And there is no background to this than to highlight the chains of events since the inception of the regime, which appear as the props that will shape the administration already steeped in controversy, courtesy of intolerant attitude of the chief driver of the state. The style, they say, is the man. For a man who relishes in mob tactics in driving his agenda, the manipulation of the pedestrian rabble into an act of rage against the opponents is the most clinical way of achieving predetermined ends.
Within a week after inauguration, Governor Ayodele Fayose had visited his well-equipped laboratory of tricks to draw his opponents and the people of Ekiti into a street fight. Within six days of his administration, the governor had stirred six controversies that remind us of his one day, one trouble administration between 2003 and 2006. They include allegation by a PDP group that APC lawmakers took bribe to impeach the governor; alleged purchase of N50m per bed by Governor Kayode Fayemi; sealing of the petrol station belonging to the company of the Speaker of Ekiti House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin; and the purported debt profile of N85 billion by the former governor. Others include plan to refurbish the old Governor’s Office while also allegedly considering putting up the new Government House on sale, reversing official logo of the state and veiled attempt to scrap the newly created local government development areas in the state.
The background to all these was well plotted. Inconsistency and sheer mischief fueled by political expediency are major planks upon which statecraft is constructed. To set people against the House of Assembly, Governor Fayose, by announcement, reversed the official logo of the state and announced that the old ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ slogan should replace ‘Land of Honour’. The law approving Ekiti new logo under Fayemi was enacted by the House of Assembly on June 15, 2011, but Fayose, instead of reverting to the House for any change, made a public announcement that the logo had immediately changed to the one pre-Fayemi’s administration, a clear breach of the law in apparent bid to undermine the House of Assembly and set the state on fire again.
Another instance was during his campaigns when reports said Governor Fayose allegedly warned Governor Fayemi not to furnish the new Government House to his (Fayemi) taste because he (Fayose) had a better taste. But Fayemi built a first class Government House, which Fayose has now turned around to dub as “too expensive”, alleging that Fayemi bought a bed for N50m. The manipulated members of the public are already raising hair over this wicked allegation. A veiled attempt to scrap the local government development areas created by law is another act of executive lawlessness to ignite anger among the people of Ekiti State and put the House in bad light in the imminent face-off between the Legislature and Executive.
On October 23, 2014, APC intercepted a message sent by a member of PDP to other PDP members to prepare for an attack on the House of Assembly. The text message mistakenly sent to a former PDP member, who had defected to APC, read: “Please mobilise all PDP ward members to be at Fajuyi Park by 9am tomorrow. APC Assembly members needed (sic) to be warned. Come with your placards.” A prompt reaction by APC calling the attention of the security agencies to the threat saved the day, as on second day, PDP members in their large numbers stormed Fajuyi Park but they were prevented by the police to unleash mayhem on the Assembly.
A PDP group alleged that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu gave House of Assembly members millions of naira to impeach the governor at a meeting in Tinubu’s house in Lagos attended by former Governor kayoed Fayemi, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Honourable Adetunji Orisalade, on a day the Speaker was in Abuja while the Deputy Speaker was about boarding an Arik Airline Flight number W3101 in Britain that arrived Nigeria at 3.am, not quite 15 hours after the purported meeting. Conversely, it was actually the ruling party PDP that was on the necks of APC members wooing them to join PDP to control the House of Assembly, but the principled ones among them refused while those who could sail in PDP’s raft have taken the plunge to grab the offers and have since defected to PDP.
For refusing to join PDP, the Speaker got a taste of the administration’s vendetta when his filling station was sealed over alleged contravention of environmental law that prohibits such facility in public schools and residential buildings. The Speaker’s company got necessary approval from the ministry to construct the facility. Omirin’s fuel station is nowhere near any school. It is located just like any other fuel stations in Ado-Ekiti with full complement of safety devices and guides as provided by law. The governor had earlier raised alarm over alleged debt profile of N85billion by Governor Fayemi, but the latter responded, quoting N19billion, excluding the N17b owed the state by the Federal Government on federal roads executed by the state government.
The import of this instigation of public anger against Fayemi is not lost on those who know the governor very well. He had promised his supporters and Ekiti people in general that he would fill their stomachs and pockets immediately he assumed office. The thoroughly degraded Ekiti people believed him, but the more knowledgeable among them knew it was part of the old tricks. The gullible youths were asked to submit job application letters at Spotless Hotel owned by Fayose for thousands of jobs coming after his inauguration. After he assumed office, the governor has been telling the youth that he is never a Father Christmas, even as he made it clear to his party members that the state has no money and so those expecting appointments should tarry awhile as he has no plan to hire many people into the government.
The question is, where is the money in the pockets and food in the stomachs if there are no jobs? To get himself out of the fake promise trap, he has to turn to Fayemi for blame. The prelude to the catalogues of tricks started on the inauguration day on October 16, 2014. Drawing strength from the dexterous oratorical skill of an accomplished “businessman” he is, the governor had pointed to the new Government House, telling Ekiti people at the event: “That Government House on Ayoba Hill you are seeing from here is your house. Go there and open the rooms, enjoy yourselves and sleep there.” Responding, the crowd hooted, praising him for his pro-masses sentiment. But reports said the governor had earlier asked the security agents to lock up the place. And so when the masses went to sleep in the new house of their friend, all the doors in the Government House were locked against them. They entertained themselves at the swimming pool section of the Government House with beer, paraga (local gin) and hemp in an all-night of wild revelry. And by the time they left the place in the morning, heaps of feaces and vomits by the pool side were the tell tale signs of what was left of the new edifice.
But the new Government House is even now the governor’s problem because there is nothing to be added to it as presently constructed. Instead of praising Fayemi for meeting his taste, the feat has now become Fayemi’s albatross over which the latter must be crucified. The present plan, according to reports, is to put the house on sale while the old Governor’s Office will be refurbished for the governor’s use. The question is, what are we to expect from the sale of the new house and refurbishment of the old Governor’s office that is in itself a study in controversy? The building was constructed by Governor Adeniyi Adebayo but Governor Fayose did the furnishing that later turned awry for the people of Ekiti State, according to the EFCC. And now that the same building is being asterisked for another refurbishment, what do Ekiti people expect from the new initiative? The question becomes imperative because Mr. Justice Adamu Hobon of the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, is yet to interpret EFCC’s Abubakar Madaki’s petition over money allegedly fleeced through the finishing of this same building in 2004 to allegedly erect the Iyaganku mansions in Ibadan, Oyo State. As they say, the morning shows the day. And from all indications, it is clear that Ekiti people have woken up to the dawn of the season of drinking a new wine from the old bottle.
• Olujobi, Special Adviser, Media, to Ekiti State House of Assembly Speaker, wrote in from Ado Ekiti.
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