What is wrong with the people of Ekiti State? How on earth could a man who was impeached for corruption and related offences a few years back return to win his party’s nomination for the same office in Ekiti State? I know this charade was sponsored and husbanded by ONLY the people of Ekiti who are in the PDP and NOT by all of Ekiti people. Still, I am forced to ask: Does the PDP in Ekiti have such a dearth of good, untainted, well-educated men and women? Why would a dog return to its vomit?
Ayodele Fayose, a disgraced former governor of Ekiti State, recently won the state’s PDP gubernatorial primary election by a landslide - 462 votes out of the 477 votes cast. His closest rival, Caleb Olubode, a former minister, secured only seven votes while Adedayo Adeyeye and Margaret Ogundipe (both political featherweights) won three and one votes respectively. The remaining votes were shared among the other also-rans. And so, our Fayose will now contest the general election against current governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in June. Certainly, the PDP as a whole, the PDP in Ekiti State and all of Ekiti people can do without this crudity.
Until the PDP-led Ekiti State House of Assembly impeached him and his deputy, Mrs. Abiodun Olujinmi in 2006, Fayose embodied the odious stench that pervaded many a State House. Not only did he reek of corruption, he also lacked finesse and elegance that one expected out of Ekiti land. Many who supported him then and still support him now point to his “grassroots” credentials which, they argue, brought government to the ordinary people’s doorsteps as a potent political weapon in his arsenal. But grassroots political acumen should not be the sole determining parameter when selecting a State’s chief executive. Probity and integrity should come before a politician’s ability to hoodwink the electorate.
I know that winning the PDP primary in Ekiti State in 2014 does not automatically translate to winning the governorship against an APC incumbent governor, but it is heresy to have a character like Fayose hanging around anywhere near the Governor’s office. Or, are we not talking about the same Fayose who, according to the EFCC, stole from his State’s local government councils and operated foreign bank accounts in contravention of extant Nigerian laws?
When he took the oath of office in 2003, Fayose had pledged, like all the other governors and president, to uphold the spirit and letters of the Nigerian Constitution, including Section 162, which forbade the illegal diversion of local government funds. Also implied in the oath was the strict adherence to the provisions of the Code of Conduct for public officers, including paragraph 3 which prohibited the operation, by public officials, of foreign bank accounts.
But Fayose, like many of his fellow thieves, took his oath with levity and never, for once, planned to obey it. He continued to maintain his numerous foreign bank accounts in the UK and the US, using them to stash his loot from the State's treasury - exactly why the Code of Conduct prohibited the owning and operation of those kinds of accounts in the first place. And in a brazen contravention of the Money Laundering Act of 2004, Fayose illegally transferred $100,000 of his State's money to one such account in the US.
Like many public official thieves who use proxies to steal, Fayose asked his friend, Gbenga James, to set up phony companies, (one of them was named Biological Concepts), to which he verbally awarded a phantom Poultry Farm contract and diverted close to N800 million that was part of his local governments' statutory allocations. Fayose could also not account for another N11 Billion out of N16 Billion which the Federal government had paid into the joint state/local government accounts. This did not include the hyper-inflated contracts for refurbishing the governor's office and numerous road projects which were never even started.
James, also conveniently a "building contractor," then built a N40 million house for Fayose at the Iyaganku area in Ibadan as a "gift" - a clear violation of paragraph 6 of the Code of Conduct. This was not to include another house valued at N20 million built and owned by Fayose in the same area of Ibadan just since he became governor of Ekiti State. Fayose also managed to put up a N25 million house at his hometown of Afao-Ekiti. As kickback on the contract for Fountain Hotel, this rogue received N42 million from one Abiodun Arole of Grid Associates, through one Ayobola Abiola, then of the Standard Trust Bank Plc and later with FCMB Plc, Dugbe Branch, Ibadan. The people of Ekiti should also not forget the "paltry" N2.4million car that James bought for Fayose's prophetess mother in Ibadan, and the millions that he used to refurbish the family church located (you guessed it) also in Ibadan. This guy took corruption to a new height (or a new low, if you will) when he personally drove to Adamasingba in Ibadan (in broad daylight), waited in the vehicle with the engine running while his aide went upstairs to an office from where he literally dragged to Fayose’s car a "Ghana-Must-Go" bag full of kickback money.
