EKITI STATE: YORUBA MUST REWARD FAYEMI
History beckoned on true Yoruba sons and daughters and few concerned Nigerians from other tribes to rise up to save the Yoruba Nation, the most educated and most sophisticated ethnic group in Nigeria from IBB and Abacha’s onslaught between 1993 and 1998. It was a clarion call for the real men and women to stand up to be counted when it mattered most in the history of Nigeria. The precarious and dangerous situation in those years of the locusts required the warriors and the real courageous people to rise to the occasion. The situation was so because all the first class Yoruba leaders were either in jail or in exile.
Reason: because the late Chief M K O Abiola won the June 12 1993 Presidential elections. The powers that be told us in the face that the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was not for sale to the political entity called South Nigeria. Having defeated Biafra in 1970, the victors felt that to gain total control and to dominance of Nigeria, Yoruba must be defeated also. But the rest is now history!
Dr Kayode Fayemi, a great and sophisticated son of Ishan Ekiti was among the few courageous men and women in Yorubaland thrown up by the forces of history to rise up in defense of the integrity and honour of their people. Even though I missed out the critical role of Dr Fayemi in the struggle in my book: Heroes of Democracy, the enormous and prodigious contribution in the struggle for the return of democracy in Nigeria cannot be easily measured. The history of Radio Kudirat International will be incomplete without the unique and modest role of Dr Kayode Fayemi and Professor Wole Soyinka – a living legend in Nigeria and the world. Such a bright, committed and patriotic son of Yorubaland and Nigeria who sacrificed all to restore the integrity of his people deserve to be recognized and rewarded. When a Nation is in crisis, that is when you know the concerned and committed sons and daughters. Dr Fayemi is an illustrious son of Yoruba land and Nigeria who deserves to be honoured as reward for hardwork, determination and perseverance when it mattered most in Nigeria.
Those who betrayed the Yoruba Nation and Nigeria are the ones ravaging and plundering Nigeria today more especially the South West, excluding Lagos, and even Ondo State that was liberated recently. Governor Oyinlola, a quisling that IBB and Abacha used as Millitary Administrator of Lagos State is now sitting on stolen mandate in Government House in Osun State. Did you hear of anybody called Segun Oni and what he stands for during the second war of independence between 1993 and 1998? Former president Obasanjo who reaped from Chief Abiola’s supreme sacrifice is the one who turned around to rubbish and humiliate those who saved him from Abacha’s gulag. What former President Obasanjo did to heroes of our renascent democracy in 2003 and 2007 in the South West is the worst form of betrayal yet to be equaled in the history of Nigerian politics. It is this colossal betrayal that led to the untimely exit of Senator Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige and Justice (Mrs) Atinuke Ige. The blood of these committed Nigerians will continue to hunt the enemies of Yoruba Nation and Nigeria.
In broad day light, Obasanjo unleashed the worst form of electoral robbery in Nigeria in 2003 and 2007 and the crisis of leadership, the bloodshed, and the looting we have witnessed in the South West can be traced to this criminal politics. In one fell swoop, Obasanjo tried to destroy the bonafide Yoruba leaders it took almost 60 years to build. The agents of fraudulent mainstream politics in Nigeria intend, whatever it takes to keep the loot. They are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the firm grip of South West politics but the truth, though very difficult to imagine is staring them on the faces that it is a hard nut to crack. That is why the President, Vice President, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Reps including countless number of PDP rogues are trooping to Ekiti State to woo Ekiti voters who were robbed in 2003 and 2007. The heavily compromised Ekiti Commissioner of Police Mr Chris Ola and the State INEC Chairman could not be removed as the people demanded. Chief Iwuanyanwu (ask if he knows the way to Ekiti before) had to go to Ekiti canvas for votes for Segun Oni .
But how far can they go? A million Yar’Aduas, a million Jonathan Goodlucks, a million David Marks, a million Bankoles, a million Iwuanyanwus and 10 million PDP rabble rousers, leeches, cheats, votes robbers, criminal gangs, supporters of any government in power, morbid power seekers, greedy contractors and nest of killers cannot add one single vote for Segun Oni in Ekiti State. Those who trust in their chariots and horses will fail woefully in Ekiti State re-run on Saturday. Those who cannot remember the history of 1965 in Ekiti State and that of 1983 in the liberated Ondo and the bloody consequences are bound to repeat it, and this time the culprits will not escape judgment. They can mobilize a million soldiers, get all the police to Ekiti State but their presence cannot defeat the decency of the spirit of an average Ekiti man. I fear the dogged spirit of the people of Ekiti than all the armies and the police of Nigeria.
I continue to insist that the Court of Appeal in Ilorin would have spared us of these troubles in Ekiti State by declaring Dr Kayode Fayemi the winner, because he won the 2007 guber elections fair and square. The President, the Vice President, the Senate President and the House of Reps Speaker would have been doing something more important for Nigeria than this childish desperation to steal Ekiti State votes. Then tension in Nigeria today would have been unnecessary had the Court of Appeal in Ilorin read the Nigerian history very well. The waste in human and material resources being witnessed today in Ekiti State would have been unnecessary.
Every attention is focused in Ekiti State today. The State is the most discussed today in the landscape. And I hope the PDP riggers are listening to Nigerians to get it right. Should they make any mistake of trying to repeat what happened in 2003 and 2007, I fear for Nigeria. Those who have ears let them hear.
Joe Igbokwe
AC PUBLICITY SECRETARY
LAGOS STATE
