Politicians, all over the world, brag about their capabilities. But elections have always proved who a popular politician is, although in some societies electoral victories are won by foul means.
Already, the tempo of politics in Ekiti State is getting high. Although some parties are yet to choose their flag bearers for the gubernatorial election slated for June 21, 2014, some others have commenced campaign.
In the last few days, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had concluded a voter registration and verification exercise ahead of the poll.
The state with a population of a little lower than three million was created on October 1, 1996 by the Sani Abacha regime. It is reputed to have produced the highest number of professors in the country, hence the alias, ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ (and lately ‘Land of Honour‘).
Ekiti is one of the five states being controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South West geo-political zone. The forth-coming election is said to be a straight fight for mainly three parties- the ruling APC, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP). The candidates of these parties are household names in the state as well as grassroots men. None of them is a push over.
Kayode Fayemi:
He is the incumbent governor, seeking a second term. Fayemi became the governor of Ekiti State through the law court. The gubernatorial election of 2007 in which Segun Oni was declared winner was said to have been marred by widespread irregularities. On the strength of the fraud, Fayemi, who was the then Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate, challenged Oni’s election and got a rerun in May 2009. The rerun was again characterised by even worse rigging resulting in the election being disputed again. However, after three years of occupation of the seat, the election of Oni was nullified by a law court and Fayemi was declared the duly elected governor of Ekiti State and was sworn into office in 2010.
Supporters of the governor said he deserved re-election on the strength of his good performance. According to those who spoke with BusinessDay, Fayemi did not only do well on job creation, infrastructural
development, road construction, civil service reforms and school rehabilitation; he also excelled on social security.
“If every governor is like Kayode Fayemi in terms of performance, Nigeria would have been totally transformed. The man has lived up to expectation. He told the people of Ekiti that he would serve them well, and he did not disappoint them,” an indigene of the state, who resides in Lagos but travels home fourth-nightly, said.
Bimbo Daramola, a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of Fayemi Campaign Organisation, said the governor’s performance would speak for him.
Daramola said: “There is no sector that the governor has not touched. A searchlight has been beamed on his activities and there is no iota of doubt that he has run a transparent government.
He was worried by the plight of vulnerable aged people, and as a result he set up the social security scheme. No fewer than 25,000 of them receive a monthly stipend of N5, 000 each. This feat has been particularly lauded by many people because Ekiti receives almost the least monthly allocation from the Federation Account. The staff audit, using biometrics, has enabled the government to bridge the loopholes. The method has curbed the incidence of ghost workers. Workers who were short-changed in the past now receive their normal salaries as they are no more paid by middlemen.
“Also, the concerted effort at computerising the school system has yielded dividends. It has boosted computer literacy among pupils. Ekiti pupils no more learn under trees. The modern classrooms provided by the government have enhanced the learning environment. Road projects abandoned by the previous administrations have been completed. The urban renewal programme has given Ado, the state capital, a facelift. Owing to the commitment to road projects, Ekiti has become a huge construction site.”
As the governor tours the 16 local government areas soliciting votes, analysts believe he will not be campaigning on a weak base. It is believed that Fayemi will be demanding reciprocation as “one good turn” as they say “deserves another”.
Ayodele Fayose:
He was the second civilian governor of the state after the return of the country to civil rule. He was elected in 2003 after Niyi Adebayo who was elected governor in 1999. But as a result of a prolonged political brouhaha in the state, the then president Olusegun Obasanjo imposed Tunji Olurin, a military administrator, on the state in October 2006. On April 27, 2007 Olurin was replaced by Tope Ademiluyi.
The former president was also alleged to have set a stage for more trouble when he allegedly altered the result of the PDP primary held in 2006. Yinka Akerele and Adesegun Ojo who were waiting for a run-off to determine who would fly the party’s flag following their performances at the primary, were shoved aside while, Segun Oni, who came third was imposed on them as the candidate for the election in 2007.
