Although the Ekiti Governorship election has come and gone, won and lost,
\nchecks by Pointblanknews.com reveal that Governor Kayode Fayemi, and his
\nteam, plus a few external factors were responsible for the unprecedented
\nbeating he received at the polls last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Pundits expressed worry at the results because it was unprecedented for a
\nsitting Governor to lose in every local government. Most wards in his
\nlocal government he lost to Ayo Fayose. His deputy, members of the House,
\nSenators, Special Advisers were all disgraced in their local governments
\nby a man so many believed connected with the grassroots.<\/p>\n
The factors that did him in, include strings of reversal of policies put
\nin place by Governor-Elect, Ayo Fayose and Ex Governor Segun Oni, the
\nattitude of his elitist and aloof kitchen cabinet including commissioners,
\nand the Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s factor . The Tinubu\u2019s angles made some pundits
\nsuggest Fayemi could have been sabotaged.<\/p>\n
Trouble started for Fayemi when shortly after he came to power, decided to
\nreverse all policies that put some extra cash in the pockets of civil
\nservants and teachers, put in place by Fayose.<\/p>\n
First was the teachers\u2019 pecuniary allowance which saw a 27.5 per cent hike
\nin their take home. Fayemi stopped it shortly after he came, and after
\nlong drawn drama, negotiations, he agreed to make it 16 per cent. This was
\na temporary relief but the teachers vowed to stop him, despite his
\ndesperate last minute promise few weeks before election, to return to
\nstatus quo.<\/p>\n
Then there was the Teachers development Needs Assessment (TDNA), fashioned
\nlike the Edo state model. For over a year, the teachers said no to it
\nbecause it was designed to kick out a large number of them.<\/p>\n
There was also the Service Reclassification exercise, which saw tons of
\nHigh school principals demoted to vice principals and vice principals
\nmoved back to class teachers. Their primary school counterparts boycotted
\nthe exercise, but when it was few weeks to election Fayemi said he would
\nstop it, but they did not buy it.<\/p>\n
Checks also revealed that some key members of Fayemi\u2019s kitchen cabinet had
\nadvised to play along until after election. Sources hinted that most of
\nthose teachers who led the protest against need assessment were penciled
\ndown for sack after election. This was the idea of Education commissioner,
\nDr Eniola Ajayi, Pointblanknews.com learnt.<\/p>\n
During Fayose and Oni there was what was called leave bonus for the
\nworkers, with the excuse of paucity of funds, Fayemi stopped it. Also
\nbefore Fayemi came, no Ekiti pensioner or retiree was owed a dime by
\nFayose and Oni. As at today , a long list of pension arrears and
\ngratuities are outstanding. As usual when Fayose entered the race Fayemi
\nwent on air to promise he would pay up, but they did not trust him and
\nvowed to push him out.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com\u2019s chat with some students revealed that they were very
\nunhappy with Fayemi who failed to bring succor to them. Their problem were
\nschool fees and bursary. According to our checks when he was made Governor
\nvia Salamigate, Fayemi promised to cut fees from N80,000 to N40,000, but
\nafter he resumed office fees went up to N150,000. As usual few weeks to
\nelection he tried to woo the students with a promise of a downward review.
\nThey did not buy it.<\/p>\n
There was also the issue of bursary and scholarship stopped by Fayemi.
\nUnder him the state scholarship board was comatose unlike under Oni.
