Ekiti Guber Poll: Between Fayose’s continuity agenda and Fayemi’s legacy

“If Dr. Kayode Fayemi could be picked as the APC flag bearer in this state, in fact I will go to sleep, and I will ask my people to go and relax until the election day.

I could even ask my deputy to travel out and rest till July 14, 2018 when the election would be conducted, because picking Fayemi as APC candidate will give us less task and easy go for the election, and that will be another 16-0.”

This was the position of the Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose speaking on the chances of a PDP candidate against the possible candidature of a former governor in the state, Dr. Fayemi, before he, Fayemi won the primary.

However, since Fayemi won the election, Fayose could not rest again and as a matter of fact, he could not sleep again; he runs up and down, even through the night because of Fayemi, yet he keeps boasting that he will defeat Fayemi the way he did In 2014.

But a political associate of Fayemi, Wale Adesodun said Fayose is already miscalculating with his bragging, because “the 2014 election that made Fayose sack Fayemi with 16 -0 is basically and tactically an election between Fayemi and President Goodluck Jonathan deploying Federal Government’s resources, but now things have changed, as the federal power that he used against Fayemi then is no longer available for him to use.

“Besides, his popularity among the people of the state has gone because of the suffering he has made them to go through and the earlier cordial relationship between him and the workers in the state has turned sour because of months of unpaid salaries and arrears he is owing the workers,” he said.

Kolapo Olusola Eleka, Fayose’s godson and deputy governor, is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), candidate in the July 14, 2018 governorship election, but Fayose believes it is the continuation of his government, which is the major reason he will see the election as his own election.

Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka

A political appointee of Fayose, who confirmed to our correspondent under anonymity, said: “Oga (Fayose) will not wake up until 10 am since Fayemi won the primary simply because he usually sleeps late these days.

“He is always engaged in one meeting or the other because of the election even when he is not the one that is contesting, but he had taken it upon himself as if he is the one contesting the election.

“Oga (Fayose) hardly have time for any other thing than for the coming election, because Fayemi’s candidature has rattled him, and he does not take the continuity agenda lightly.”

But the first to puncture Fayose’s continuity agenda is a PDP chieftain and Fayose’s former deputy who is currently the Senate Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi, who decried what she described as continuity of suffering, slavery, hopelessness and deceitful government of Fayose.

Olujimi raised the alarm that PDP is fast losing more members to opposition parties in Ekiti because of “one-man dictatorship, oppression, hopelessness and totalitarianism in Ekiti PDP”.

This was contained in a press statement issued by the Biodun Olujimi Team (BOT) at the end of its meeting in reaction to the imposition of Eleka on other members.

In a statement which was signed by its Coordinator General, Chief Bunmi Olugbade, the senator’s supporters described Governor Fayose’s continuity agenda of having his deputy as successor as a “continuity of slavery and servitude where members remain slaves in their own party”.

The statement added: “Today, our party is depleted, unimaginably factionalised and fast drifting into despondency in Ekiti State. Several members of our party have defected to APC, SDP, ADP, Mega Party, among others as a result of poor party administration and compulsory loyalty to one man, forgetting that a tree does make a forest.”

Battling with internal rebellion and opposition’s hostility, Fayose lapsed into propaganda to launch his campaign for continuity agenda to install Eleka as his successor.

The governor’s seeming adopted campaign message to the people these days is that “people should not vote for Fayemi because if he is re-elected, he will conduct exams for teachers to sack them like it happened in Kaduna State.”

But in their reaction, the Coordinator, Enlightened Workers Forum in Ekiti State, Mike Bamidele, said: “It is mischievous of Fayose to tell the workers that voting for Dr Fayemi would make them lose their jobs. This is a desperate ploy to deceive the workers.

It is on record that throughout the four years of Fayemi’s government, no worker lost his/her job either in the public or the teaching service.

“It was the last but one government that sent over 5000 workers packing in 2009 before Fayemi came on board. It is also noteworthy that the government of Fayose had prematurely retired no fewer than 12 Permanent Secretaries for flimsy reasons.

Similarly, many workers from different categories had been summarily dismissed from the service unjustly within the last three years of Fayose’s administration.

“Only recently, a senior public servant was illegally dismissed by the General Manager of the Housing Corporation.

“This cost the Permanent Secretary of the supervising ministry his Job for daring to draw the attention of the General Manager to the illegality of his actions citing the relevant sections of the civil service rules. I must say the workers know who their true friend is.

For someone wanting to secure their votes through the back door would be fraudulent and shall be resisted.

“I think Fayose should be advised to concentrate on how to clear the backlog of the nine months salary arrears being owed workers and say what he has in stock for workers, rather than trying to corner their votes by destroying and blackmailing Dr Kayode Fayemi.

“Though Dr Fayemi is not coming to subject workers to any examination, but then, the issue of examination had been a common thing to public servants who are ripe for promotion both at the state and federal levels.

So making it a campaign issue now is total misplacement. But in the second coming of JKF, he is going to play down completely on examination whether for promotion or something else.

