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Tag: Segun Oni

  • Ekiti poll: I’m on a redemption mission – Oni

    Ekiti poll: I’m on a redemption mission – Oni

    A former governor of Ekiti State,  Segun Oni, said on Wednesday his 2018 governorship election bid is a redemption mission and urged every progressive-minded person to be part of the process.

    He is eyeing the All Progressive Congress (APC) ticket for next year’s governorship election in Ekiti.

    Oni, who is also the Deputy National Chairman (South) of APC, spoke in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday.

    He said: “My re-election as governor of the state is on a mission of redemption and I urge everyone who sees himself as a progressive to join the train and be a partaker.

    “And for those who are yet to fathom how it will manifest, I will advise that they should be patient and be watchful because this is an assignment God has perfected and which no one can undo.

    “Blackmail can’t undo it. Let’s work together and face the task ahead to free the state from the stranglehold of its captors.

    “It is still strange to me that some people in APC believe that just any aspirant would do.

    “The correct position is that Ekiti State is hugely populated by residents of voting age and when we employ strategic thinking and approach, our party would regain power in the state.

    “We have a very good opportunity this time around and we must work together to get to our Uhuru.

    “Enough of anonymous newsletters and pamphleteering to disparage my person.

    “If they are yet to come to terms with the reality, with all intents and purposes I will be the next governor of Ekiti State by God’s grace.

    “Today, the popular candidate wins election, most especially in this our Ekiti.

    “The people can now see clearly and think wisely to decide who they want as their governor. Today, the electorate votes for one with the best name, integrity and image.”

    The former governor, however, queried attacks on his person, but quickly said: “he, who has head, must surely feel the pain of headache.

    “I am a factor in the APC, I’m not surprised at the daily attacks on my person. You cannot be the leading aspirant and expect not to be attacked.”

    NAN

     

     

  • Oni to Jonathan: Apologise to Nigerians for your corrupt govt

    Oni to Jonathan: Apologise to Nigerians for your corrupt govt

    Deputy National Chairman south of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Engr. Segun Oni also said that the former President should not be talking about what he did or failed to do concerning corruption. 

    He said the former President failed in his bid to fight corruption as there were no results to show for his efforts, saying he should just apologize to Nigerians for his failed efforts.

    He said: “I haven’t read his comment. But let me say that it is very unfortunate that a former President of this country will say that. There is the saying that there is no mark for effort. The only mark you get is for results. 

    “It does’t matter how much a man tried, if he does not have a result to show, what he should just do is to keep quite and that is what I will advice him to do as far as corruption is concerned. 

    “There is no mark for effort. Every mark is about result. What results did he get. The results are very shameful and he should not be talking about what he did or what he did not do on corruption. I think he should just be asking for forgiveness, ” Oni stated.

  • Fayose confused, afraid of his shadow – APC

    Fayose confused, afraid of his shadow – APC

    … Nigerians will resist plot to remove governor – PDP

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described Governor Ayo Fayose’s allegation of a plot by the party to collude with the judiciary to remove him as the “ranting of a notorious blackmailer, electoral robber, political harlot and pathological liar.”

    The party accused Fayose of crying wolf where there is none, saying the governor “is on a familiar terrain to save his head with such a pre-emptive blackmail as usual even though he knows the details of the crimes he had committed and has continued to commit against the nation.”

    In a statement issued on Thursday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the APC slammed Fayose for accusing his predecessors, Chief Segun Oni and Dr. Kayode Fayemi, maintaining that there was no meeting where the duo met with their supporters and boasted that he will be removed.

    While noting that Fayose was jittery and afraid of consequences of his many infractions on the law, Olatunbosun said Fayemi and Oni are “too decent and busy” in their assignments to engage in such frivolous boasts that Fayose is accusing them of.

    The APC spokesperson added that the track records of the two ex-governors as democrats and “Omoluabi” are there for all to see as opposed to Fayose’s hit-and-run and “bolekaja” reputation.

    Olatunbosun said Fayose was afraid of his own shadow as a “lawless misfit in the position of authority who has no respect for the supreme law of the country after his serial rapes on the Constitution but who is now jittery and as a result, has resorted to blackmail.”

    While clarifying that no case has been filed in the Supreme Court, the APC said no amount of blackmail can stop a party that is aggrieved from approaching the apex court to have a second look at the Ekiti election dispute after revelations from Capt. Sagir Koli’s audio tape, report by army panel and confessions of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) henchmen who allegedly participated in the poll crime.

    He said: “The same Segun Oni he went to visit at his country home with funfare recently is the same man Fayose is now accusing of plotting to remove him from office, which shows clearly that he is confused and suffering from hysteria.

