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Tag: Kayode Fayemi

  • That Fayose-Bamidele entente cordiale

    That Fayose-Bamidele entente cordiale

    One of the distinguishing features of the June 21 Ekiti governorship poll was the unprecedented collaboration between the supposedly progressive politician and House of Representatives member, Opeyemi Bamidele, and the Governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose, the conservative who passes himself off both as a progressive and pragmatist. Before the poll, the two entered into a gentleman’s agreement to join forces to help Mr Fayose sweep the poll. The agreement was disseminated in hushed tones, but reporters still got wind of it, and attributed the woeful showing of Mr Bamidele in the election to the fact that he had surrendered his goodwill to Mr Fayose’s cause.

    If anyone doubted the existence of the entente cordiale or its potency, Mr Baimdele himself gloatingly told a newspaper last week that among the reasons Governor Kayode Fayemi lost the election was his unbridled pride. But if so-called progressives could smother one another in this fashion, like a husband who slept with a whore to punish his wife, then they are in more trouble than they imagine. And judging from Femi Fani-Kayode’s volte face – apostasy, some say – we must ask how on earth progressives recruit politicians into their leadership cadre?

    In 2015, Mr Bamidele will likely have his path to the Senate paved by Mr Fayose, except he chooses something more exotic, something more mercantilist. By coming out openly to identify with Mr Fayose, he has indicated a permanent split with his erstwhile political family, a family that I have always argued is held together by the most tenuous of threads. More, the new conservative cum pragmatic alliance in Ekiti all but exemplifies the difficulty in assigning ideological colouration and conviction to Nigerian politicians. The leading political parties, especially the PDP and the APC, are still roughly cast in ideological colours, and mouth programmes along lines that show their leanings. Not so the politicians themselves. They migrate very liberally across the divides and flirt as expediently as their whims carry them, incommoded by our protestations and outrage.

    The greater burden is on the APC, given its proselytising tendency, to firm up its ideological disposition and scrupulously vet those it admits into its leadership. The PDP basks in its expansive disposition to welcome everyone irrespective of his background and conviction. The APC cannot hope to match the PDP on that all-comers’ turf. It must rely on its distinguishing properties, its intuitive embrace of political morality, its instinctive and adaptable humanism. As its politics in Ekiti showed, the APC has not always got its priorities right, nor has it found ways to concretise its philosophy of governance, let alone stay faithful to the ideals of its founding. It must urgently address its mistakes if the Ekiti poll and all other prospective entente cordiales are not to turn its momentary defeat into a permanent rout.

  • We’re not worried about Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    We’re not worried about Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    THE Ogun State All Progressives Congress (APC) is not worried about the loss of the party’s candidate, Governor Kayode Fayemi n June 21 Ekiti governorship election, it said yesterday.

    Its publicity secretary, Mr. Sola Lawal, in a statement, said the party was confident that verifiable infrastructural rebirth effected by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun administration in Ogun would always be translated into electoral victory.

    It debunked suggestions that the Amosun administration embarked on panicky welfarist measures following the trouncing of APC in Ekiti State, saying that recently executed policies were earlier planned.

    “For instance, the public distribution of severance gratuity cheques to more than 200 past political office-holders by the administration on Tuesday June 24, barely 48 hours after the Ekiti election, could not have been planned, processed and executed in such a limited period of time if it was informed by the outcome of Ekiti election,” the party stated.

    APC said the governor noted that the exercise was delayed by the insistence of his administration to ensure payment of backlog of pension and gratuity of civil servants before turning to past political office-holders.

    The party stated that the interactive parley the governor had with civil servants the following day could not also have been informed by the Ekiti electoral saga, since the event was part of the Civil Service Week that ran from June 16 to 22.

    It added that other items on the week-long event, included tour of government projects and friendly football tournaments.

    “Similarly, the Civil Service Week also featured hand over of 200 units of affordable houses to civil servants in the state in furtherance of the administration’s policy of promoting better standards of living for civil servants.

    “No magic could have achieved this barely two days after Ekiti if the idea was a stampeded reaction to the election in question,” the party said.

    According to the APC, the Amosun administration, since assumption of office, has always paid salaries promptly, including the extra one month salary every December – a feat never achieved by any past administration before him.

    The party also observed that the administration had committed itself to clearing of backlog of pensions, leave bonuses, allowances and areas of salaries ever since assumption of office, adding that workers’ subsidised transportation scheme has become operational more than a year ago.

    “On the educational front, massive investments in schools’ infrastructure, such as intra-school road network and new modern classrooms have been effected, while bursaries have been astronomically increased and promptly paid apart from scholarship and grants to challenged students,” the party concluded.

