WHEN THE OPPOSITION IS VERY DESPERATE...

For any government which has set the sail for development and progress, especially after a long time of groping in the dark, re-election has never been about such government, but about preserving and sustaining what has been achieved and keeping it away from the grasp of sweet-tongued pretenders and pseudo-democrats. This fact is recognized in advanced democracies as they are well aware that though the destination may not have been reached, a lot of grounds has been covered and to halt that journey would mean to seek new routes which often would require starting from the get-go. This is one of the many problems that have retarded the growth ofNigeria. Though another factor is the misunderstanding of good government policies by the masses who are the beneficiaries. In this regard, African governments have a lot to do to connect with their people in the language that they understand.

More retrogressive is the knack of Nigerian politicians for not seeing anything good in anything good and their propensity for lying barefacedly and the more disgusting and repugnant shameless regularity with which they insist on their 'fautlessness' when caught in alie, all because they are well aware that Nigerians are too lazy to cross-check claims and statistics, especially with no accurate database to glean from. In saner climes, one would expect apologies, but Nigerian politicians would rather offer explanations than apologies. It is truism that the job of the opposition is to put the government on its toes by critiquing all its programmes and policies. It is also understandable that every opposition wants to take over government and in the process discrediting tactics would be employed, but certainly not tactics so banal like lying without check and trying to always explain it away when caught red-handed.

This is the attitude and disposition that the opposition in Ekiti State has adopted towards the overwhelming achievements of the Kayode Fayemi administration - a hear-no-good-see-no-good posture. They travel on the 736.715 kilometres of roads constructed by the Fayemi administration and all they 'see' are potholes. Ironically, when they were in power and we were daily beset by pothole-riddled roads, unfortunately they 'saw' good roads around them. Someone once asked, "Is the opposition blind?" 

When it was one week, one trouble and many like Dr. Ayo Daramola, Tunde Omojola, Ahmed Sadiq, Oba Adeleye Orisagbemi of Ayede, late Provost of the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Dr. Gabriel Olowoyo and students of the institution were mowed down, they 'saw' peace. It didn't matter if it was that of the graveyard. When pro-AC persons were driven and chased round Ifaki-Ekiti with blood-propelling canes, they couldn't 'see' anything other than peace. Hitherto respected fellows suddenly lost their voices because they shared some fraternity with those in government. Those who managed to find theirs became specialists in analyzing evil deeds to the advantage of the locusts in power. Those are the ones who have today become specialists in making every good action, policy and programme of government look bad.

Today, these agents of retrogression have constituted committees of destruction and pretending to be non-partisan, they deliver the lies concocted by their paymasters to the unsuspecting public. You would find them in beer parlors saying Fayemi wants to sack teachers. Ask them how they knew this, they'd respond that the governor said so in some interview. Some of them daily mount commercial motorcycle, telling the okada riders that the governor would soon phase out okada-riding from the state capital. But this is another of their lies to set the government against the people. Driven by desperation at their failure to make a headway, they turn to violence.

Allegations are rife that the PDP in particular plans to use violence to scare voters away from the polling units on election day. Like the leprosy-infested man in the age-long Yoruba adage, the party cannot draw milk, but wouldn't hesitate upturning that of the man skilled in the art. It is alleged that they plan to start from their congress and thereafter move on to citizens in a bid to scare them and prevent them from voting the Fayemi administration. We saw a sample of this last year when they staged a mini 'Ogun F'ejeboju' (festival of blood) at their party secretariat at Ajilosun in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital where the likes of a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Kola Adefemi were drenched in blood.

Even though it has always appeared as though the only strategy of PDP and its branch Labour Party is violence and heartless concoction of lies, one wonders if there shouldn't be a line between what is seen and unseen, what is good and bad, progress and retrogression. So far, as clearly seen and attested to by their methods, the lines have become blurred for PDP and Labour Party in Ekiti State. 