    “Fayemi and Oni would rather busy themselves with the development of Ekiti instead of making Fayose, who has caused much embarrassment to himself and Ekiti people, their topic.”

    Meanwhile, PDP in Ekiti State has condemned an alleged plot by the APC to remove Fayose from power through the judiciary.

    The party said the alleged plot to oust Fayose would trigger “a crisis of monumental proportion that would be difficult for the Nigerian Army to curtail” if it is eventually carried out.

    In a chat with reporters in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday, state PDP Chairman, Gboyega Oguntuase, warned the alleged plot could lead to the collapse of the APC-led Federal Government if eventually executed.

    Oguntuase defended Fayose’s action of writing a petition to the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, in which he raised the alarm, noting that it behoves on the nation’s top judge to prevent the judiciary from being manipulated.

    He said it was wrong to believe that Fayose was playing to the gallery by raising alarm in his letter to the CJN, saying the action was to alert Nigerians that “democracy is in danger.”

     

  • Fayose haunted by his past – Oni

    Fayose haunted by his past – Oni

    Former Ekiti State Governor, Segun Oni, has accused Governor Ayo Fayose of raising false alarm over allegations that he (Oni) is part of an alleged plot to compromise judiciary to sack him from office.

    Oni, who is also the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), described Fayose as a comedian who will never stop entertaining Nigerians with wild allegations.

    He described the latest allegation as one coming from a mind gripped by fear of the unknown.

    Speaking through his media aide, Ayo Akinyemi, Oni said he has the utmost respect for the judiciary and would never indulge in any acts to bring the revered institution into ridicule and opprobrium.

    He said the purported meeting where he and the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, boasted to APC members of intent to enlist the judiciary for the alleged plot only exists in the imagination of Fayose.

    Oni said: “Fayose himself knows that no judiciary can remove him now because he enjoys immunity until the expiration of his tenure on October 15, 2018. He can only be investigated, so what is Fayose talking about?

    “Perhaps Fayose is afraid of facing the law after his immunity might have expired next year and that is why he is labouring now to spill the beans in anticipation of his doom. He is a drowning man trying to clutch the last straw and smear anybody.

    “In a normal setting, should he (Fayose) have contested for governorship in the first instance? This is a man having corruption cases hanging on his neck and was facing trial in the court.

    “This is a man accused of complicity in murder incidents that happened during his first tenure and it is unfortunate that our system allows a character like that to run for the exalted office of governor.

    “Now with series of allegations coming out on the way funds meant for purchase of arms were diverted to his campaign as revealed by his man, Dr. Tope Aluko and confirmed by Musiliu Obanikoro in his evidence before the court.”

     

  • Segun Oni’s blather

    Segun Oni’s blather

    IF there is any doubt what the President Muhammadu Buhari thinks of his leadership style in relation to the rule of law and the war against corruption, Segun Oni, Deputy National Chairman (South) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), dispels it. As a top leader of the party, he should know the goings-on in the party. More, he seems absolutely convinced of the rightness of their cause and the appropriateness of their methods. In his view, which he expressed enthusiastically to the press in Abuja recently, the rule of law is not only an inconvenience, it is also a hindrance that must be tinkered with or disposed of for a while.

    His view, which will be examined below, tallies with that of the president himself, and it is a view that is gaining alarming currency in the government, especially among key agencies and ministries such as the Department of State Service (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and unusually the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). It is also a view that is long-standing with the president and scarily coterminous with his 1984 view on the press. What is becoming clear is that the government is persuaded about jettisoning the rule of law for a time in order to give fillip to the anti-graft war. How to bury the rule of law for a season is their main worry. They have convinced themselves that the corruption war cannot be fought within the constricting ambit of the rule of law, and have thus begun a desultory attack on it as well as a selective and narrow deployment of its probosces.

    The Buhari presidency senses that the tide of public opinion appears to have turned in their favour, and are therefore minded to take the extraordinary measures needed to project their forceful approach of sweeping the Augean stables. Already, their opponents and critics are being selectively hounded, and security agents have brushed aside protests and squeamishness from certain quarters to enforce their own interpretation of the law. Insidiously, the judiciary, which has admittedly affronted public trust for years, is being gradually made amenable to the government’s whims even as the nation watches the spectacle of haughty government officials characterising President Buhari’s administrative style as incontestably unique.

    Mr Oni, a former Ekiti State governor, is even more open and assertive in declaring that the federal government is left with no other option but to brush aside the rule of law for a time. The rule of law, he declares magisterially, is inadequate for the tough demands of the moment. But he declines to say how long the suspension would last. Hear him: “If the rule of law is left to be what it is, nothing will be happening. If you leave this war in the hand of people who would not be able to prosecute it, it means we give up and God forbid that we should fail. People are talking about rule of law and so on. How much have we achieved by rule of law? Are they saying there is no corruption? If there is corruption, what has been achieved in terms of stopping it? Or we should now say we cannot stop it? Then we should institutionalise it. At one stage, there must be a stop. In Rawlings’ Ghana, he applied certain measures. God forbid that in Nigeria. Maybe we should leave things until people get so frustrated and resort to self-help. Things cannot continue the way they are because everybody knows the corrupt people, but everybody is keeping their voices low even when they know corrupt people.