“I will strongly advise Fayose to let his campaign be issue-based and if he has nothing to offer, he should keep his mouth shut rather than letting the world know that he is jittery.”

Meanwhile, Fayose has listed some projects, which include: flyover, the ultra modern on-going Oja oba market, new governor’s office, and new High court complex and some other projects which he described as legacy projects that were not restricted to Ado Ekiti as part of the reasons for which his continuity agenda must succeed.

Fayose equally appealed to the pensioners and civil servants in the state that the eight months salary arrears and 17 months backlogs for pensioners will be ready in July, probably after the governorship election.

The governor also in his campaign message said workers must make sure they vote for Eleka, whom he said will pay the backlog of salary arrears he owes them, in the forthcoming gubernatorial election, if he could not pay before he leaves office as part of his continuity agenda.

He said: “Forgive me, your eight months salaries will be ready before end of this July.

“I’m promising the workers that I will not leave the state in debt, I will pay you all the salary arrears before the end of my administration, but if I cannot pay before I leave office, my deputy will continue from where I stop.”

But an APC chieftain in the state, Mr.Makinde Araoye, has carpeted Fayose, saying it was wicked for a governor to be owing workers and pensioners eight month arrears in an environment that was heavily anchored on civil service monolithic economy, adding that this had further lowered the standard of living of Ekiti populace.

Araoye expressed confidence that government workers would vote massively for the APC candidate, Dr. Fayemi, having experienced hard biting poverty in the last three years due to alleged incompetence manifested in Fayose’s inability to pay workers’ salaries and pensions.

Araoye said: “When the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, came on board in 2010, he appreciated the fact that there was an urgent need to establish those investments that could generate money for our dear state.

“That was why he took N25b from the capital market out of which he invested over N2 billion on Ikogosi Warm Spring, built the State Pavilion located along Ado New Iyin Road, revived Ire Burnt Brick that was inaugurated by former Kano State governor, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, set a solid foundation for youth engagement in Agriculture and many others.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi

“Before Dr. Fayemi’s exit, the Ikogosi Warm Spring was already generating over N45 million into the state coffers monthly. The Ire Burnt Brick had begun skeletal production and was attracting serious patronage within and outside Ekiti.

“But today, those programmes have been abandoned. They have returned to that moribund state they were before Dr. Fayemi came on board.

“One wonders why those programmes should be rendered impotent just because of politics by Governor Fayose, even when he makes noise everyday that the state is economically challenged.

“This is the major reason why our people must divorce themselves from unnecessary emotions and vote wisely on July 14.

“They should resist attempts by clever politicians to delude them into taking decisions that would land them in more sufferings and gnashing of teeth after all they have seen and made to pass through in the last few years.”

Araoye advised Fayose to stop turning Ekiti into a beggarly state in the name of stomach infrastructure, saying: “Making our people to queue under a scorching sun for several hours because of a kongo of rice and N200 was not only debasing but also ridiculing Ekiti’s collective integrity.

“The July 14 election is a reclamation war for all of us. It is a time we must seek our political freedom and this we must realise for those lost glories to return and for us to regain our pride as truly a set of knowledgeable people.”

As Fayemi and Fayose’s camps struggle for the governorship trophy on July 14, a brief examination of their legacies will suffice to give insight on the voters’ preference for a leader that can protect their interests in the next four years.

Summary of the Fayemi’s legacy include free education from primary to JSS, bursary, scholarships for students, free health care services, social security scheme, 25,000 elderly people benefited from N5,000 monthly stipend and without owing workers any salary.

Others are the 10,000 young Ekiti indigenes who were engaged in the youth volunteer scheme, while another 1,000 youths were recruited into the Peace Corps, with other 600 who were also employed in EKSMA.

Also 1,000 people were engaged in the Youths in Commercial Agriculture (YCAD) while thousands were recruited in the state civil service and teaching service and were receiving their salaries as at and when due.

Fayemi who never owe workers salary had instead increased civil servants and teachers minimum wage and salary three times in four years from N7,500 to N13,000 and again to N19,000 minimum wage.

He did not stop there; he was the first in the South West to pay CONHESS and CONMESS to health workers and he was also the first to pay teachers rural allowance of 25 percent and core subject allowance to teachers.

All these have gone down the drain as the incumbent has no single record of human capital development. No recruitment to civil service or teaching service in the last four years. No bursary or scholarship for students, while months of salary and six months salary are owned teachers, pensioners and civil servants respectively.

It should also be noted that the incumbent has done nothing to develop human capital other than to reduce Ekiti workers to the level of people with no more sense of self-worth.

The people of Ekiti can now compare and contrast in order to choose between the continuity agenda and the legacy that endures come July 14, 2018 gubernatorial poll in the state.

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Before Dr. Fayemi’s exit, the Ikogosi Warm Spring was already generating over N45 million into the state coffers monthly. The Ire Burnt Brick had begun skeletal production and was attracting serious patronage within and outside Ekiti. But today, those programmes have been abandoned. They have returned to that moribund state they were before Dr. Fayemi came on board. One wonders why those programmes should be rendered impotent just because of politics by Governor Fayose, even when he makes noise everyday that the state is economically challenged