THE coming Ekiti State governorship is, no doubt, a titanic battle. The galaxy of stars and gladiators that have lined up in their quests to take over the mantle of leadership in the state is unarguably exhilarating. But soon, the serious will be separated from the pretenders via party primaries.
In the meantime, the major contenders are pushing vigorously to showcase themselves and what they represent with many counting on experience, pedigrees and records of achievements at different levels. Accordingly, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, is also banking on those qualities and the goodwill of the people in his renewed bid to govern the state. So, April 14 turned out an unusual day in Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, as thousands of Ekiti indigenes, mostly members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), converged on St Michael’s Primary School, Ajilosun, to witness his formal declaration of his governorship bid. Traffic along the popular Ikere-Road and other adjourning streets was at a standstill for many hours.
For Fayemi, it was yet another chance to showcase his pedigree; he used the occasion to delve more on issues critical to the welfare of the citizens as opposed to engaging in mundane matters. He said: “I am in the race to win. I shall be campaigning on the strength of my past achievements as governor of the state and the achievements of the President Buhari–led APC government at the centre. Every time I move around, I see the suffering and penury our people are going through. I saw their pain and pangs of not knowing where the next meal will come from. It is even more painful when you realise that all the people-oriented programmes, designed and implemented by my administration and which helped to lift the people out of poverty and misery had been cancelled. The social security scheme for the elderly citizens has been cancelled, Youth in Commercial Agriculture Scheme (YCAD) has been cancelled, and no free education for our children, the state mass transit, EKSTMA is no more.”
He was not done yet in expatiating on his mission at rescuing the state, as he added: “We will do everything that is required to win Ekiti back. They will accuse us of using federal might. Although power belongs to God and He gives it to whosoever He wishes. The PDP government in Ekiti, knows their time is up and that is why they are jittery and resorting to all manner of pranks.”
Nonetheless, the minister acknowledged a number of controversies being stirred about his personality, especially those relating to his first-time coming as the governor Ekiti State. One the critical issues he addressed was the loans obtained by his administration, which the present administration alleged were not properly utilised. While admitting that his administration borrowed N25 billion, he said the money was spent on improving infrastructure in the state, including building major road networks, revitalising moribund Ire Bricks company, Ikogosi resort, government House, Civic centre, state pavilion, and comprehensive renovation of all schools in the state. The N25 billion bond, according to him, had a seven-year tenure, with a well-structured monthly repayment plan, adding that the state had repaid N14.5 billion before his exit from power in 2014. Fayemi threw a punch at the present administration in the state, insinuating that it is a case of the kettle calling the pot black.
He maintained that the Fayose government had no excuse to default on the payment of workers’ salaries and pensioners’ benefits having collected two tranches of bailout funds, two tranches of Paris Club refund and Budget Support Funds for 13 months. He said available records at the Debt Management Office (DMO) showed that Fayose had borrowed N56 billion since coming to power in October 2014 with nothing tangible to show for it. He also challenged Fayose to make public the state’s IGR figure, wondering why the state IGR figure which reached N600 million monthly during his tenure is now shrouded in secrecy.
The stage for the rally was set in the previous week, when Fayemi undertook a tour of the 16 local government areas of the state to interface with APC leaders and stakeholders at ward and local government levels, even after he had written letters intimating APC national leaders, traditional rulers and prominent citizens. At one of such interactions, held at his Isan Ekiti country home, the minister had also intimated his plan to run for governor again, thus on Saturday, April 14, Ado-Ekiti came alive quite early, with vehicles conveying hordes of APC members from different parts of the state, dressed in T-shirts inscribed with Fayemi, put on a branded white T-shirts with the inscription JKF for Governor atop a pair of blue jeans, to Ado-Ekiti. About midday, Fayemi, accompanied by his wife, Bisi, and thousands of his supporters, a carnival-like, undertook the 6km trek from the Fajuyi Roundabout to the APC Secretariat, also in Ajilosun.
The crowd went into frenzy, when Fayemi arrived at the ground of the rally, in company of some APC buffs amidst pulsating musical vibes laced with rib-cracking jokes from ace comedian, Gbenga Adeyinka. “They said APC was dead in Ekiti, but now they know better,” he taunted, as the crowd cheered. In fluent English and Yoruba, he gave an insight into his bid at returning to the Government House. “Fayose collected bail-out funds, Paris Club refund, took loans and yet, he refused to pay workers. Today, civil servants are owed salaries of between six and 10 months; teachers, local government workers are owed at least six to ten months. Pensioners are being owed. You don’t pay their parents, and you still ask even primary school students to pay. All the employment and poverty alleviation programmes that we instituted, he cancelled. We had the Social Security Programme for the Elderly under which 25, 000 vulnerable people were paid N5, 000 per month; he cancelled. Our Peace Corps scheme under which 800 youths were employed was scrapped and those youths thrown out of jobs. The special allowances for teachers in rural areas, he stopped. The only thing he does is to abuse President Buhari every day; yet, Buhari still gives him bailout funds to pay workers. But he doesn’t even pay the workers. The only thing he’s doing is to build a bridge to nowhere. It is only in Ekiti that I’ve seen a governor building a bridge to nowhere,” the minister said.
“Today, besides all the money our friend has collected, he has also borrowed over N56 billion. Yet, he doesn’t tell you that,” he said. He also listed what he perceived as other sins of the Fayose administration. According to him, the administration slashed the salaries of traditional rulers, and had not paid the new rates in 10 months,” he said.
Fayemi equally drew another parallel between his government and that of Fayose, stating that there was not a single community in the state that was not touched by his administration with each community benefitting between one and two projects. But one major issue that had dominated public space concerning the seeming love lost between the two political gladiators addressed by Fayemi was the state government’s white paper purportedly banning him from holding elective position in the state for 10 years. Describing the said document as worthless, the minister asserted that the Supreme Court had already resolved all issues pertaining to it. According to Fayemi, the bank in question and the traditional ruler, and the leadership of the panel of enquiry have said no money was missing from any bank. As far as he was concerned, all this means that the current state administration is not only marking time as it was already red-carded.
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