    “Don’t lawyers know corrupt judges? Don’t judges also know corrupt judges? If the system within the judiciary is unable to deal with this, so nobody should talk? People would get so frustrated that the people out there would come out in arms against the whole system and God forbid that. So, what we are trying to do now is to prevent the collapse of the whole system and people taking laws into their hands. If the National Judicial Council (NJC) had been able to deal with the issue of corruption decisively in such a way that people are very confident, I am sure this would probably not be necessary. But not much has been done and people are frustrated. The whole system is complaining; people are complaining. I want to see how Nigerian judges or lawyers could raise their hands and say, there is no corruption.

    “Nobody has defended the system so far. Even the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) has not defended the system and say there is no corruption. What people are talking about is how we are going about it. Let them come up with alternative ways of achieving that. Once they tell us, we assure you we will fish out all corrupt people out of this system within six months. Give us this time, then there would be no need for any extra measures. But if we don’t have such assurance from anywhere, we have to continue to do what we believe is the right way to go about it. This is an extra-ordinary circumstance and people should see it as such. From the reaction so far, I think that people are happy that we are taking the fight to the doorstep of corruption.”

    But is it really true that the anti-corruption war is incompatible with the rule of law? Only the Buhari presidency and its host of eager sycophants believe that nonsense. The first thing this coterie did was to frame the narrative in such a way that the corruption war and the rule of law are seen to be mutually exclusive. Pursuant to this unimaginative and narrow-minded view, those who warn of the consequences of flouting the rule of law are cast as opponents of the war. This is sheer disingenuousness. Mr Oni sheepishly and cynically asks how the rule of law can be reconciled with the anti-corruption war. Had he been a democrat in word or deed, the answer would not be as mystifying as he lets on.

    The impression that Mr Oni and the Buhari presidency give is of a government that is at once distrustful of the rubrics of democracy and incapable of thinking its way through what their imaginations have erected as constitutional barriers to the anti-graft war. Democracy is a rigorous concept that needs discipline to practice, even when that discipline costs its adherents private and public benefits, including broken hearts, bruised egos and forfeited material objectives. For many African leaders, nay Third World leaders, there is nothing as frustrating as the often slow grind and imperious, lumbering rules and methods necessary to sustain democracy, when other quick and more immensely satisfying measures are cheaply available. Though Mr Oni is not the first top APC leader or anyone connected with the Buhari presidency to mention the Ghanaian example with romantic fondness, it is nonetheless very troubling that he is beguiled by the brutal and ultimately questionable method Jerry Rawlings embraced in ‘sanitising’ Ghanaian society.

    It is urgent to raise a standard against such brutal methods, for the Buhari presidency, DSS, EFCC, AGF and now APC leaders, not to say many other Nigerians, are calling for the diminution of the rule of law and the enthronement of the rule of man, supposedly for a short time. It is not clear how they hope to get that harebrained idea passed into law, or why they repose so much confidence in President Buhari’s judgement. Will the scheme pass through a National Assembly that is already thoroughly frazzled by the immense extra-constitutional powers being wielded by the president? Or do its proponents hope to intimidate all the other arms of government to limit or abandon their opposition to the presidency’s obssession with self-help? Or perhaps, as the presidency continues to shrink the frontiers of the rule of law, and as he meets with the hosannas of an unquestioning but approving public, it proposes to incrementally chip away at the freedoms of the people. Whatever plans they are toying with, it is evident that somehow, the government will embrace the circumvention of the constitution in the anti-graft war if officials suspect they can get away with their stratagems.

    It will hardly matter to the proponents of the daring measure, including the unreflective Mr Oni himself, that once the plot is actualised, it will be impossible to restrain those who might hijack or misuse it. It is all the more insulting for the former Ekiti State governor to insinuate that other than a temporary suspension of the rule of law, there is no other way to fight the war, or that if there is one which he sarcastically says he is not aware of, the public should disclose it. But they took an oath to protect and defend the constitution. If they can no longer guarantee fidelity to the constitution, they should relinquish office. Nigeria will not be blackmailed. For the umpteenth time, this column will reiterate to a government that bluntly refuses to listen or consider alternative options that corruption is a systemic problem that cannot be fought in fits and starts or by draconian and unmethodical style. How on earth is a completely broken down vehicle, to which Nigeria is likened by popular acclaim, repaired? Simply by replacing one tyre?

