Ekiti Guber Race And Fayemi’s Journey Of Destiny—- By Wole Olujobi

Some had even divined he dare not announce his ambition. The White Paper bogey had almost drowned the voices of the boisterous orchestra of optimists who had vowed that “unfinished business” was about to berth at the  Oke-Ayoba Government House.  And like the game of dice, the end seemed unpredictable.

But all that changed on the day the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is also former Governor of Ekiti State, proved political acrobats  and their yellow bookmakers counterparts wrong.

It was all on April 14, 2018; the date that Fayemi seems to have a permanent covenant with both history and destiny, when Ekiti people that transcended political divides stormed Ado-Ekiti to be part of the continuation of history to redeem Ekiti State that Governor Ayodele Fayose has turned to a dockyard of hunger and moral decay.

It was 11 years earlier, precisely on on April 14, 2007, that the current Minister of Mines and Steel Development first contested Ekiti State governorship election and won, but he did not enjoy the mandate of Ekiti people until 2010, courtesy of federal potentates, who swallowed the victory of Ekiti people for three and half years until their monstrous bellies burst open on October 15, 2010 when Fayemi eventually retrieved his mandate to serve Ekiti people through the verdict of the Court of Appeal in Ilorin.

But unlike 2007, his erstwhile garrison of tormentors  in the federal establishment have now  turned tactical strategists in his armour brigade.

 And for the thoroughly abused people of Ekiti State, who have again been gang-raped by a vicious conclave of crooks led by an epicurean President,  no state banquet could be sweeter and bigger than the coalition of Ekiti people in street shows on April 14, 2018 to signal the beginning of another redemptive journey tagged “on the march again” to free Ekiti people that have been forced to a vassal state in chains manacled to the whims of a political demagogue that thrives in deceit, intimidation and fraud.

Faced with the realities of mental seige, despondency and hopelessness under which Ekiti people have been living in the last three and half years within which Governor Ayodele Fayose elevated lies and deceit as a state policy, the journey to Fayemi’s declaration to contest the governorship election was preceded by the need to forge a rallying point that would lead Ekiti people out of Fayose’s Egypt that has been serving sorrows, tears and pains at breakfast, lunch and dinner in the last three years.

Fayemi, a master strategist of no mean dexterity, had earlier in the  week  traversed the 16 local governments unlocking the memories of his party members to his achievements between 2010 and 2014 and opening their eyes to the misery that sleeps and wakes up with Ekiti people since 2014 when Fayose mounted the throne.

In sessions with party leaders across  the 16 local governments, Fayemi listed his achievements in every nook and cranny of the state with stunning accuracy to the applause of party leaders and members at the meetings where he spoke.

 At the declaration grounds, Fayemi warned members against attacking fellow aspirants, stressing that all aspirants had sterling leadership qualities that would make any of them perform better than the current occupier of the governorship seat.

He counselled supporters to sell the programmes of their preferred aspirants instead of launching character assassination wars against other aspirants.

Fayemi admitted that as human and as a governor attending to several interests while in office, he must have offended some people, hence he apologised to the aggrieved while also volunteering forgiveness for those who offended him.

He assured members that all his life-lifting schemes, including social security for the elderly people and local government development areas  cancelled by Fayose would return on assumption of office if elected.

Quoting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senator Musa Kwakwanso’s cases where the Supreme Court ruled that White Paper is unknown to the nation’s law in election qualification conditions, Fayemi  allayed the fears of his supporters  on malicious plot to shut him out of the race, arguing that White Paper is nothing but a toilet paper that has no weight in election qualification matters. He disclosed that he had gone to court to challenge the White Paper.

He also spoke on the mis-interpretation of his relationship with teachers, explaining that his policy was not a competency test but a need assessment policy to upgrade teachers in their proficiency with potential for professional advancement that goes with better welfare package.

“I never contemplated sacking anybody. What is teachers’ offence that would make me sack them? Were they the people who rigged my election? You heard the voices of those who rigged my election on Capt Sagir Koli’s audio tape and they were not teachers.

“Instead of sacking teachers, I increased their salaries three times between 2010 and 2014, including making sure that Ekiti State was the first to implement relativity pay in the South West as well as the first state in Nigeria to pay 25 per cent core subjects and rural posting allowances to teachers above their official salaries, including health workers’ special salary,  all paid throughout  four years without owing the state workers.

“My father was a teacher while I myself is also a teacher and so I owe obligation to teachers to always ensure the security of their jobs and also ensure their welfare,” Fayemi explained.

He assured that he would not sack any teacher or any worker if he wins the July election.

Fayemi also spoke on the state’s debts profile, explaining that while it is true that his administration borrowed N25b bond, the money was not spent on salaries but on development projects and infrastructure.

He listed roads and bridges across the state, hospitals, schools, agricultural schemes, the new Government House, Ekitiparapo Pavilion, Civic Centre, Ikogosi Resorts, Ire Burnt Bricks Company and Igbemo Asphalt Company, among several development projects, as those that benefitted from the bond cash.

He added that before he left office in 2014, he had paid back N14.5b out the bond of N25b he took from the capital market to be defrayed within seven years, contrary to Fayose’s propaganda that he borrowed money from the capital market to be defrayed between 2014 and 2036.

He explained that Fayose had borrowed N56b since assumption of office, according to the records in the Debts Management Office (DMO) in the Federal Ministry of Finance.