     

  • We’re not worried over Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    We’re not worried over Ekiti poll, says Ogun APC

    THE All Progressives Congress (APC), Ogun State Chapter, has denied being worried over the loss of the party’s candidate, Governor Kayode Fayemi to Mr. Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in last month’s Ekiti governorship election.

    Its publicity secretary, Mr. Sola Lawal, in a statement, said the party was confident that verifiable infrastructural rebirth effected by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s administration in Ogun would always be translated into electoral victory.

    It debunked suggestions that the Amosun administration embarked on panicky welfarist measures following the trouncing of APC in Ekiti State, saying that all recently executed policies were earlier planned.

    “For instance, the public distribution of severance gratuity cheques to more than 200 past political office-holders by the administration on Tuesday June 24, barely 48 hours after the Ekiti election, could not have been planned, processed and executed in such a limited period of time if it was informed by the outcome of Ekiti election,” the party stated.

    APC said the governor pointed out that the exercise was delayed by the insistence of his administration to ensure payment of backlog of pension and gratuity of civil servants before turning to past political office-holders.

    The party stated that the interactive parley the governor had with civil servants the following day could not also have been informed by the Ekiti electoral saga, since the event was part of Civil Service Week that ran between June 16 and 22.

    It added that other items on the week-long event, included tour of government projects and friendly football tournaments.

    “Similarly, the Civil Service Week also featured hand over of 200 units of affordable houses to civil servants in the state in furtherance of the administration’s policy of promoting better standards of living for civil servants.

    “No magic could have achieved this barely two days after Ekiti if the idea was a stampeded reaction to the election in question,” the party said.

    According to the APC, the Amosun administration, since assumption of office, has always paid salaries promptly, including the extra one month salary every December – a feat never achieved by any past administration before him.

    The party also observed that the administration had committed itself to clearing of backlog of pensions, leave bonuses, allowances and areas of salaries ever since assumption of office, adding that workers’ subsidised transportation scheme has become operational more than a year ago.

    “On the educational front, massive investments in schools’ infrastructure, such as intra-school road network and new modern classrooms have been effected, while bursaries have been astronomically increased and promptly paid apart from scholarship and grants to challenged students,” the party concluded.

     

  • Ekiti 2014: A post mortem

    Ekiti 2014: A post mortem

    Eleven days on, it seems we haven’t done nearly enough of the post mortem on Ekiti gubernatorial polls, and certainly not least, the President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘guided’, garrison democracy which formed a major part. Long after the incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi of the APC conceded defeat to his opponent, Ayodele Fayose of the PDP, pundits of different shades and hue, would appear far from done with theorising on how the battle was won and lost. Just like a good friend from the Land of Honour tried, over the weekend, to ‘sell’ the so-called ‘Zimbabwe model’ now spreading like wild-fire, I confess that some of the emerging theories have opened vistas in political sociology that yours truly cannot claim to be schooled in, and hence thoroughly ill-equipped to even comment upon!

    The much that I can aver at this time is that the election appears to have validated the rather disturbing thesis that a passable electoral outcome should suffice to render the means – fair or foul – legitimate. I refer here to the build-up right up till the election day, particularly the widely reported cases of intimidation of APC’s Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, and the grounding of the aircraft which would have ferried Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State to join his colleagues in the Ekiti State capital – all on the eve of the election.

    Taken together with the estimated 30,000 boots unleashed on the people in an election in which barely half a million actually voted, the nation is at once let into the into the inner sanctum of the Jonathan’s guided process. That is why I couldn’t agree more with The Nation’s columnist Gbogun Gboro when he described the exercise as ‘tainted’. I would in fact wager that it was worse given what I consider as the needless show of muscle by the security agencies. In this, the good people of Ekiti at least have a lot to be thankful for that no heads were broken by the invading army.

    All said and done, the people of Ekiti can reasonably claim to have made their choice. What remains ‘live’ is the debate as to how our compatriots from the Land of Honour could have fallen to the seduction of a supposedly morally-challenged individual over an incumbent generally credited with sterling performance.

    And if it counts for anything at all, the dominant thread appears to be that the people have resolved their preference for the democracy of the stomach as against development.

    To begin with, I do not want to be uncharitable as to join in the stomach infrastructure-trumps-good-governance chant. First, I consider the explanation not only reductionist, but one capable of undermining any real prospects of understanding of the other factors behind poor electoral showing of APC in the poll. Here, my main concern is whether the APC as a party is prepared to understand the message underlying the loss outside of that one-liner explanation of ‘stomach infrastructure’.

    This is where last week’s intervention by Governor Babatunde Fashola has become relevant particularly his rather interesting attempt to frame the dillemma in terms of stark choice between development and the seduction of populism.

