Ayo Fayose Eats Humble Pie, His Man Kolawole Humiliated
It has been said time and again, that politics in Nigeria is not always about prestige, power, or even numbers. There are times when an era ends and one prominent figure has to retire from the limelight and hide in the shadows. This is exactly what looks to be happening in Ekiti State as former Governor Ayo Fayose lost the gubernatorial election that was held a few days ago. Of course, he was not the actual contestant, but with the efforts he committed to the election, he might as well have been.
The Ekiti gubernatorial election is the first of the new era, that is, following a change of government at the presidential level. Thus, the election does not only indicate what the other 35 states ought to expect but also what the entire country should expect to come as the reality of the 2023 presidential election settles on everybody. Nevertheless, things are not at all looking good for people like
Fayose whose ambitions have been trounced mercilessly.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the winner of the election is Biodun Oyebanji, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He got a total of 187,057 votes, which amounted to about 52 per cent of the entire votes cast. Oyebanji was accompanied by Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who got 82,211. Fayose’s candidate, Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came third with only 67,457.
Kolawole’s loss is the perfect evidence that Fayose does not have Ekiti in the palm of his hand which was the prevailing belief before the election. Although people from Fayose’s side have claimed that the loss was on account of splinters within the party, a loss is a loss, and a descent is a descent. Thus, Fayose has no excuse, as several newspaper-stand lawyers have argued.