He breaks the existentialist neurosis of political disorder that forces fanatical support for partisan platform that offers no prospect for life’s enhancement”.
“He shatters the historical animosity of the past to create a fresh momentum for a political culture that emphasises the mobilisation of divergent tendencies for a collective aspiration. He knocks the doors of erstwhile foes at dawn and comes back home cackling in his spirits, waking a new riveting consciousness that compels erstwhile worst enemies to drink from the same cup of unity”.
“A political surgeon of deft moral assay, he, like in the miracle in Cana of Galilee, rips the manacles, and turns Ekiti State hate-infested waters to the sacramental wine of love and amity.
That is Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), the innovative governor of Ekiti State who is everyday turning the sod for peace, to build a new state that thrives on communal fraternity for a virile and prosperous society”.
Through his virtues of ingenuity, such as imagination, adaptability, creativity, flexibility, and the ability to respond rapidly to unexpected situations, Oyebanji drew up imaginative new approaches to problems that have ailed the state over the years” –
I have quoted at this length from Wole Olujobi’s recent ‘Ekiti Council Poll As Litmus Test For Oyebanji’s Acceptability’ for two reasons.
Apart from being such a fascinating writer, the author of ‘Pen In The Furnance’, a copy of which sits resplendent in my library, Wole is unarguably an authority on Ekiti political evolution in the 21st century and, having held key positions in the state’s government, he writes from an unimpeachable knowlege of his subject; the reason he talks about “the problems that have ailed the state over the years”. Chief of those problems – political bitterness – is what engages us here today.
More germane to the instant, however, which is the second reason is the fact that Wole stepped straight into my former role as about the most consistent, and regular, chronicler of contemporary Ekiti politics. That fact needs further elucidation.
This column – for the first two years in the COMET – coincided with the second coming of the rambunctious, former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he, hand in hand with the Nigerian judiciary, thoroughly peppered Ekiti people, and turned our peaceful state to one of ‘one day governors’ and inchoate impeachments.
That was when the column emerged as a beacon of hope for our beleaguered people. However, because my colleagues in The Nation on Sunday did not know what salutary role the column was playing in the lives of Ekiti people, they branded me ‘ the ‘Ekiti Columnist’ since at least two out of three weeks, my article would be on political developments in the state.
So timely was it, especially in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, and at Igbara-Odo – Ekiti, in the house of our recently departed leader, Chief Akosile, throngs of Ekiti people would gather, after Sunday service, to have the column read aloud to them. Following morning, copies of the newspaper would be despatched to various parts of the state from the party headquarters in Ado -Ekiti, the state capital, to enable our people know that there was still hope in the courts despite PDP and President Obasanjo’s almost complete capture of the judiciary. That was a time when a slew of judges of Northern extraction were intentionally empanelled on all Election Tribunals in the Southwest to do President Obasanjo’s bidding. The period slightly predated Mama Iyabo’s ( a tribunal Chairman) disappearing abracadabra in Ekiti.
The column bravely and admirably gave succour to our people, by stoutly defending the people’s cause, and stood up to our opponents’ machinations, until the Appeal Court Ilorin, Kwara state, declared Fayemi winner on 15 October, 2010.
That judgment gladdened me a great deal because On Sunday, 23 May, 2010, I had written the article: “Why Justice Salami must assume jurisdiction in the Ekiti case” because he was obviously one of the few judges who could still stand up to President Obasanjo.
I digress.
For us in Ekiti, it was just as well that Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji won the Ekiti governorship election of 18 June 2022 in which many of the other candidates were key perpetrators of, or victims of political bitterness; both inter and intra party, as friends were known to have serially turned on friends. I personally inter- mediated some of these, but sorry to say, there still were some who did not exchange greetings in years.
The bitterness, indeed enmity, which Governor Oyebanji has hopefully ended was so deep and entrenched, supporters of some of the leaders could have killed for their principals without batting an eyelid if asked to do so.
He appears to me to have, a priori, that is, before becoming governor, personally, decided never to inherit anybody’s enmity; an enmity that has torn apart the friendship, and mutual respect which had subsisted within the Ekiti young political elite, nearly all of who were members of Club E – 11, until politics scattered that very impactful association.
In consequence, a political elite on which Ekiti had invested great hopes soon became so splintered that for a very long time, mutual bitterness became the defining element in the state’s politics with huge negative consequences.
It will, however, be a lie from the pit of hell to say there were no development in the state in those years but even the most impactful of our governors would confess that he could have done much more were the atmosphere conducive.
What the governor has done, as captured by Olujobi above, and how he has, almost miraculouslly healed the land by extending a hand of friendship to all, across political divides, unarguably proves more than my thesis that he is only a synthesis of the two governors with whom he worked the most, namely: governors Otunba Niyi Adebayo, easy going and too focussed to waste any time holding grudges against anybody, and the pragmatic Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is busy trying to extend the frontiers of knowlege and its application to society’s development via his multi – sectoral engagements, home and abroad.
I concluded the article – ‘BAO: An Apple Does Not Fall Far From The Tree’ of 15, October, 2023 writing as follows: “In conclusion, I commend the governor for internalising, not only his good home upbringing, but for also bringing to bear on governance, everything he learnt at the feet of his two remarkable bosses. Indeed, of a truth, an apple does not fall far from the tree”.
I also wrote in the same article: “For Ekiti state as a whole today, there is unbelievable peace; a state of affairs for which we Ekitis are all obligated to the gentleman governor in the saddle. Completely across board, and irrespective of political party, BAO has extended a hand of not just fellowship, but of distinct respect to all Ekiti and, in particular, to many Ekiti titans who, for decades, were bitter political enemies”.
Rather than see him then simply as a synthesis of two bosses, I will slightly modify that and offer the following as the factors that dictated his path.
Having been long involved in the affairs of the state, indeed straight from it’s very creation, the governor must have watched, in awe, as to how a total lack of unity among our young political leaders negatively impacted the state; especially its overall development, and (he) must have promised that he would do everything to change that trajectory of mutual hatred if he ever had the opportunity God has now given him. Also in order to fundamentally effect that change, he must have equally promised to inherit no negative political vibes from any quarters, and to do that effectively, he must have drawn from his home Christian upbringing, honed on what Christ described as the second great commandment in Matt. 22:v 39: “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”.
In my view, it is on that solid basis that he must have permitted himself to be further impacted by Governor Ayo Fayose’s love for all, without malice or any pretensions, whatever, as well as Governor Oni’s humility, without any airs at all, because, in and out of office, Governor Oni remains his quintessential self – a gentleman.
A combination of all these attributes is what I believe that Governor Oyebanji has brought to the table, complete with his own now, well known, quiet disposition, and strong determination, to see Ekiti develop during his own administration.
Just as well, then, because Ekiti could barely have survived another 8 years of the meretricious experiences it has endured, especially, since the return to democracy in 1999 when our political leaders did not find it possible to agree on single subject across party lines.
It was more like a generational curse because everything was, unfortunately, reduced to politics, bitter politics and much more bitterness.
Concluding , therefore, as we inch towards Christmas, I urge all of us Ekiti, to approach the throne of mercy pleading, that He, in whose memory we celebrate the season, will grant us our innermost wishes chief of which is that the present all – round peace pervading our state will endure. Also, that the good Lord will continue to give our governor, his family, our people and Nigerians in general, good health, and the wherewithal, to survive these very hard, and harsh times, which the President, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is doing everything to turn around for the better.
Amen.
