In the history of morally bankrupt governors in Nigeria, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose had set a standard that’s hard to match. The drama of the absurd staged by Fayose feigning broken neck and broken arm three days ago, evokes thoughts of dark and difficult days ahead for Ekiti State. One thing Nigerians can agree about Fayose is that moral management rather than physical restraint is essential in the care and recovery of Fayose from his lunacy.
The leadership of both APC and PDP have given up all pretense of being more than spectators. The noisy breakdown of both parties has been echoed loudly. Political disintegration plagues both parties. There’s nothing like party discipline and ideology. What we have are individual actors, pursuing their own political interests and ideological missions willy-nilly like excited molecules in an overheated balloon.
From the get go, Fayose was a chaos candidate and now a chaos governor. Fayose’s case is not a temporary spasm of chaos but a chaos of syndrome. Like many disorders, chaos syndrome is self-reinforcing. It causes governmental dysfunction, which fuels public anger and political disruption similar to what we’re witnessing today in Ekiti. Fayose is an emblem of undemocratic governance, high-handedness, devious, secretive, and dangerous. He’s an opportunist and a political hack.
Events, like crimes, have different versions leading to the chaos. There’s the police version, the victim’s version, the media version, and the perpetrator’s version. But this much I know about the events that took place in Ekiti few days ago. According to my source, Fayose was never at the venue of the event. The police blocked the gates to the Government House to prevent a crowd of PDP supporters from trooping into the streets for what they called rally. The mayhem, says my source, was caused by Fayose’s refusal to pay the promised bribe of N5000 to Okada operators and N10000 to Danfo drivers in order to surrender their PVCs and to be off the streets so that APC supporters would have no means of transportation to get to the APC rally. It was the rumpus between Fayose, Okada operators and Danfo drivers that attracted the police. Fight broke out and as the police struggled to maintain law and order, the situation escalated. Fayose didn’t suffer any broken neck or broken arm, says my source.
For the records, here are some snapshots during Fayose’s first term as a scammer and scumbag governor gone wild. In 2014, EFCC alleged that Fayose stole at least N416 million public funds that belongs to Ekiti people. Fayose was on trial on 27 counts of misappropriation of state money. Fayose embezzled N1.4 billion for poultry project meant for the 16 local government councils in the state. His tenure was aptly captured and characterized by The News Magazine as “reign of terror.” In its April 15, 2004 edition, the magazine reported extensively on Fayose’s reign of terror and how his men went on rampage and killing frenzy in the state.
According to the magazine, political opponents were maimed, hacked, killed, beheaded, kidnapped, dismembered, and disposed with gloat and glee by Fayose. Vicious and cruel ruffians roamed the state looking for people to kill. It was our own holocaust. Tunde Omojola, Dr, Ayo Daramola, and nine students of College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti were snuffed in the political hara-kiri initiated and supervised by Fayose. Others killed included Aseweje, Ben Ogundana, Dapo Osunniyi, Kamoru Folorunso, Ojo Sunday, and several others.
Fayose shut down Ekiti State House of Assembly. He successfully subverted democracy in Ekiti by illegally removed 19 APC legislators including the speaker. His merchants of death disrupted a court hearing instituted by the aggrieved 19 APC legislators against him. The presiding judge was mercilessly beaten, his clothes torn. He ended in emergency room. Court documents shredded and court staffers ran for dear life. All 19 legislators were terrorized. Fayose denied them of their mandate and replaced them with seven illegitimate PDP legislators and sent the 19 into exile in various states and towns.
We still remember Ekitigate. it needs no rehash. Fayose with the help of his mentor and partner in crime, the then President Goodluck Jonathan, Ado-Ekiti the state capital, was under siege before and during the gubernatorial election that puts Fayose in office. With the collusion of the army and the police, all entrances to Ado-Ekiti were sealed off from civilization. No vehicular or human movement was allowed. Schools and businesses were paralyzed. Fear and terror gripped everyone. Residents of the ancient city were literally under house arrest. The judiciary and the state house of assembly closed indefinitely. The state was completely shut down and grounded.
Right thinking Nigerians are wondering: is Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose mentally ill? This is the important question ignored by some Nigerians on social media who are defending Fayose and shedding uncontrollable tears of sympathy for him. Fayose, more than any other Ekiti governor, has turned Ekiti into the poverty capital of Nigeria with the worst quality of life. Would a sane governor do what Fayose is doing to his own people? Tomorrow at the polls, Ekiti people must remember that nothing is settled until everything about Fayose is settled at the polls.
*Written By Bayo Oluwasanmi