If you mingled in the night-time social circles of Ibadan between 2003 and 2006, you would have wondered, like many of us did, if there were two governors in Oyo State. At one point in 2005, the people of Ekiti State, then represented in the State's House of Assembly by mostly spineless people (until they grew a spine and impeached Fayose) whose legislative compass was supine (until they woke up from their slumber and impeached Fayose), trampled over each other in order to see their governor between Monday and Friday, because, if they failed to see him in Ado Ekiti during those days, they had to come to Ibadan on weekends to see their governor. Governor Fayose spent his weekends crawling through the night-life of Ibadan like an owl…as if his duties as governor ended on Friday afternoon in Ekiti State. Some in Ekiti State derisively referred to him as "The other governor of Ibadan."
And whenever Fayose came to Ibadan, he brought with him a retinue of hangers-on, leaches, miscreants and fellow kleptomaniacs. His thugs came with him from Ekiti and competed with those of the late Baba Adedibu on the Ring Road/Molete axis. Hoteliers on Ring Road and Oluyole areas of Ibadan did brisk business whenever Fayose was in town. He and his goons spent money as if it was the end of life itself. Musicians sang their praises endlessly. Even those that went up the dance floor to spray musicians ended up being lavished with money by Fayose and Company.
You had to witness one of those witless orgies for you to know that it was only a matter of time before this unbridled thief ran into Nemesis. And when Nuhu Ribadu’s EFCC blackmailed the equally corrupt members of the Ekiti House of Assembly into starting the impeachment process, Fayose went back to his roots - his religious roots from way back when he was a church-going boy in his Ibadan parents' church. He dragged God's name into his bottomless chasm of corruption.
Hear him: “Since we started this battle which dates back to the time of the primaries, when I was sworn in and began to serve the good people of Ekiti State, I have not lost any battle. So, in the end, I'll be vindicated by God Almighty.” Fayose plowed even deeper into the Scriptures: “I want them to know that the God I serve would definitely put them to shame because their gathering is not of God and it would be scattered…I will not look into their faces but unto God, the Author and Finisher of my faith. As God delivered Daniel, He will fight for me and deliver me.”
Utter balderdash, I said. Of course, Fayose lost the battle and lost the war. He was successfully impeached. What did God Almighty have to do with his case? Did Daniel steal from his people like Fayose had done? Why do thieves further compound their sins by blasphemously invoking the name of God when they are caught? Did not Tafa Balogun also invoke the name of God when he was dragged to the courts by the EFCC? Did not governors Alamieyeseigha and Dariye swear that they were innocent men even in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary? Did not James Ibori claim he was a saint? Did not Stella Oduah cry gang up when she was caught? Is not Diezani Madueke currently claiming innocence of the monumental graft under her supervision? Even Ibrahim Babangida was quick to call on Allah when things appeared to be falling apart and his son had to speak with the EFCC. Was God ever in the calculations of these people when they themselves played god?
Still hanging over the head of Fayose is the death in 2005 of Tunde Omojola, a Germany-based relative of an opposition party (NCP) candidate, who was dragged out of his car and beaten to death by Fayose's security men, including his brother, Isaac Fayose while governor Fayose watched. Omojola had the misfortune of being present during a ward Councillorship by-election fracas in Ifaki-Ekiti. Some witnesses alleged in court that Fayose personally delivered the fatal blow to Omojola’s groin area! Also still hanging over Fayose’s head is the yet-to-be-solved murder, in 2006, of Dr. Ayo Daramola, a very strong political adversary of Fayose who was going to give Fayose a good run for his money within the PDP. And this is the kind of person Ekiti PDP wants to field for gubernatorial elections?
In his twisted mind, Fayose actually did believe that his travails in 2005 and 2006 were "the beginning of greatness." I thought the saying was always true that "those whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad." Otherwise, how could anybody in his right mind think he could ride roughshod over the people of Ekiti State (of all people) for so long and expect to come out unscathed? But apparently, Fayose has been proven right. Somebody…some people…four hundred and sixty-two people of Ekiti land think little of Fayose’s past. They braved the heat and voted for Fayose to run for governor again? They voted for the man who hopped from the PDP to ANPP and then to Labour Party, before hopping back to PDP? Are our people so intellectually destitute or are we just morally bankrupt? Is this hunger or famine?
In what language could we best describe the one person least expected to mount the rostrum and canvass for votes before the Ekiti PDP gets it? What message are they sending to the police, the ICPC, the EFCC and the judges by voting for a known thief?
Governor Kayode Fayemi has his job well cut out for him during the campaigns. He should just keep reminding the people of Ekiti of Fayose’s past. And if Fayose comes even close to winning the election, Fayemi should just leave Ekiti land because it would mean that even a goat would have beaten him.
By Abiodun Ladepo
Los Angeles, California, USA
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