    This was how the governor framed the dillemma: “Developmental work is difficult to initiate and to execute. And developmental work that brings on change which is what every election ask for, will also from time to time occasion debates and policy thrust. And which legitimately must be criticised… But it must be a very dangerous message to simply suggest that once you give people money then this is the way it will happen. It is frightening for me in a democracy”.

    He then asked: “Should we just be giving money and when people ask about security, we say that we have given you money, go and rent your own security? When people ask for healthcare, we say that you have collected money. Is that the model for development?”

    And finally: “But to simply suggest that All Progressives Congress (APC) states where a lot of development is taking place; the road to winning power and we want to keep power and I am not pretentious about that. We want to remain in power but to suggest to us that in the aftermath of this, that the way to do that is to give money, for me it is a very worrisome lesson to learn”.

    Let me start by saying that I find nothing fundamentally disagreeable with the premise of Governor Fashola’s dilemma. However, as attractive as it seems, it certainly would amount to a grave misunderstanding to frame the Ekiti issue within the narrow alley of development versus stomach infrastructure – even if one concedes that the latter indeed, played a good part in the election. This is where I find the spirited attempt to rub the matter of “wrong” choice on the voters as not only unhelpful but capable of breeding resentment for the party among the people.

    Perhaps, the fault lies as much with the media as it is with the Ekiti political elite which appear to have promoted the choice as one between the two. As one governor that has blazed the trail in matters of development – and who has since supplied a worthy template for other APC governors to follow – Fashola is probably entitled to be disappointed as many Nigerians, including yours truly, who believe that Governor Fayemi deserves a reward – and not a censure – for exemplary performance. But then, that is what democracy is all about – the right to be wrong!

    In the situation, what should be more paramount at this time is the understanding of what went wrong! Surely, by every account, the governor did well. Indeed, the general opinion is that his administration delivered real value for every kobo spent. Was it a case of governance leaving the electors behind? Was it one of alienation of the organs of the party? Or communication, as some appears to suggest? There is great merit in finding out.

    Hard as development is to define, it is even harder to achieve. Ask Lee Kuan Yew, the man credited with Singaporean miracle. If his country is pejoratively described as nanny state, it owes mostly part on the tough choices forced on them by Yew and co. Today, Ekiti, Edo or Lagos, the APC has demonstrated that it is both capable and willing to make the difficult choices needed to make a difference to the lives of Nigerians. That is what makes them different. And that is what gives hope.

    Rather than occasion despair, the Ekiti experience might actually be a blessing of sorts – an opportunity to take stock. If only for its sake and the sake of the nation in dire need of rescue, we can only hope that APC finds the language to communicate the message without compromising its mission.

  • Ekiti: The morning after

    Ekiti: The morning after

    It is all over now in Ekiti, bar the wailing and the gnashing of teeth in Governor Kayode Fayemi’s camp, and the exuberant rejoicing in Governor-elect Ayo Fayose’s circle.

    There is no way to finesse or spin this one:  Fayemi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) took a comprehensive shellacking.

    No major public affairs analyst, among whom I number myself, saw this coming. This will therefore have to be accounted one of the most egregious failures of perception in the annals of political journalism in Nigeria.

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

    In the other we saw a challenger who had had his chance as governor and blown it spectacularly, a showboat and a con-artist whose idea of governance consists in stagingstunt 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.

    When we surveyed the field, we saw an electorate populated for the most part by sophisticated and discerning men and women of much learning – several holders of university degrees in every home, plus a formidable array holders of doctorates in every specialism under the sun, to say nothing of professors, of whom, household by household, Ekiti probably boasts the largest number in Nigeria.

    Given a choice between Fayemi and Fayose, surely, the learned, sophisticated 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.

    The only problem was that we analysts attended for the most part to people like ourselves; we read for the most part what they wrote and heard for the most part what they said.  So that, for all practical purposes, we did not see what was out there; instead, we saw only what we wanted to see, heard only what we wanted to hear and believed only what we wanted to believe about the candidates and the electorate.

    We were not “on ground,” to employ a peculiarly Nigerian coinage.

    That feeling first struck me when I saw the picture of the mammoth crowd at Fayose’s campaign rally with President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP’s grandees. Given Fayose’s reputation for pulling all manner of stunts, it was tempting to dismiss the throng as a rented crowd.  But if it was indeed a rented crowd, it must have taken a great deal of organisation and resources to put it together. And the people behind it could not be dismissed as inconsequential.

    As I drove through Ekiti en route Kogi six days to the election, the feeling that we analysts might have misread the Ekiti political terrain stirred somewhat. Many campaign billboards with pictures of the candidates had been vandalised. But billboards bearing Fayemi’s pictures seem to have been marked for special treatment. Was this the work of commissioned thugs, or an indication of public feeling toward him?

