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Politics, incontrovertibly is a game of passion. You are either in it deeply or not in it at all. Meanwhile the truism that “every human being is a political animal” left no man of consciousness and true conscience out of politics, only the ignoramus. One is either there as an “idiot”, a “tribalist” or a “citizen” according to the Greece city traditional classification. How indeed can a living soul escape the impact and effect of politics in any case? The water we drink, the food we eat, the house we live, the land we farm, the road we travel, not to talk of the education we can access or the quality of health care accessible or the quality of the air we breath; all are products of our politics.
Ekiti State is rightly called the fountain of knowledge in the comity of states in Nigeria simply because “we are aware”, hence we ask questions and we probe every matter. Notwithstanding, every human society suffers a degree of fooling at one time or the other but like it is popularly said, ” you can fool all the people only sometimes but definitely not all the time”. Once beaten, twice shy! Ekiti people may have fallen victims severally of betrayals by social strangers in its political journey since 1999 to date but the opportunity of this year July 14 election to the numero-uno political seat of the state will settle all of that. Quite interestingly and true to kind as a very conscious people, all our former governors from 1999 to date are again deeply involved in this Ekiti 2018 gubernatorial contest either directly or indirectly.
To my mind, this is a very great opportunity for the people of Ekiti across political parties to set records straight as a people who can not be fooled all the time. We must resist and remove the stain of eternal condemnation as a poverty stricken gluttons of stomach infrastructure. We must compensate and reinforce the Ekiti extolled positive values and unleash deterrence against opportunism and the smart Alec’s. It indeed promise to be a payback time in a karnal game in which those who took Ekiti by surprise and decoys in the past will meet their Waterloo.
If you ask me, this is not a time for Ekiti to travel the wilderness again in search of a governor but rather to choose a preferred stalk from these TITANS that has been tried and tested and determine for once the kind of political fruits and culture we want to recommend to our children in Ekiti. For one, it is not going to be a child’s play to wrestle Ekiti from the claws of the hawk where they have held lawful captives hence it is going to be more expedient to keep the chickens away first until the hyena is driven and caged. This unanimity of purpose must sink selfish personal ambitions if our victory must be certain.
Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, a thoroughbred “Omoluabi”, Barrister at law and business man came as a stranger in 1999 as the first Executive Governor of the very young state then and completed his 4 years tenure but failed re-election in 2003 only to pave way for the opposition candidate-Mr. Ayodele Fayose then. However, by the third year of the first coming of Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the Ekiti political space had gone acidic. What the people thought was genuine courage has fully manifested as bravado and brigandage. Thuggery, violence, assassinations and murder had become commonplace and until Ekiti vomitted Mr. Fayose in 2006 after over three years into his 4 years term, Ekiti know no peace. Then came Engr. Segun Oni after some interregnum through the divine fingers of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo after due consultations with Ekiti elders and stakeholders. Engr. Segun Oni as recommended soon neutralized the acidic political temperature he met in Ekiti and the state was already heaving a sigh of relief, a return of peace and firmly footed on a pedestal of prosperity with unparalleled devotion to public works and public good before the opposition struck a below-the-belt blow that denied Ekiti of the full fruits of what they labored for as the court sacked him in circumstances that remained very controversial till date. In an exemplary Ekiti manner, Engr. Oni left office for the government house chapel for a thanksgiving service on that fateful afternoon immediately after the judgement was delivered with a note that the judgement was clearly a judgement of man and not that of God and that God’s judgement will surely come. Then come Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the beneficiary of the controversial judgement that took Oni away from Ekiti service. He was barely known beyond the leaflet of his CV by Ekiti people but was virulent in the trenches. Though he found a useful ally in Fayose in the battle to oust Chief Segun Oni by all means foul, the judgement of God hanging soon pitched Fayose against Fayemi in a most mysterious manner and in the election of 2014 it was Fayose that disgraced Dr. Fayemi out of office in an unprecedented 16-0 humiliation. That can only be the judgement of God and that was how Ekiti again found itself in the claws of Fayose who proclaimed to the whole world that “this is a changed Ayo Fayose”, “repentant and born again as omoluabi”. So with admixture of fears that a chameleon may never change its colors, then the dousing discharged with the loud open confession to misdemeanor and promises to turn a new leaf on one side and the bitter anger of Ekiti people (NUT, NLC, TUC, NULGE, NUP etc) against what they variously described as high handedness, arrogance of power and ingratitude of the incumbent Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the Ekitis activated the judgement of God. The Ekiti people themselves have had a taste of this judgement and a great lesson therefrom in the last 42 months but thank God for democracy and its element of periodic elections. Now back to the Titans and the July 14, 2018 Ekiti election:
Former Gov. Niyi Adebayo is actively in this race with his fate co-traveler. Though not humiliated, he was however defeated as an incumbent in 2003. So, now backing another defeated and humiliated Dr. Fayemi for the July 2018 Ekiti Gubernatorial will make them birds of the same feather that flocks together.