I recall the words of Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo in his inaugural address at a conference of Action Group members in Owo on 28 April, 1951:

"Our enemies and detractors are already at work. They are seeking to dwarf our stature in order to delude the public that they are taller than we are. They are also seeking to divert us from our noble and constructive courses into the barren land of petty strife and fruitless controversy.

It is...an evidence of weakness and utter demerit, for any group of people to attempt to commend themselves to the public by the negative process of belittling and condemning others.

It is not an easy matter to resist the temptation of being dragged down the drains of bitter recriminations and press war. But if we are to attain our objects we must resolve to pursue our course unflinchingly without paying the slightest heed 'to the envious, and the asses that bray'.

What our people want to know above all things else is not the defect or incapacity of this or that organisation, but the plans and programmes which we have for improving their lot and the relative merits of such plans and programmes...


Our line of action is therefore clear. Whilst our enemies and detractors busy themselves with abusing and decrying us, we should direct all the machinery of our publicity towards the propagation of the excellence and the relative superiority of our programmes and the suitability of the men who will be put forward to execute them."


Not a few ridiculed Awolowo and the Action Group when for the first time in the history of Nigeria it published a manifesto. To the cynic and the myopic, free health and free education were un-attainable. Awolowo forged ahead and seven years later, the number of dispensaries had increased from 200 in 1952 to 365 in 1959, maternity centres had risen from 122 to 239. In the same wise, primary school enrolment increased from 429, 542 in 1952 to 1, 037, 388 in 1959. The number of secondary grammar schools increased from 25 to 139 and the secondary school population stood at 84, 374 as against 6, 775 in 1952 when Chief Awolowo took over.

Just like Awolowo, 24 new primary schools were established by the Kayode Fayemi administration in 2011, less than a year after taking over from a PDP government. An additional 18 were added in 2012, thereby increasing the number to 836. Primary school enrolment increased from 155, 296 in 2010 to 170, 768 in 2013. The same increase attended secondary school enrolment. 183 secondary schools and 836 primary schools were renovated. 33, 000 laptops were distributed free of charge to secondary school students while 18, 000 units were given to teachers. Additional 25, 000 have been supplied and will soon be doled out. The success rate which stood at a ridiculous low of 22 percent in 2010 was 70% in 2013. The level of literacy in the state also moved up within a space of one year period from 67 percent in 2011 to 72.2 percent in 2012.

Teachers are now given rural allowance while car and housing loans have been restored by the Fayemi administration to serve as an incentive to the teachers. The best among them were rewarded with car gifts last years. And on top of all these, education is free in primary and secondary schools.

The same dexterity is replicated in the health sector where Medicare is free for pregnant women, children under the age of 5, elderly persons, the physically challenged and People Living With HIV/AIDs. In less than one year (October 2010 to July 2011), total attendance, total antenatal clinic attendance and under-5 attendance improved by over 30%. In less than one year elderly citizens accounted 51.15% of registered clients and 42.40% of total facility attendance in the first year of the free health programme. Maternal mortality was 420 per 100,000 live births in 2010, but it dropped to 135 per 100, 000 live births the following year. The total value of drugs dispensed during the same period increased from N11,038,007,77k to N25,926,398.43k due to increase in demand and utilization. Today, Ekiti has the highest life expectancy in Nigeria, the lowest maternal mortality and infant mortality. All general hospitals in the state are being renovated. There is a Cancer Diagnostic and Wellness Centre within the premises of the Teaching Hospital. Besides these, many people not covered under the free health programme have been reached through the free health missions of the Fayemi administration.

All the listed achievements above are just a minute part of the achievements in areas like agriculture, tourism, infrastructure. A visit to Ekiti State would unearth the lies of the opposition which obviously has no other strategy than lies and violence.

