Politics and Development: Ekiti as a different ball game (1)

The myth of Ayodele Fayose’s staging of a comeback to Ekiti Government House may have been with us long before now, without necessarily knowing it. At a public function in Abuja on 28 November 2013 a young lady who sat next to my left was noticed, repeatedly making calls to a certain number. She appeared disturbed, apparently trying to reach someone but wasn’t getting through. It was the high-point of the occasion when perfect tranquility and attention were expected in the hall and her exasperation was almost causing me some discomfiture. Suddenly, I saw some mischievous smile creep into her face and she immediately lowered her head and began to talk in whispers. Even though she shook the table unconsciously as she talked on the phone, disturbing me further, I had heaved a sigh of relief that her call had gone through and we could at least now concentrate on the address of the chairman to that august occasion. I was wrong!

“Can I please use your phone? My battery has gone flat and the call I’m making is very important. Please!” The lady said to me and I obliged her. After the call, she handed back my phone to me thankfully, and smiling. My curiosity was aroused and I promptly asked; “who were you so desperate to reach on phone?” “My mum,” she responded and continued, “she just confirmed to me that the chairman of the reception for my thanksgiving party, the incoming governor of Ekiti State, has just landed in town. I’m happy because he wasn’t sure he would attend as at yesterday.” 

“The incoming governor of Ekiti state! Who is this person?” I had asked curiously, and attracting the attention of the young man sitting next to my right who coincidentally is, as this writer, an Ekiti indigene. “Governor Ayo Fayose”, she had replied with a confidence so terrific that the two of us sitting at the table were dazzled but we had simply smiled in disbelief. Not only because Mr. Ayodele Fayose had not even secured the gubernatorial ticket of any political party as at that time was her assertion incredible but also because this lady, an Igbo girl who schooled and lived abroad looked too young to make such a confident assertion on Ekiti politics; and in a manner that we ‘the sons of the soil’; could not have done!  When Fayose won the June 21 Ekiti governorship election in a shocking landslide, my mind went back to our last November discussion and I had simply sent the lady a mail, expressing my surprise at her seeming prophetic declaration. Replying my mail from her UK base, she had said: “I told you he is the next governor of Ekiti. I know it because my dad told me he would be the next governor?” 

Well, I never asked her who her dad is and how he had got to know that much. It is absolutely irrelevant at this time. What is important is that their prediction had turned into reality, whether by faith, hard work or by some stroke of luck, whatsoever. But that is by the way! 

The 21 June 2014 election in Ekiti will for a long time continue to be a subject of debate among political scientists. Out of the total votes of 360,455 cast in that election, Mr. Ayodele Fayose of the PDP polled 203,090 votes, defeating Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the APC and the incumbent governor who polled 120,433 votes and Mr. Bamidele Opeyemi of the LP who came a distant third with only 18,135 votes. Fayose did not just lead all the other nineteen contestants in the election, he also won in all the 16 local government areas of the state, including in Oye, the local government where the incumbent governor comes from, in a manner reminiscent of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election in which the late Chief MKO Abiola of the SDP reportedly defeated his opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the NRC nationwide; including in Tofa’s local government in Kano. 

There are, of course, some striking similarity drawn between the 2014 Ekiti election and the 1993 presidential election by some writers, opinion leaders and political analysts before and after the last month’s election.  

In “Like Ekiti, like June 12” (The Guardian, Tuesday, June 24, 2014), Ehichioya Ezomon wrote that the “governorship election in Ekiti State almost passed the test of the June 12, 1993 presidential poll… The June 21 poll in Ekiti came out in similar fashion, in terms of its freeness, fairness and credibility… the election was going to take place in the same June, just two days from the day that the military finally annulled the June 12 poll, with the announcement of its results earlier suspended by the regime on June 14, 1993.” Ezomon further alluded to the fact of the palpable fear of violence that characterized the weeks preceding the Ekiti election and made reference to the warning given by the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, the Most Reverend Felix Ajakaiye in a statement titled “Between June 12 and June 21,” which he issued on June 12, 2014 (9 days before the Ekiti Gubernatorial Poll) in commemoration of the anniversary of the 1993 election.       

The Reverend Father had said: “This year is the 21st celebration of June 12 and on Saturday, June 21, 2014, there will be Governorship Election in Ekiti State, the Land of honour. Both numbers, 12 and 21, are special and if we interchange them, putting 2 before 1, 12 become 21, and when we put 1 before 2, 21 becomes 12. Thus, both dates are symbolic.”    

All these facts, though parts of the reasons why the 2014 Ekiti governorship election is important to political historians; are not the only factors that will continue to make it a subject of great interest to scholars and researchers for a long time. Ekiti, essentially, remains a peculiar case study. 

In a state-wide broadcast accepting defeat and congratulating the winner, shortly after the declaration by INEC of the results of the 21 June, 2014 gubernatorial election in the state, Fayemi, the incumbent and outgoing governor of Ekiti State stated that: “The task of understanding how the outcome of this election has defined us as a people will be that of scholars. For us as an administration and a cadre of political leaders in Ekiti State, we have fought a good fight, we have kept faith.” 

There have since been avalanche of opinions by analysts, politicians and the media with each pontificating on why they think the incumbent governor, whose administration is rated locally and internationally as highly performing and development-orientated; lost to another candidate from an opposition party. I am highly inclined in this piece to disagree with the various views that have been expressed. Looking critically at the above statement, it shows that Fayemi really understands the nature of his people but most of the various commentators have got much to study about the political behavior of an average Ekiti man. 

Ekitis are known to be stubbornly principled, especially on the values they treasure; justice, fairness, honesty, boldness, frankness, and humility in success. When they believe in a course, they are unyielding and hardly convinced to consider alternatives or compromise their collective stand no matter what. Whether this is actually their Achilles’ heel or a paragon of virtue, however, remains a hot topic of sociological research. 

As for me, Ekiti people’s often common stern resolves on issues are not just out of sheer stubbornness but of strong moral consideration. An average Ekiti man is simple, content, frank, and to quote Ademola Adegbamigbe in “Level Playing Field” (TheNEWS, 9 June, 2014), they “are peace loving. They love their women, pounded yam and heady palm wine.

 Oluwatoba Oguntuase