INTERVIEW APC leaders are self-styled progressives who live in heaven… —Fayose’s aide. The conduct of the governorship election in Ekiti State won by Mr Ayo Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defeated the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 16 others, was highly commended by local and international observers. But APC leaders are claiming otherwise SAM NWAOKO engages Fayose’s spokesman, Elder Idowu Adelusi, on some allegations being raised by the APC. Excerpts. WHAT were the factors that led to your principal winning the election? First is Mr Ayo Fayose’s popularity and acceptance by the people of the state which did not start today. He came into the political life of the state in 2000 and has been in the consciousness of the people since through his welfarist approach to issues and that earned him the title ‘Ore Mekunnu’ (Friend of the Masses). When he was the governor between 2003 and 2006, he impacted positively on the lives of the people. Due to the style of his administration, they called him “Governor mekunnu.” According to the people, they had, for the first time, a governor coming to their homes, picking their calls, eating with them and solving their problems. He took education from a low level to a position of envy and you know that education is the main industry in the state. In 2002, during the Niyi Adebayo administration, Ekiti State came 35th in NECO and WAEC exams. Don’t forget that Adebayo is a lawyer and member of the E11. Yet education became comatose under him. By 2005, Fayose had brought the state to 7th and 8th positions in NECO and WAEC exams respectively. But it has again sunk to 34th position under Kayode Fayemi. Don’t forget that Fayemi is a Ph.D holder and his deputy a professor. While Fayose, an HND holder could fix the eduction right, Adebayo and Fayemi could not. Fayose opened up the state for development, dualised Ado Ekiti township road, dualised all the entry points into Ado Ekitii. He linked up all Ekiti towns and villages together with roads. For your information, Fayose built the new governor’s office, the Adetiloye Hall, the two presidential lodge buildings, the trade fair complex, the Fountain Motel, the Accountant General office, Lady Jibowu Hall, Ajilosun Shopping Mall and Okesha Market among others. These projects were done by Fayose without borrowing a dime from any bank. He left N10.4 billion in Ekiti coffers when he left government in 2006. Fayose recapitalised Wema Bank, got back Ekiti properties at Oju -Olobun in Lagos and Ekiti House in Abuja which Adebayo administration had sold out. Workers were paid their salaries on 22nd of every month, contracts were awarded to contractors in Ekiti, no variation, no capital flight; the people were happy, teachers were happy, workers were happy, traders were happy, pensioners were happy, parents had money to pay school fees of their wards. The state was crime free because substantial number of the youths were either absorbed into the civil and local government service or fully engaged by the contractors. The people can never forget such a person. The Ekiti people saw the last election as an opportunity to pay back Fayose with votes. Do you see the election as credible and how do you react to rice issue which critics of the election are holding on to? That the election is credible is not in doubt. That has also been attested to by local and international observers, such as the United States the British Government, DFID, the Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, the Transition Monitoring Group, the CLEEN Foundation and many more. There were more than 600 observers that witnessed the poll and their verdict is the same, the election was free, fair and credible. You know that before the poll and the aftermath of the Anambra poll, so much attention was focused on Ekiti election and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lived up to expectation. On the issue of rice, who and who distributed rice? Let me tell you, the APC is only playing the ostrich by saying PDP gave rice to voters to influence them. All the parties tried in their various ways to gain the attention of the voters. The APC gave out rice, farm implements, motorcycles, buses etc. While Fayemi was giving, his wife, Bisi, was also giving. Buses were distributed to the market women, commercial motorcycle operators, teachers’ union, pensioners’, drivers’ union various ethnic communities residing in the state purposely to buy their votes Two days to the election, more than N2 billion cash was given out to APC leaders. Some of the APC leaders were caught by security agents trying to buy votes. The records are there and can be verified. What is the difference between bags of money distributed to the elite by practitioners of elitist politics and the bags of rice given to people by the practitioners of grass-roots politics? We cannot deny the need to provide succour to over 70 per cent of the population living in poverty. To our advantage, the amala and rice eaters are the dependable voters, the elite they relied upon do not vote but will be harassing the government for contracts that they may not even execute. Some critics of the election said that Governor Kayode Fayemi had spent almost four years building roads, houses and hospitals. Do you agree? I am disturbed when some writers due to lack of information said that Fayemi had busied himself with building roads, houses and hospitals for the Ekiti people. For purpose of clarity, Fayemi did not construct new road throughout. Let them come out and show us those things that Fayemi has done. He only laid asphalt on some already asphalted roads. In Ado-Ekiti for instance, Fayose did the dualisation of Ado-Ikere Road, Ado-Ilawe Road, Ado-Ifaki Road, Ado-Iyin Road, among others. These are the roads Fayemi is claiming to have done. Fayose in 2006 started the dualisation of Baptist-Atikankan Road in Ado-Ekiti and paid compensation to landlords whose buildings were affected. Fayemi now came and said he was dualising the same road at a cost of N950 million per kilometre. Fayose, who built the new roads, did not award any road contract for more than N30 million per kilometre. Fayemi did not build any hospital, you can go and check. In June last year, he said he was going to renovate hospitals and that before the end of the year, everything would be completed. As