As Fayemi, Bamidele, Fayose, others prepare for June 21 polls
As the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State draws near, the full essence of politics seems to have dawned on an average resident of the state as the contestants have been stumping the communities and homesteads to bolster their winning chances writes SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN
With the lifting of the ban on political campaigns by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State, residents across the 16 local governments are being made aware that politics has not just come but that they must participate. The partisan groups stump the communities, reeling out promises to bolster their chances at the poll.
With slogans and sloganeering, veiled name callings and downright lampoons, politicians are again at their schemes to outdo one another to clinch the highest political seat in a state where politics and politicking have apparently been elevated to an art.
From Ado-Ekiti, the capital, to communities in Ikere, Ise, Aramoko, Igede, Ikole, Omuo, the residents seem already gripped by the politics fever as spread mainly by the three major parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP).
For the parties, the campaigns come in forms of singing and dancing round major streets before settling at designated spots where carnival – like processions drum support for the favoured candidates whose pictures would have been pasted on surrounding walls, hung on poles, or held by a legion of votaries while the action lasts.
Given the latest ratification of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, by the state chapter of the APC at an event attended by national officers of the party, it is clear, barring both conventional and unconventional accidents that the race will be run principally by the trio of Fayemi, PDP’s Ayo Fayose and LP’s Opeyemi Bamidele.
The Accord (party), which Kole Ajayi leads as governorship candidate and the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP’s) Alhaji Musa Ayeni, have both also launched their campaigns after successful primaries held in Ado-Ekiti. But the influence and reach of their (the latter’s) campaigns, compared with those of the earlier three has indeed been much less.
From the larger than life sizes of banners of the contestants mounted on massive frames high up the ground here and there in Ado-Ekiti as in other towns, to their often well designed and attention catching posters pasted on streets, houses and on wooden/iron kiosks, as well as branded vests and fez caps worn by faithful of the parties in open places, the period of hushed intents by willing contestants and muted discussions among supporters seems definitely over.
The Okeyinmi newspapers distribution point in the capital has since assumed its elements as the unofficial political capital of the state, given the usual gatherings in the mornings of people who feast over the dailies as they emerge in their crisp freshness for the latest development across the world.
“Please let me have that paper when you are through” is a familiar request among the free beneficiaries, they call them readers, of products of nocturnal investments of some egg-heads in far flung capitals. Soon, the inquisition pales into discussions and debates regarding the winning chances of rival candidates or what someone else have said or would/would not say regarding their chances of winning an election which is commonly believed in some quartres as a make or break for many a political career.
But the perfervid vehemence of some of the free readers in urging or forcing acceptance of their arguments can often win admiration if not condemnation. An interesting argument witnessed by this reporter once came up among some of the readers: “Were you at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium yesterday for the declaration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi? It was great. I love the man personally. He is an orator. I believe he will win this election, whatever the opposition may say or do because I believe he has indeed tried. Is it true he is giving N5,000 to 25,000 elderly people?”
“You said you believe he will win, you are entitled to freedom of opinion”, the other had replied, adding “While I cannot ascertain how many people he is giving the N5,000 to, I think those saying he would not win also have their point. They contend there is too much scarcity of money during his time unlike the time of a former governor whose tenure many people enjoyed because there was always money and merriment. Although, what they call infrastructural development was scanty at the time, but theirs was always money and people enjoyed”.
“Fayose sees this election as the last chance for him to assert his relevance in Ekiti politics and he is ready to give it everything,” yet another reader noted.
“But I don’t believe he can win – given the calculations I have made,” a reply came promptly.
“What nonsense calculations are you making? Were you not in this state the day he (Fayose) entered through Akure?”
“We don’t have to be emotional about this discussion. I was there and saw the many people who came out. But, given my calculations, it will be difficult for Fayose to defeat Fayemi.”
“Say your calculations and don’t waste our time”. “Do you believe there are at least 70,000 definite and certain votes for Fayemi from some sections of the populace, whether he campaigns or he does not?”
