As in a baleful bequest, perverse conducts have begun to dot electioneering campaigns in Ekiti State, as the locals go to the polls on July 14, to elect a new governor.
The incumbent, Governor Ayodele Fayose, who is statutorily barred from seeking re-election, having spent two terms, although not consecutively, hopes to be succeeded by his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka, who is the standard-bearer of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
During the 1983 political bloodbath, a House of Representatives member, Hon. Olaiya Fagbamigbe, was set ablaze, while a lawmaker in the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon. Awoleye Agunbiade, was beheaded and his severed head, hung on a stake, was hoisted by a mob that danced to the Government House
But Olusola-Eleka is set for a strong opposition in the governorship candidate of the opposition All Progressives Congress, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, whose party is in charge at the federal level. Fayemi, the immediate past Minister for Mines and Steel Development, is a former governor of the state who lost the last governorship election to Fayose.
Going by the historical background of Fayose and Fayemi in the political affairs of Ekiti State, in tandem with an attendant paranoia of mutual dissonance raging between the two politicians, concerns have mounted as to whether a display of statesmanship and democratic maturity will have the rule over emotions and anger, as time ticks for the coming election.
Though no fewer than 22 political parties have fielded candidates for the coming election, it looks clear to all that the coming poll is a straight contest between the APC and the PDP.
The Fayose-Fayemi tango is not helped by an Ekiti government White Paper, which purportedly banned Fayemi from occupying public office for 10 years, though the ex-governor had referred to this as sheer vendetta. A legal battle is already on, in respect of this.
While it is not out of place for politicians to deploy political tactics and healthy debates to outwit each other, it is indeed despicable and contrary to the spirit and letter of democracy, for political players to give vent to violence, killings, arson, and allied shenanigans.
Though a recent shooting at the Ado-Ekiti APC secretariat during a campaign rally by Fayemi was widely upheld as an accidental discharge from the rifle of a riot policeman, it also became unsettling when there were accusations and counter-accusations that it was a sponsored assassination bid.
In the boom of the gun at the APC secretariat, a former member of the House of Representatives and former Lagos Commissioner, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, who was in Fayemi’s campaign team, was badly hit. Felled too were two other party loyalists, one of whom reportedly lost his life. Bamidele, according to reports, is still in critical condition and undergoing treatment.
That incident might not have gone as an isolated case and a one-off thing, as more events that followed have poignantly indicated that there is trouble ahead.
Only last week, an APC chieftain, identified as Willy Ayegoro, was killed by two fleeing gunmen on a motorbike in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital. Outraged, the APC, in a statement by its publicity secretary, Mr. Taiwo Olatubosun, alleged the involvement of the ruling party in Ekiti, in the assassination.
In the same vein, a medic and former APC governorship aspirant, who is now working for Fayemi, Dr. Wole Oluyede, escaped death by a whisker, when some gun-toting political thugs invaded his hotel residence in Ado-Ekiti, in an alleged attempt to assassinate him.
In another breath, the family of a PDP member, Mr. Tope Onilearo, is distraught, following his sudden death under befuddling circumstances at the Ekiti State Government House. There were insinuations that Onilearo was poisoned for allegedly playing Judas.
While all these cases, along with many other localised acts of political violence are clearly unsettling, there is the need for stakeholders in Ekiti to bay the leading politicians against making dangerous utterances and breeding political thugs, as they all go about their campaigns.
Fayose, as the Governor of Ekiti State, is the chief security officer of the state, and should see himself as a father to whom the residents look up for protection, having entrusted the state’s resources and appurtenances of power in his care. For the vociferous governor too, the reality that he is not a contestant in the forthcoming election should serve a sobering lesson, particularly on the need for his passive involvement in political diatribes, or abstinence from them.
Fayemi also, being a major stakeholder and having served as governor once, should do all within his powers and reach, to ensure peace, perseverance and decorum among his followers.
Ekiti people should not for once forget the self-inflicted political tragedy of August 18/19, 1983, when Ekiti State had yet to be carved out of the old Ondo State. In the denouement of political riots that broke out between supporters of Governor Adekunle Ajasin of the Unity Party of Nigeria and Chief Akin Omoboriowo of the National Party of Nigeria, no fewer than 1,000 lives were reportedly lost, with most of the victims set ablaze. More than 200 houses were burnt, while the Federal Electoral Commission’s office in Akure was reduced to rubble.
During that political bloodbath, a House of Representatives member, Hon. Olaiya Fagbamigbe, was set ablaze, while a lawmaker in the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon. Awoleye Agunbiade, was beheaded and his severed head, hung on a stake, was hoisted by a mob that danced to the Government House, to present it as a mark of conquest.
This gory tale should ordinarily be enough to rein in the Ekiti war mongers, who should also be made to understand that in the tradition of a democratic practice, there must be winners as well as losers.
The security agents in Ekiti should be alive to their responsibilities, and abhor the filthy lucre of political inducement and partisanship. Adhering to these, along with stakeholders’ commitment to peace, will help a great deal, in ensuring a rancour-free Ekiti governorship election.
