests it upon. He has mutated into the worst fascist any state can produce, and has become a propagandist and cruel and cynical manipulator of the people’s ignorance. He is cynical enough to continue to feed Ekiti the nauseous diet of fear of outside attackers, and he will stop at nothing to destroy those who oppose him. He will cast his enemies as stooges of Lagos money power, and his opponents and media critics as agents of destabilisation. He will create an atmosphere of fear and resentment, pitting Ekiti people against themselves, and setting the stage for the most pernicious attack on common sense and other symbols of Ekiti civilisation.

    But Mr Fayose, who reminds us of the sybaritic dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, will soon exceed even his own theatricality. Perhaps, then, Ekiti will finally wake up to the political nightmare they have brought upon themselves with the connivance of credulous Yoruba politicians and activists battling their own private demons and nursing their pet jealousies.