Date Published: 08/04/09
EKITI: OUR PAINS, THEIR GAINS
By Lere Olayinka
I was going through my collection of items on Ekiti State recently when I saw two audio tapes produced during the dying days of the Ayodele Fayose regime. One was titled Igbesi Aye Aladiye (The life of a poultry farmer) while the other Eyi Yato (This is different). The two audio tapes took my memory back to those days when I and several others were up in arms against Fayose because of his style of governance, which was against the Ekiti values. Particularly, one of the tapes titled Igbesi Aye Aladiye reminded me of the N1.4 billion poultry scam, on which Fayose’s impeachment was premised and the roles played by the likes of Mr. Femi Falana, Mr. Femi Ojudu, Dr.. Kayode Fayemi, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele and my good self in exposing the atrocities allegedly committed by Fayose while in government.
As I listened to Eyi Yato, which was produced to herald the entrance of Dr. Kayode Fayemi into the governorship race and disparage Fayose’s government, my mind went back to the Action Congress (AC) final rally held at Oye-Ekiti for the rerun governorship election. I saw Falana, Fayose and others on the podium, campaigning for Fayemi. On the podium too were former governors Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo and Bola Tinubu, both of whom were detained for several hours by Fayose for venturing into Iyin-Ekiti during a rescheduled local government polls.
For several minutes, I was lost in thought until my wife joined me in the car where I was playing the tape. I had held my wife and said; “Thank God nothing untowards happened to us during that turbulent period that Fayose held sway in Ekiti State. If I had been killed on the streets of Ado Ekiti that night that I drove all the way from Akure to collect documents on the poultry project from a man that I never knew, I would have been long forgotten and these people would have wined and dined together the way they did during the rerun elections.”
To say that I was pained to the bone was an understatement. I was indeed troubled. I was pained because I never believed that desperation for power could make people who played prominent role in the ouster of Fayose run cap-in-hands, begging the same Fayose for help to win an election. It never occurred to me that someone of Dr. Fayemi’s academic standing could run to Afao Ekiti to receive ‘red biro’ from Fayose in the name of handing over ceremony. It was strange to me that Tinubu, who caused Fayose’s building at Alapere, Ketu, Lagos to be demolished in retaliation to his (Tinubu) detention at Iyin-Ekiti by Fayose could associate publicly with the same man, all in his desperate bid to add Ekiti to his list of colonised States in Nigeria.
It then occurred to me that perhaps, it must have been that same desperation, which brought Fayemi and Fayose together during the rerun election that, informed the role he (Fayemi) and Tinubu played in the ouster of Fayose in 2006.
Using his credential as a holder of PhD in War Studies, Fayemi had launched himself into the Alliance for Democracy (AD) as someone capable of confronting Fayose’s rampaging political machinery and presented himself as fighting for the interest of the down-trodden people of Ekiti. He (Fayemi) was the one who bank-rolled the production of several thousand copies of the Eyi Yato audio tape, which was produced by a top Lagos based broadcaster.
Today, in Ekiti State, the desperation that led Fayemi and others into going back to Fayose, a man they had called several unprintable names in the past has become a source of pain. The State and its people are daily being presented as a bunch of irresponsible trouble makers, who are never satisfied with anything. The once peaceful State has now become one where all sort of criminalities, including kidnapping hold sway. This is courtesy of the several militants, arms and ammunitions ferried into the State by desperate opposition politicians during the rerun governorship election.
But as the State and its people continue to carry on with the pains inflicted by these double-faced politicians, the politicians themselves are making gains. They are gaining from the political impasse which has provided them with the unhindered opportunity to remain in the media through propaganda and outright falsehood.
For instance, a few weeks ago, a faceless organisation, INTEGRITY YOUTH (IYM) NIGERIA went to town, alleging that a United States of America (USA) based company, LIVCO INCOPORATION (sic), had withdrawn its interest to invest about N2 billion in Ekiti State. They claimed that the company took the decision, having considered what it termed 'ugly' political situation in the State, purportedly arising from the rerun governorship elections.
But like every of the AC orchestrated forgeries, they gave themselves away in the letter of withdrawal of interest purportedly written by the said US based company and the Press Release issued by the faceless organisation, which was circulated to media houses in Nigeria. The two documents (i.e. Letter of Withdrawal of Interest and Press Release) were not signed, dated, and they bore no reference numbers and fixed address. Apart from this, the two documents were riddled with both spellings and grammatical errors.
Several unfounded allegations are also being made against the Engr. Segun Oni-led government.
