by Ayomide Ekerin

Governor Fayose as a Typical African Leader

Remember that picture of President Jacob Zuma smiling and stretching out his hands, with his two fore fingers pressed together? That’s a perfect shot for a meme to describe African leaders and their penchant for wanting to hold on to power till their last breath.

Simply put, African leaders don’t like to relinquish power, even when their continued stay has become an embarrassment to them and a nuisance to their countrymen. Men like Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak and Laurent Gbagbo have the same story to tell. We don’t forget to throw darts of criticisms at the Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola.

Back home here in Nigeria, military coup and public outcry stopped men like Yakubu Gowon and Ibrahim Babangida in their tracks. In this civilian dispensation, the Office of the Citizen made sure that Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term agenda did not succeed. We did the same thing to Goodluck Jonathan who, still standing at the threshold of his first tenure in 2011, wanted to increase it to seven years because his 2015 looked shaky.

As it is at the federal level, so it is at the state level. This time around, Fayose is the one whose hand is in the cookie jar. On Monday at his monthly Public Enlightenment Programme, the governor stated that since the Supreme Court had ruled that his impeachment was illegal, null and void, he reserved the constitutional right to contest his removal in 2006.

This means that he wants the court to give him the remaining seven months his last tenure, eleven years ago. So he wants to finish this second tenure and launch into another seven months, while INEC waits patiently for him.

Hasn’t Fayose done or not done enough? What difference will seven months make in the life of Ekiti people, that four years has not made? Why can’t African leaders be like the late Nelson Mandela? Why are they always hunting for extra time in office? What is Fayose scared of?

Questions upon questions greet this course that the governor wants to take. If he gets that seven months, I’m scared for the state’s treasury. When that happens, Fayose, being the strategist that he is, may go scot free, while the people of Ekiti are left to pick of the pieces of the lives together again.