Again, Fayose is ‘Man of The Year 2017’

IN 2017, Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, emerged this column’s “Man of the Year 2016,” beating other deserving personalities to the prize. The reasons for the award and the qualities that stood Fayose out were unambiguously stated. Awards such as this are meant to recognise and celebrate merit; and to encourage and promote attributes and qualities that serve society and the cause of humanity. They must necessarily be rewards for the heroics of individuals that, against all odds, rose above challenges and life-threatening obstacles to perform extra-ordinary feats without which individuals and society as a whole would have suffered untoward and or irreparable losses and our civilization as we know it today would have been imperilled.

Therefore, awards are not to be traded in the open or black market or under the counter; they should not be given to the highest bidder or those willing to pay 500 or 200 thousand US dollars for them to “qualify” for such awards, which are then bestowed with razzmatazz in celebration of deceit and base mercantilism. I dare to say that this is corruption. Whatever we call it – “President of the Year”, “Governor of the Year”, “Minister of the Year”, and “Banker of the Year” or “Man/Woman of the Year” – awards must clearly state the qualities or heroics that qualify the person eventually chosen. For instance, the courage and boldness to speak truth to power, confront dangers that imperil, and promote the cause of the common man whose voices have been emasculated by many negative factors stood the late Gani Fawehinmi out during his life time. The irrepressible spirit, the can-do spirit, the never-say-die spirit displayed by the Ransome-Kuti brothers, Fela and Beko, stood them out of the crowd and won them recognition and acclaim. The humility and holy living of the RCCG General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has won him honour and respect home and away; just as what was generally perceived as the Spartan lifestyle of President Muhammadu Buhari eventually landed him the presidency, as citizens reasoned he would give a battered nation going adrift a new lease of life. Unfortunate as it is that this hope has now turned into ashes in our mouth, it does not in any way vitiate the good intention of many who, acting in good faith, promoted and voted Buhari into office, even though he has now recompensed our good intentions with evil. Witness all over the country the New Year gift of horrendous massacres and bestialities of Fulani herdsmen whose Life Patron Buhari reportedly is! Witness also the president’s consistently tepid response to what should be treated as national calamity! Selfless service and self-sacrifice in promotion of the public good and an uncommon love for his people made the late Nelson Mandela a living legend; same qualities resonating in the political career of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, has written his name in gold to this day.  In the latter days of MKO Abiola, he stood resolute against injustice and died for a just cause, for which he is remembered and celebrated to this day. Today, however, most awards are given for pecuniary considerations. The undeserving is the one who often carts home the award.

Last year, when I named Fayose “Man of the Year 2016,” I gave as reason his principled and irrepressible voice of opposition to the powers-that-be. In a situation where the APC-led Buhari administration had leveraged on the facade of an anti-corruption war to unleash EFCC and DSS to cower the opposition and muzzle conscientious Nigerians into silence (even complicity), Fayose remained, like the biblical John the Baptist, the lone voice of reason and opposition crying in the wilderness and aridity of principled opposition in the country. The PDP having been run over, with its “spokespersons” Olisa Metuh and Femi Fani-Kayode clamped into detention and other leaders harassed by the EFCC and the Secret Services, Fayose rose to the challenge and became “the last man standing.” I will never be able to effectively assess the good that Fayose has done this country with the void he filled for us or adequately compensate him for his heroics. Whereas he was, and still is, painted by mischievous and misguided elements as a Buhari hater, the truth is that his principled stand has done the government itself and our renascent democracy a world of good. Without vibrant opposition there can be no virile democracy. Without someone consistently holding the feet of a powerful president like Nigeria’s to the fire, dictatorship will sprout and take firm hold and we shall all be imperilled. This was the major consideration that won Fayose the 2016 “Man of the Year”. The additional included the giant strides Ekiti made under him in the education sector. Called “the fountain of knowledge” because of the acknowledgment that pound for pound and square metre per square metre, Ekiti stood head and shoulders above other states of the country, education nevertheless fell into neglect under the watch of the two administrations (plus a Sole Administrator) preceding Fayose’s second coming; such that Ekiti took the rear position in WAEC, NECO, and other examinations. In 2016, Fayose turned the tide and propelled Ekiti to the first position in NECO exams and a leading placement in WAEC. In other areas of educational endeavours, Ekiti students won awards and laurels; achievements which were unthinkable in the immediate past administrations. Massive infrastructural development in the face of lean resources was another additional that won Fayose the award last year. Truth be told, most of the landmark infrastructure in Ekiti today bears Fayose’s signature. The icing on the cake, however, was Fayose’s anti-graze law that effectively contained herdsmen in the state. Herdsmen had invaded Oke-Ako, a remote part of the state, leaving death, sorrow, and mourning in their trail. Fayose relocated to the troubled community, talked tough, empowered vigilante groups to defend their communities and promised an anti-open grazing law that would curb the excesses of herdsmen as well as bring errant ones to book. He was criticized and mocked by opponents. Today, however, we know better! Fayose’s anti-graze law is not only working fine in Ekiti, many of the state governors who openly condemned or silently distanced themselves from him have also turned full circle to embrace the same initiative in their own state to curb the terrorism of Fulani herdsmen!