Following his forced exit from the Government House, Fayose in protest, initially went prodigal, supporting Fayemi against Oni, when the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate was struggling to reclaim his mandate. At a point, to spite his “enemies in PDP”, he left for the LP; he returned to the umbrella party two years ago.
A grassroots politician, Fayose was to quickly hijack the party’s executive committee by sponsoring his associates into party offices during the state congress. Before long, he made his way back to the mainstream and his charm won Abuja to his side.
It was against this backdrop that the former governor recently emerged the PDP flag bearer for the June 21 poll, though amid complaints from other contenders.
Other PDP gubernatorial aspirants who lost to him at the primaries screamed foul and alleged hanky-panky. Some have since pooh-poohed the exercise.
But pundits believe that Fayose is no push over. A public policy commentator said of him, “You can’t underrate Fayose. He plays an ‘amala’ politics, just like the late Adedibu. The politics that matters is that which recognizes the power of the people. When you come to where they are eating ‘amala’, you pack your limousine and join them and that is the type of politics the man plays. For PDP to allow him to emerge to contest with Fayemi, they must have known what he is capable of doing. The election is not going to be easy. What happened to him in 2006 was just an unnecessary bad blood by Obasanjo; Ekiti people love the man, even tomorrow. PDP wants somebody who can send APC parking in Ekiti and that informed the choice for Fayose.”
However, it is being said in some quarters that the expression of anger over the outcome of the primary may affect Fayose. “Unlike APC that would be going to the election as a united family, LP would be going as a disunited family, unless the angry aspirants are placated before the election date”.
Opeyemi Bamidele:
He is a member of the House of Representatives from Iyin-Ekiti. He, like other candidates has cut his political teeth. He was a former president, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS and learned the rudiments of politics at the feet of Bola Tinubu. He served Tinubu as a personal assistant when the former was a senator. Under the Tinubu administration in Lagos State as governor, Bamidele also served as a special adviser,
Alliance for Democracy (AD), director of Research and Publicity, and commissioner for eight years. In 2011, he was a senatorial aspirant, but the party prevailed on him to go to the lower legislative house instead.
Bamidele parted ways with APC when the party hierarchy told him months back to tame his gubernatorial ambition. The federal legislator had indicated his interest to challenge the incumbent but was advised to go and queue. After much mudslinging, he decamped to the Labour Party.
Analysts believe that he is likely to emerge as the LP candidate. There are divergent opinions as to the propriety or otherwise of his leaving for LP.
A pundit told our correspondent that his leaving was the best decision he had ever made as power is never given but fought for.
“Have you ever seen where people are given power on a platter? It may have happened, but remotely. The normal thing is that power is always struggled for. Bamidele wanted to test his popularity, but some powers in the party resisted him. He had to quit to prosecute his ambition on another platform. Whether he will win or not is immaterial. But take it or leave it, Bamidele will seriously affect the APC votes,” the analyst said.
“Although nobody is saying Bamidele committed an unpardonable sin, what we are saying is that he ought to have respected the powers that threw him up in the first place. Who would have heard of Bamidele in the first place if not that the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, brought him up? His ambition is consuming and that desperation is very dangerous,” another commentator said.
Another test for INEC
Pundits have also called on INEC to live up to expectation before and during the election. It is reassuring that Attahiru Jega has said it was essential that the RECs did their best to ensure that the tasks were accomplished.
Jega gave the assurance that the lessons learnt from the Anambra elections would be factored into the conduct of subsequent elections.
He insisted that the commission would make the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State a test case in terms of preparation. He urged all stakeholders to work with the commission to ensure that the elections were successful. He had also assured Nigerians that staff of the commission would continue to work harder to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
Why election is holding in Ekiti before 2015
Unlike in many other states in the country where elections will be holding in 2015 according to the INEC timetable, Ekiti is one of the few states that have irregular electoral calendar. The incumbent governor as stated above assumed office in 2010 after a legal rigmarole.