Two weeks ago, they went to the roof-tops, shouting blue murder, alleging that government was threatening some civil servants that are sympathetic to the AC with redeployment or sack. Even when they knew that it was part of the conditions of service of public servants that they can be moved to any government establishment to function in any capacity as may be deemed necessary by the government, they still went to town with the allegation, ostensibly to keep themselves busy and remain on the payroll of their sponsor.
They also criticised to the highest heavens the government’s commitment of N256 million to support the Afe Babalola University, a non-profit making and charitable project on which the highly respected legal luminary and statesman, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) had personally committed over N7 billion. It never made any meaning to the holders of Pull Him Down (PHD) degree in the AC that the State Government as a manifestation of its determination to develop Ekiti State, had in the past provided incentives for profit-making organisations in support of their investments in the State. Some of these organisations, which include Crownnek Nigeria Limited (Land at Iyemero for Cassava cultivation and building of Ethanol Plant), Global Biofuel Limited (Land at Ilemeso for Sorgum cultivation and building of Biofuel Plant), Upland Agric Limited (Land at Ayegbaju for rice cultivation), Jeedol Metro (Partnership for Yam Conditioning Plant at Ilasa) and El Shadai Church (100 acres of land for the establishment of a university along Ado - Ikere Road) have committed several billions of naira into the State.
With these reign of falsehood, Fayemi and his men in the AC have been able to maintain the flow of free funds on which they live. Most of them are now proud owners of new cars while some who had for long abandoned their building projects due to lack of funds are now back on site, courtesy of the rerun election and the ongoing legal battle at the Election Tribunal.
Also cashing on the latitude provided by Fayemi in Ekiti State are individuals whose only source of livelihood is their membership of pro-democracy and human rights organisations. A group of individuals who go by the name Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) came up with the idea of Kayode Fayemi Legal Defence Fund (KFLDF) recently. They placed newspaper advertisements, calling on Nigerians to donate their hard earned income to the fund in support of Fayemi. And when a group, Election Transparency Group (ETG) took them up, raising posers as to how much the group actually needed, who the signatories to this account are and how is the fund going to be managed, their coordinator, Mr. Yinka Odumakin simply said Nigerians should donate first and ask questions later!
It is believed that several millions of naira must have been donated into this fund by unsuspecting Nigerians whereas, up till now, Tinubu, the sole sponsor of Fayemi has not complained that he can no longer fund his political expansionist agenda. After all, he is still funding that of Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State. There is also no indication that his (Tinubu) enormous wealth has dried up, rather, he has continued to amass more wealth through exorbitant multiple taxation of Lagosians.
Most importantly too, as pointed out by ETG, the AC and Fayemi have in their fold many legal practitioners who should gladly render free legal services as part of their contributions to the ceaseless scramble of Fayemi to become governor of Ekiti State. The likes of Prof. Yemi Osibajo, Mr. Femi Falana, Chief Tony Adeniyi, Chief Niyi Akintola and a host of other lawyers at the AC national headquarters, Abuja would sure not need donations from the public to assist their friend and party.
Yet, Odumakin and his ARG must have been collecting money from members of the public. And who is going to stop them from profiting from the pains inflicted on Ekiti people by Fayemi and his desperate sponsor? After all, others not in the ARG are also making their own gains. Therefore, who cares if we, the people of Ekiti remain in pains over an unending political impasse?
More painful too is the fact that unlike Governor Oni who has been fully involved in philanthropic activities in Ekiti State over the years, including sponsorship of the acquisition of free Jamb Forms and free Jamb coaching for eligible candidates, Fayemi, with all his self professed human rights credentials was never known to have participated in any developmental effort in Ekiti State prior to his entrance into the governorship race. Save for the free medical treatment that he organised in a few towns during the rerun election, Fayemi, like his men have been making gains from the governorship adventure. And even from the gains, he (Fayemi) still does not believe that he can impact on the lives of the people without being a governor.
However, as Ekiti people continue to suffer pains from the political desperation of some self-appointed moral sherrifs; one man has persistently maintained that that pain must be healed. He has shown through his attitude to governance that politics should not be allowed to becloud the sense of the obvious to the extent that every effort of the government is criticised no matter how genuine and desirable. That man is Governor Olusegun Adebayo Oni, the man who represents the symbol of the freedom of Ekiti people from the colonisation of one man whose only ambition is the expansion of his political and economic territory beyond Lagos.
Olayinka writes in from Okemesi Ekiti.