    It is not only the entire criminal justice system that is broken, though the government often acts as if only a part of it is, the present economic, social and political structures are also completely and perversely broken. Worse, because they are absolutely and unmistakably intertwined — and this point must be emphasised over and over again — the government needs a holistic re-engineering of the system to fix the malaise. Damn the talk of force, and damn the idea of the suspension of the rule of law. The problem Nigeria is actually contending with is that there is little thinking and debate going on in government. Everybody is worked up and posturing. Everybody is reading the president’s lip and body language. And worse, there is hardly any genuine democrat in government, at least not in the APC nationally and in most of the states they govern.

    Comparisons are odious, the English say, but it is a question of time before commentators begin to wonder in metaphors whether Egypt does not hold more fascination than the chimerical Promised Land the APC talks about tongue-in-cheek. For if they cannot wage a social crusade without mounting an assault on the constitution, how can they be trusted to inspire a Hammurabic code for Nigeria or restructure the polity without extinguishing life altogether. Readers of this column will remember that in endorsing Muhammadu Buhari for the presidency last year, it gave a qualified approval suggesting that he could be trusted with the country’s money, but not with its freedoms. It appears in retrospect that even that endorsement was lavish.

    It is unlikely any student of history will not be alarmed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government’s increasing desire for extra-legal measures to tackle what is believed to be Nigeria’s dire situation, especially the corruption malaise. Among many other examples, the historian will recall the terrible turmoil Germany experienced in the 1930s and how it was exploited by the Nazis to entrench fascism, of course with the ardent initial support of the business, political and military elites. He will recall that Germany groaned under the yoke of reparations consequent upon the Treaty of Versailles, general economic depression, and political impasse that was tending towards anarchy. The historian will also recall that by a careful mix of propaganda and stupendous economic revival, which some parts of the world hailed as the ‘Munich Miracle’, the Nazis rose to dominance and sustained that dominance by one of the most repressive propaganda, military and state police machineries ever. The lessons of history must not be lost on Nigeria.

    Among legal practitioners, a group that ought to know better, the review of the Nigerian government’s ongoing war against corruption has been mixed. Focusing on certain aspects of the corruption war and farcically holding other factors constant, many legal minds have asked for the public to take an indulgent view, if not give total approbation, of the war. But some bold and circumspect others have been wary and have asked for extreme caution and restraint in the war, especially after the recent exposure of the brazen commercialisation of justice right up to the Supreme Court. In the media, the review has seemed to lean towards caution, but with some very vigorous exceptions who call for strong-arm tactics against what they describe as unyielding and highly-placed enemies of the state. The Buhari presidency itself has sometimes oscillated between extreme and strident measures one day and vague and reluctant concessions to the rule of law another day. But it has left no one in doubt where it generally leans.

    This is no time to dilly-dally. Despite the blackmail suffered by those who denounce President Buhari’s brusque and militaristic style, it is time all men of goodwill stood up and emphasised to the government and its security agents and chorus men that birthing a new ethos could be done with aplomb by a careful calibration of measures that balance the preservation of the rule of law and democracy on the one hand, with a firm and unrelenting war against corruption and other malaises that undermine governance and progress on the other hand. It is simplistic to see these two main goals as mutually exclusive. They are not. If because of lack of depth they cannot find the paradigm that balances and accommodates these admirable goals, as Mr Oni has painfully shown by his diatribe against patriots, then they have no business remaining in office. Fortunately, the constitution leaves entry into office and exit quite enticingly open.

  • Photo: Fayose hanging Ex-Gov Oni’s picture

    Photo: Fayose hanging Ex-Gov Oni’s picture

    Governor Fayose hanging pictures in Government House on Wednesday
    Governor Fayose hanging pictures in Government House on Wednesday
  • Ekiti crisis: the law must take its course, says Oni

    Ekiti crisis: the law must take its course, says Oni

    Former Governor of Ekiti State, Engr. Segun Oni, has advised Nigerians on the importance of respecting the sanctity of the law.

    Warning that to act otherwise is to lay a “fertile ground for chaos,” Oni, who is currently the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), noted that based on the supremacy of the country’s constitution, every Nigerian irrespective of status must conform to its tenets in order to ensure the survival of the nation’s democracy and the society.

    Speaking against the backdrop of the recent violent attack on a Judge of the Ekiti State Court by suspected political thugs loyal to the Governor-elect of the state, Mr. Ayo Fayose, Oni who spoke to reporters in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, shortly after a meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, warned the country’s democracy is endangered if the judiciary cannot discharge its responsibilities without hindrance.