“From what sections will those free votes come?”. “From the 25,000 elderly individuals receiving N5,000 social security monthly, the 20,000 able-bodied adults receiving N10,000 monthly, the Youths in Commercial Agricultural Development (YCAD) beneficiaries and those benefitting from the beneficiaries now.”
“I cannot see how these add up to 70,000 free votes”.
“OK. Please also consider the 25,000 women earning N5,000 monthly under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme. These ones will soon be settled in various businesses with a sum of N100,000. Again, add another 10,000 who have so far been engaged across other vocations through the Ekiti Enterprise Development Agency initiatives.
“All you are telling are lies”. “Lies? May God forbid me from telling a lie on my own people and on my own conscience. Are you not in this state at all? So, you actually don’t know all these goings on or what?”
“I know but I don’t…”
“You don’t seem to know and that these beneficiaries would mount their own separate campaigns to ensure their benefactor retains office. If I want to even do a more scientific analysis, I would put the figure at a hundred thousand and I still would have been right”.
“I see now. But Fayose himself has not been watching. He has started campaigns and his campaigns have shown he is still relevant.
“Definitly, but all of them, including Opeyemi Bamidele and even Kole Ajayi have begun their campaigns. They are on the field already. Fayose has been to Ekiti North, Aramoko in Ekiti West and some parts of Ekiti South west. But Fayemi himself has done more regarding campaigns. He has been to all the local governments and he is going round again.
“Despite all you claim Fayemi has done, people still complain about scarcity in town. Many people still lack access to basic living”.
Fayemi’s faceless supporter drew the argument further: “What is the essence of governance, my brother? “Is a political leader expected by the constitution to give money out freely or execute projects which would aid better living for people and facilitate for them profit yielding engagements?”
“How right you are,” the opponent quipped, “But how many of such do we have in the state now that you can point to?”
“Good question! Today, Fayemi has completed all the roads within Ado-Ekiti township and those linking the town and other towns in the state. Our commercial vehicle and motorcycle operators are the immediate beneficiaries of this. Do you know how it feels having to travel on smooth, tarred roads all the time wherever you are going? To say the fact, I feel the problem regarding poverty and want among the people is caused by factors for which I don’t think Governor Fayemi is/ can be held responsible, including the ever absent electricity, inflation and other factors. While the roads in the state are good and motor-able, can you say the same regarding other roads in the country and on which people travel every day? The blame cannot therefore, most sincerely, be heaped on one state governor as it is a national problem. What Fayemi has done so far are just interventionist programmes, most of which other states are now copying”.
In the opinion of another speaker, Fayemi has done far more than could be considered enough to earn him just a second term or possibly even a third or fourth term, considering his achievements. He said: “I want to look at things this way and I am saying this not because I know Fayemi or his wife or because I want contract from them. I am an Okada man and I am doing well, feeding my family and attending to my degree course at the state university on weekends. I have been doing Okada (commercial motorcycle business) since January 1999. Then, I would repair my machine at least once in a week. For the past two and a half years now after the completion of the roads by governor Fayemi, that has stopped. I have not even been to the mechanic for whole six months now. I have bought two additional Okada and they give me at least N1,000 every day. That is not all, my mother stays in Igbemo and has been collecting N5000 every month from this same Fayemi in the last three years. Now, if I have money, I send it to her and if I don’t have, I know she has money. For me, the governor has done very well. Three months ago, my wife gave birth to our first child at the state hospital. I don’t think I spent anything more than the personal things we bought for my child. Every other thing was free. To me, Fayemi has tried and God will continue to bless him”.
According to yet another speaker, the issues should centre round not whether Fayemi has done enough to qualify for a second term but how to sustain his legacies in the state, whether or not he wins the June 21 election.
