Before a Divided Ekiti PDP Goes to the Poll

For the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, this year’s governorship election is not a walkover, writes Victor Ogunje

It would be wrong to say that the Ekiti State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) isn’t approaching the July 14, 2018 governorship battle on a shaky note. The party seems embattled and fractionalised taking cognizance of the alleged biased roles being played by the leader of the party and Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.

Though Fayose is regarded as the political generalissimo of the state, who had exhibited enormous dexterity to prove that he has electoral value, the governor has also proven to know the game with the way he defeated two former governors: Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Dr. Kayode Fayemi, at two different elections.

But as it is, the governor may gradually be digging his own grave by being carried away with these past laurels by allowing the spate of frictions pummeling the party to fester as the state inches towards the impending governorship tussle.

Fayose shouldn’t be oblivious of one fact; that the 2018 election will be a different ball game, considering the fact that he won’t have access to the federal apparatuses like soldiers, police and others to prosecute the election, even though he had treaded similar path and won resoundingly in 2003 and 2014 but the indices won’t be the same this time around.

This time, he would be confronting those he had wounded politically in the past and the people expected him to perceive the election to be more of a vengeance war than a mere expression of franchise by voters. They expected that he should allow his party to enjoy some peace by refraining from anti-democratic moves, so that he could approach the coming election with enough foot-soldiers that would help to tame the menacing All Progressives Congress (APC) at the poll.

An Existential Culture of Impunity
The first bedlam that rocked the party was the imposition of his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as the sole candidate of the party barely one year to election. This was done brazenly by a section of the PDP loyal to the governor, not minding how other contending forces would feel.

Probably by assumption, Fayose thought he had become a tin god in Ekiti politics, particularly within the PDP. He believed nobody has the temerity to challenge his action and inactions. He had at various fora boasted that he was a PDP saviour in Ekiti.

“Each time the PDP is in trouble, I have always been used by God to rescue it. It happened in 2003 and 2014”, he once boasted. But pundits opined that the belief has percolated deeply into the governor’s thinking and this accounted for the difficulty for him to realise his mistakes in spite of the noticeable missteps he had made in the Olusola adoption process.

What actually rattled the PDP members was the emphatic pronouncement of the party’s Chairman in the State, Chief Gboyega Oguntuase, that Olusola remained the sole candidate and that whoever antagonised him would incur the wrath of the party.
But such thinking has been proved erroneous by the way other aspirants, like former Minister of Works, Dayo Adeyeye, Senator representing Ekiti South in the Senate, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, and former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Canada, Amb Dare Bejide, had vehemently rejected the adoption, describing it as the height of impunity and dictatorship, which will be resisted at all costs.

Even Fayose’s protégé and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Owoseeni Ajayi, immediately resigned from the cabinet to join force with anti-Olusola group and had been active since he joined the fray.

The group, led by Adeyeye addressed a joint press conference, where they descended heavily on the governor and urged the Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee to rein in the governor to prevent calamity from befalling the party.
Adeyeye, who addressed the public on behalf of the aggrieved members, said: “No one can impose on us. PDP is solidly built on the constitution and article 50 Subsection 1 and 2 made it imperative for the party to conduct free, fair and credible primary to pick a candidate that can win election”.

Their Daring Game
Despite threatening fire and brimstone against any antagonist against Olusola, Adeyeye on January 24 took a bold step by declaring formally for the coveted seat not minding the governor’s hard stand. Before then, Fayose had taken several steps to browbeat the former minister to submission.

But rather than commence reconciliation moves to douse the raging tension, the governor took some steps that had exacerbated the crisis by instructing the Ministry of Environment to brand the Radio Station (Voice FMM 89.9) established by Adeyeye in Ado Ekiti as unfit to operate.

The government said the media outfit didn’t get the requisite Environmental Assessment Permit to erect its mast before commencing transmission last year October. The matter has been taken to court for possible enforcement of the closure of the station, which Fayose perceived as a propaganda tool of Adeyeye’s political organsation.

