Ekiti 2018: Let's Turn Southwards

Selfishness, not magnanimity, is an endemically inalienable nature of man; it lives in our genes and runs in our veins.  Hence, the veracity of the theory of "Competition" and the consequential, but denigrating,  "Survival of the Fittest."

Since the advent of the Ekiti South For Governor (ESFG) mantra as regards the impending gubernatorial election in our dear state, come 2018, I have listened to and read many side comments, especially from my folks in the Northern part of the state as well as our siblings from the Central. I must say that these comments have not only been dissenting, but equally discordant. Though, not presently in Ekiti physically, I have equally kept my ears to the ground on the same subject matter within the state. While some of the ensuing comments and observations have been favourable to our Southern brothers, most have seen their agitation as being ill-timed, illegitimate and very divisive for a state as homogeneous as Ekiti, touted as the most homogeneous of all the states in the country.

With the kind of a selfish orientation of our politics and the practitioners, I humbly suggest that my Southern brothers be hell bent in taking the highest seat in the state, come 2018. My position is hinged on the fact that I was "privileged" to live in the Ekiti South with my family, for one year, between 2014 -2015. The deplorable and disagreeable conditions of living there was the reason my wife, a Lagos-born woman, decided that come what may, she just had to relocate back to Lagos where we were before I strayed into the murky waters of Nigerian politics back in 2013. And back we have been, since early 2015.

I am from Ilejemeje Local Government, one of the five local  governments that make up the popular and revered Ekiti North. But, I am not a coward; hence my position that Ekiti must turn Southwards, come 2018.

During my one year sojourn in the South, life shifted very near to  hell. We felt the heat of the fire therein because most of the social amenities, aside the good road networks, were painfully, either nonexistent, or epileptic. How appealing does it sound that in a state called "the most homogeneous" that had existed for over twenty years, there would still be existing local governments without access to portable water? For good one year, we lived on well water. Our only respite came when the rains started, but even the rain was not as constant. Most of the time, we had to keep vigil to ensure that the other neighbours didn't get to the well before us; if they did, we are done for for that day with regards to water availability for domestic consumption. Most times when I came down there (I was shuttling between the South and the North, my birthplace), my wife would cry that to have brought her and her children to that part of the world, I only decided to make her suffer for an unknown sin. The mechanical boreholes sank scattered scantly all over the place; most of them have broken down, and therefore, nonfunctional, and there was nobody to bell the cats of their repairs.  So, most times, we traveled like two kilometres to get drinkable water. That, in the 21st century!

How well does it sound that people in that area don't have, not enjoy, for months running into four, five or even six, a good supply of electricity? I can still vividly remember the case of PHCN versus the youths of Emure - Ekiti that nearly set the King against the entire town in 2014. The PHCN goons were bringing bills for light consumption that never was, and the youths revolted. That was the genesis of that crisis because the PHCN used their governmental powers to arrest some of the youths who rose against the prevailing annihilating injustice. Most times, we took our rechargeable lamps and phones to the only First Bank in the town to charge for us to have lights to sleep at night and to keep communicating with the rest of the world. Televisions became ordinary show-boxes at homes. God bless your soul that your television had a crack, you have unwittingly built an unsolicited duplex for the audacious number of unwelcome visitors looking for where to hide; the rats.

Meanwhile, in no matter how little it may be, the people in both the North and the Central of the state are enjoying these two most significant aspects of human existence, water and light. I know very well that water runs in my house at Iye Ekiti. I open the tap anytime and water flowed to my satisfaction. Thanks to the Ero Dam that is close-by. I have lights, with good voltage outputs, four to five days a week, and sometimes, a whole week, all through the year unlike the South where they don't see light for months, and even when they have it for two to three hours, the voltage output is always embarrassingly low. I never needed rechargeable lamps to light up my room at night while in the north, unlike when I visited my family in the South.

The point I am making here is that the subsequent governments of my brothers from both the Northern and Central parts of my state have been very unfair to our Southern siblings. The twenty years of our coexistence as a people in "the most homogeneous state in Nigeria", aside the roads, have been that of neglect and lip service. The South have remained, I will not say underdeveloped because the entire state is underdeveloped, but rather, uncared for. Therefore, given the selfish nature of the Nigerian brand of politics, if it requires a Southerner or the Southerners to care for the South, let them get there and provide the basic social  amenities for their own people, too.

I appeal to my northern and central folks not to see the agitation of our Southern brothers as illegitimate. The South have supported all kinds of elements, the goods, the bads and the uglies, that we have foisted on them in the last twenty years. We have seen how fair they all faired in the provision of basic social amenities. I believe it would be kind of us to allow the South too to come and dent their yet-to-spoil reputation in the governance and maintenance of our common heritage; Ekiti.

For Ekiti 2018, I am Southbound!