by Akin Osuntokun

I have written specifically twice on the Ekiti governorship elections and on each occasion it was provoked by the outrageous tendency of insinuating and citing Ekiti as a backward people for making the choice they made on June 21st 2015 – as typified in the writings of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Adewale Maja-Pearce in New York Times. 

Prior to the publication on this page of the rejoinder titled “With friends like this, no one needs an enemy” by Adewale Adeoye [Read Here] (who identified himself as a human rights activist), the editor called to inform me that Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State contacted her on the usage of the article and referred it to me for review. I went through it and sent it back untouched. I give this background to establish the joint ownership identity of the write up and that it is representative of the views of Fayemi himself. I will treat it as such.

I crave the indulgence of readers to dwell yet again on a subject matter that holds personal and parochial interest for me but which may or may not be of comparable interest to the preponderance of the wider Nigeria audience. The secondary plea is that the rejoinder invites further clarification from me-which I intend to make. I truly regret the imposition for those who may begin to find all this Ekiti election hoopla rather tiresome.
I have written specifically twice on the Ekiti governorship elections and on each occasion it was provoked by the outrageous tendency of insinuating and citing Ekiti as a backward people for making the choice they made on June 21st 2015 – as typified in the writings of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Adewale Maja-Pearce in New York Times. If my mission was ab initio simply to criticise Fayemi, I would not choose the occasion of his defeat and disappointment to do so.

The inevitable criticism of him I proffered was collateral damage for the peculiar and demeaning interpretation of the behaviour of the Ekiti electorate by his pompous interlocutors. And I said as much in an earlier response “… But Fayemi is a political combatant who gives as much as he takes and his co-combatants are overstating his case which now borders on the criminalisation of a people for daring to reject a unique gift from those who know best for Ekiti State”.

A day before this statement was made, Segun Adeniyi (who, by the way, is not lucky enough to hail from Ekiti State!) wrote on this page as follows: “All the theories of some ‘stomach infrastructure’ are not only demeaning (and indeed disrespectful) of the people of Ekiti State, they are fallacies even within the realm of academic explanations of what actually transpired before, during and after the election”.

I’m a self-respecting Ekiti born Nigerian and I find it curious and offensive that any dignified Ekiti person would rather I offer no response to an assault on collective Ekiti identity so that the fragile ego of any individual may not be hurt. If Ekiti people had to be demeaned and put down in order to elevate another person to the pedestal of a public service icon then you will always have me to contend with. This is the beginning of my differences with Mr. Adewale Adeoye (and his principals) whose rejoinder I address here.

He submits that a friend who criticises another friend in his public capacity is not a friend but an enemy and was so absorbed in this attitude that he christens his rejoinder “With friends like this you don’t need an enemy”. Instructively this attitude is symptomatic of the backward political mentality afflicting the African society where opposition or criticism is taken as tantamount to enmity.

Here we are being given an insight into how Fayemi might have been deprived of that crucial critical component so essential to the success of any government. It bespeaks the culture of sycophancy suffused royal court that has ears only for the echo of its self-adulation; and partly supports the theory of disconnection with reality as germane to the understanding of the poor performance of the governor in the election.

Adeoye contends “Osuntokun had to strive incredulously in his futile bid to puncture the performance thesis by simply creating an impression that Dr, Fayemi’s government was a government of misplaced priorities which only built a Government House on the Hill and didn’t do anything to affect the lives of Ekiti people.  Not even Fayemi’s worst detractors ever accused him of such. Even if Akin Osuntokun were to limit himself to projects funded from the $25 billion bond procured from the capital market by the Fayemi administration, the Government House would not rank as the most prominent”.  I will be charitable and undo the damage Adeoye did himself by claiming that his principal borrowed $25 billion. I think he meant N25billion but I believe there is an additional N5 billion advertised a few months ago.

I will quote myself again on how the Government House project came to feature in my thoughts “Reducing the dissatisfaction of the Ekiti electorate with the government of Fayemi to the ‘politics of the stomach’ as propounded by Fashola serves as good ointment to salve the bruised ego of APC but it stands on a false and escapist premise. The corollary is that the governor has done so well that there could be no other conceivable legitimate grounds or political factors to provoke the alienation of the people. Well here is one”.

