By Odunlabi Alayinde
On Friday, June 1, 2018, Opeyemi Bamidele and five others were shot and seriously wounded by a mobile policeman in what All Progressives Congress (APC) described as “a case of failed assassination attempt” and an “orchestrated plan to sniff life out of” Kayode Fayemi. Bamidele and other APC faithful were in Ekiti for a reception in honour of the immediate past Minister of Solid Minerals and the party’s flag-bearer in the state’s governorship election, slated for July 14, 2018.
Even before the party came out with a demand for probe and an assurance of adequate security protection for Fayemi’s campaign train, Nigerians had already been treated to what to expect in the coming days. Interestingly, Ekiti happened just some few hours after startling revelations of murderous acts by a former chieftain of a party in which direction accusing fingers are being pointed. Well, let me confess that these are interesting times in the life of Ekiti politics and I believe only the likes of Captain Sagir Koli can supply answers to posers that are already beyond the comprehension of mere mortals like yours truly.
But who wants Fayemi dead? What is his offence and what do such souls stand to gain from such a wicked act? For God’s sake, when has it become a crime for those with “penchant for building education infrastructure and promoting the welfare of the ordinary people” to give “confidence to the friends of freedom and pause to those who would exploit human difference for inhuman purposes”?
Truth be told, events in the last few days have again called for a strategic necessity among all stakeholders in the APC-Ekiti project to forget all needless distractions to forge a common front against the incumbent administration’s incompetence laced with unbridled and unrivalled tyranny. While my prayer for Ekiti is that the better candidate should win on July 14, there’s also an urgent need for Ekitians to beware of hilarious concoctions of conjectural delusions which can only end up leaving the electorate perched and paranoid.
Essentially, their common resolve at a time like this must consist, not in passing sacrifices of avoidable crises; their common strength, not in shameless insincerity; and the evidence of their determination, not in wheezing vanities. Rather, synergy is what is needed now to reclaim the state from the ‘Emperor’ who is bent on ruling the state by proxy. APC must as a family realize that its course remains inalienably headed for the pursuit of liberty and social justice for the good people of Ekiti. On the whole, our collective interest as Nigerians in the Ekiti project is the sanity and the sanctity of the July 14 election, neither its crudity nor its cruelty. It is on a free, fair and credible process, not one built on ballot-snatching; ballot-stuffing and allied criminalities that are alien to decent societies.
To say the truth, a man who values the importance of integrity needs not be found at a marijuana joint except or unless he is a ‘chain smoker’; or he intends to ‘belong’; or he wants to learn some new trends, or tricks, about smoking. Speaking for myself, there is nothing bad or evil in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the name of a political party. After all, it is just an ellipsis! Again, it’s not the ‘PDP’ acronym that carries guns and other dangerous munitions, all in the name of winning elections at all costs. Also, PDP as a contraction has no mouth with which to proclaim an election a ‘do-or-die’ affair, all in the name of ruling Nigeria for the next 60 years.
Quite frankly, one of our problems as Nigerians is that we define words indiscriminately to satiate our whims. That is why dubious people see the Constitution as a document concocted only to satiate their individualistic egos; and why we always misconstrue progressivism for economic elitism. That’s why we are being cajoled into falling prey to PDP’s blind ambition in Ekiti as if we are blind to the frolics of political misnomers and sincere hypocrites who wantonly capsize their predecessors’ policies and programmes, however noble.
Well, while I may not have to trouble myself on how well or otherwise Deputy Governor Olusola Eleka has so far fared as Governor Ayodele Fayose’s boy, fact remains that a man is as made by his society. Essentially, whatever the PDP candidate may pretend to have up his sleeves as his manifestoes, that the former will deviate from the rash and impolitic attitude of the latter – who, interestingly doubles as his lord and master – is in doubt. For instance, I’m yet to see what contributions the outgoing governor has truthfully made to Ekiti in terms of development beyond his characteristice ‘do nothing-to-achieve-nothing’, ‘stop-and-dance’, ‘guguru’ and ‘epa’ politricking. The Adekunle Fajuyi Bridge being touted as his major achievement was not only categorized as a project “not well-thought-out”, the cost was also described as insanely inflated. As we speak, civil servants, teachers and other categories of Ekiti workers are being owed salaries running into months in arrears. Pensioners are the worse hit! Amidst these, the governor junkets all over the place in chattered choppers and it is as if his life begins and ends in Oke Ayoba Government House, a facility built by the Fayemi-led administration which he (Fayose) once dubiously refused to move into.
By way of conclusion, let me remind those who want to know what Fayemi wants in power again that he has not got as Minister of Solid Minerals that historians will have to dig into history books with regard to his contributions to Nigeria’s search for a society where justice, equity and fairplay – not impunity – reign supreme. His records as governor of Ekiti between October 16, 2010 and October 15, 2014 remains the best in the annals of governance in Ekiti while his tenure as Minister of Solid Minerals in the Muhammadu Buhari-led government was not only untainted, it also led to huge investments in the mining sector and an increase in revenue for the Federal Government.
In their best interest therefore, won’t Ekitians rather vote for Kayode Fayemi, the best man for the job? Yes, time to reclaim Ekiti from political hooliganism and related forms of misgovernance is now!
*Alayinde wrote in from Aramoko-Ekiti, Ekiti State