He spoke: “Do you people realise that many governors have been here before Fayemi and none of them thought of social security benefits for the elderly, renovation of entire 183 secondary schools and nearly 20 General Hospitals across the state, distribution of well over 40,000 laptop computers free for secondary school students and to their teachers at a subsidised rate. We are not talking of the initiates in agriculture and many others. For me, I care not about who will win but who will ensure that free health continues for the elderly individuals and for all infants still below age five, for pregnant women and for the indigent and physically challenged lot. I believe our concern should be about the governor whose wife will be ready to embark on quite bewildering better life programmes for our women under any guise as we do have it today with Erelu Bisi Fayemi”, he ended.
Arguments and counter-arguments among the readers could go on hours at the end of which the contestants would simply retire, often to resume the next morning. But such scenes are not limited to open spaces in Okeyinmi. They are now quite familiar at newsstands from Old Garrage to Ijigbo in Ajilosun back to Adebayo areas of the capital, with individuals willingly and freely offering opinions, straight or warped, informed or jaundiced, often about the winning chances of this or that contestant.
The cars and buses on inter and intra-township transportation businesses have equally become avenues to catch the gist regarding political developments and how the candidates are fairing with the electorate. Once a journey begins, one thing would always lead to another and an argument would ensue about the candidates’ chances of winning.
“Is it true that Fayemi and Fayose supporters fought yesterday at Adebayo area? Oh, this politicians. Why will anyone fight because of election? You say you want to help the people, must you fight over opportunities to assist the people. I cannot understand”, someone said on a bus to Adebayo from Old Garage.
Even, the campaign offices of the three major contestants including APC’s Fayemi, PDP’s Fayose and LP’s Bamidele, in their enchanting colours, now play major part in the whole process of politics. You cannot pass by their offices or attend their campaign outings and not be amused some way with their slogans. At campaigns, the mention by any speaker of ‘APC’, attracts ‘Change in Abuja, Continuity in Ekiti, while that of Fayemi, is ‘Ko duro soke’, meaning ‘He (Fayemi) should remain at the top). For the PDP, the catch phrase is ‘PDP, Power’. For LP, it is ‘Forward ever, backward never’, while a mention of MOB at gatherings of LP attracts instant ‘The ark of God or the promise keeper’.
The location of the campaign offices in a way seemed decided to avoid contacts and perhaps confrontation. While the campaign office of Fayemi is located in Ajilosun area on Ikere road, Fayose’s is on Adebayo road while Bamidele’s is at Basiri area. These are locations separated by a minimum of five kilometres. How they came to be so separate must have been a consequence of willful strategy, given the volatility of situations in which activities might coincidentally have to go on all about the same time across the offices the same day.
Although the campaign office of Dr. Fayemi looks the most attractive in terms of architecture and other physical fixtures, those of Fayose and Opeyemi are equally radiant and enchanting with their larger than life picture banners mounted at various spots around their offices.
How far about the campaigns across parties
The All progressives Congress (APC), seems to be in the lead in respect of promptness and reach of campaigns. After the launch of the campaigns at a Mega Rally at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti, the capital, many others have followed which had attracted what has been routinely dubbed ‘a mammoth crowd’.
Fayemi, the APC flag bearer, has concluded the first phase of the campaigns and on the second train across the state, promising to ensure increased comfort for the people through massive industrialisation and employment generation. The governor himself had said at the mega rally “no one can deny the achievements I have made in the three and a half years of this administration”, adding that “This election is not about me but about consolidating the achievements of my administration and ensuring that the state does not go back to the dark days of one week, one trouble, one violence and looting of public funds.”
The APC governorship candidate had urged the electorate not to be deceived by the ‘wrong’ propaganda of the opposition politicians that he would ban commercial motorcycle riders, sack teachers and sell the much valued Ise Forests if re-elected.
Said he: “They know we are the state of teachers. They are trying to poison the minds of teachers. Fayemi will not sack teachers. Fayemi will keep employing more and more teachers. Fayemi will remunerate teachers. We are the only state that pays 20 percent rural teachers allowance in Nigeria.