However sending a signal that he was strongly on the ground, Adeyeye started a rally at the NNPC along Iworoko road in Ado Ekiti and marched via the Government House to his campaign headquarters along Ado-Ikere Akure road. The rally caused serious traffic snarl in the capital city for several hours, which created panic within the government circle about the ex-minister’s popularity.

To prevent possible clash, police deployed Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) and stern looking operatives to curtail any miscreant who could hide under the crisis the ex-minister was having with Fayose to ignite trouble.

Addressing the crowd, Adeyeye boasted that he was prepared to lead a political movement in the Ekiti chapter of the PDP against the imposition agenda of Governor Fayose ahead of the July 14 governorship poll. He vowed that attempt by the governor to impose what he called his ‘surrogate’ as the preferred candidate was antithetical to democratic tenets and that such should not be allowed to stand.
The PDP chieftain said he was prepared to resist Fayose’s alleged efforts to browbeat and muzzle all the contending forces vying for the plum job to pave the way for Olusola.

Scores to Settle
Clearly, Fayose has a lot of scores to settle in the coming poll. The scores are multi-faceted and the PDP needed to be fortified enough by putting its house in order. Those the governor has been fighting are known to be strong political war horses in the history of the state.

Looking at it critically, the quartet of Adeyeye, Bejide, Olujimi and Owoseeni played pivotal roles to bring Fayose from political obscurity in 2014. The governor shouldn’t forget that these politicians were on the ground spending money to oil the party’s machine when he was in the political wilderness for about six years after he was removed from office on October 16, 2006.

The first score Fayose will settle to scale the hurdle of defeat would be the self-inflicted internal crisis he has unleashed on himself via the brazen imposition of Olusola. The aggrieved aspirants are highly resourceful and had promised to fight on even till the day of the election if proper things are not done. There is every possibility that these aggrieved contestants may stay within and work assiduously to kill the continuity agenda of the governor except something is done swiftly to stem the ripples that are generating waves in PDP.

Secondly, Fayemi is interested in the governorship even though he has not said a word on that and he is heavily backed by Otunba Adebayo, his leader. The two men are coming to prove to Fayose that he won the previous elections through fraudulent means and that time to receive his own dose is now. The two have not forgotten the electoral ignominy inflicted on them by Fayose, having defeated them even as incumbent governors, which has been found to be a rare feat in the political history of the country.

Another issue Fayose will deal with is this perception that he wanted to cunningly make himself the godfather of Ekiti politics. Ekiti is an elitist environment that believes in equality and the fact that Fayose doesn’t belong to this stratum has spurred some elites to be secretly working against such agenda. Thus, how Fayose would escape these three traps depends on how far he could humble himself before the aggrieved party men and the electorate to be able to subdue the coming federal power of the APC.

Silence and Suspicion
The screaming silence of the National Working Committee has not helped matters. This unexpected and dangerous silence has also given room for some of the aggrieved aspirants to suspect a foul-play. They believe that Secondus ought to have made a pronouncement that the primary won’t be compromised or skewed in favour of Fayose.
But Adeyeye while commenting on this said Secondus’ emergence as the party’s leader was a masterstroke and that the new chairman is “a strong believer in equality, justice and fair-play and we know that he can’t be manipulated by the governor to achieve his evil intention.”

Adeyeye allayed the fear that the outcome of the primary was already predetermined, saying the NWC has made itself very clear that the PDP could only return to power when the right things are done. He added that the feelers he had been getting from high places didn’t suggest any compromise or gave pointer to the fact that there was a gang up to rig the primary for Olusola.

He stated that the reworking of the party’s constitution had arrogated more powers to the ordinary party members to have a say in election, adding that nobody could arrogate the power of the constitution to himself just because he is privileged to get to the top through the efforts of the grassroots.

Nevertheless, the events of the coming weeks will determine whether the PDP will embark on fence-mending to consolidate its hold on Ekiti or toe another path and hit the rock in a devastating manner.