As we approach the governorship election of June 21 in Ekiti State, the words of the incumbent, Dr. Kayode Fayemi becomes instructive:


"I take this opportunity to remind all and sundry, particularly those who would be interested in contesting the upcoming election, that the quality of power is defined by the nature of its pursuit. When we mortgage our consciences and values in the pursuit of power, no matter how dignified or admirable our intentions, it costs us bits of our humanity and deprives governance of the moral authority that is its true foundation. We should refrain from inciting our people to violence and other negative tendencies. Ultimately, an anarchic approach in which the contestants for power deploy all means, fair or foul, to win, de-legitimises and de-humanises politics...I urge all our people to join us in appealing to every aspirant not to make their liberty a bondage for Ekiti people. We should all focus on issue-based campaign while we sell our candidacy to our people. I urge all our people to demand of every contestant what he/she can do differently from what my administration has done for you. It is a fact that we have touched all communities in our development drive and these facts – these tangibles – are what we will be campaigning with, not lies, not violence. Ekiti people have a duty to sieve through all promises, all statements, all lies to arrive at the truth and make the best decision that would further galvanise our dear Ekiti State on the already begun journey to lasting development and progress. It behoves us to remember that great nations thrive on age-long adherence to core values, principles, customs and tradition of integrity, honesty and high strength of character. We will continue to drum this up at all fora until we restore our dear state to its age-long position of honour."


'Dimeji Daniels, Spokesperson of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, writes from Ado-Ekiti.

Lawmaker Uncovers Fraud in 2014 Budget

The lawmaker representing Ekiti Central in the Senate, Babafemi Ojudu, may have uncovered a serious fraud in this year's budget.

At Tuesday's plenary, Ojudu explained to his colleagues that after receiving his copy of the budget, he compared it with those of 2012 and 2013 only to discover that there is no marked difference between the 2014 budget and the two previous budgets.

According to Ojudu, the Budget Office of the Federal Ministry of Finance copied the two previous budget word for word without making any alteration. He said there was no creativity any longer in the budgeting process and that the process goes on year in year out without any thinking going into it .

According to him, the budget unlike when Nigeria used to have development plans is no longer targeted at solving problems confronting the nation but lining the pockets of government officials.

He added that Nigeria stopped having development plans in 1986. Progressively since then the nation's budget has emphasized more on recurrent expenditure which is easy to release and manipulate for personal purposes by civil servants.

In the 2014 budget, just as the two previous budgets, recurrent allocation for computer software acquisition, local and foreign travels, welfare package, local and foreign training run into billions.

An example is the allocation for computer software which is put at N10 billion. All ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government have allocation for computer software acquisition of at least N10 million each, the highest being N580 million for the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation


This allocation is no different from that of 2012 and 2013.


Another example cited by Senator Ojudu is the allocation for Research and Development which cuts across all ministries, departments and agencies, including those with no research departments.  


The R & D allocation is put at N45 billion.

"These are not universities or research agencies. What are they researching? It is this wasteful budgeting that has shot up the recurrent expenditure to 75%. It is incumbent on us as lawmakers if we are truly for the people to remove all avenues of wastes from this year's budget. If we fail to do so, we would not have justified the reason for electing us into the Senate," Ojudu argued.


Many Nigerians have condemned the 2014 budget since its details were made public, but in spite of the widespread condemnation that greeted and continues to greet the budget, the Jonathan administration seems adamant to stick to its gun as the president has urged the National Assembly to ensure its speedy passage. 

Be vigilant, Fayemi tells APC members

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has urged All Progressives Congress (APC) members to participate actively in the activities organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the June 21 governorship election.

He spoke at the weekend in Iyin-Ekiti at a meeting of APC leaders hosted by former Governor Niyi Adebayo.

Fayemi said members must monitor the electoral process to ensure that it conforms to the provisions of the electoral act and leads to a credible election.

Urging members to be prepared for the task ahead, he explained that the APC membership registration, which begins in Ekiti tomorrow, would be followed by the INEC stakeholders’ forum, manual registration of voters, confirmation of names and distribution of permanent voter cards.

Fayemi said the APC membership registration was aimed at authenticating members and will be done at polling units across the state.