we are talking now, the hospitals are worse off. Fayemi removed the roofs, sent doctors and nurses under the trees and nothing has been done since. If you are going to Ado from Aramoko end, when you get to Iyin, the general hospital is by the side of the road and you can see the condition it is. Fayemi failed to build any house. The so-called Ekiti Housing Agenda is fake. He hurriedly unveiled a plaque along Iworoko Road, Ado-Ekiti to say he had inaugurated a housing estate that is less than 30 per cent completed. Let him and his party show the world where they have built any estate. Fayose built the Fayose Estate along Ado/Afao road and Obasanjo Estate along Ikere Road and is there for all to see. Fayemi had only awarded contract for repair of roads constructed by Fayose. These roads being used by vehicles since they were built in 2004, 2005 and 2006 are bound to have potholes. However, what Fayemi had spent in repairing the roads trippled what Fayose expended on the project. While Fayose had not borrowed a kobo to construct these roads, Fayemi borrowed from the capital market. Under Fayemi, the state borrowed nearly N30 billion from the capital market, apart from the nearly N300 billion that accrued to the state from the Federation Account and other sources. Imagine a government borrowing to build a new government house, governor’s office, civic centre, pavilion among others. Now, what is the state of those grandiose projects? The government house on top of Oke Ayoba is uncompleted, the Civic Centre abandoned, the Pavilion less than half completed and hurriedly inaugurated and only land scrapping has been done in their proposed site for new Governor’s Office. We don’t need all these now, let alone borrowing to finance them. The people of the state know that the APC government is wasteful. The APC alleged that the state was militarised during the election, is it true? I don’t know what they meant by militarisation of Ekiti State during the election. Are they saying security agencies should not be allowed to do their jobs? So, they want security agents to fold their arms and allow them to throw the state into confusion. Throughout the duration of the election, there was no reported case of harassment, intimidation or threat to anybody in all the 177 wards and 16 local governments of the state. Let those making the allegation point out just one instance where security agencies did anything untoward. If not for the presence of security agencies, APC leaders would have caused chaos when they saw that they were losing the election. Why was it possible for your boss to defeat sitting governors twice? We give God all the glory. My boss is a man of the people. They love him and he loves them. He has always identified with the masses and he has shown that he has their interest at heart. The people of the state see Fayose as a change agent. When you do good to the people, they do not forget and they will repay you when the time comes and that is it. Fayose’s critics seem to have failed to learn from history. This same Fayose it was who defeated Niyi Adebayo in 2003. He came again and defeated another incumbent governor, Fayemi, in 2014. Why has it always been easy for Fayose to to seek political parties that claim to be progressive and followers of ideals of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo? The answer is not far to seek. Whereas Papa Awolowo wined and dined with the commoners, introduced welfarist programmes and consequently endeared himself to the commoners, the nowadays self-acclaimed progressives live in heaven, while their subjects live on earth. It is this same style of politics of Awolowo (identifying with commoners and living their lives) which Fayose adopted that connects him like the umbilical cord to teachers, workers, okada operators and pensioners who the Fayemi-led administration had sentenced to penury. What are your plans for Ekiti people? We are part of the system, we know where the shoe pinches and we are ready to solve the problems confronting the people of the state. Remember that my boss is not new to the system. He had served as the governor and he did well in spite of all the distraction by the opposition. We are coming back again by the grace of God to even do more and better. Provision of infrastructure that His Excellency did in his first term that he was named the ‘Architect of Modern Ekiti’ will enjoy top priority. He raised education from 35th position in the federation to seventh and this time around, we will take it to the top. We pioneered social security scheme for the elderly and we are going to improve on what is on ground now. Health sector will not be left out. Provision of adequate power supply for small scale businesses to bounce back will also be a priority of Fayose.. By God’s grace, we are going for a better and improved Ekiti State. Do you see Ekiti election altering political equation of the South-West? No doubt about that, politics in South-West geopolitical zone can never be the same again. You can see that the APC governments in the zone are now on the defensive. From Osun to Oyo to Ogun and even Lagos, APC is in shock. Their governors are now trying to come down from their self-imposed Olympian height to identify with the people. The people of the zone have seen the deceit in the APC administration at all levels. Ekiti election has exposed the APC and the people are determined to show them the way out. The APC has decided to challenge the election in court. Are you not scared? We are not in the least scared at all. The election was a reflection of the wishes of the people of the state which they have willingly and freely expressed. If the APC decided to go to court, the onus of proof rests on them. Local and international observers, as I said earlier, gave the exercise credit. We are still waiting for them to prove their point. Yoruba people say “eniti won ge lori to tun fe yin mu” (somebody who has been decapitated and who still wants to turn his nose another person), we will see how possible that is. The APC had alleged that the INEC used magical ballot papers for the election. According to the APC leaders, thumb prints for Fayemi on the ballot paper have transferred to Fayose. They need to proof this at the court.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 14:49:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015