    But perhaps the clearest indication of the situation “on ground” came from a resident of Ekiti in the early stage of the vote count.  Fayose was going to win and win big, he said with the utmost confidence.

    What of his less-than-savoury first coming, especially the scandal-plagued Integrated Poultry Project that gulped billions of Naira without producing an egg, and the rusted remains of which are strewn over the countryside?

    “The people have forgotten,” he said.  “Those who haven’t forgotten don’t care.”

    By “the people,” he obviously meant the okada bikers, artisans, street vendors, shopkeepers, motor-part touts, unemployed persons who don’t know where the next meal will come from, or when, and of course rural dwellers.

    But Fayemi has transformed Ekiti through building new infrastructures and rehabilitating the old ones.

    “The people are yearning for infrastructure of the stomach,” he rejoined.

    What of the murder rap he is facing, arising from the killing of two political opponents?

    “Even if Fayose were to kill off one-half of the population, the other half would still vote for him,” he said.  “They love him.  They adore him.”

    Fayose himself would confirm this mysterious hold on “the people” when he said at his post-election interview that if he raised his hand high, they would cheer vehemently; if he lowered  the hand, the cheering would subside. And if he pointed in one direction, they would go in that direction.

    Is this what they call charisma?

    By whatever name, it is at once fascinating and disturbing. It was missing entirely from our analyses. And now, we have mud on our faces.

    We should be prepared for the taunts and the jeers of the other side, given the triumphalism arising from the Ekiti verdict and the vindictiveness that is their trademark.

    One of their standard responses is to dismiss whatever I write as the bidding of a “paymaster,” by which they obviously mean Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, feigning ignorance of the well-advertised fact that I earn my living as a university professor in the United States and need no “paymaster,” real or imagined, to practise my art and craft.

    Personally, I will not be surprised if, henceforth, they reflexively dismissed those of us who got Ekiti wrong as “failed analysts,” or even more damnably as “failed and discredited analysts.”  Some of them may pivot on the build-up to my 70th birthday to excoriate those “spent old men who should have long ago left the serious and exacting business of journalism to younger and fresher minds.”

    I hear you all.

    If there is any redeeming grace in this matter, it lies in recognising that the right to comment on public issues – indeed, freedom of speech itself – implies the right to be wrong, so long as one is not deliberately and irresponsibly wrong.

    I do not believe that those of us who called Ekiti for Fayemi were deliberately and irresponsibly wrong. We were wrong all the same; flat-out wrong.

    The Ekiti people have spoken. Those who do not like what they said must in the spirit of democracy respect their will, as must those who regard it as the triumph of style over substance.

    Fayose’s return to power eight years after he was disgraced out of office is one of the most amazing political comebacks not just in Nigeria but anywhere.  He deserves to be congratulated.

    His challenge is to prove as adroit in governing as he has been in vote harvesting.

    With Ekiti now back under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) umbrella, President Jonathan should for once redeem his pledge and unleash the Federal Might on the state, its transformational magic to work.

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

    ‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on preparations for the governorship poll, campaigns and violence as well as concern for free and fair election. Excerpts:

    You have gone round the towns and villages for campaigns. What has been your message to them?

    Basically to thank them for their support in the past three and a half years, to solicit their support in the coming election and to highlight what the government has been able to achieve, specifically in their communities and collectively for the state.

    Luckily for us, there is a track record that is palpable and tangible. When I get to any community, before I say anything, one of the things the royal father touches on is what we have been able to do to make a difference in the lives of his people.

    Of course, these are not wealthy communities in terms of material wealth but they have genuine intentions.  Government has helped by giving them money for what we call community projects specifically and they have been able to make a lot of difference in their communities.

    Then, of course, I tell them that this election is going to be about character, it is going to be about integrity, it is going to be between light and darkness  and the choice is with our people.

    I ask them, ‘do we want a government that is driven by integrity or we want a government that is   driven by people of low moral fibre, people that do not represent the values that Ekiti has been known for over the years, people who will not be accountable to them? And the reception has been great and I really must thank God and our people for that.

    Every single community that we have been to, we have not had a negative reception. We have had surprising reception in some places we visited feeling that because some opposition figures come from their, we would receive lukewarm reception. That has not been the case. The work of the government speaks for it everywhere we go.

    What will be your administration’s focus in your second term?

    The vision to roadmap to Ekiti recovery was to make poverty history in Ekiti   and, clearly, we have achieved a major dent on poverty; you can judge this from some of the results we are garnering from our social welfare initiative.

    This is a government that is ideologically rooted in social democracy; we believe that everyone cannot be for himself.