He said: “We have to be prepared for the task ahead of us. The registration process starts on February 5, which is aimed at authenticating members of the party. The INEC process will follow while the INEC stakeholders’ forum comes up on February 12. That will include manual voters’ registration, confirmation of names, distribution of permanent voter cards, validation and continuous registration of new voters until campaigns formally begin on March 23. I urge members to be alert and be part of the process. We must monitor it well and do everything within the constitution and electoral act to promote a credible, fair and free process.”

The governor urged aspirants for various political offices in 2015 to work for the party’s success in the governorship poll, adding that victory in the June 21 poll will motivate members to work harder in 2015.

Adebayo, who is the APC Interim National Vice-Chairman, Southwest, urged members to troop out for the registration; adding that it was one of the ways to work towards the APC’s victory in the forthcoming election.

He backed Fayemi’s candidacy, saying Ekiti would witness more transformation, if Fayemi is re-elected.

Director-General of the Fayemi Campaign Organisation Mr. Bimbo Daramola, who is a member of the House of Representatives, described the belief that no governor can be re-elected in the state as myth, saying Fayemi’s achievements are evident and speak for him.

Daramola said aside Adebayo, Fayemi is the only governor who has finished his four-year term, adding: “So there is no jinx around re-election since his predecessors never completed their terms, let alone seek re-election.”

The meeting was witnessed by a mammoth crowd of party faithful.

Source: The Nation

Ekiti LP faction brands state exco members impostors

A faction within the Labour Party in Ekiti State has described the newly inaugurated  State Executive Council of the party as impostors, who came into power through the “power of money.”

The group, in a statement jointly signed by the factional state Chairman and Media and Publicity Secretary of the party, Obafemi Adedayo and Adedamola Temitayo respectively on Monday, said the emergence of Akin Omole-led executive was illegal, null and void, as it had no recourse to the party’s constitution.

It said the faction would soon send an emissary to the governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, who is the National Leader of the party, to prevail on the National Deputy Chairman of the party, Joseph Akinlaja, to stop parading himself  in that capacity.

The National Chairman of LP, Chief Dan Iwuanyanwu, had on December 19, 2013 declared Omole-led executive the authentic and recognised body by the national secretariat of the party.

The statement expressed disappointment with the way Akinlaja, a serving member of the House of Representatives, paraded himself as the Deputy Chairman of the party, allegedly against Articles 16 and 17 of the party’s constitution  prohibiting members against holding multiple offices.

It said, “For Akinlaja to have performed the swearing-in ceremony for the new LP’s executive further called to question the process that threw the excos up.”

It added that it  expected the national officers of the party to organise a congress, where new officers would have emerged, rather than embarking on a questionable process.

Source: The Punch

THESE DEATHS ARE REGRETABLE-OJUDU

A member of the Senate Committee on Army and Defence and a member of the leading opposition party, All Progressive Congress, Senator Babafemi Ojudu has decried death of Mr. Toyin Obadina, Deputy Editor of Saturday Newswatch who was shot by suspected armed robbers over the weekend and Mr. Toyin Makanjuola, former Editor of the defunct Daily Times of Nigeria who passed away after a brief illness at the age of 65.

In a statement, Ojudu lamented the killing of Mr. Toyin Obadina as evidence of continuing state of insecurity in the country, stressing that it was simply unacceptable for a man who was returning from his duty post as a journalist to be waylaid on the road, dispossessed of his personal effect and subsequently shot in the stomach which eventually led to his death in his prime.

He said upon entering the noble profession of journalism as a greenhorn fresh from the university it was only natural for him to look up to the like of Mr. Toyin Makanjuola for direction and inspiration in a vocation that he cherishes till date.

Ojudu said the death of both journalists has further reduced the number of experienced and highly cerebral journalists who will be missed as the build up to the 2015 general elections because of their experience and commitment to the noble profession of journalism which they devoted their time, talents and zeal to.

He prayed that God will grant their families, relatives, colleagues and friends the fortitude to bear the loss of these wonderful gentlemen of the press.

