THE GOVERNOR EKITI NEEDS NEXT

In the times past, educationally speaking, the age of graduation from higher institutions does not really matter. What matters had always been the fact that the fellow went to school, and a people had produced yet another scholar (if he/she could be so called) who may not have been adequately equipped to turn the fortunes of the ones he "left behind" around. And after a while, the truth reveals itself as our "new scholar" could hardly be distinguished from the "locals" he came back to meet, except for the fact that he works in a government department, he has now built a house and he rides a car. But, the mind-boggling question is, what did he bring back from the school he attended and added to the village and the people he "left behind?" Were they really left behind?

Fast tracked to the twenty first century of today, the age of graduation now counts. Most people want to quickly go to school and come back notwithstanding what they came back with; the kind of English most of today's graduates write and speak will confuse one rather than convince that they have ever being to the four walls of a university; yet they are graduates.

Now, the past and the present have met and fused into one to hunt a people who expectedly, should be able to distinguish between the right and the wrong. More so, the unfortunate fact that the thought process, irrespective of whether they went to school or not and whatever they read, has not changed from what it ere was, which means no one was actually left behind. That is the metaphoric dilemma of Ekiti life, and Ekiti politics.

States, within Nigeria and elsewhere,  are evolving with new and expansive thinking of how to make things work irrespective of their gory past, and things are really working for them. For example, two states of Lagos and Kebbi formed an alliance and came out with "LAKE RICE." A cursory look at these two states will drive home the point that their product is a product of enhanced expansive thought process, not a boxed and parochial thinking of which Ekiti has always been bedevilled with since her inception, over twenty years ago.

Ekiti is "on the match again, looking" for Mr. Governor; the preponderance of which has made us seeing the regrettable and unfortunate gathering of political vultures,  perching on the unsuspecting vulnerabilities of the ones they "left behind", who ordinarily do not know that their thought processes are still same; obsolete, parochial and dastardly retrogressive. If not, why are most of them turning emergency philanthropists? It is now they knew that some children of the poor can't afford to pay for WAEC and JAMB (UTME). It is now they know some people need medical attention. It is now they know that 2kg or 5kg of rice and a stupid #500 note could save some lives. No progressive mind thinks in such a lost manner. This action alone shows that most of them are chameleonic charlatans; who, either coming for the first or returning, are nothing but despicable vampires, coming to suck the already bleeding state dry to send her to her early grave in the committee of states, both in Nigeria and outside.

It bleeds my heart whenever I heard my state governor, past and present,  complain of small federal allocation. Such words coming from an  executive of an agrarian state like Ekiti is shameful and regrettable. It is a pointer to the fact that such executives had nothing in their craniums prior their elections (or selection, as the case usually is).

Equally, to me as a person, it is a gross collective insult to say that Ekiti has meagre resources; therefore, the state must be plunged into stupid debts.. I am of the opinion that our seeming nothingness is as a result of the unsubstantiated inability of our chief executives, one, to think deeply and look inward to see and use what they have to bring to existence, what they want. And two, their inability to identify with their roots because they have ascended an exalted position which has beclouded their senses and reasonings. During the last regime, right there on the social media, Facebook to be precise, I did engage some unthinking members of my generation, who were frantically, but shamelessly defending the then chief executive's daring audacity to mortgage the futures of our unborn children by borrowing some twenty five billions of naira from wherever he did. They anchored their argument on both the small federal allocation and the state's meagre resources. I punctured their argument by posing only one question to them saying; when the late Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Western Region Premier, built Cocoa House, NTA Ibadan, first of its kind in Africa, university of Ibadan, and tarred roads, even up to our Ekiti, where was he getting allocations from? Was it not the farm produces from the old Ondo state, of which Ekiti was pivotal, that he used to indelibly write his name in our hearts and on the sand of time? The only difference between Awolowo and his counterparts from other regions then was that he saw and used what he had.

The truth, my fellow Ekiti indigenes, is that Ekiti needs a governor who could think out of the box. A governor who understands the concept and true meaning of leadership as a way of liberating the people by being their light in their darkness. Ekiti needs a servant-leader who is ready to spend himself in the socioeconomic liberation process which Ekiti must as a matter of necessity and urgency, embark on if it is to survive and come out of her present socioeconomic quagmire and doldrums.

Ekiti needs a governor who will not be encumbered and gagged by and with the unproductive hedonistic precedence of our political elites. Ekiti needs a governor who would be able to maintain a striking balance between politics and people's welfarism. That is a governor who would not play politics with the future of the people, vis-a-vis, the state. That is a governor who will not go a borrowing only to turn to Santa because of a political school of thought who believes only in spoonfeeding people, pretending to care for them, but stealthily and unsuspectingly impoverishing them.

