I was a proud Ekiti state indigene until now. I am so disgusted to the level I have chosen to temporary renounce my heritage of Ekiti; not even minding the forfeiture of every treasure and patrimony bequeathed to me as long as Governor Ayodele Fayose holds the strings of power in our dear state.
Fayose is a nightmare, worse than a leech on democracy or bug which steals the comfort of your night, with a sting at an unholy hour.
Could anybody have ever imagined that in spite of human foibles, a Governor of any state in Nigeria would be so awfully insensitive on everything about and around him? Someone, who talks before he thinks and acts so nonsensically and in perpetual arbitrary motion, in a democracy, while ignoring every plea to decency from both sons and daughters of the state, who are the traditional custodians of the throne he dishes out violent authority?
By nature, I am hardly perturbed. But my heart bleeds now. I am worried that Ekiti state, the cherished land of our forebears, from where the finest of cerebral intellectuals in Nigeria stream forth; who stamp authority in their specializations, anywhere in the world is hijacked by a so-called “executive” governor.
Painfully, he is a personality, who the rest of Nigerians adjudge and describe in jargons worse than a thug or garage tout? No, the dignity of Ekiti is badly blistered.
Ekiti state never bargained for his ilk. In his case, our votes never counted. He claims to play the role of the opposition now, but every accusation he has mouthed, either against President Muhammadu Buhari’s (PMB) administration or public office holders or his commentary on current affairs in Nigeria, has ended up in the same brazen derision by the rest of Nigerians and the international community.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) shadowed his animalistic instincts quite early enough. So, he ousted him from office via an impeachment. Then, the rest of mortals qualified OBJ’s action, as unreasonably pony-trekking perceived political enemies.
Though, beyond our power, Fayose was rigged back as Governor of Ekiti state in 2014. I wail day and night having been confined to the Ekiti state, Fayose has cursed to irremediable depth, under his leadership. And it appears, he is never tired with incensed “executive” madness in the Nigerian polity. He is everything and usurps the powers of every organ of government in this poor state. In Fayose, one sees a glaring display of arrogant power, like former and deceased Liberian military Head of State, Late Col. Samuel Doe.
I knew and my nightmare is just playing back to me the worst fears when the infamous PDP administration under former President Goodluck Jonathan adopted the PDP rigging machinery to impose Fayose on the good people of Ekiti state. I sensed trouble in the offing from afar.
Now, this big trouble I envisaged has transcended the boundaries of a mere bad nightmare, but it is a haunting tormentor to us in this generation and posterity.
Again, to say the least, I am ashamed of my Ekiti ancestry. Since Ayodele Fayose was stage-managed and foisted on the land of my forefathers, I dodge introductions at social gatherings, least I be ridiculed and stigmatized. It is the silent, hardly noticed harm, Fayose’s weird politicking is preserving as harvest for Ekiti people. Yet, given a free chance in a democratic exercise, in an extremely endowed state like Ekiti, Fayose would never have had any business to mindlessly puncture our destines or traduce our humanity, let alone have the effrontery to dance naked on our collective, now threatened destinies.
But that’s what it is exactly! Unarguably, Fayose is the finest example of the nemesis of our fledgling democracy. I keep asking myself rhetorically; of all states in Nigeria, why must the devil chose to descend its dark shadows on Ekiti?
Fayose does not even understand the extent others know the degree of his insanity. At the peak of the Presidential campaigns in 2015, Fayose purchased elaborate publicity space in major national media, advertising a prediction of the likely death of President Buhari on the throne if elected President. It did not only draw flaks, but sparked widespread condemnations from Nigerians. A man, assuming the power of God Almighty to decide life and death?
Fayose’s senselessness would constitute a whole book. But his greatest problem is that he has never, ever publicly uttered or projected anything that he would go back, sit in his sober moments and clean his ass with the right hand, nodding in affirmation its accurateness or justification.
