The Fall of Ayodele Fayose
Governor Ayo Fayose is a master of political theatrics, often so insipid that he may not even believe himself. Examples are legion, like frying garri, roasting corn and frying akara or eating in a local bukka which he passes as being on the same page with
The maxim that pride goeth before a fall and that karma is a bitch, dishing in cold measured vengeance, the exactitude of what we feed or foist on others are part of the current schools of thoughts people have fallen back on to explain the fate of Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose. Ordinarily, one would think that Fayose and not his deputy, Professor Olusola Eleka was the one running against Kayode Fayemi in the election that has been won and lost as the poster of the election appeared to have the face of Eleka and the reputation of Fayose. The Governor was more vocal in boasts, threats and self-adulation, often assuring that loss at the polls was impossibility for his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
However, as it presently stands, the Nigerian factor and calculus in elections have put victory at the doorsteps of the All Progressives Congress whose Fayemi and former Minister of Solid Minerals has been jocularly said to have used his experience in the ministry to “crush the rock” that is Peter, the religious name of the incumbent.
Fayose in several interviews claimed that no matter who he anointed as the flagbearer of the party, even if the person is a member of his family, would still win because he had always identified with the electorates.
For example, asked what he would do or how he would feel if his party lost the election, he replied, “my party cannot lose in Ekiti, my people love me; I cannot lose, let’s leave it at that.” Reminded that some of his supporters were leaving the PDP, he queried their electoral weight and values, adding, “Who are those? They are not up to a challenge to me.”
On the possible effect of “imposing” his deputy on the party and its likely effects on the outcome, Fayose boasted that “Even if I imposed my family members, Ekiti people will still vote for that person, you see, I was in town few days ago frying garri with the people, that’s to show you I’m a man of the people, all those plan they are planning in Abuja, I’m aware of, even if President” Buhari comes to Ekiti on that day, I’m still going to defeat him, if they like let them come with their soldiers, I’m Ayodele Fayose Peter, Peter the rock; if you fall on me, you will break your back, if I fall on you, you will die. You know if you are coming with fire, when it enters water it will quench, that’s what’s going to happen. Mark my words.”
Such overconfidence created the oven in which he was politically roasted. He antagonised party members who would have helped to deliver victory leading to some political weights leaving the party, yet he felt they were political paper tigers and that victory was sure even when he was facing the ruling party.
Although the genuineness of the APC victory is still being hotly contested, the preferred route to power always adopted by all politicians irrespective of party appear to have sufficed. The scheme is to get power by fair or foul means and let your opponent fight from the outside while you occupy the seat and use allocations accruing therefrom to fund the legal battles.
In 2014 the near scenario of what was replicated by APC in Ekiti 2018 gubernatorial elections was enacted by the PDP then. Helicopters were said to have ferried cash through a one-time Defence Minister to the point. Backed by the central government, every other person was suppressed to make way for Fayose’s victory. Then, some governors were shoved around and their vehicles blocked from entering the state while others were meted out with unprintable humiliations. Soldiers and other security agencies were on hand to do the bidding of the powers that be.
Given that Fayose was installed using that template, it was a wonder that he boasted of overcoming the system used in his own victory. When the chips were down, it became whose gun was bigger. He cried out that his men were randomly arrested and locked up so they would not supervise and control affairs.
The police even had to fire first and apologise later after dispersing the PDP rally, promising that it would not reoccur; meanwhile the actions and inactions had safely put victory in the pocket of the APC. The PDP alleged that information had leaked to them that their agents would be arrested should they be seen with money which made them to send words round that such should be avoided.
Meanwhile APC was said to have had a field day distributing money and protected by the powers Fayose had boasted could not stand up to him in the state. Some people who monitored the election alleged there was vote buying by both parties but the party with power at the center had more financial muscle in the arm twist fight and therefore carried the day. While PDP was alleged to have paid N4000 per voter, the APC allegedly shelled out N10, 000 for each vote.
To take delivery of the cash, a voter just needed to snap the ticked ballot paper with his handset and show the enforcers as evidence and the money is theirs. Talk of stomach infrastructure, that scheme birthed by Fayose witnessed a change in its delivery, thereby beating the master with his own tricks.
The change in power of the party at the center merely changed the party that was favoured in 2018 using the same influence and Fayose though has been loudly proclaiming that he would have the last laugh is also changing the tune by lesser decibels, adding a shout out that the federal government and the ruling party wanted to kill him.
If anyone was in doubt that the federal might was pitched against a state might and the bigger, stronger and financially more muscular party in the fight with might, carried the day; everything has now come to the open with a well-placed politician admitting they had to resort to buying votes when they saw that PDP was almost buying them out of victory. Some of the agencies joined in the celebration of Fayose’s fall. A tweet by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC said they had dusted up documents against Fayose with a view to marching him to jail.
Such sorry and stumpy behavior may also be a pointer to the fact that all agencies of the federal government may have been complicit in hewing the rock down prior to quarrying it.
Meanwhile, while the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC the umpire of the contest is basking in selfadulation that they conducted a free and fair exercise, various observer groups have decried it as a sad superlative retrogression from the previous nadir electoral experiences.
While some of them have named vote buying, intimidation, official sidestepping of the peoples will and use of state apparatchik for party favours as a bad narrative in the democratic experiment, others see it as the perversion of will which removes the right and power of the people to choose their leaders which defeats the essence of civil rule.
Others say since they know that the contest would end in tribunals, they would reserve what evidence they have to prove that the Ekiti election was not only a sham but a retrogressive step in conduct of elections; probably a precursor to what Nigerians would expect in 2019.
From all indications, the essence of the amendment to the Electoral Act which finetunes the law so that less of the electoral contests would no longer be determined through the courts but the ballot box has once again kissed the dust as a mirage with the attendant erosion of confidence in the system.
The Ekiti election may well be a signpost to those states where the contest is going to be between APC and other parties, especially where while PDP was in power, it exercised the same level and types of indiscretion in misuse of power to win electoral contests unless there is a change of mind and style.
However, such may trigger off some level of desperation that would turn violent and make voting booths fountains of electorate’s blood as the Ekiti experience may push contestants to match the federal antics with local forces which like they say, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
Such overconfidence created the oven in which he was politically roasted. He antagonised party members who would have helped to deliver victory leading to some political weights leaving the party, yet he felt they were political paper tigers and that victory was sure even when he was facing the ruling party