    We must have an unbreakable bond that enables society to strengthen itself and government has a responsibility to help the weak and vulnerable.

    You refer to the social security benefit scheme; you refer to our free education, our free health scheme. These are initiatives tied to our anti-poverty strategy and it has achieved a tremendous difference in Ekiti State.

    What we are now doing is not jettisoning any of those eight-point agenda. We are consolidating and strengthening them in a manner that they become a way of life. We want to do it in such a way that no government will come and say security is not my priority, I don’t have money for free education, I do not have money for free health care. We have used the last three and a half years to build infrastructure, but we now need to consolidate on that by focusing more on jobs for the people and that is why we are extending our coverage on education to ‘Ekiti Knowledge Zone, ‘ which is a free zone because education is our industry and we believe we can achieve a knowledge economy that is productive and can utilize a lot of the young people who have degrees but have no skills. We need to build them up.

    We are going to focus on employment and empowerment more than what we are doing now because we have 20,000  jobs, directly or indirectly, out there in the youth and commercial agriculture, in the volunteer corps and in our various initiatives.

    We have that but we believe that we can even elevate the kind of jobs we make available to our young people so that they will improve on their sense of self-worth. So you see a huge focus on employment, you see a greater focus in agriculture and an additional focus on tourism as vehicles for economic prosperity in our state.

    Then, we will of course not shy away from the education sector. However, we are going to introduce free meals in primary schools. Our enrolment in Ekiti is good, our enrolment figure is the highest in the country but we still feel that there is a lot of dots to connect in terms of nutrition of our young people so that they grow at the rate they are supposed to grow, their brain develops at the rate it is supposed to develop and we also create an economy around the feeding of our children who go to school.

    How have you steered APC members from eschew violence?

    As a rule, we do not get involved in violence in APC, we are very clear on that. We even developed a code of ethics which really makes our abhorrence of violence indisputable and equivocal.

    That we have done at the level of a baseline and this is the minimum irreducible for us. We held a mega rally and not one incidence of violence was recorded because we do not have a culture of violence and we do not tolerate it. However, even when you do not have a culture of violence and violence is brought to your door step by people who belong to other political tendencies, how do you restrain people from reacting when they are attacked? This is a challenge and it is a challenge I cannot tell you I have an answer to. I cannot continue to tell my people to turn the other cheek when they are being attacked. I am the governor; I could unleash massive force on many of these characters who do these things.

    If I were not to be the person I am, we would have really seen a degeneration even worse than some of the skirmishes you have noticed but because of who I am and because I believe leadership also calls for restraint, I have been a major restraining influence on my campaign, on party members, who are attacked unprovoked since almost a month that we have spent traversing the length and breadth of this state.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allegedly reduced the voters’ strength for both Ekiti and Osun states. Do you suspect any foul play?,

    Well, I do not know if there has been a reduction in the voters’ figure in Ekiti. I know that INEC released a figure recently and I know that the draft was released to parties and it is pretty close to what we used to have in Ekiti even in 2011.The voters’ figure is 762,000 or thereabouts and that is sizeable; even if those in that register vote, it would amount to a significant number.

    I know, however, that from what I have read in the newspapers and from what my own monitors have told me, from card collection across the local government areas, the collection rate is not what we would like it to be. We are closer to 60 per cent now.

    Our problem with the INEC is not that; our problem is the credibility of this Permanent Voter’s Card that has not been used without electronic readers and that is the point we have consistently made. As advocates of one man, one vote, the only way a Permanent Voter’s Card becomes interesting to some of us, is if it can be machine readable and that it can detect multiple voting, multiple registration and fake user of the card.

    That is the relevance of the Permanent Voter’s Card. If it is not going to be used in a manner that the Presiding Officers and the party agents can detect that ‘this card does not belong to Kayode Fayemi, so why is he using it?’, I do not see the big deal in a Permanent Voters’ Card.

    I think INEC should listen to us because if you cannot use a PVC in a machine readable manner for an election as tiny as Ekiti and Osun states, how are you going to pilot for 2015 when you now claim you want to use it?

    I do not find that believable, I do not find it credible and our party’s position is very clear, we have said it consistently that the only condition that would reduce the level of fraud in this election, is to use the machine because we have believable information that these PVCs are being cloned.

    These cards are like ATM cards. What is the beauty of an ATM card? If you have N500,000 in your account and you remove N20,000, the time you removed the N20,000 and the amount you removed is there. That is the beauty of the card reader. You cannot now come to your bank and deny that you did not take the money.

    So, this is common sense because almost every village has an ATM machine. When you put the card that they give you in your bank to use in an ATM, it records the time and the amount you collected money, it reduces it from your money in your account.