In 2017, Fayose remained the country’s strident voice of opposition. Thank God, a few more Nigerians have gradually found their voice and bearing and Fayose, today, is no longer the lone-ranger in a field strewn with landmines – but he remains the primus inter pares. He is also far ahead of others in boldness, courage, audacity, accuracy and timeliness of sensitive information received and shared with the public and the frequency of his interventions. Last year, Ekiti also defended its first position in NECO examinations, meaning that it won that laurel back-to-back. In WAEC, too, the state was rumoured to have come first. A visit to Ekiti will convince anyone of the giant strides Fayose has taken with the construction of dual carriageway in local governments all over the state; the New Oja-oba market; the High Court complex, the first since the creation of the state; the new Governor’s Office and, to cap it all, the flyover at the Fajuyi area of the state. I have heard puerile, ignorant, and patently deceptive arguments that the flyover and other Fayose projects are not needed for now and are, therefore, misplaced priorities or a waste of funds. I invite such people to Lagos where I live and work.  At the Agege area where I reside, and in the Alapere, Ketu area where my church is, massive demolition is ongoing just for the government to construct a flyover (at Agege) and widen roads to combat traffic jam at Pen Cinema and environs as well as along Estate – Alapere road. The financial loss to people, the cost to government in compensations to be paid to those whose properties are demolished; the harrowing experience those of us plying those roads suffer and will continue to suffer until the projects are completed are because government allowed haphazard development to run far ahead of planning. In saner climes, proper layouts are done ahead of physical development and government is proactive and not reactive in that it foresees problems and plans ahead to tackle them. If that is what Fayose has done in Ekiti, he should be commended as a visionary rather than be pilloried as a spendthrift on the altar of political chicanery.

Finally, the icing on the cake that won the “Man of the Year 2017” for Fayose was his principled opposition to the decision of the Federal Government to hijack one billion USD Escrow crude oil money belonging to the three tiers of government, without legislative approval, ostensibly to fight a Boko Haram insurgency it said at various times it has “degraded” or “defeated.” The whole country was initially like a grave yard when the announcement was made – and then Fayose spoke! The local governments in his state followed with court action to challenge the FG’s decision. It was after this that everyone else that matter found their voice and summoned up courage to speak their mind.  It was also then that the Presidency came up with the belated explanation – an after-thought – that the fund was not meant for Boko Haram alone but for the country’s entire security gamut. If Fayose had not spoken, we would not have heard all of that. For this and the other reasons listed above, I hereby declare Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose this column’s “Man of the Year 2017”

LAST WORD: With the announcement of the (re-)appointment of former Rivers State governor now Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, as Buhari’s campaign manager, it appears now certain that the president plans to run for second term in 2019. The appointment and its announcement could not have come at a better time – when Fulani herdsmen were slitting the throat of pregnant women in Benue State and wasting lives and properties all over the country! What a heart! Such insensitivity! This impunity beggars belief! I say, again, what a heart!