Ekiti needs a governor who is both explosive and expansive in developmental reasoning. We simply do not need a copy cat because every society has their own peculiarities. Ekiti is rich in everything she needs to grow and develop. We sure need to be weary of giving the leadership of this dear state to yet another cocoon who is only coming to depend on the meagre federal allocation, thereby running another feeding bottle government that brings no good to the people.

Ekiti is rich in both human and natural resources. Our next governor must be the one who could synergize these to move the state forward. He/she must be somebody who is able to draw and or pull the vast and diverse Ekitis in diaspora to contribute to the building of the Ekiti of our dream. We should not commit the unforgivable blunder of the past where people came to hoodwink and won our sympathies and votes by telling us some cock and bull stories of what they never were in order to become what they wanted. For our dear state to become what we have always anticipated, we need somebody with proven track records of global performance and connections.

My dear fellow Ekitites, four years is too long a time to waste in the life of anyone. We therefore can't afford to get and do it wrong again! Our fathers will say "una esisi i joni leremeji, o." Literally, it is a proverbial disgrace to stumble over a stone twice. Let's think deep as we inch closer and closer to the day of choosing the next occupant of our common and collective heritage at Oke-Ayoba.

God bless Ekiti state!

Ekiti 2018: In Search of Fairness, Equity and Justice

The shameless conflagration of unbridled selfishness and egotist nature of man is in itself, a cause for concern for only the reasonable and responsible homo sapiens. It is not only humane and moralistic, but also Godly to think about others' wellbeing even as one strives to make life better for oneself. In contrast, to be subsumed in the dungeon of self and self alone is hellishly satanic. One of the major concept of a Yoruba omoluabi is the tendency, ability or readiness of the adjudged or acclaimed omoluabi to shed the self for the betterment of others and for the general good. None, and I repeat none, who falls short of this is ever robed with the omoluabi regalia in Yorubaland.

The drumbeats heralding the dance to the most exalted throne in Ekiti State have started sounding, and very many qualified sons (and daughters?) of our land are already putting on their shoes to showcase their dancing steps which they hoped would take them to the exalted Oke Ayoba.

The Nigerian Constitution, as amended, in its wisdom made room for Federal Character to allow equal (or near equal) representations at all levels at the uppermost level of governance in the nation. Equally in its wisdom, the Constitution also provides for the delimitation of each state in the federation into three; North, South and Central. This also is never a mistake, but an attempt by the writers to ensure that no part of the states is deprived of the coveted chance to become whatever in the political calculations of both their state and in the federation as a whole.

It is in the human nature to take docile gentility to mean stupidity. These first twenty years of Ekiti State's existence have seen five sons of both the Ekiti North and Ekiti Central take their turns on the most exalted seat in our land in the following order: Otunba 'Niyi Adebayo (Central), Mr. Ayo Fayose (Central), Engr. Segun Oni (North), Dr. Kayode Fayemi (North) and again, Mr. Ayo Fayose (Central). This has been the order in which turns have been taken by my brothers from the North and their counterparts from the Central. The BIG question then is: where is the South in this whole calculation? Or are the Ekiti Southerners slaves (in their own fatherland) who are not entitled to rule the state? Where is fairness, equity and justice in all these?

The time of bareface political hypocrisy is gone. Dirty, unthinking sycophantic genre of politics need make way for reasonable and responsible hegemonic democratic dispensations where the tenets of true democratic democracy is practiced. The world over, bearing the inherent intrigues of politics in mind, the tripod on which democracy stands are fairness, equity and justice. No society frowns at these and yet prospers. Rather, they continue to wallow in circles of very rich underdevelopment.

The forthcoming Ekiti State governorship election in the first quarter of 2018 should have it in mind to bring about the entrenchment of the tenets of true democracy into existence in our state. In my last write up on the subject of Ekiti 2018, I enumerated the hardship being faced by these Southerners in terms of the abundant scarcity of necessary amenities and infrastructures that could and do make life meaningful to humans in that area.

Even if we (North and Central) don't even mind them dying in their appalling infrastructural decays, but for the sake of the presently skewed political appointments and position holdings in the past, we all need to rally them. Presently, the only Federal Minister from Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, a former governor, is from the North. The only ambassadorial designate, a former Commissioner of Education in the State is from the Central. In APC, the Deputy National President of the Party (West), also a former governor, Engr. Segun Oni, is also from the North. The list goes on without a mention of anyone from the South. Where is fairness, equity and justice in all these? Where is our darling democracy in this, please?

Permit me to reiterate that I am from the North, but I am a firm believer in fairness, equity and justice, the tenets of democracy. That is why I am saying that the South be given a chance to rule the State, even if it for just one term of four years.