    This is what we are saying Professor Jega should do because these PVCs are like ATM cards. Why do people like treating us as if we are still in the stone age? It is only people who are afraid of genuine voters that would not want an electronic machine reader used for this election.

    Does that form part of your fears for this election?

    We have concerns; we do not have fears because we build scenarios. I am saying that this election will be easier fought, by all concerned, and it will give the INEC greater credibility, if they conform to the basis of issuing PVCs. The only relevance of the PVC is it enhances the credibility and integrity of the process and there is only way it can do that and that is if it is read by the machine. So, it is a concern, it is not a fear and the onus is on INEC to convince us as to why they cannot use the card reader.

    How many machine readers do they need for Ekiti and Osun states because the elections will not take place the same day? Let us assume they will need 3,000 machine readers, will that make them sacrifice the credibility  of the election? I believe it is in Professor Jega’s interest to listen to us because we are even his best advocates by insisting that things should be done properly.

    Former Governor Segun Oni has defected to your party. How do you see his support for you?

    What most people do not actually remember is that, of all the people who were on the PDP side, way back in 2007, the one person that I had the closest affinity to was Governor Segun Oni. It is not just because we were members of E-Eleven, a group of Ekiti stakeholders, but also because of his mien.

    I have had cause to tell people over the last few weeks since he moved over to us, that even in the heat of the moment when tempers were flaring all over the place, I never had a personal negative word against Governor Oni. I always talked about his party and his government and not him because I have always known him to be a decent person. This is not a contradiction.

    What he has even done now has really shown how much of a leader he is because he has gone beyond personal issues and pettiness. There are a lot of people who will not do things for you because you have gone to say hello to them in their house.

    Governor Oni has gone way beyond that and if you listened to his speech, it was the most impactful at our rally because it demonstrated sincerity, candour and not being petty. He said we are erecting a new platform and it is about the future of our children and our state, it is not about us. Nobody is perfect.

    It comes back to what I have been saying that this election is not going to be about performance because performance is not in doubt. Nobody challenges whether Fayemi has performed or not anymore, I think the icing on the cake is going to be about character.

    That is the point Governor Oni made in his remarks that character matters and, particularly in Ekiti, our people cherish integrity and they are not going to leave a gold standard to follow sand; they are not going to leave a dual carriage way and go into the bus.

    I can tell you that Governor Oni’s coming has shifted the dynamics in critical local governments, he remains a factor because you cannot be governor for three and a half years and not have anchors of people. So, on number base, it is a plus, on character  definition, no one can do a better job than him.

    As the election draws near, what are your expectations?

    My expectation from the police and security agencies is that they will do everything to protect the integrity of the election. I know that, once INEC has done its own job, the police and critical segments of the security agencies will be involved in protecting the integrity of the election. If they are not allowed to do their own responsibility, it can be a problem.

     

  • Fayemi takes to twitter

    Fayemi takes to twitter

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi yesterday took his final push for votes in Saturday’s election to twitter.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in seven tweets gave an outline of what he has done to deserve a second term.

    He tweeted:

    “Dear Ekiti people, it is four days to that day when we have to choose wisely. Let’s remember it’s one man, one vote as we cast our votes.

    “For almost four years now, my team and I missioned on restoring public confidence in government by putting the people first.

    “We put the people first in development planning and execution by interacting with them on what their NEEDS are.

    “We reformed governance on the basis of OPENNESS, TRANSPARENCY, SELFLESS-SERVICE, PRIORITY&ACCOUNTABILITY in the management of public funds.

    “The results are there for all to see in the programmes and social welfare that we have delivered on so far.

    “I am inspired by and urge those of you who strongly believe in the values of ‘honour’ and integrity to continue to cast your lot with us.

    “Those of us who are tested in guaranteeing the peace of lives and property in Ekiti, and who will keep making our resources work for us.”

  • Group takes campaign for APC candidate abroad

    Group takes campaign for APC candidate abroad

    A group, the Fayemi 2014 Group, has urged Ekiti voters to cast their ballots for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi on Saturday.

    It said Ekiti has entered a golden era during Fayemi’s first term in office and therefore, he should be re-elected to sustain the momentum.

    A statement by its convener, Adegboyega Dahunsi, said the Baltimore, United States (U.S.)-based group has taken the campaign for Fayemi around Europe.

    “Our first launching at Brooklyn, New York was welcomed with pomp and pageantry! The news got to Europe. It radiated in Belgium, Germany and London and far,” he said.

     

  • Deputy governor to voters: don’t be intimidated by security operatives

    Deputy governor to voters: don’t be intimidated by security operatives

    •Says soldiers, police deployed to protect lives

    THE Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu has urged members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and supporters of Governor Kayode Fayemi not to be intimated by the heavy presence of security operatives.

