#No Parallel Assembly In Ekiti – Fayose’s Aide# Lere Olayinka, is the Special Assistant to the Ekiti State government on Public Communications and New Media. In this interview with ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI, the head of the state Broadcasting Service speaks on the political stalemate in the state as well as the Stomach Infrastructure Scheme of the government. He also speaks on why Governor Fayose didn’t probe his predecessor among other issues Don’t you see the current political crisis in Ekiti state as capable of slowing down development in the state? I want to clearly make it known here that there is no political crisis in Ekiti State. That crisis only exists in the minds of APC supporters who never gave it a thought that Fayose would assume office as governor of Ekiti state. As at today, the three arms of government, executive, legislative and judiciary are functioning. So as long as there is no crisis in Ekiti state, then nothing will slow down its development. As regards the parallel House of Assembly they are mentioning, I want to state it clearly that there is no parallel assembly. The law states it that the legislators can only carry out their duties inside the legislative chambers so anything that is being done outside the chambers of the Ekiti House of Assembly is illegal. The Stomach Infrastructure of Fayose’s administration has been widely criticised. Some even say that the scheme will cause laziness among people in the state. How will you react to that? Stomach infrastructure is about the welfare of the people. It is about making sure that the people are able to feed and take care of their basic needs. It is about creation of gainful employment for the youths. It will interest you to know that what the APC government of Fayemi claimed to be provision of employments was servitude. Graduates were engaged on monthly stipend of N15,000 without giving them letter of employment. In the state broadcast stations that I head, there are over 70 people engaged by the Fayemi-led government. None of them was given employment letter. So, how does a graduate, a family man live on N15,000 per month? Therefore, stomach infrastructure, which Governor Fayose initiated is about meeting the basic needs of the people. For instance, there are people who are sick and cannot treat themselves because they lack as little as N2,000. There are people who only need as little as N5,000 to trade. These are the people Governor Fayose’s stomach infrastructure is aimed at taking care of. Funny enough, our friends in the APC that have been criticising the stomach infrastructure concept are now copying it. National leader of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu openly distributed food items in Lagos last week. APC governors have distributed bags of rice, branded in the party logo in the last few days. They castigated Governor Fayose for riding on okada (motorcycle), now the vice presidential candidate of their party, Prof. Osinbajo is jumping from BRT Bus to Keke Marwa and eating booli (roasted plantain) on the streets of Lagos. We can smell hypocrisy here, and we in Ekiti are not bothered about whatever name they call Fayose. All that is clear now is that Peter Ayodele Fayose has added stomach infrastructure to the dictionary of politics in Nigeria and no amount of badmouthing from the APC can erase that. The opposition has constantly said that Fayose, has not learnt from what led to his impeachment in 2006. They say he is so rude and doesn’t govern with diplomacy. What is your take on that? Was Fayose impeached in the first place? The answer is no and that was made clear enough in the tribunal judgment two weeks ago. Okay, they say Fayose is not governing with diplomacy? So diplomacy is about opening the state treasury for a few people in the State House of Assembly to loot? Diplomacy in their own dictionary is Fayose surrendering his authority as governor to the APC goons? You tried so hard to prevent Fayose who defeated you roundly from assuming office. When you failed to prevent him from assuming office, you refused to attend his inauguration. Immediately after he was inaugurated, you went to the House of Assembly and declared a one month recess. Isn’t that in itself a declaration of war on Fayose and the people of Ekiti who voted for him? It is known to everyone in Ekiti that the former Speaker, Adewale Omirin, even made preparations in readiness for his assumption office as acting governor on October 16. Yet, Fayose stressed to them his hands of love. He called and held meetings with the APC lawmakers and behold, all that the APC lawmakers demanded for was money, money and money. The APC people should just realize that they cannot rewrite what God wrote concerning Ekiti and its people on June 21, 2014, and the earlier they realize the futility in their evil agenda against Ekiti people, the better for them. The governor claims that there was massive looting under Fayemi’s administration. One wonders what is delaying him from pressing for a probe. Of course, Fayemi’s government was characterised with massive looting of the state treasury, and Governor Fayose has made himself clear on this issue. He has said that he won’t run after Fayemi and those who worked with him. He has handed them to God and Ekiti people to judge. For instance, in a state like Ekiti with less than N3bn as monthly federal allocation, former governor, Kayode Fayemi spent a whooping sum of N604,961,645.72 just to furnish the new Governor’s Lodge built for the comfort of himself and his wife. Unfortunately for Fayemi and his wife, they could only use the N604.9m furniture for 15 days! Contract for the furnishing of the new Governor’s Lodge, built with N3.3bn borrowed fund was awarded to Kitwood Nigeria Limited on June 18, 2014, three days to the governorship election that he (Fayemi) lost to Governor Fayose. Instead of the State Ministry of Works, the contractor was asked to report at the office of Fayemi’s Chief of Staff, Yemi Adaramodu, to sign contractual agreement and also obtain detailed specifications of the items to be procured. Look at the N25bn bond that they took. A seven-year term financing facility, totaling N25bn was secured from the capital market to finance capital projects. It was obtained in two Tranches of N20bn in October 2011 and N5bn in January 2014. As at the time Fayemi was leaving government, after paying a total sum N15, 221,207,088 (i.e. N14, 299,085,088 repaid from the N20bn bond and N922, 122,000.09 from the N5bn bond), the State Government was still owing N26.749bn. Isn’t it worrisome that after paying N15.5bn out of the N25bn bond taken by Fayemi’s government, Ekiti State Government still owes N26.7bn? That is the situation that we are confronted with. But Governor Fayose has decided to be forward looking and if you don’t want to fall while moving forward, you must not look back. leadership.ng/news/401055/no-parallel-assembly-ekiti-fayoses-aide
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 10:19:01 +0000
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