Regular readers of this column may recall that several months ago I announced that reactions to this column should be no more than 300 words to have any chance of getting published in the column. I am sorry I am breaking the rule so soon, but I believe the significance of credible elections in Ekiti and Osun raised by the author and the clarity of his thinking justifies breaking the rule. I should, however, declare that the author, Chief Emenike, a veteran journalist, publisher and politician, is also a close friend.
Next week, God willing, I will publish some of the other reactions to my article. By Ikechi Emenike
Ace columnist Mohammed Haruna’s piece on Governor Kayode Fayemi’s chances at this month’s polls in Ekiti State provokes a closer look at the man’s inner motivation for seeking another shot at the Government House. How does Dr Fayemi view the essence of his mandate? What does it mean to serve the people?
Anyone in doubt about the meaning of “service to the people” should visit Ekiti State and engage any of the 25,000 beneficiaries of the social security scheme for the elderly. Every month, each senior citizen (over 65 years old) of this small South-western state receives a stipend of N5,000 from the state coffers to help cope with the ravages of old age.
Token though it may appear, the stipend is a life-saver for many senior citizens cut off from the state-run pension scheme, having not been on the public sector’s payroll in their more productive years. They all have Dr Kayode Fayemi, who only received the keys to the governor’s office less than four years ago after a protracted, bitter fight to reclaim a stolen mandate, to thank. The social security scheme is only one of Fayemi’s practical demonstrations that governance is about touching people’s lives. “Remove service to the people from my mandate and I would humbly tell you that I have no business in politics” is one of his insightful statements.
Now the man who eminent academic, Prof. Akin Oyebode, says has done virtually all he promised before the last election is asking for another term, to ring-fence, as it were, his people-driven programmes and make them the norm in Ekiti State. Any visitor to Ekiti today would attest that the people are eager to, with their votes, demand for four more years of Fayemi. The billion naira question, however, is: will Nigeria’s now thoroughly discredited electoral system redeem itself and allow the people’s will to prevail? I shall return to this vexed question shortly.
A practised strategist, Fayemi has approached the House of Assembly to back up the social security scheme by ‘locking in’ the benefits for the people by law, much like the UK’s National Welfare Scheme which has remained untouchable since 1945 in spite of numerous efforts to scale it back or scrap it outright.
He is a campaigner for the sustainability of sound projects. His administration has assiduously worked to clear the backlog of projects it met and in so doing, completed many road projects that were only 20 per cent done when Fayemi took the reins of power. He would be the first in the state’s 18 years of existence to treat government and governance as a continuum. “Government projects”, he says, “shouldn’t be considered personal projects”, which many an egotistical leader believe they are.
Dr Fayemi’s solid record as a civil society activist and board member of such organisations as the Open Society, Justice Society and Baobab for Women’s Rights would not permit him to be less alive to the people’s cause. The scholar in him blended with the street activist in the troubled days of the Abacha dictatorship. Fighting on the side of the people, Dr Fayemi was instrumental to the success of the opposition’s soft weapons of communication, such as Radio Freedom/Radio Kudirat that exposed the junta for the callous power usurper that it was. His encounter with such pan-Africanist leaders as Ethiopia’s the late Meles Zenawi impressed in him the moral imperative of leadership of service and people-driven development agenda.
When Dr Fayemi prioritised the upgrading of infrastructure, education, agriculture, gender sensitivity, the social sector and governance in his eight-point agenda for Ekiti’s development, he was merely building pro-people policies like his mentors did, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo included. He is on record as the first governor to endorse the Freedom of Information Bill and the first to publicly declare his assets alongside his late deputy. All these he did while maintaining an open-door policy, meeting the people on their turfs and welcoming dissenting voices with his now familiar gap-toothed smile.
Will the people of Ekiti remember Dr Fayemi come June 21 when they return to the polls?
Methinks they will, just as they have imprinted in their minds, the N5,000 stipend for elders; the N10,000 allowance for the 5,000-strong Ekiti Volunteer Corps members; the Samsung Centre established to promote ICT in the state; the enhanced pay/allowances for teachers in rural areas and how this has helped to lift the state’s school certificate success rate from 22 to 70 per cent; the YCAD programme that engages some 20,000 youths in viable commercial farming…The list is endless. Even his main rivals agree that he has performed, just as they shamelessly think up other means to ensure the people’s will does not prevail. One says that whatever Fayemi has achieved would not count in the elections, proclaiming that “we must remove him”. He is relying on thuggery and rigging. Another simply snapped: “So what?” But that one’s ship is sinking.
Try as they may, it is hard to see how the people of the Land of Honour will not queue behind a man who has been so faithful to his promises, come June 21. While Fayemi speaks of and works towards a future of transparency, good governance and prosperity, Ayo Fayose evokes retrogression, a fall-back to the bad old days of brigandagethe intelligent citizens of Ekiti would rather forget. In a sense, Ekiti 2014 may indeed turn out to be a contest between the past and the future.
Regrettably, in these climes things are not as straight-forward as they should be. I now return to the question of the fairness of our electoral umpire.
Last week, in devoting his popular column to the forthcoming Ekiti general election, Haruna posited that given his antecedent, Governor John Kayode Fayemi should ordinarily secure his second term quite easily. Like earlier commentators, the veteran journalist is worried about the role of INEC. He joined several other previous commentators to urge INEC to use electronic card reader for the election both in Ekiti this June and Osun in August. None of the parties is objecting (at least publicly) to the use of this device that is meant to weed out ghost voters and ensure transparency and fairness in the elections. The commission stands to lose nothing if it bends to this consensual demand. To say the least, INEC’s silence on this popular clamour is very worrisome.
INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega needs the Ekiti and Osun elections more than he is willing to admit. He came to office with so much goodwill following the woeful performance of his predecessor, Prof. Maurice Iwu. Four years into his tenure, he has virtually dissipated that goodwill on the platter of shoddy performance. He wobbled during the 2011 general elections, fumbled with the Ondo general elections and failed in the Anambra polls. At each turn, he presents bags of excuses even as he promises to umpire a better 2015 general elections. But any discerning observer would note that Jega’s voice is no longer as firm as it once was.
Fortunately, Ekiti provides a unique opportunity to begin a sorely needed redemption. If the electronic card-reader, as all stakeholders demand will assist INEC, prudence demands that it should be adopted.
It is also important for the INEC chairman to put aside his three-piece designer gowns for a workman’s gear and personally deliver on Ekiti. That is called leadership by example. His mere presence would check some of his recalcitrant and venal officers and place him smack at the centre of the action. Since 1999, INEC has been unable to deal with recurring complaints about shoddy distribution of electoral materials. The worst case was in the recent Anambra governorship election where materials meant for some local governments simply developed wings.
Jega would be well-served to lead a team of his top 16 commissioners to Ekiti and assign to each a local government for the purpose of distributing materials while the chairman himself takes charge of the central distribution centre in Ado-Ekiti and does the hand-over to the electoral commissioners personally and publicly, starting from 6am prompt. The process of distributing these materials should be broadcast live to enhance the credibility of the process and secure authentic real-time documentation of events, which may aid future forensic analyses. That done, electoral officers across the country and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s election processes will watch and learn from the boss how sensitive electoral materials are to be handled. Well executed, Ekiti 2014 will cause Nigerians to be less cynical about the conduct of the 2015 general elections.