“I never borrowed to pay salary, but Fayose has so far borrowed N56b according to DMO’s records that are available to me.

“Fayose took first and second bailouts, first and second Paris Club refunds,  budget support facility of monthly N1.3b for 14 months, CBN’s small-scale business loans, project loans and ecological funds while the federal allocations he has taken so far are far above what we took in four years, yet he cannot pay salaries of workers for between six and 10 months.

“Pensioners have not been paid for several months while traditional rulers’ salaries and allowances are cut, yet the obas remain unpaid for months.

“In our own case, we bought cars for our traditional rulers while their salaries were regularly paid, but unfortunately all that have become history.

“One funny aspect of Fayose’s policy is to owe teachers and other categories of workers for months, yet he is asking these same unpaid workers to pay prohibitive costs on their children’s education, including forcing school children to pay taxes.

“But in my own case, all that the parents needed to do was to buy their children’s uniforms because our education was free from primary to secondary schools while JAMB, NECO and WEAC fees were also paid  by my administration for students, including giving them bags to keep their books and a laptop computer to each student,  all of which have been cancelled by Fayose to force untold hardship on our people.

“The results of our education reforms manifested positively in WAEC, NECO and JAMB results three years after, but for which the present administration is claiming credit even when his teachers live in empty stomachs and students out of schools over prohibitive school fees,” he explained.

He assured that all the goodies cancelled by Fayose would return on assumption of office if elected.

Bouyed by these messages of hope across the 16 local governments earlier in the week, this was the teaser needed to draw crowds of supporters and Ekiti people in general to lend their voices to Fayemi’s return to the Oke-Ayoba Government House to start the rebuilding of Ekiti State to a model state.

On the appointed day, April 14, the solidarity and freedom day in Fayemi’s political calendar, his earlier engagements during the week with local government leaders paid off, as huge crowds shut down Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, where the minister was to officially declare interest to contest the July 14, 2018 governorship election..

Leading the early morning roadshow was a swarm of Okada boys that took over the long stretch of the road between Ajilosun campaign office of Fayemi and Adebayo area of the state capital as they tested their dexterity in biking to the applause of the residents who watched in admiration without anyone losing his limbs.

They were joined by their counterparts from the Northern Senatorial district, who had gathered at Ifaki-Ekiti roundabout to join Fayemi’s convoy from Isan-Ekiti for a triumphant entry to the state capital in a vehicular chain that choked life out of traffic from Adebayo area to the Fajuyi area of the state capital, the starting point for the day’s show of strength in the journey to kick Fayose and his cronies out of the lives of Ekiti people to enjoy their peace.

Fayemi’s arrival in Ado-Ekiti drew cymbals and tambourines, even as cars and other vehicles hooted to welcome the foremost governorship aspirant to the race for the rescue of Ekiti State from a cloudy administration that has so much in cash but dispenses little to spread mass poverty among the people while half of the state resources are devoted to private pleasures in private jet acquisition and landed properties across Nigeria, all to the advantage of the governor.

Expressing his frustrations with Fayose’s leadership of the state at the party secretariat where he had gone to formally declare his interest to party leaders led by the State Deputy Chairman, Chief (Mrs) Kemi Olaleye, Fayemi had said:

“Those of us who travel out of Ekiti are being insulted, assaulted and mocked on daily basis, asking why Ekiti people they thought were well-read, refined and exposed could make a character like Fayose their governor.

“That is why it is important for us to reclaim our land and restore our values. Each time I move round Ekiti, I see pains on the faces of the 25,000  elderly persons who benefitted from our social security scheme, 600 people were employed into Peace Corps and 10,000 volunteers who took N10,000 per month, among others, but have been cut off from these safety nets by Fayose.”

At the declaration grounds in the Ajilosun area of the state capital, the urge and readiness of Ekiti people to have a productive new beginning was palpably unmistakable. In a hot, scorching sun in sweaty cloths were thousands of Ekiti people at a venue that looked like a freedom square to reclaim Ekiti land and restore her values that have been unconscionably bastardised by Fayose and his gang.

Supporters danced to the music of several Ekiti musicians, such as Sese Alhaji, Walawala and Apasco, while blasts from a Lagos DJ, incredible Jimmy Jatt, threw youths into a frenzy, even as several other local musicians scattered along major roads entertained residents in what looked like the celebration of a Freedom Day.

Fayemi delivered his message of hope, saying that never again would Ekiti workers lose their jobs, and assured that never again would charlatans be allowed to hold the reins of office to hold Ekiti people to ransom.

After the event, in their hundreds, the okada boys raced in a long convoy with Fayemi to his Isan-Ekiti country home, a journey of more than one hour from the state capital venue of the declaration event, to solidarise with the minister on his new project to rediscover and rebrand Ekiti State again for prosperity..

As campaigns hot up in the run-up to the July 14 poll, Fayemi’s programme appeal already manifested in his physical and human capital development programmes in his first term will serve as a benchmark that will create a leverage for him among other aspirants in the cliff-hanger primaries that will produce the candidate that will be elected as the people’s governor, which Fayemi had once proved to be.

July 14 is here, and Ekiti people can’t wait for Fayemi, the man of destiny, to mount the throne again to provide quality leadership for the people of Ekiti State.

• Olujobi, former SSA Speech Writing and Public Communications to Fayemi and Special Adviser (Media) to the Speaker, writes from Ado-Ekiti