    He said: “The sanctity of the law must be respected by everybody. If this can’t be the case, we will be leaving a fertile ground for chaos and there will be trouble for all. Those who take delight in brigandage should not be allowed to become role model for lawlessness.”

     

  • Lessons from Segun Oni’s conversion

    Lessons from Segun Oni’s conversion

    OF all the defections that have pockmarked Nigerian politics in the Fourth Republic, most of them doubtlessly prosaic, none has been as eye-popping as that of former Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni. At a point in the hopeful past, we expected some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national lawmakers to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC), both because of the extraordinary frustrations some of them endured in the ruling party and the groundswell of opinion that seemed to favour the main opposition party. In many states, due more to pecuniary inducements and job offers than anything else, we also anticipated movements across party lines, especially in favour of the ruling party. We also expected that for strategic reasons, particularly connected with opportunities to become standard-bearers, a few well-placed politicians might jettison principles and abandon their own parties. But nothing, really nothing, prepared us for the spectacular volte-face enacted by Mr Oni, an engineer.

    Mr Oni, it will be recalled, defected to the APC early May. If opposition party leaders saw it coming, they neither gave indications to that effect nor felt it necessary to warn us ahead of time. Nor, as it is now clear, did most of us anticipate it for reasons connected with the bilious rage colourfully displayed by the APC and its media friends against Mr Oni when he campaigned against the APC and when he mounted the governorship throne. Though APC leaders in Ekiti set great store by the Oni defection, it is not certain what electoral value the defection would have, or by what hurtful margin of votes his embrace of the APC would cost the other parties contesting against the APC in the state. What is certain, however, is that of all the defections that have taken place in states, Mr Oni’s is probably the most virtuous.

    The former governor succinctly explains his defection with a depth of understanding and brilliance none of his former traducers ever thought him capable of. Said he last week: “When Fayose was chosen as the governorship candidate of the PDP, I had the option of either changing my principles because of my party or changing my party because of my principles. My principles are far deeper; they are personal and stem from my upbringing, education, work life experience, my religious belief and so on. So, that may be more difficult to change, for me, at this age than a mere political party, especially since the basis for political partisanship is not yet ideological. The clear option before me therefore was to change my party and redeem my principles.” There was of course a hint of immodesty in his explanation, but what clearly need redemption are not Mr Oni’s principles, for they appear to be intact all along, but his former opponents’ competence with factual accuracy and tempered analyses.

    In politics, William Clay says, there are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. While the APC sometimes puritanically gives the impression that on ideological grounds there should be permanent enemies, Mr Oni approximates more than most politicians the Clay dictum of permanence of interests. Other defections, such as the ones expediently concocted in the National Assembly recently, may not present us opportunity for much introspection; but that of Mr Oni shows why politicians and analysts, especially media professionals, must approach politics with considerable restraint, balance and objectivity. Barometer has not observed whether any of Mr Oni’s media traducers has shown the remorsefulness honour demanded of them once the former governor shifted allegiance to the progressive column. Perhaps they are too shamefaced, too mortified by their wrong-headed analyses, to acknowledge that Mr Oni has indeed done the spectacular, and that he did it with aplomb and unimpeachable believability.

    Indeed, given Mr Oni’s believable reasons for defecting, his previous membership of the PDP illustrates the exasperating fudge that has overtaken Nigerian politics, which fudge appears to obliterate the ideological divide he alluded to in his main reason for defecting. It should sadden the current generation of Nigerians that politicians, including Mr Oni himself, can’t tell the difference between the PDP and APC, or any other party for that matter. Whether party leaders will work to establish the needed distinction between parties to facilitate and streamline political recruitment and association remains to be seen.

  • ‘June 21 is about Ekiti’s future’

    ‘June 21 is about Ekiti’s future’

    Former  Ekiti State Governor Segun Oni recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) over disagreements arising from the primaries for the June 21 governorship election. In this interview with Foreign Editor DAYO FAKUADE and Deputy political Editor RAYMOND MORDI, he bares his mind on his defection and  issues that are likely to shape the contest.

    What informed your decision to defect to the APC?

    My decision to leave the PDP was based on the emergence of Ayodele Fayose as the candidate of the party for the June 21 election. I could not reconcile myself with such a person holding the exalted office of governor again in Ekiti. I believe that whoever would be governor must be capable of being touted by all of us as role models for our children; whoever would be governor must be capable of living by example to show a lifestyle of character and of achievements that we can hold on to; whoever would be governor must be such that we would have reasonable confidence that when he goes out, he would not misbehave; whoever would be governor must be such that we would not foresee the danger of him putting our children at risk of becoming difficult to handle, in terms of lifestyle that could lead to criminality.

