The governorship election conducted on July 14, 2018 may have come and gone but the dust raised by it appears to remain unsettled. Although Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission and duly sworn in as Executive Governor, his fate hangs in the balance due to a twin legal obstacle which he will have to overcome to retain his
seat.
There is an intra party dispute regarding his qualification to contest for his party’s primaries based on the allegation that he did not resign his political appointment as Federal Minister of Steel Development before contesting as a candidate. Former Governor Segun Oni, who came second during the APC gubernatorial primaries, is challenging Fayemi’s candidature and eligibility as a result of the governor’s indictment by the Justice Silas Oyewole – led Commission of Inquiry constituted by the immediate past administration of former Governor Ayodele Fayose to investigate Fayemi’s first tenure between 2010 and 2014.
Oni’s case was first instituted at a Federal High Court Abuja but later transferred to Ado Ekiti division in an uncleared circumstance. Judgement was delivered Tuesday, December 4, 2018 in favour of Fayemi but the legal team of Segun Oni has hinted their determination to pursue the case to the highest court in the land.
Ekiti people are not interested in any document being circulated that will not pay up the backlog civil servants salaries, empower the teeming jobless youths, fund public schools, enhance infrastructural development, put food on their tables and address the spate of political assassinations, murders, kidnapping and the renewed lawlessness of the recalcitrant herdsmen in the state
Conversely, Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka, former deputy governor and the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state gubernatorial election is challenging the victory of Governor Fayemi and praying the election tribunal to declare him the
winner.
Ekiti state is an egalitarian society and one would expect that while Fayemi grapples with the legal matters regarding his election, he should endeavour to demonstrate true leadership. Generally, it is believed that the governor did not live up to expectation as a true leader for alleged vendetta and nefarious politics during his first term in office which allegedly led to his electoral defeat in 2014.
Governor Fayemi should avoid the pitfall of listening to sycophants and political jobbers for him to go after his political opponents and predecessors but face the art of governance squarely because the buck stops at his table. He should run an all-inclusive government. If Fayemi’s inaugural speech is anything to go by, then, one is tempted to believe that he’s yet to shed his old toga of politics of pull him down syndrome or rubbish the legacy of his predecessor which is not good for the development of Ekiti. According to Fayemi, ‘’we have reclaimed our land from those that held us hostage. We will thoroughly reveal and distribute documents of what happened in our state during the past administration.’’
Definitely, this is not what Ekiti needs at this time but how he can settle the civil servants’ outstanding salaries of about eight months and completion of uncompleted projects left behind by the past administration. He should avoid the temptation of starting new projects and trying to rubbish the legacy of his predecessor. Shortly after his election victory, I had expressed my concern to one of his close aides, hoping that Fayemi had learnt his lessons from his past mistakes and avoid t
hem.
During his first term in office, many people alleged that he used his position to truncate the defunct Ekiti State University of Technology, Ifaki Ekiti and University of Education, Ikere Ekiti to get back at the Segun Oni Administration and not as a result of paucity of funds as he allegedly made people to believe but due to a die hard personality trait. As a well read governor, one would have expected Fayemi to have outgrown such pettiness and by his action, he had robbed his state of a potential world class university based on ego and vendetta. It is on record that Ogun State has a Polytechnic and two Universities with a new one in the offing; Oyo has two Polytechnics, a University with a joint one with Osun State; Osun has a University and one Polytechnic in addition to the Ladoke Akintola University jointly owned with Oyo State.
In his book, ‘’Take the risk’’, American author, Ben Carson, averred that some leaders seem to think they increase in their stature by making other people feel smaller. Governor Fayemi should walk through the options and take the best course of demonstrating leadership in the true sense of the word and avoid the pitfall of his divisive actions during his first term in office. Ekiti people are not interested in any document being circulated that will not pay up the backlog civil servants salaries, empower the teeming jobless youths, fund public schools, enhance infrastructural development, put food on their tables and address the spate of political assassinations, murders, kidnapping and the renewed lawlessness of the recalcitrant herdsmen in the state. Governor Fayemi should ensure that the state anti-grazing law is enforced to the letter and not see it as Fayose’s law as cows are now competing with human on Ekiti streets, a situation which is unacceptable. Posterity will not forgive leaders who allow their personal interest to becloud the collective interest of their
people.
