IN the past few weeks, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development and immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has been in the eye of the storm over his declared intention to approach the Supreme Court to upturn the 2014 electoral victory of the current state governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose. In an interview he granted a national daily, the minister had stated he intended to seek a review of the Supreme Court judgment affirming Fayose’s election in the light of the indictment and punishment of some military personnel who supervised the election by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
In reaction, the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleged that Fayemi and his supporters were plotting to subvert the sovereign will of the Ekiti people freely expressed in an election adjudged free and fair by both local and international observers, including the United States government. It is however fair to observe that the minister neither hinted at the possibility of violence nor suggested any underhand dealings in his plan to seek a judicial review of the outcome of the 2014 governorship election in which, as a sitting governor, he was defeated in all the 16 local government areas of the state by the current governor.
In retrospect, Dr Fayemi had indeed toed the path of statesmanship by conceding defeat and congratulating Fayose shortly after the election. However, he later changed his mind and sought redress in the court of law. But the appeal failed at all the relevant levels of the court system, including the apex court. More fundamentally, as we have always maintained, one of the ways by which the nation’s politicians should demonstrate their commitment to the cause of democracy is by accepting the wishes of the electorate. It is indeed insidious for politicians to give the impression that election is only free and fair when their party has won. That is a recipe for anarchy and should be condemned by all and sundry.
However, if Fayemi, whose governorship of Ekiti State emanated from a 2010 judgment of the Court of Appeal which affirmed that he was the authentic winner of the 2007 governorship election where the PDP’s Chief Segun Oni had earlier been declared winner by INEC, is now suggesting that the same court erred in law on the matter he brought challenging Fayose’s election, that is an issue for the apex court to decide. It is left for the court to decide if the ‘evidence’ that the current administration has found against the soldiers that participated in the 2014 election, contrary to the testimonies of those who monitored the election home and abroad, will provide a basis to reverse its decision. Fayemi’s move, insofar as it is based on the processes of the law, should not cause the casting of aspersions on his person.
In the same vein, we urge the former governor not to provide any basis for the people of Ekiti State to assume that he intends to foment trouble in the state. The history of political violence in the state with its attendant loss of lives and property, particularly since the return to civil rule in 1999, dictates no less. As announced by INEC, another governorship election is due in the state next year. If the minister intends to seek a fresh mandate from the Ekiti people, that would be perfectly within his rights as a citizen of Ekiti State. This is certainly better than taking a course of action that could be interpreted as a pursuit of the notorious do-or-die politics. Throwing his hat into the ring and selling himself to the Ekiti electorate is certainly a better move. As the eminent jurist, Idris Kutigi, once observed, there must be an end to litigation.
and then