‘FOR EKITI, IT’S TWO-

However, the support might not have come naturally, because the primary created serious cleavages in APC. But Fayemi walked his talk that he was not as arrogant as they portrayed him, by visiting all other contenders at their homes barely 12 hours after the primary to crave their supports and this seems to be working for him. His campaign will also be buoyed by federal government’s backing and strong financial war chest.

As lofty as his achievements seemed, Fayemi was perceived by many, particularly the grassroots and middle class as too elitist and aloof to operate in a closed and agrarian society like Ekiti. Sadly enough, the minister’s acceptability was too abysmal within these strata, which represented over 75 per cent of the voters. This is believed to have accounted for why his re-election was rejected in 2014.

Another stump Fayemi would have to scale is how to convince the civil servants, teachers and local government staff that he was not on a vengeance mission. Though in his acceptance speech, he was categorical that the mission was to reclaim the state from the claws of those he described as plunderers, he needed more than ordinary speech to make the message percolate deeper into their minds. The fact that Fayemi introduced rural and core subjects’ allowances for teachers have not aligned the teachers’ perceptions to the reality that he was their friend.

The teachers, who operate cult-like in terms of voting, are still nursing the fear that the minister may reintroduce the controversial Teachers’ Development Needs Assessment (TDNA), which generated furore in his first term.

Many of them believed they will be shoved out of the system with this appraisal test, though Fayemi had vehemently denied this. Despite this denial, it remains an element of suspicion the former governor would have to defuse to shore up his acceptability. But his shortcomings regardless and in spite of the fact that he lost in 2014, Fayemi is still generally regarded as the best governor the state has ever produced.

On his part, however, Olusola is a newcomer in politics. He was drafted into the game in 2014 due to his father’s closeness to Fayose. He was with the thinking that he would leave Oke Bareke Government House with his boss on October 16, 2018, before the clarion call came and he was ready to answer it. He may not be popular but he has the backing of the governor, who remains an overwhelming politician in today’s Ekiti. The fact that Fayose had succeeded in defeating two incumbent governors attests to his importance on the turf.

Fayose, being a smart politician had promptly realised that the fight was between him and Fayemi and he never relented in ensuring that his much touted continuity mantra scales the hurdles. In the first instance, the two-term governor played a crafty game by picking Olusola as the governorship candidate from Ikere Ekiti, the second most populous town.

Again, he dexterously picked the deputy, Kazeem Ogunsakin, from Ado Ekiti. Ogunsakin, former Chairman of Ado Local Government, is a Muslim. In actual fact, the Muslims now see the contest as theirs and consider this chance as one that should not slip off their fingers.

Ekiti is presently financially challenged. In spite of this, Fayose has been able to execute some projects that will be of advantage to him in his campaign. He has done dualisation projects in 10 local government headquarters. The flagship of his programmes is the flyover he built in the capital city.

He also constructed a new Judiciary Complex, the Funmilayo Olayinka Women’s Development Centre, a new governor’s office and his much patronised stomach infrastructure policy is operational. These may be a good campaign points for the PDP in this election.

The governor has always been a clever person. Few months to the election, he set up a judicial panel to probe his predecessor and part of the recommendations was that Fayemi should be barred for 10 years from holding public office. He had also consistently scandalised the minister of leaving behind huge debts and this he said has been a burden on the state and form part of his inability to pay salaries, even when he has borrowed more than Fayemi. The six local governments from the Ekiti south senatorial districts perceive Fayose as having hearkened to their agitations and that time was ripe for them to produce the governor. He had enlisted some traditional rulers to preach the gospel, which they are doing with vigour. Olusola is from the region while Fayemi is from the North. The votes from that zone may sway victory for the deputy governor, if proper counter moves were not made from the APC.

As politically savvy as Fayose is, he would have herculean task in convincing the Ekiti electorate why he has failed to pay salaries. As of now, the civil servants, local government and pensioners were owed between four and eight month arrears.

The 2016 leave bonuses were just paid recently. And Ekiti being a monolithic civil service economy relies on the civil service structure for survival. This problem has affected every facet of the state and people are groaning on daily basis as a result of the fallout of this snag. So, Fayemi may catch in on this to wreak serious havoc on the PDP.

No one can claim that there is no crisis in APC; that of the PDP looks more convoluted. Adeyeye, after losing the PDP primary had resigned membership of the party. He was poised on contesting the election on another platform and if this fails, he may want to return to APC, being a former Publicity Secretary of Afenifere. This may be a fatal blow to Fayose.

As things stand today, no one can predict where the pendulum will swing and the two sides are determined to go the whole hog to win the election.

How judicious they are in applying those favourable parameters and prevent their areas of disadvantages from taking a toll will help in determining who wins the diadem in the end.