    So, that is the basis. It is about Ekiti. When Fayose was chosen as the governorship candidate of the PDP, I had the option of either changing my principles because of my party or changing my party because of my principles. My principles are far deeper; they are personal and stem from my upbringing, education, work life experience, my religious belief and so on. So, that may be more difficult to change, for me, at this age than a mere political party, especially since the basis for political partisanship is not yet ideological. The clear option before me therefore was to change my party and redeem my principles.

    It must have taken some measure of courage for you to embrace your former political foe. What is it about the style and character of Governor Kayode Fayemi that grabs you?

    Let’s look at it this way: we are looking at the future and we are comparing the two of them. We know that Governor Kayode Fayemi would not shame Ekiti; we can project that he is going to further improve on whatever we are and wherever we are. I cannot say that for the other person; I can’t do that with any measure of confidence. So, that’s already a deciding factor. Where do we want our children to be? Is it in a state that is more or less a pariah among its contemporaries? Is it to a state where they would not be proud to say they are from Ekiti? Do I want them to belong to a state where the governor would be making the headlines for the wrong reasons? It is very clear; you can’t compare both of them. We have seen both of them in power. We saw Fayose in action for three and half years. We have seen Governor Fayemi now; we can compare both of them. I don’t think anybody who means well would take a different option.

    When did the idea of dumping the PDP first occur to you?

    We foresaw the inkling that the PDP may be working towards a Fayose governorship. I was more or less a dilemma or blackmail for me, when this eventually materialised. Everybody’s attitude then was, are you not going to support your party? Are you going to join hands with your enemies against your party? I keep saying it, but the future for me is much larger than the past. Whatever that has happened in the past, we can allow it to go and sacrifice for our future and the future of our children. So, the moment the PDP finally made up its mind that it was going to be Fayose, people like me had been counted automatically out of the equation. What do I want, what do I need from system to make me condescend to make such compromises?

    Can you give us an assessment of the strength of Governor Fayemi that would make him win the June 21 election?

    By the grace of the Almighty God, Governor Kayode Fayemi would win this election very, very convincingly. We are working. For some of us, the candidature of Fayose automatically sells the governorship of Kayode Fayemi. The candidature of Fayose is a big selling point for him because most people know Fayose and what he represents and they would not want a return to the dark days. They would not want a return to those days when you are not sure whether there would be knocks on your door by people who are just unhappy that you are smiling. That is it; people have seen both of them, they know the one that has character and the one that has none. The values that we cherish are very important to our people. Of course, the vision of Ekiti that we want to see in the future is what would determine whose hands we are likely to entrust the governorship of the state beyond 2014.

    As a friend of the masses, I would say that Governor Fayemi has comported himself much better than Fayose. You are not a friend of the masses just because you go to the market square and make a show of eating a piece of banana or maize. Comparatively, the person who institutes a social welfare package for the aged is true friend of the masses. So, people are now asking questions, if somebody is parading himself our friend, what qualifications does he possess? What achievements does he have to make us believe that he is indeed our friend?

    You were governor of Ekiti State between 2007 and 2010 on the platform of the PDP. What do you consider as the strengths and weaknesses of the party in the state?

    No, I’m not going to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the PDP. I would not be fair. Let me tell you, I still have a lot of friends in the PDP today. They know that I was driven by principles to do what I did and I hope that many of them would eventually see the reason why they should not continue to remain in the party. But I I’m not going to do that by running the party down. I want to convince them to leave by showing them in clear and logical basis that this is where the future belongs. Some of them are already seeing the light.

    You’ve partly answered the next question, but let’s ask it all the same. What is your assessment of Ayodele Fayose as a candidate for the June 21 election?

    For me, he should not be touched with a long stick. I’m not saying this out of malice; I’m saying from the totality of what I know of him when he was governor before and what I still know of who he is. The political elite in this country should care about quality. If the political elite continues to bring forward people of questionable character for the highest offices of the land, those offices would lose value.

    But there is a perception that Fayose is still popular in certain quarters, particularly among the youths and the ordinary folks. What’s your reaction to this?

    You see, deceit is a weapon for propagating falsehood because falsehood itself is deceit personified. Yes, somebody goes to the market square, he buys a piece of roasted plantain and eats half of it right there in the public glare to show that he is a common man. Of course, people would hail him, because they have swallowed the charade that whoever can eat in the open is their friend. But what does that add to their life or future? The greatest friends of the common man in Nigeria would be people like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. This is in spite of the fact he did not eat openly on the streets. The friend of the common man is one who always thinks of lifting him from his present state to the next level.

