In a nutshell, the governorship election in Ekiti had been won and lost, what is likely going to be the fate of Governor Ayo Fayose after leaving office in October?
Before the just concluded Gubernatorial election in Ekiti, Gov. Ayo Fayose, was brimming with confidence. His confidence must have come from the fact that as an incumbent governor his choice of successor would be generally acceptable to the people.
In all his speeches, he boasted that the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka, would defeat the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. In the end, his party lost. Considering all that went down, what will be the fate of Peter Ayodele Fayose of the PDP?
Over the years, the out-going governor of Ekiti State has won himself many enemies. One of them is President Muhammadu Buhari whom he has taunted at every given opportunity, mainly on health ground.
Before the postponement of the 2015 general elections, the atmosphere was nerve-racking as a result of the campaign style of the PDP and the APC. The Presidential election, which was scheduled to take place on February 14, was rescheduled to hold on March 28, 2017.
Members of the two major parties engaged themselves in what is now known as hate speech. The focus of their campaign was on individuals, rather than issues. Instead of informing Nigerians about what they would do to reduce the level of poverty in the country, make health care services affordable and create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth, the campaigns concentrated on who was a saint, and who was not, who was fit and who wasn’t, among others.
It was so bad and messy that a peace accord had to be signed by President Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate and Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the APC.
However, after the peace accord, caution was thrown to the wind as Fayose, put up a ‘death wish’ advert on the front page of Punch Newspaper on behalf of the PDP. His motive, according to political analysts, was to discourage people from supporting Buhari’s candidature by warning Nigerians of the danger ahead if they voted for him. The message was that Buhari was old and ill and would not last in office if elected as president.
Fayose did not stop there. When Buhari assumed office, he alleged that his wife, Aisha Buhari, was involved in the Halliburton scandal and therefore was barred from entering the United States of America. The wife of the President cleared all doubts when she made her trip to the US.
That was not the end for Fayose as he continued to taunt the president all round. Many saw it as taking his opposition too far. When Buhari went on a medical trip to London last year, Fayose was one of the politicians who issued statements against the president.
Fayose’s utterances in the past made a political analyst, Okunade Adekunle to say, “Given Buhari’s antecedents, Fayose will be punished if he no longer has immunity. His prayer is for Buhari not to win in 2019.”
Many who view Buhari as unforgiving or vindictive are of the view that Fayose should be ready to be paid back in his own coins as soon as he hands over power to the governor-elect, Fayemi, who is Buhari’s man.
Fayose became the second governor of Ekiti on May 29, 2003 after defeating the then incumbent Governor Niyi Adebayo in the gubernatorial elections. Apart from having problems with opposition members, he has a history of falling out with members of his party.
In his first spell as governor, he fell out with the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Till date, they do not see eye-to-eye. Political pundits believed the feud with Obasanjo contributed to his failure to complete his tenure as he was impeached on October 16, 2006, alongside his deputy, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi on corruption charges. But he challenged the process that led to his impeachment and won.
During the 2014 Governorship election in Ekiti State, Fayose was again the PDP nominee and he defeated the incumbent governor, Dr. Fayemi in all 16 Local Government Areas of the state. He remains the only Nigerian governor to defeat an incumbent twice.
However, he failed to install his anointed candidate, Prof. Eleka and that may spell trouble for him for all his ‘sins.’
One of the early signs of trouble for him was a statement issued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) some days ago, threatening to arrest and prosecute him.
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The anti-graft commission made the threat a few hours after Fayemi was declared winner of the Ekiti governorship election.
Though Fayose’s name was not mentioned in the tweet, the case being referred to by the EFCC could be easily linked to him. The Twitter post 12:30p.m on Sunday read: “The parri is over; the cloak of immunity torn apart, and the staff broken. Ekiti Integrated Poultry Project/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3bn fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”
But it was discovered that before 3p.m, the next day, the tweet had been deleted after it generated a lot of backlash from Nigerians. The Next Edition tried to reach the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, for confirmation but it proved abortive as his phone numbers were switched off.
The governor, who seems to sense that he may not be a free man after he leaves office, lamented that he and his family were no longer safe when he made his first public appearance after the Ekiti election.
“If we have been robbed, we must still have a right to life. I need a right to life, my family needs a right to life,” he said after his party the PDP lost to the APC. Governor Fayose made the allegations when he visited Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, at his palace in the state capital.
He condemned the situation where the man “that contested against me” is allegedly protected by at least two units of policemen while the incumbent governor had no single policeman to protect him.
The governor claimed the police officers deployed to the Government House had been withdrawn and called for the intervention of concerned individuals and groups in the matter.
Governor Fayose who has not been satisfied with the result noted that the victory of the APC was irrelevant as the PDP would reclaim their mandate in court.
Time will tell if this is the end of the road for Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose.