As the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State gets nearer, and the campaigns gather momentum, Assistant Editor, SAM NWAOKO writes on the underlining issues in the campaigns.
THE campaigns towards the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State have, at best, revolved around the same known issues common in these climes. The various candidates have dwelt on development of physicalinfrastructure, enhancing human capital development,aa provision of water and how to improve the economy of the state. These are, unsurprisingly, still the issues in the current campaign. They are the same old issues the people are used to. But the new thing in this dispensation is that two of the candidates are in disagreement on who has done it better, and they have wrapped the issues in a new language and presented them to the Ekiti electorate in sweet dollops.
The commencement of campaigns, ordinarily, is the commencement of manoeuvrings to win over the electorate and the political parties have been engaging in various means to achieve their aim of gaining the upper hand. Apart from the now common radio and television jingles and advertisements, the entire state is now replete with billboards and posters of the parties, all selling their various candidates. There are also various other means such as the door-to-door campaign, youth and students’ programmes and musical shows.
However, there are still the good old campaign rallies in towns and communities. The rallies, which have become about the commonest and almost the only means of the physical interaction between the candidate and the convergence of the rural people, have also been persistent.
Fayemi
For instance, the state governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has visited more than eight of the 16 local government areas of the state to campaign. He has campaigned in Ekiti South-West, Oye, Ise/Orun, Efon, Ekiti East and Ilejemeje local government areas, where he sold his administration’s programmes to the people. He also sought the support of the people for his second term bid, saying he would improve on the first term performance. Dr Fayemi has so far hinged his campaign on the achievements of his government and stressed the need for the people to continue to enjoy the achievements and peace brought about by his administration.
The APC is even marketing the project from two fronts. The wife if the governor, Bisi, known to be adept at mobilising women, is not found wanting at all in the campaigns, as she has done so well in also reaching remote communities and farmsteads in the state to campaign for her husband. She has been wooing the electorate in the various communities and farmsteads with various items, including kerosene. She has also come up with the idea of the Women’s Wing of the APC and a carnival for all Ekiti women. It is believed that the programmes had been planned to engage the women and youth throughout the period of the campaign.
Opeyemi
The Labour Party and its candidate, Mr. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, have also visited many local government areas to campaign. So far, the campaign train of the party has traversed Ido/Osi, Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ekiti West and Gbonyin local government areas. Bamidele has been going round with the message of change he said was highly in demand in the Ekiti polity. He has also said that he and his party could do it better because “the Labour Party is the truly progressive party with the interest of the people at heart.”
Fayose
While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to formally flag-off its campaign like Fayemi and Bamidele, its candidate, former Governor Ayo Fayose, has however, covered as much ground as his co-contestants in the election. He too has campaigned in many communities in many local government areas, including Oye, Gbonyin, Ijero and Moba. The presence of the PDP in the field and in the Ekiti polity is also being felt as the campaigns progress.
While the campaigns have been going on in the various communities, the PDP had alleged that it could not formally flag-off its campaign because it was denied the use of its preferred venue for the event by the state government. The PDP claimed in a statement by the publicity secretary, Kola Oluwawole, that the party’s application to use the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium to host President Goodluck Jonathan, for the official flag-off of the PDP campaign was denied. But the state government denied the allegation and explained that the stadium had earlier been scheduled to host football matches.
But, while the brickbat between the PDP and the state government over the venue for the campaign is on, the party has used the window to work on the cracks that emerged following the emergence of former Governor Fayose as the PDP candidate. The election of Fayose as the PDP candidate in the election naturally ruffled some feathers in the party in the state, and expectedly, the party has used the time provided by the controversy over the campaign venue to reconcile its members and calm frayed nerves.
Accord Party
The Accord Party is also in the race and is making its own waves. The party recently formally ratified the candidature of Mr Kola Ajayi, as its standard bearer in the election. But before the congress to formalise Ajayi’s candidature, its candidate had been on the field like the other candidates. He had been sensitising the electorate on his “home-grown candidate” philosophy, which has been the nucleus of his campaign.
Ajayi and his party are of the belief that a governor from and among the people would know better where the shoe pinches. He has promised that he would use welfarism to tackle the poverty he said was currently ‘ravaging’ the people of the state.
Medley of accusations
But, while the people of the state are counting down to the June 21 date of the election, various angles are creeping into the electioneering campaign. There have been the angles of violent attacks, which have become a kind of mantra among the parties, except the Accord. APC, PDP and the LP have, at one time or the other, lodged formal complaints of violent attacks visited on their members. Even the Police, the Ekiti State Command, have confirmed that they had been receiving reports of the attacks and described what they have been receiving in the course of the campaigns as “accusations and counter accusations from the political parties.”
The LP recently addressed newsmen and complained that its members, in some communities, were being hounded allegedly by the governing APC. The party also lamented that its members were beaten and injured in Ekiti East council area, as well as in Ekiti South West council area, just as its vehicle were reportedly vandalised in Isan-Ekiti in Oye Council Area of the state.
The APC also addressed newsmen recently and alleged that the LP in the state had been visiting its members with mayhem in many communities where it had campaigned. The APC, through its interim state chairman, Chief Jide Awe, alleged that their members were attacked in Ipole-Iloro, Erijiyan, Ido-Ile and Aramoko, all in Ekiti West Local Government Area, where the LP had gone to campaign.
The Ayo Fayose Campaign Organisation (AFCO) of the PDP only, on Monday, also reeled out its own litany of attacks it had suffered allegedly in the hands of the APC thugs. The party said the campaign headquarters of its candidate in Ado Ekiti was attacked and that they also suffered attacks in Egbe community in Gbonyin Local Government area of the state, where they had gone to campaign. The Director General of AFCO, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, who was represented by his deputy, Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, had accused the APC for the attacks and challenged any of the rival parties in the election to publish the names of any PDP member being tried in any law court for violent conduct.
The people of the state are already expressing worries over the trend of violent attacks and have spoken on their desire for the politicians to stick to issues as they promised before the campaigns. The people are also expressing fears that the campaigns, which should ordinarily be smooth and issue-based, are already being tainted by the violent attacks and hold that this could mar the smooth conduct of the election.
Some keen observers of the trend in the state have blamed the development on politicians who are out to brand one another. There have been campaigns in the state both in the regular and social media by some political parties to brand other political parties as violent and unsuitable to seek for the peoples votes. This development is already tainting the campaigns and many have expressed worries that this trend, apart from painting Ekiti in bad light, could also dissuade some voters if it is not curbed early enough. Most of the people are also clamouring for modesty among the various stakeholders for the state to continue on its path of growth.
To some extent, the parties are all moving for all the things that could help them win the election. They have highlighted the qualities of their various candidates and want the people to queue behind them. But, the eligible citizens of the state know where their votes will go in the election and seem to be calling on politicians not to create another scenario for them.
They have also contended that they know who the initiators of violence are in the state and would “deal with them accordingly with our votes.”
But, will they heed the cries of the people they intend to govern for them to eschew violence? The next few weeks will tell.
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