MONARCH RAPS FG OVER UNIVERSITY PROJECT, LAMENTS BITING HUNGER IN THE LAND

The Oloye of Oye-Ekiti, Oba Michael Ademolaju, has lamented that the inability of the Federal Government to compensate the agrarian town for the farming land acquired for the Federal University of Oye project has brought poverty and hunger to the land.

Despite alleged entreaties to the federal authorities to compensate farmers whose cash crops were destroyed when the land was acquired, he said they had not been forthcoming.

The monarch bared his mind while welcoming the Wife of the Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, to Oye-Ekiti for the ground-breaking and inspection of project site for the construction of modern neighbourhood market in the town.

He commended the Governor Kayode Fayemi-led administration for extending the dividend of democracy to the community unlike his predecessors, whom he claimed failed to spare a thought for the community.

Oba Ademolaju said, “I must say that hunger and poverty pervades this town now. Not because my people are lazy, because one of the things I encouraged my people to do is to embrace agriculture.

“I told them we should not rely on neighbouring communities for food crops. In fact on my part, I sold N5000 vegetable that I harvested from my farm at the last market day.

“But, things took a dramatic turn for our people when the FG acquired our agricultural land for the university project. Yam, maize and other cash crops were destroyed without compensation despite several appeals. This is the cause of the poverty here now.”

He appealed to the state government to intervene in the matter by ensuring that the community was adequately compensated for their losses to turn around their fortunes.

The monarch added that Oye had never felt the impact of successive civilian administrations in the state until Fayemi came on board.

He disclosed further that virtually all projects predating the Fayemi-led administration in the community were self-help projects.

He said, “We have been responsible for everything. We have never felt the impact of government until recently. When I said recently you should understand.

“The market in this town, general hospital, good culvert, Post Office and others were constructed by Oye people themselves. It was when Fayemi came on board recently that everything changed.

“We have seen that Fayemi’s administration is undertaking reconstruction and renovation of existing infrastructure. In some instances, he is adding and building new ones. For example this market is brand new.”

As a royal father, he said he was father to all political leaders irrespective of party affiliation, but he emphasized that it would not stop him from commending Fayemi for his visionary leadership.

NO ARITHMETIC PERMUTATIONS IN JUNE 21 ELECTION - BISI FAYEMI

Wife of Ekiti State Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, is upbeat that the June 21governorship election in the state will not be mired in arithmetic permutations, which blighted the 2009 rerun governorship election.

She exuded confidence in the ability of her husband, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, to record landslide victory in the coming election, which she said would leave the gap between him and his next opponent at nothing less than half a million votes.

The governor’s wife spoke at Ido-Ekiti, headquarters of Ido-Osi Local Government, where she performed the earth-breaking and site inspection for the neighbourhood market under construction in the town.

She was in company with the Commissioner for Local Government, Mr. Paul Omotosho; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of LG, Mr. Deji Ajayi, and other top officials of the state.   

Recalling how the Ido-Osi election debacle nearly truncated the 2009 rerun governorship election, she said that the current high level of civic orientation and political awareness would not permit a recurrence.

She said, “The coming governorship election will not be like the past one. Maybe what happened then was because people were not well informed.

“I can assure you by the grace of God and support of the people of the state that the coming election will not be subjected to arithmetic permutation before my husband will be declared winner.

“We will no longer need to use calculator to determine who garnered more or less votes in the election. I’m confident that Dr. Kayode Fayemi will win convincingly at the first ballot.

“The margin between him and the next person will not be less than 500,000. It will be so confounding that lawyers will be discouraged to accept brief from defeated candidates to challenge the result at the tribunal.”

 She, however, warned that the feat could only be achieved by the continued support of the people and mobilization by All Progressives Party faithful across board.

As a starting point, she urged party loyalists to besiege the registration centres in the coming APC members’ registration exercise, while she promised that the governor would not rest on his laurels.

As evident in the ongoing construction of over N2bn neighbourhood markets across the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, she said that the people-oriented policy of her husband’s administration was exemplary.

She urged the youth, traders, artisans, men and women of the state to rally behind the governor and reciprocate his good gestures when called upon to do so.