If Governor Fashola is telling Ekiti people that we have no valid and legitimate reason to repudiate his beloved comrade and would rather attribute our behaviour to the insult of ‘politics of the stomach’, don’t I – as Ekiti free born – owe the obligation to let the whole world know that there are reasons – that are universally acceptable and logical on which I can predicate my decision to reject Fayemi?

What more qualifies as ‘misplaced priority’ for the poorest state in Nigeria than borrowing to build a new government house when you reside in a basically functional one to which almost all your predecessors have added substantial improvements? What is the cost-benefit analysis of this to the Ekiti people? Would a man who lives in a decent and functional residence be adjudged as rightly oriented if he goes to borrow money to build a more luxurious one in a situation of relative family poverty? And how does this amount to reducing all that Fayemi did to the construction of government house and nothing else?

Perhaps I should ignore the illogical bit about my dad and thank God that I have a father who by common consent deserves so much honour. Long before I was born he had been deemed worthy of greater honour than any contemporary recognition. The real estate model Ikeja and Bodija government reservation areas in Lagos and Ibadan (among others) were conceived and established under his tutelage as Western regional minister of works and housing – in which recognition one of the most prominent avenues in Ibadan was named after him.  And is it not the height of absurdity to reason that I criticise Fayemi because I don’t know his mind on who he will name the new building after – if at all he decides to name it after anyone?

People like Adeoye tend to overreach themselves and in the process betray their limitations in whatever role they are propelled to play. In unbelievable affectation of self-assuredness he derides “how does one explain someone of Osuntokun’s pedigree and education to indulge in unfounded rumours and beer parlour gossips such as his claim in the article that Dr. Fayemi removed Governor Segun Oni’s portrait from Governor’s Office upon assuming duties as Governor of Ekiti State?”

I indulge in the occasional swig of liquor but I don’t frequent beer parlours and I doubt if former Governor Segun Oni takes any brew stronger than Coca Cola. And he most certainly was not inebriated on June 6th 2014 when he granted an interview to the Punch newspaper where the following exchange took place:
Punch to Oni – “But Governor Fayemi removed your picture from the roll call of former governors of the state, saying your administration was not recognised by the law.”

Oni – “That one is a matter for the law and constitution. I have not even kept quiet yet because there is a judgment of the Supreme Court about it but that is little. That cannot bar me from seeing the danger that a Fayose would pose for the future of Ekiti. I want to tell you if that was a mistake they would correct themselves, if they don’t correct themselves the constitution and the court would say whether I was a governor or not.”

There you have the certified true copy corroboration of the ‘beer parlour gossip’ which is tendered before the highest court in the land. I was never in Fayemi’s office but many people of conscience including his members of staff who have been there would marvel at the audacious mendacity that Oni’s picture was never removed as adjunct to the claim he was never governor in the eyes of the law.

For the columnist, sufferance of the brazen display of wilful deceit, real and contrived ignorance by respondents comes with the trade.

People presume to pass judgment on you from the untenable position of supreme deficiency of logic and fact. If a man can indulge in this bogus lie, on what else should he be believed? The writer misappropriated so much achievement to his sponsor (including over 700km road projects constructed anew or reconstructed in Ekiti State alone!) that would be readily be controverted by Oni’s state of the state publication on his stewardship as of 2010.

Fortunately, Oni is now the deputy chairman of APC which position affords him insight into the kind of company he finds himself. I did not set out to criticise Fayemi, what I controvert is the runaway tendency to rate him far higher than he merits and then employ this premise to condemn the Ekiti people as unworthy of a governance superstar of some people’s imagination. On at least two occasions in the last three years this publication rated all Nigeria state governors on performance and at no time was Fayemi graded above average.

I lay no claim to infallibility and so it remains for me to admit to the error of attributing the construction of the governor’s office solely to the administration of former Governor Ayo Fayose. Although it was not completed by him, former Governor Adeniyi Adebayo actually took the building to an appreciable stage before he left office.

 

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.