\nFayemi gave so much publicity to six students he claimed he gave
\nscholarship to the consternation of parents and students.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com learnt that during Oni 3000 indigent student got
\nscholarship. Phd in Nigeria got N500,000, while those who went abroad got
\nN1million. Msc got N500,000( Nigeria ) and N300,000 for those in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
There was also a plan by Fayemi to ban the use of commercial motorcycles
\n(Okada) as a means of transportation in the Ado Ekiti metropolis.<\/p>\n
Fayemi had no substantive local Government chairman inplace, all were his
\nsurrogates, who were caretaker chairmen. This made most of those at that
\nlevel to move away from him because some of the ex council bosses had no
\nopportunity to return. They gravitated towards Fayose.<\/p>\n
Then there was the Tinubu issue. Tinubu had fought hard to get the All
\nProgressive Congress to zone the VP slot to the South West. Ordinarily
\nthere was nothing wrong with it, but the problem was Tinubu wanted to
\noccupy that slot which would make it a Muslim\/Muslim ticket.<\/p>\n
Some APC Governors and stakeholders did not like the image the pick would
\ngive the party so asked Tinubu to shop for someone else. Lagos Governor
\nBabatude Fashola\u2019s name came up but his religion knocked him out, so the
\nbest choice became Fayemi. This did not go down well with Tinubu who
\nbelieved Fayemi was one of those who kicked against him. Moreover he saw
\nFayemi as too independent minded, so his support for his re election was
\nmere lip service. Did he sabotage Fayemi, no one can tell for now.<\/p>\n
But another school disagrees. They insist Tinubu backed Fayemi even before
\nthe election. According to them, it was Tinubu who insisted there should
\nbe no primary, which vexed Opeyemi Bamidele, and led to his exit. They
\nalso claim it was Tinubu that was behind what happened to Bamidele in the
\nHouse or Representatives when he was removed as leader Ekiti caucus. The
\nlatter group pointed to the directive given by Tinubu to the House members
\nto reverse their decision for sake of peace.<\/p>\n
The fight between Bamidele and Fayemi, sources say further weakened his
\nalready weak structure.<\/p>\n
According to our source, so many of those close to Fayemi misled him,
\ninsisted he snubbed Bamidele who was a key member of his caucus, This
\neroded some of his base.<\/p>\n
Then there was the Obas angle. Tinubu had insulted them at the Awujale of
\nIjebuland\u2019s palace during the latter\u2019s birthday. The Ooni of Ife, Oba
\nSijuwade had taken a shot at Tinubu after his diatribe. This,
\npointblanknews.com sources hinted, signaled a bad omen for the APC in the
\nsouth west.<\/p>\n
There are also indications that the Afenifere and some other groups in the
\nSouth West outside the APC are not comfortable with Tinubu\u2019s dominant
\nstature.<\/p>\n
Also, for several weeks\u2019 doctors in General Hospitals and state teaching
\nhospitals downed tools.\u00a0\u00a0 Problem was the refusal by Fayemi to implement
\nthe Consolidate Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS). This was in place
\nduring Fayose and Oni.<\/p>\n
According to Pointblankews.com checks, two prominent members of Fayemi\u2019s
\nkitchen cabinet did not do much to connect him with the indigent and
\ngrassroots fellows. His Chief of Staff who was Director of Communications,
\nYemi Daramola alienated so many. He was defector deputy Governor and quite
\narrogant. He was touted as the guy who would succeed Fayemi in 2018. He
\nwas alleged to have a hit squad who attacked some Labor members in Emure
\nwhere Folusho Ogundare was killed.<\/p>\n
Then they had the Director-General John Kayode Fayemi campaign
\norganization currently a member of the House in Abuja. He led an elite
\ncorp for Fayemi who felt all that matters were Abuja and Ado Ekiti. It was
\ngathered that he was one of those who messed up the Fayemi campaign and
\nquest to return due to arrogance and naivety.<\/p>\n
A development economist, Ayo Simpson Ilesanmi said \u201cDr. Fayemi is a
\ngentleman, a strategist and a PHD holder. All these are statement of
\nfacts, but it has nothing to do with what he supported, what threw him up,
\nhow he became the APC\u2019s candidate was nothing near democratic.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Fayemi fought unnecessary battle with teachers, local government
\nteachers and the labour union; the olive branch waived at the twilight of
\nthe election did not change anything, as they have made up their mind to
\ndeal with him.\u201d He said<\/p>\n
According to him \u201cThe other APC governors should resist the temptation of
\nfighting the single block of voters that could be relied upon in time of
\nelection. If Gov Oshiomole were to seek re- election, it would have been
\ninteresting to see how he would have pulled through. Any serious
\nopposition must understand the politics of labour.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are related questions from pundits that may need answers. For
\nexample, did Ekiti State electorate vote for Fayose, or did they vote
\nagainst Fayemi? Would they have voted this enthusiastically even if Fayose
\nweren\u2019t on the ballot? What role did party affiliations play? How would
\nthings have played out were Fayose to be the candidate of a lesser-known
\nparty, without the intimidating financial and logistical support of the
\nPDP? And, to stretch things somewhat improbably, what would have changed
\nwere the incidence and extent of poverty to suddenly and remarkably fall
\nacross Nigeria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although the Ekiti Governorship election has come and gone, won and lost, checks by Pointblanknews.com reveal that Governor Kayode Fayemi, and his team, plus a few external factors were responsible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n