At a meeting in which I was in attendance somewhere in Ikeja, Lagos on Monday, 23 June 2014, two days after the Ekiti election; a popular civil society figure and lawyer while admonishing the new executive members of the association of some ‘learned gentlemen’; said they should make sure they are not alienated from the people: “You must be very close to the people and not stay in your comfort zone. Do not behave like the politicians who hide in their high offices without having personal touch with the people. I was in Ekiti at the weekend to monitor the election and from what we saw; Fayemi lost the election despite his outstanding performance for this reason.” As plausible and as widespread as this view appears, it is not true. There is no basis for comparing Fayemi and Fayose in terms of the level at which they socialise, as no two people are exactly alike. Fayose had a common touch while he was in office, no doubt, freely mixing with market women and Okada riders alike. So also has Fayemi, supported by a wife globally acknowledged as a social entrepreneur and human empowerment agent, touched the lives of the common people in the last four years in his own style; with developmental projects even as he also held various meetings with the informal sector players during his campaigns across all the 16 local governments of the state. There is therefore more to the issue than are being debated.
I have also read the communiqué issued by the National Working Committee of the APC in which the party alleged that though, there was no violence or manipulation recorded on the election day but that the process that preceded the poll was characterised by violence and human rights violations, orchestrated against its members and supporters by federal powers and according to Alhaji Lai Mohammed; these acts intimidated the electorates into voting, albeit peacefully, against their popular wish and hence; PDP’s victory and APC’s loss.
In Mohammed’s words: “Election is a process, and whatever happens on the voting day is only an integral part of that process. What happen before, during and after the voting day complete that process. Voting in Ekiti may have been free of the usual violence or manipulation at the collation centres, but the election in the state was neither free, fair nor credible…”
While I support the APC’s resolve to challenge in court the various human rights violations allegedly committed against its members by military and Para-military forces, I beg to disagree that even if these are proven to have taken place, they had any influence on the way Ekiti electorates voted. Fayose was simply the people’s choice for whatever reason, and they have massively voted for him. I will return to this later.
There is also another school of thought that believes that Fayemi is good in the art of infrastructure but poor in ‘stomachstructure’ and then advocates for a mixture of the two as the only way Fayemi would have endeared himself to the people for a second time. Stomachstructure, a euphemism for politics of the stomach is not only derogatory, but also incompatible with the sterling virtues widely associated with the Ekitis. Some claim that Fayose is well schooled in stomachstructure and even have gone further to deride the person of the governor-elect as having learnt the skill from both Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the “Alafin of Molete” and generalissimo of Ibadan politics and his Ilorin counterpart, the “Baba Oloye ”, Chief (Dr.) Olusola Saraki both men of blessed memories. Again I repeat that this view is demeaning and preposterous and can give rise to liability for defamation, at the action of the owners of the various notable names associated with this by such critics. The conscience of a true Ekiti man cannot be bought with money even when he is offered cash and he collects. His stand remains unchanged. There were allegations of food items and cash gifts freely flowing from the camps of the three major political parties to attract electorates who in turn, are said to have a tradition of always gathering and applauding the candidates at the various campaign grounds irrespective of their political parties. These are the complexities of the behavioral politics from the Fountain of knowledge.
Again, there is what many arm-chair critics describe as the “Bourdillion Factor’’. A phrase apparently referring to the APC leadership from Lagos and a way of showing resentment towards the widely perceived Bola Tinubu’s control of South West states as godfather. But no aspirant in any political party in Nigeria today can be said to be free from “godfatherism” and so, it is not an Ekiti or APC thing. Also, at this stage of our political development, and of course in all nations of the world, political mentoring, popularly known in this clime as godfatherism is globally encouraged. Any leader without a mentor is not likely to be humble in success and may at some stage begin to see himself/herself as a demigod. Some at times go to the extreme, especially beer-parlour and news-stands’ analysts, to claim that resources with which Lagos is being developed are channeled from the South West states; and that Ekiti people are saying enough is enough to APC because of this. One cannot but marvel at the sublime confidence with which this argument is marshaled. How on earth can Lagos, where IGR from just one local government, say Apapa or IKeja for example, would dwarf the entire resources from Ekiti; be financed by the latter? These assumptions are not the real reasons why APC lost the June 21 election and, well, the people have to say something, anyway.
Why then is Ekiti politics a hard nut to crack? Is Fayemi not loved by his people? Or do the people love Fayose more than they love Fayemi? Has the JKF Administration brought development to Ekiti? If yes, do the people then resent development? If most of the reasons given for Fayemi’s loss of the election are delusions, why then did he fail to return for a second term? A brief anthropological dissecting of the Ekiti political history will answer these questions better.
Let me begin by stating that Ekiti people do not hate Fayemi. They love him and popularly refer to him in the local dialect as ‘Omo Ayiye’’, meaning; our illustrious and worthy son. His administration is equally well applauded as having brought development to a state commonly known for peasant farming and civil service in spite of having reputation for producing highly educated citizens. Fayemi’s giant strides in opening other sectors like tourism; encouraging the springing of the Organized Private Sector; developing SMEs; empowering youth and women; providing local and international scholarships for Ekiti students; building road, schools, hospitals; laying other infrastructure; and establishing the first ever social security scheme for the elderly among others all within four years; have truly made the people to love him. This was reflected in the mammoth crowds that usually greeted his various campaigns up till Thursday preceding the June 21 election.
But the Ekitis love it more, that a man should quit the stage when the ovation is loudest. Literarily, when a good dancer is thrilling the crowd of spectators; they widely applaud him but if he refuses to quit the stage, they are quick to ask rhetorically; “se oye udile ran ni? Meaning; is it his ancestral right? They hardly serve a man twice at a stretch. They are not known to follow a fanciful idea perpetually. They say; “let’s try his brother lest his achievements go into his head!” This was why Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, an incumbent governor of the state also lost in similar fashion to the present governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose in 2003 despite Adebayo’s aristocratic background and the strong support of the South West leaders and AD chieftains of that time like Senator Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Olu Falae etc. (To be continued)
Oluwatoba Oguntuase
