ISAIAH ILELABOYE
In what could be termed ignis fatuus, the two big IFAs Ekiti has ever produced appear to be locking horns over who is the real godfather of Ekiti politics as it were today. The immediate past governor of the ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ state, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, who seems not too comfortable with the way his own predecessor had been ‘hobnobbing’ with his political godson and ‘chosen’ successor, Governor Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, 2 days ago took a swipe at people he perceived are trying to ‘snatch’ his ‘son’ away from his grip.
Those Dr. Fayemi termed, ‘irú wá, ògìrì wá’ in his words are essentially the helmsmen that had controlled the state’s resources at some point. If you say the likes of former governors Niyi Adebayo, Segun Oni, Ayo Fayoose, and possibly Sen. Biodun Olujimi, you may not be far from the truth. One will also be politically correct to extend the speech from the former governor as extending to people like the Leader of the 10th Senate, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele, paperweight congressman, Bimbo Daramola and a handful of others, all of whom have been jostling around the governor to show their individual solidarity – albeit it is convenient to say – for their ‘pockets’.
Funnily, none of those political stalwarts drumming support for Oyebanji has summoned the courage to tell him to face governance in the state. Of course, they knew if they did, their monthly ‘stipend’ drawn from the state coffers would have stopped immediately. They’d rather continue to goad him on than tell him to fix the deplorable roads belonging to the state, address the decay in healthcare, show working for the over N200billion he got from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for agricultural revolution and food sufficiency, and revive the educational backwardness that has reached a crescendo of worst ever in history.
Let’s get back to the seeming ‘rofo-rofo’ fight between the bigwigs. On one hand, it is not impossible that Fayemi may truly be fighting for ‘survival’ of sort. He may feel he has clandestinely been sidelined, especially when he was conspicuously absent during the second term declaration of the lazy Oyebanji at the Olukayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti. The public would recall it was at that event that Ayo Fayose threw the first subtle jibe at Fayemi before throwing another one when the governor went to submit his forms in Abuja this past week.
On the other hand, what’s going on can be another jiggery-pokery from Fayemi’s playbook. He’s a man with mastery in political gamesmanship. It will not come as a surprise if the bickering currently going on is Fayemi’s script that’s being acted by these dramatis personae. Fayemi can court opposition to have his way. He did it against his party, the APC, in Edo State during the Oshiomhole-Obaseki brouhaha. He is currently doing it with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) even though he continues to deny it. His action speaks of a man who wants to eat his cake and still have it.
The substance of it all is that their feud or rhubarb is not about Ekiti’s growth and development. Rather, it is all for self-service. It is about how they all will continue to amass personal wealth at the detriment of Ekiti’s hoi polloi. That’s is the focus. It is another reason Mr. President MUST show interest in what is going on in that state. Let it not be like the party – APC is plotting a hara-kiri for itself in Ekiti with Governor Oyebanji’s return ticket. The future is bleak. Ekiti is 20-year step backwards since Oyebanji took over the reins. Governance is completely lacking!
©Isaiah Ilelaboye
Oye-Ekiti