It is the morning after for Dr Kayode Fayemi. He has earned a new media tag as the outing governor of Ekiti State. He must still be shell shocked. We all are. We are all still wondering how Ayo Fayose, who left the state as governor under circumstances that were clearly unedifying, proved all analysts wrong and won the prize last Saturday, June 21. Informed analysts are at work, trying to unravel the mystery of what went wrong, why it went wrong and how it went wrong. A post mortem recommends itself because getting to the bottom of the cause death or loss is not just a conventional human wisdom. It also provides a lesson worth remembering.
I think the search must concentrate on two important questions. Firstly, was the people’s verdict a rejection of Fayemi or his party, APC? To put it another way, did the people of Ekiti State reject Fayemi or his party or both? Secondly, did the result truly reflect the decision of the people or one forced down their throats by a desperate PDP backed by the federal might typified by the massive security presence and intimidation?
The answer in either case would produce the same result. But the lesson would be different. Fayemi, by all standards, set out to change the face of his state. He went into office with the passion of a scholar in politics. His decisions and actions were infused with a level of intellectualism aimed at raising the narrative on the nature of our politics above self-service. Not for him the politics of the stomach. Not for him the politics of fattening the cheeks of a few at the expense of the lean cheeks of the many. Sustainable infrastructural development as the true foundation of human and social progress was his ultimate goal. So, he built roads, built schools and health facilities, provided water and rural electrification. He showed what is possible if a political leader is truly and unapologetically committed to the weal and the progress of the people.
In the view of his people, was he wrong in his approach to governance? There is a sense in which the answer to that might be yes. Perhaps, they regard his approach as elitist and thus at variance with their idea of politics and governance. Perhaps, he neither spoke nor quite understood their language. In the cynical language of the times, Fayemi failed to pay attention to the development of what has come to be known as the stomach infrastructure of his people. As the bulldozers cleared the path to a new road, the people must have asked themselves: Na road we go chop?
If this was the ground on which the shocking verdict was delivered, then it is a cruel reminder that corruption is wired into the DNA of our national politics. So nothing will ever change. Our national landscape will remain forever home to roads half built, hospitals half built, boreholes half dug and hopes of a better tomorrow crushed by the bulldozers of self-service.
Was the verdict a rejection of APC? PDP leaders would loudly answer yes to that. They would cite what appeared to be transparency in the conduct of the election as seen on television. Still, I think the answer is much more complicated than that. A rejection of APC would be inconsistent with the nature and the character of Yoruba politics, easily the most sophisticated in the country. The Yoruba are more likely to move together in a principled collective stand on issues than other tribes in the country. APC stands for what they believe in and what they stand for in the main in our national politics. They have demonstrated time and again their capacity to protect their votes and insist that their expressed will be respected. Naked corruption on the eve of polls has never swayed them. I wonder what has changed. If Ekiti is accepted as a reflection of the changing mores and morals of Yoruba politics it can only mean one thing: the loss of the guiding beacon to the ship of state. It is more serious than you might think.
Was the verdict forced down the throats of the people by the might and intimidation by the federal government? It is difficult to fault the government decision to deploy some 35,000 security personnel to the state for the conduct of the election. You can prevent political violence, you cannot cure it. The number of security personnel is less important than what their brief was. There is evidence that their brief went beyond ensuring peace. And they carried it out in a manner that did no justice to the struggling integrity of our elections. The point is that if Ekiti was the face of PDP determination to bulldoze other political parties into history, then I suspect there must be a lot of quaking in the APC camp.
Fayemi has demonstrated that politics for him is not a do or die affair. He offered himself to serve; he served for four years and asked for the constitutional renewal of his mandate. He was denied the request. He has accepted the decision of his people. He has also become the first Nigerian politician to accept defeat with grace. Commendable and worthy of emulation as his action is, I have a sneaking feeling he was motivated by two painful thoughts. Firstly, his action reminds me of that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo after the 1983 general elections. He said the rigging was so overwhelming and so comprehensive it would be futile for him to contest his loss in court. It seems to me that Fayemi felt the same way too. He decided not to put the state through the ordeal of the case wending its weary way through the courts. He did that after the 2011 election. It took him more than one year to get justice and recover his stolen mandate. In deciding not to contest it, he has shown more pragmatism than fear.
Secondly, Fayemi must have been sorely disappointed that his people chose the infrastructure of the stomach to the physical infrastructure that would make so much difference in their lives and the development of their state. If that was their decision, then so be it. He may yet have the last laugh when the chickens troop home to roost.
Fayemi leaves office sadly aware that the narrative of our national politics remains firmly rooted in the basics of primitive politics, even in an area of the country considered to be the most politically sophisticated. In the hands of his successor, Fayemi’s infrastructural edifices will turn into the rusty colour of roofing sheets on old houses in Ekiti villages; a sad reminder that our arrested national development will remain a fact of our national politics in the foreseeable future.
To look on the bright side of this dismal development, Fayose will get on with his poultry sheds. I can find no reason why the people of Ekiti State should not take special pride in their state beingthe leading chicken-producing farm in Africa. Una do well, Ekiti people.