    We are trying to sensitise them to realise that they don’t need to swallow such opium. As governor of Ekiti State, I never ate in the market place, but I introduced a micro-credit scheme. It is because of poor people. As governor of Ekiti State, I introduced the first scholarship scheme and the first scholarship board in the state. You will not believe that Ekiti did not have a scholarship scheme before then, in spite of its much-touted advancement in the field of education. We enjoyed scholarships in the days of the old Western Region that was instituted by the late Obafemi Awolowo, but we had none of our own until I put up one here. As far as I am concerned, that is consideration for the common man. We have seen Governor Fayemi continuing some of these programmes and even adding some of his own. One of his appellations is the husband of the aged, because he has instituted a welfare scheme for them. That’s what I call being a friend of the people.

    In spite of the multiplicity of candidates, the June 21 election is likely to be a three-horse race. Can you give us an assessment of how the three parties would fare in the 16 local government areas or the three senatorial districts, if you like?

    I would not like to do something like that. But let me tell you, I know and I believe that Governor Fayemi would win. I’m not even too sure who would come in the second position, whether it would be Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele or Fayose. Governor Fayose has an edge right now, but we see the trend rising for Hon. Bamidele and it may rise to such an extent that it would put Fayose’s second position in jeopardy.

    Do you see the votes from Ido/Osi Local Government becoming a deciding factor in this election because of the way it has voted in the past?

    The votes of every local government area are important. It just happens that Ido/Osi has always PDP in the past. But majority of those of us that worked behind the scene to bring about such development in the past are no longer in the PDP. A vast majority of us are now in the APC, while others have moved to the Labour Party. We are talking to our people, we know this terrain very well; 11 wards spread across 13 towns and villages. So, we believe that for the first time, it would be won by the APC.

    Are there  issues that may likely affect the pattern of voting in this election?

    This outcome of this election is likely to be decided on personality basis, rather than on partisan political interest basis. The people of Ekiti State are very smart; they are not going to be taken in by the propaganda of this party or that party.

    With your defection to the APC, what are you bringing on board for Governor Fayemi’s re-election bid?

    What I’m bringing on board for the re-election of Dr. Fayemi is whatever goodwill I have and whatever political experience I have garnered over the years as someone who has contested election before in this terrain. My experience would be a combination of my knowledge and understanding of the terrain, and the fact that I have contested elections twice and have been in charge twice before. It would also include the fact I have seen people do it right and I have seen people do it wrong and, with the power of recall, I can always identify what can enhance performance and what can endanger it. That’s experience.

    For goodwill, quite a number of people one way or the other believe in me. Some believe I possess attributes that inspire them, while others also say I ran government in a way that also inspire them. Some believe that I have credible results on the ground to show for my time in government. So, what it boils down to is that they are ready to follow me anywhere, even where the temperature is as hot as a one thousand degree centigrade oven.

    Beyond this election, what is  Segun Oni aspiring to do politically?

    I want to be of service to the people. I’m a service person and indeed one of the reasons why I came into politics is to be of service to the people. The things I see everyday makes me happy that people appreciate what I’m doing. I am enjoying a tremendous goodwill from the people I served while I was government and that makes me very happy. I don’t know what else that would thrill me that I have not enjoyed in the past. I was an expatriate in my mid 30s and I had a very good career. I’ve had a good life and I can no longer be taken by such razzmatazz. So, all I’m trying to do now is to find opportunities to pay back and the only way I can do so is by service. I want to be of service to the people, at any level I can find opportunities to do that. I’m not likely to do anything with expectation of something in return. But I will do it, if it falls within my projection of what service is all about.

    Nigeria has just marked 15 years of uninterrupted civilian rule. Can you give us an evaluation of what transpired in the past 15 years?

    In my own assessment, the past 15 years have not been bad. We are learning, we’re gathering experience and moving forward. Some people regard the past 15 years as slow motion, because as far as they are concerned, by now we should have overtaken the United States of America or other democracies. I don’t believe that is attainable. I believe that we can improve our speed. Democracy is all about development and we must continue to ensure that development remains the number one focus. That is why I quarrel with the political elite who always try to smuggle in people that are anti-development. We must continue to solve problems, bring changes, apply consistency of purpose in our drive towards making Nigeria a country of our dream. I believe that the opportunities that are coming would give us the chance to really achieve the kind of government whose speed would make government more of a comfort zone for the masses.

     

  • Ekiti: Beyond Fayemi

    Ekiti: Beyond Fayemi

    Nigeria is said, and the country has indeed validated beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s a country of such an amazing and perplexing paradox, the magnitude of which is probably unequaled anywhere in the world. As it is in the centre, so it is in its component parts. If the new socio-economic paradigm that has taken shape in Ekiti State, with the highly unusual endorsements by his erstwhile political detractors and the public admissions (however grudgingly given) by some other contestants of a job well done were to have happened in a sane, normal and progress-inclined society, the June 21, governorship election would have been a foregone conclusion. In a more civilized clime, some of those contesting with Governor Fayemi would have scaled down their campaigns considerably to mitigate cost of a lost cause, while those still in the race would be hanging in there hoping for some miraculous divine intervention. With such a glaring, strong and unprecedented performance record, in partnership with the support of key opposition political figures and the enthusiasm of a huge majority of everyday people in Ekiti,  Fayemi’s worries by now should not be June 21, but what to say on his inauguration day. But in Ekiti, a governorship election is not over until another Ayoka Adebayo goes into hiding.