    The deputy governor, according to her Senior Assistant (Media), Bunmi Ogunmodede, gave the advice while addressing residents of Fiyinfoluwa Street, Isale Ori  Apata, Off Adebayo Road, Ado-Ekiti, who gathered to express their solidarity and support for reelection bid of Governor Fayemi.

    “The security operatives at the polling units are there to protect you and your votes. So, don’t be afraid to come out and cast your vote for Governor Fayemi on Saturday to enable him to continue the good work,” she told the crowd of party supporters.

    According to her, the operatives have been mandated to protect lives, guard the ballot boxes, give them adequate security to ensure that they are not vandalised or stolen by anti-democratic forces.

    Besides, the deputy governor said the operatives have been deployed in the state to deal with law-breakers.

    Mrs. Adelabu urged party faithful to conduct themselves peacefully as they go out to vote on the election day, even as she advised them to wait patiently till the end of the poll.

    Assuring them of the completion of all the ongoing projects in their domain, the deputy governor advised them to subject the food items being distributed by desperate politicians to laboratory tests to determine their suitability for consumption.

    She also told youths not to yield themselves as willing tools in the hands of do-or-die politicians to cause violence and perpetrate electoral fraud.

    Reacting, the Chairman of the Landlords and Residents Association in the area, Dr. Ayodele Joseph noted that the community has tasted democratic dividends under the Fayemi-administration through the implementation of electrification and road projects.

    He said the speed at which the government respond to the people’s requests has endeared it to the people, assuring that the residents will reciprocate by voting massively for the governor.

    Ayodele listed the interlocked road project, the replacement of the faulty transformer servicing the area and the renovation of the only school in the area as some of the landmarks of the administration in the area.

    Also speaking, a youth leader, Mr. Ojo Taiwo lauded the government for empowering the youths and for several other programmes that have been put in place to secure a better future for them.

    He said the youths cannot be deceived by desperate politicians, adding that “a vote for Fayemi is a vote that will guarantee a better Ekiti for all.”

  • Ekiti’s push for continuity

    Ekiti’s push for continuity

    Since March, governorship candidates have been campaigning in Ekiti State. Femi Odere, who has been on Governor Kayode Fayemi’s campaign train captures the push for continuity in the Fountain of Knowledge.

    He promptly responded to my text message that informed him I did not see him at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, our agreed meeting point, after my arrival at Ado-Ekiti. I was to join the entourage from the stadium for his campaign for re-election, an assignment I took upon myself. “Sorry Femi, I have left the stadium for my campaign. Please wait for me at the office” was his reply. The day was Tuesday, April 29,, 2014. Even though he had already told me over the phone the approximate hour he would be leaving the stadium to hit the road for the day’s campaign in the towns and villages of Ekiti (I arrived two hours late, a tardiness I blamed on the Julius Berger’s portion of the Lagos-Ibadan road construction), I found his somewhat apologetic tone in his text to be psychologically soothing. He’s that governor—although packed with so much power—whose mien disguises who he really is. He comes across as just a regular guy with his simplicity of appearance and his interpersonal communication. But beyond that lie this steely resolve and greatness that seems inevitable, judging from his accomplishments as the chief executive officer of the state and his intellectual endowment. He is Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti State. “Will do, Your Excellency” was my response. The day of my arrival was the delivery day of “Obirin Kete” at the Ado-Ekiti stadium, a brilliant concept conceived by his better half, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, the First Lady of Ekiti State.

    I was on my way to await the governor in his office when it suddenly occurred to me that it wasn’t going to be the best idea. I realised that I could be walking myself into a self-imposed incarceration of which I had no idea when liberation would come. Waiting for an important personality in Nigeria, not to talk of a governor out there on a campaign stump could be like Waiting for Godot. “What if he was so exhausted after the campaign – with its own physical exertion – and just decided to go home?””Why not ask him where he was so I could join him in order to begin in earnest the work that brought me here in the first place?” I ruminated on these thoughts for a few seconds. Convinced that was the best thing to do, I sent him another text about my willingness to join his campaign train “That’s good,” he replied. No sooner than I read his text that his call came in asking me where I was. “I am just walking into your office building, your Excellency.” “We’re at Gbonyin. That’s where I am campaigning today. You can join me there,”he said in that genteel, guttural voice that makes you feel like he’s your childhood friend.  “Ok, Sir.”