He is not just baselessly a non-conformist or oppositionist, but deviates in foolery in his wide tracks, protected by executive immunity. So, when Nigerians defiled all affiliations and creed to celebrate the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai; the Nigerian soldiers,the Nigerian military and other security agencies for their valour in finally conquering Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) with the demolition and seizure of the previously dreaded Sambisa forest, in Borno state, it was only Fayose who condescended to the most shameful, level of apathy and ignorance.
He rather exhumed the thrice tackled issue of Gen. Buratai’s properties in London, this time, alluding to Buratai’s wife, and spoke so glowingly like he has found a rare treasure in a cave, in an Island. May I ask Fayose! Do you want Ekiti people, a land of God-given talents of intellectualism to believe you are this uninformed; a stark illiterate and that you, indeed forged your Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate as previously alleged; which you might as well have used brute force to cover-up?
Should Ekiti people all over the world, come home to re-educate you and articulate that twice or thrice in 2016 alone, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) investigated and cleared Lt. Gen. Buratai over allegations of corruption, which you vaguely linked to the accusation of his spouse as having landed properties in Dubai; an issue contained in his assets declaration; has been cleared and is in public purview?
Assuming there is any Buratai you know (not the Gen. Buratai I know) who is so guilty of corruption or false assets declarations in the past. But won’t you be kind enough to pretend to even play along with the collective mood of Nigerians celebrating the demise of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria?
Fayose has goofed again, by exhuming an issue that has no substance, in the estimation of anybody. His desire is to distract the Nigerian Army Chief and soldiers from chasing remnants of terrorists who have escaped the Sambisa forest and mingled with sane human beings in cities and villages around Nigeria.
I am convinced Fayose is making a clear statement by his recent utterances that people like him wished an interminable menace of BH terrorism on Nigerians. It explains why he allegedly dipped his corruption stained fingers and spirit in the about $2.4 billion arms procurement fund. Is this really a Governor, much more that of our dear of Ekiti state?
It is unthinkable that the Governor of our dear state could condescend so low to the level of feasting over funds voted for terrorism along with other politicians of his ilk. It amazes me further that he is the only serving Governor in Nigeria mentioned in this scandalous crime against the rest of humanity. I am dead cold because when BHTs bomb blasts blasted and sniffed life out of existence all over Nigeria, those killed included his own kith and kin from Ekiti.
It is probably the reason, he had to cast aspersion on the person and character of Gen. Buratai by unjustly labeling him as corrupt and nay Nigerian soldiers on national media. But If Fayose can utter all obscenities about Buhari and go scot-free; if he insults the integrity of the wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, by linking her to a basal London-based corrupt lady, Ms. Aisha Buhari, who co-incidentally only shares the same name with the wife of President Buhari and escapes with it, it is still his luck.
But if the demons in Fayose’s head have not been adequately appeased enough to save Ekiti people from this consistent national embarrassment, while trudging on the path of self-destruct, we pray he reaps the fruits of his endeavor soonest. But Nigerians piqued by his actions have resorted to act on the path of the defenseless, caged by the virtue of the offices they occupy.
An Abuja-based Civil Rights Attorney, Mr. Osuagwu Ugochukwu (Esq) disclosed in an interview with reporters in Imo state that he has challenged Fayose to prove his elusive labeling of Lt. Gen. Buratai as corrupt by tendering “certified and credible evidence to justify tagging General Buratai as Corrupt failing which relevant provisions of the Law will be invoked against him.”
He added, “Governor Fayose fails to realize that he can be sued civilly in his personal capacity in Court and can even be invited, detained and investigated by the Police for criminal defamation? The constitutional immunity for the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors only protect them from prosecution in law court, but not from been investigated.”
It is my firm conviction that Nigerians should reconsider the immunity clause in the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, which blindly shield characters like Fayose from unwarranted defamation of others. While I wait patiently in exile to gather enough strength and arsenals to reclaim the land of my birth by ousting Fayose in the next elections; I plead with Nigerians to deeply reflect on this immunity and re-work it. Only this move can save us from the vermins in power, like Fayose, who should forever be the last dark shadows of Lucifer on any state in Nigeria.
Ola, a public affairs analyst writes from Abuja.
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