    The recent defection of the former governor of Ekiti State Engineer Segun Oni from his relative comfort in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is probably indicative of the heavenly stars alignment for Fayemi’s victory.  The defection and the speech from Segun Oni should be seen by the PDP as the final warning to collapse their rigging machine and take it back to Ondo, their surrogate satellite state. But no, they wouldn’t. What he said on that fateful day was even more instructive and a food for thought. In a society in which politics is driven more by the egos of its players, for Oni to have subsumed, if not jettisoned his pride for the sake of the good of Ekiti people which is being championed effectively by Fayemi shows a quintessential leadership quality of the former governor. In his speech, he asked Ekiti people to ask themselves who is in a better position to give them and their children a better future. He also said among other things that “tomorrow is greater than today and yesterday” where the focus should not be “on personal interests” but the future of Ekiti and its children. These are powerful statements of which true statesmen are made.

    Segun Oni’s decision to finally get rid of the PDP from his system may not have been an easy one, considering his status in the party hierarchy as a former chief of state. The audacity of the PDP to throw up, once again, Ayodele Fayose as its governorship flag-bearer was probably more than enough to stomach by any fairly decent, morally upright, and progress-inclined individual whose modus vivendi is the public good such as Segun Oni. Even if one should take out or set aside the strong leadership credential of Fayemi in the Ekiti governorship election matrix, the emergence of Fayose in the current political landscape, courtesy of his party should be seen as the greatest insult that can be bestowed upon a people in a just, equitable, and democratic dispensation. This is the context within which the election should be seen—first and foremost. This opprobrium should not only be seen by Ekiti people as such but every right-thinking and discerning people of Yoruba descent with a modicum sense of history, who are spread to as far as Isanlu in Kogi, Omu-Aran in Kwara and the marshy enclave of Delta. It is a reprehensible but deliberate disrespect to the collective sensibility of Ekiti people in particular who, as small as they are, have contributed, and continues to contribute probably more than their own fair share to the growth and development of this country in many facets of nation-building, and by extension, a slight on the Yoruba race.

    The decision of the PDP to throw up Fayose, a former governor whose rap sheet is as long as the Niger River shows the depth of moral depravity and crass political primitivity that the PDP behemoth has sunk. Here is a man whose tenure in office was the most traumatic experience that Ekiti people ever witnessed in their collective memory until his cup runneth over and was booted out through impeachment. Here was a governor who dragged his state’s traditional institution through the mud and God help that traditional ruler who had the effrontery to caution him about the direction in which the state was headed. Here is a man who caused Chief Afe Babalola –a well-respected countrywide indigene of Ekiti whose contribution to the creation of the state made it possible for Fayose to become a governor in the first place –to cry out for help because his life was in mortal danger during the errant government of Fayose. Here is a man who, as a governor, carried his hooliganism beyond the call of duty, having reportedly brandished lethal weapons on several occasions in order to intimidate voters and his political opponents. What about the state poultry farm that turned out to be a huge financial scam from which the state is yet to recover financially? Meanwhile, several billions of naira allegedly went into his pocket and that of his cronies and the case is still in court as of today. It’s hard to believe that President Jonathan and his party thinks that Fayose’s electoral value and his political indispensability in the state are very hard to ignore to the extent they’re willing to foist him on the people with all these antecedents. Even if one must accept this twisted logic, should the party not have found a way to co-opt the judiciary into clearing his name from the several criminal litigations he’s facing in order meet the minimum moral threshold of a civilized society?

    The point, however, must be made that the forthcoming Ekiti governorship election is beyond Fayemi just as the one in its sister state in Osun slated for August transcends Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. It’s about another attempt to subjugate a race of people who, having found a common socio-economic underpinning and the political philosophy that works for them in charting their own course, in which the blueprint was handed down by their progenitor now referred to as a sage and a president Nigeria never had. It’s about truncating a new set of their leaders like Fayemi and Aregbesola who have probably been identified by some clairvoyants as unexplainably carrying the genes of their late sage, hence their going into overdrive, once again, to ensure that the sage’s spirit is not allowed to reincarnate in these leaders. June 21 and August 9, are the two significant dates in which the Yoruba race can either cross the Rubicon or be stopped in their tracks in their journey towards their socio-economic and political emancipation. The choice is theirs to make.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com.