“We are also the only state that pays 20 percent core subjects allowance in Nigeria. If you are a core subject teacher including English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, you are also receiving 20 per cent of your monthly basic salary on top of your normal salary. There is nothing that is independently verifiable that they can use against us with teachers and the teachers know better.”
Fayemi spoke further: “There are people who will come and promise heaven and earth. There are people who will tell you what they want to do. The advantage that I have as your son, as your brother, as your leader, is that I can tell you what I have done on education. I can tell you how I have made the lives of our elderly people better in Ekiti and how I have banished poverty in the lives of our elderly.
“I can tell you what I have done in the area of infrastructure. I can tell you what I have done in the health sector. I can tell you what our women have benefitted by having a gender-sensitive leader. I can tell you what is happening in tourism in Ikogosi. I can tell you what we have done in reviving industries. I can tell you how we have made lives better by creating jobs and empowering our people.
Labour Party and the campaigns
The campaigns of the candidate of the LP, which were flagged off same day as the APC’s candidate’s at an equally well-attended event in Ido-Ekiti by the party’s candidate, Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB), have been based on industrialisation and agriculture which he recognised as “the mainstay of our economy”.
Speaking in Oye and Ikole-Ekiti, Bamidele had promised to encourage the people into mechanised farming, saying “This is the only way for us to have enough for local consumption and export.
At Iyemero-Ekiti in lkole Local Government Area of the State during Bamidele said, he would initiate programmes that would bring about agricultural revolution in the state which would attract the youth to live in the remote areas.
The LP candidate had also lamented what he described as “the neglect of rural communities by the successive administrations in the state,” promising to make the welfare of rural dwellers his priority if given the mandate to serve the people in the June 21 governorship election.
Bamidele pledged that his administration would revamp the State Farm Settlements and build more in remote areas across the three senatorial districts of the state to generate employments for the youth and launch the state to a recognisable height in food security.
Other towns which the LP candidate had visited included Isaba, Itapaji, Odo-Oro and other Ebira communities, where he promised to use the land expanse available in the area and the state for mechanised farming and economic transformation.
The Peoples Democratic
Party’s (PDP’s) campaigns
Former governor Ayodele Fayose, candidate of the PDP, had had challenges regarding the legitimacy of the primaries which produced him as the flag-bearer of the party, but the situation has since won some calmness as other aggrieved aspirants have accepted to work with him.
While his campaigns started by unannounced visits to homes of identified supporters, Fayose has lately also taken to open air campaigns, promising mass employment especially for the youth, noting ”the problem about youth unemployment has been alarming. We have to do something fast and real.”
Fayose had said: “I urge our people to vote for me in the coming election. PDP, as we all know, is the party of the masses, the artisans and the students. We will not overlook anyone. Everybody is relevant to us and we will take care of all.
“I won’t be distracted by whatever they (APC members) say about me. I am committed to this course. It is like running a race, so I won’t look sideways, but where I am going”.
Commending the 13 aggrieved aspirants (in the party) for what he called “rare show of understanding and sportsmanship”, pledging to offer leadership to all members of the party, irrespective of initial affiliation of members, or their political beliefs.
Accord and campaigns
According to the flag bearer of Accord Party, Barrister Kole Ajayi, priority would be on agriculture around which industries would be established across communities based on the principle of comparative advantage.
Ajayi condemned what he described as plans by the APC-led administration to keep education away from the common people, saying “Ekiti must pioneer genuine education for all policy if it must regain its status as the knowledge zone of the country.
Said he: “My plan will be to industrialise Ekiti State through the establishment of agro-allied industry in each local government. Industries will be established across the zones and districts of the state based on the prevailing agricultural products in such areas. Anywhere fruits are prevalent, we establish a juice making industry and where you have tomatoes and other vegetables, there will be an industry to absorb such.
The SDP has so far not mounted any form of campaign anywhere in Ekiti.