As for Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the 2nd and the incumbent PDP governor and captain of the Eleka for Governor train, it would not matter the innocence look of Prof. Olusola Eleka, the Ekitis can no longer be fooled that a grape tree can beget apples. With the best of intention, Eleka is going to walk on the thorns and thistle of a “dedicated” State Assembly, a deputy, commissioners and aides that would be imposed on him by his master-Fayose. It is loud and clear that Ekiti has had enough of this heist even without a repeat of all the drama of 2006.
Next is Engr. Olusegun Oni. (CSO) who governed the state from May 29, 2007 to October 15, 2010 . Twice he was made to face the marauding opposition in the immediate post Obasanjo era and twice he trounced them all on the field of politics through elections (2007 & 2009). It took a controversial court judgement to change the wishes of the people of Ekiti state as that window then existed in the law.
Why is CSO still standing tall and distinguished with the people of Ekiti state that they keep clamouring for his return to power to complete the unfinished job? This must be due largely to his unassuming nature and the hair of deep native and academic intelligence which draws people to him; the humility and honesty that magnetizes people and make leaders to want to follow him. Asiwaju Segun Oni is not a leader that cut others to grass size but one that respects and inspires them to become centers of influence. A man of wisdom that manages 13-13 in the State House of Assembly without crisis throughout his period as governor in the state; a friend of the pensioners, teachers, civil servants, local government workers, artisans and farmers. A restorer of the pride and dignity of the traditional institutions and very much at home with the faithfuls. A man ready to give everything and anything required for the accelerated development of Ekiti state; a man who established 2 more universities and still gave the highest subventions in history to the existing EKSU then must be a man of great vision who sees what others can not see and has not been able to see. Those who came after him to scrap the universities on the pretext of no resources to fund them have thereafter funded the #3.5billion Governor’s lodge for just one family, a pavilion that holds no event in years, a overhead bridge that serves no economic purpose but which cost is still shrouded in secrecy but not less than #5 billion and yet they owed Ekiti civil servants, teachers and lecturers salaries in arrears of 4 and 8 months. At least if the people do not the power of clairvoyance, they should know where they have passed before to retrace their steps. A man that established the Ekiti State Scholarship Board and awarded hundreds of genuine local and foreign scholarships up to PhD level annually must be a man who understands education as the true vehicle of development like the Awolowos. The people has every right to yearn earnestly for such a man and APC is lucky to have such a man in its net.
If democracy is about the popular choice of the people, a fact that we must all take to heart as students of democracy, then the APC, without prejudice to the array of its very qualified and eminent aspirants for Ekiti 2018 must begin to reshuffle his cards to put the right pegs in the right holes and settle for a seamless transition of power to the south in the very nearest future. It is still going to be congratulations to all the aspirants of the APC as the best among them will form the #AtunseEkititeam#. Luckily, the AtunseEkititrain will have maximum of just 4 years with a non egoistic, matured, public spirited, honest and God fearing captain in CSO. At least Ekiti will be sure of a safe and purposeful flight.
I have always advocated here that granted the assemblage of Creme de la Creme of Ekiti elites gathered here, we should give the state politics a compass that transcends our personal benefits. This time is too crucial to be silent or passive and I beg to take a position without prejudice to the positions others may conscientiously hold.
Ekiti must not burst this onerous chance. Ekiti must not fail to see this hand of God.
God bless Ekiti State. God bless the fountain of knowledge.
