Ekiti: From Land of Honour to Land of Horror

Adeola Akinremi
The pattern has continued. Accusations and counter-accusations.  The father is a fraudster and the son is a confidence trickster. They have a company of cracksmen, magsmen, mobsmen, murderers and junkies.  It is the story of Ekiti State  Governor, Ayodele Fayose and his “boy”, Temitope Aluko—a man old enough to lead the nation, but chose to be a scalawag for Fayose.

Do you think Ekiti State is jinxed?
One moment missed on June 21, 2014, following the election that threw out its cerebral governor, Kayode Fayemi, the state is now back to the old order.

A fountain full of knowledge has become a place full of dry bones. The leviathan has turned a restful state to a state of turmoil. The land of honour has become a land of horror.

Frankly, the leviathan must be tamed now, except we want more damage.
Ekiti moved from boom state to doom state after the former governor, Kayode Fayemi, was manipulated out of office by forces within and forces without.

We’ve all followed the charade of the recent weeks and the melodrama between Fayose and Aluko.
We’ve watched youtube videos and live interviews on how the gubernatorial election was won and lost.

The troubling part was the ruse of a truce is this: in less than five hours after Aluko and Fayose jointly addressed journalists in Lagos claiming they’ve settled their scores, the headlines changed. Aluko recanted.

Two people who should be in jail for electoral fraud are still out making mockery of our democracy and we, the people, are laughing.
The sense of solidarity that characterised the Ekiti Parapo during the Yoruba war of independence is what is needed now to rescue Ekiti State from the abyss.

The Ekiti intelligentsia must make this a project that they can all be proud of.  There are many reasons for my advocacy.
A vituperating governor, Fayose, has abandoned the business of governance to fighting war he willingly created by himself.

From senseless attacks on the federal government policies to his personal vendettas for President Buhari, Fayose has rubbished himself and the state for his unintelligent statements in the media.

He’s one governor who speaks with makeup statistics. Fayose’s politics is undesirable in modern politics. It is like an abscess or sore that must not be allowed to fester.

For decoy, Fayose has been creating controversial projects to deceive the Ekiti people. For instance, after his airport project suffered defeat, he has rolled over to a flyover project.

Does Ekiti need airport and flyover for its small population and agrarian economy at this time, when money is not easy to come by?
It is one of several machinations of Fayose to leave Ekiti in complete ruins, when he leaves office.
There are important areas that will impact several lives that Fayose is not concentrating on. His opportunity for redemption, after his first term of controversial exit, has now been lost.

Can anyone explain the rousing welcome Fayose organised for a legislator under federal investigation?
I’m always pained to see people in Ekiti gathered to celebrate poverty of thought each time Fayose returns to the same limited set of ideas.
After the state lawmaker, Akanni Afolabi, who was unjustly detained by the DSS was released, Fayose resorted to cheap publicity stunt by ferrying the lawmaker from Abuja to Ekiti with a private helicopter using the taxpayers’ money for self-glorification. He didn’t stop at that.

In his effrontery, Fayose, who has not been able to pay salaries to workers then paid for newspaper adverts to advertise his folly.
The governor wasted money publishing court records on bail application for Akanni and then rewarded him with a car gift for his “loyalty.”
Of course, this kind of politics can best be understood from Akanni’s vote of thanks after he received the car gift.

It is about loyalty to individual and not the state, though Akanni sworn to an oath to put the interest of the state above anything else.
“The DSS asked me so many questions about the governor and I stood my ground. Governor Fayose is one man that I can never betray because he is my helper and my mentor. He has done a lot for me,” Akanni said.

In our polity, when political corruption such as electoral fraud in Ekiti and other places that has now been established through many evidences is allowed, the gang of thieves will be in every state and they will carry on with the business as usual and we’ll be the victims.

Aluko who has been working and walking with Fayose for decades and served as chairman, Security and Intelligence Committee of his campaign organisation during the 2014 election must have been involved in other shady deals over the years, but it is quite unfortunate that we don’t have a strong criminal investigation system in Nigeria.

A simple background check on Aluko would have revealed so much were he to be living in the West, particularly in the United States.
It is a shame that even the federal government has not slammed court action against Aluko so far and Fayose continues to act in impudence, because of immunity.