    I asked Ayo, my driver, in Yoruba how long it would take us to get to Gbonyin. An Ekiti indigene, “Oga, Gbonyin has so many towns. It is a Local Government Area,” Ayo lectured. “Maybe you need to call the governor again and ask him which town we should meet them,” he advised. “Where is the Local Government headquarters?” I asked. “It’s Ode-Ekiti.” “Well, let’s just go there. From there, the people should be able to tell us where the governor is campaigning,” I said, betting with myself that the governor’s campaign would be the only game in any Ekiti town anyway. But most importantly, I was already wary of being a distraction to the governor in the serious business of electioneering. We finally waited for Governor Fayemi and his campaign team at Egbe-Ekiti. It was now late in the afternoon.

    Like most towns and villages in Ekiti, Egbe looks aged and tired, judging from the archaic homes that dots the landscape with their corrugated iron roofing. The village looks askance and appears nonchalant to modernity. It sits at a distance from civilization as we know it. One gets the feeling that the village, by its rustic antecedents, may be quite allergic to the revelries often associated with political campaigns. You get the impression that its peace was being intruded upon and its tranquility disturbed.  It’s a village that seems not ready for prime-time, at least not on a short notice. The loud speakers at the campaign venue emitted the maximum decibels that could threaten the foundation of some of the mud houses. The village folks, who seemed to have suspended the everyday chores of their lives, danced back and forth, continually, through the length of the only paved road that runs through the village, in anticipation of the coming of their governor. The songs, seemed especially composed for Governor Fayemi, magnified his many accomplishments in the lives of the people of his state. They were in a state of ecstasy, with their APC Polo or T-shirts, some party supporters were lucky to complete their attires with fez-caps bearing the APC logos or the governor’s pictures. The ones not in party uniforms were mostly community elders, old women and children. They were much brighter with their smiles and traditional attires, sitting patiently to welcome the governor to their domain. As earlier predicted, the campaign was the only big thing in this village.

    On arrival, the governor went straight to the palace of the traditional ruler. As it would be observed later in the course of the campaign, this rite of passage is a matter of culture and protocol. The governor and some key party hacks in his entourage must pay the necessary obeisance before politicking. Although a few walking steps from the palace to the campaign arena, it took Governor Fayemi more time to get into the soapbox than the time it took to make his speech, because he was swamped by supporters and admirers hailing and singing his praises. After they finally arrived on the stage, the state chairman of All Progressives Party (APC) Chief Jide Awe said a few things to energize the crowd with party slogans and some carefully crafted monikers such as “O wi Bee, O se Bee” (He says it, he does it) and “Ko Duro Soke” (Let him remain up there). A couple of community leaders spoke to remind the people of the need to vote for Governor Fayemi. After all this the governor himself spoke. He appealed to the people for their votes, most of who are already his die-hard supporters and that of his party. In less than five minutes, the governor was done, having thanked them and enjoined them to come out on the day of election to cast their ballot. “Do not be deceived by the one whose poor performance record you already know. Say no to ‘omo akotile ta,’ he instructed.

    Aisegba-Ekiti was the next stop. “Ayo, let’s just go back to Ado. I think I will go and wait for the governor in the office after all,” I told my driver. “Why,” he asked. “Nothing,” I replied. But there was something. I skipped the stop at Aisegba-Ekiti for the simple reason that I was afraid somebody was going to ram his vehicle into mine. The driving was just too maddening for my liking. You slow down for the road bumps and vehicles a few meters behind you suddenly swarm on you menacingly on both sides forcing their way in your front. “These guys are maniacs,” I suddenly said to myself. “Why are they driving this way when we’re all going to the same place,” I complained to myself. As I later observed, the rear end of the convoy was more chaotic and crazy than the front end, which can somewhat be considered the governor’s personal space. The tail end is where you have a concentration of assorted drivers and human beings. The drivers on this end had simply left their brains at home. The police on this rear section was not different.

    Thinking that he may have been too tired after all to show up in his office, Governor Fayemi walked into his office at about 7.15 p.m. A different kind of work ensued shortly after the governor walked in. Party officials, cabinet members, some corporate suits and everybody in between had one meeting or the other with the governor throughout the night. Among them were his deputy Prof. Modupe Adelabu, the Director-General of his campaign organisation Hon. Bimbo Daramola and a few commissioners who brought in files for the governor. I was finally ushered into the governor’s office at midnight at exactly 12.25 am. “Sorry Femi to have kept you waiting,” he said as we greeted each other with that hard-slapping handshake. “I can understand, your Excellency,” I replied. “I think you need to go and rest. We will talk tomorrow.” The governor beckoned to the one that ushered me into his office to call someone to arrange my hotel accommodation. “I see you tomorrow, your Excellency,” I said as I shook his hand again. “I wonder if this governor sleeps in his office sometimes,” I thought to myself as I descended the stairs on the heels of the guy taking me to my hotel. People were still at his outer office past midnight still waiting to see Governor Fayemi.