Let every self-acclaimed democrats, especially from the North and Central stand to be counted in this call for the entrenchment of true democratic practices in our land. We must be careful of once again propagating and nurturing the annihilating political skewness birthed in the nation in 1914. We MUST prevent it from festering in our state.

The unborn generations are watching us.

Let's give Ekiti South a chance to occupy Oke Ayoba!

WHO STOLE OUR CHANGE?

We unanimously agreed
To CHANGE our king
Because he and his chiefs seems
To have lost it
And we all appeared rudderless.
We cried for THE CHANGE
We prayed for THE CHANGE
We worked for THE CHANGE
We campaigned for THE CHANGE
Yes, we got a change.

We got  a change
But NOT THE CHANGE
For people changed in persons
But the land still cries and bleeds
In the hands of our change agents.

Who stole OUR CHANGE?
Or who changed OUR CHANGE?
For this is not the CHANGE
Which we kept vigils for
This is not THE CHANGE
Which we toiled for
This is not THE CHANGE
Which we thumbed.

Who stole our CHANGE?
THE CHANGE we worked for
Has a human face
And works for us as humans
THE CHANGE we cried for
Carries no cudgel
And pampers rather than beating.

Who stole our CHANGE?
Like an endangered bird
Our CHANGE has flown away
And we are left to savour
The stench of a change
With animal face
And cudgels in both hands.

Who stole OUR CHANGE?
Sincerely, who stole OUR CHANGE?

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!

A Sumptuous Lesson

"The Bloom of Health Is Not Itself Health" is an article I consider a very great one. I strongly believe that nations of the world, including the self-styled leader would Lear a great deal from this invaluable piece.

Every society that operates in a lopsided form in contrast to the spirit of this great thought would find itself where my country, Nigeria, is today; flat on her belly and the 'leaders', regrettably disillusioned.

I enjoyed this article so much and I strongly believe every upcoming leader would have a lesson to learn even as we all are eager for a seemingly elusive orderly world.

The independent philosophical blend of economic and religious principles and the perfect application of such to the creation of a perfect society is sine qua non. This is a great article and a-must-read for all leaders-to-be.

Read this beautiful article here - http://wp.me/p2cZzM-2Iv

Let's Celebrate!

Country people,
Today is our nation's day
The day we claimed and declared
To the whole world a new identity
An identity of hope
A daring identity of prosperity
A towering identity of a new giant.
And like a lion we roared our arrival
Amongst the nations sovereign.

So, let's celebrate this day
The day our freedom we declared
From the clutches of colonialists
But came straight into the dungeon
Of our own brothers
The neo-colonialists we make with our thumbs
Who took away the tiny single British broom
That beat our backs black
But replaced it with logs from our own forests.

Let's celebrate this freedom
That stopped the meagre earnings of the whites
And replaced them with nothing in our pockets
That our people now steal 'amala' pots
While many commit suicide
For responsibilities unmet.

Let's celebrate our freedom of injustices
That celebrates rogues and robbers
But executes pilfers
That makes robbers kings and chiefs
That lets rogues go free
But makes saints rot in gaol
That sits atop big cases
But expedites actions on 'smallies.'

Let's celebrate our freedom of hunger
That took away our white crumbs
But feed our bellies with black nothing
That our children go thin
In the face of our scarce prosperity
And our bodies emaciate
Because we are overfed.

Oh, let"s celebrate our freedom of illusions
That turned prosperity into a mirage
As the leaders quench the lights of hope
And left us to grope
And drawn along by the rope
In this dark alley of disillusionment.

Brothers and sisters,
Let's celebrate today
That maybe tomorrow
Our dreams of yesteryears
May yet materialize.

Let's celebrate today
For who knows in a short while
A saving root may sprout
Yet among the thorns
To rekindle the dying hopes
Yet to wipe away our tears of five decades and six
To refill our emaciated bodies
And yet reflate our thin children's bodies
To put books back in our schools
To put drugs back in our worn syringes
To put paints on our tarred roads
To put round pegs in round holes
To put rogues where they belong; behind bars
And make kings of our saints.

Let's celebrate
My people, let's celebrate!

SEEDS OF OUR LAND

Oh, but like a diligent farmer
We planned and executed a divine coup
Uprooting the seed-turned weeds on our land
Taking up all the sun, and
Draining all the waters and our soil's nutrients
To fatten but only themselves
While our children grow thin all year over
And the certainty of seeing our planned tomorrow
Grow dim in our eyes as the seconds tick

Then, we chopped all over the land for new seeds
And cohesively planted our seeds
Expecting them to be divinely watered
And become fat enough
To bring sumptuous meals to our tables
And quench the famish of many decades gone by.

“Your time of harvest has not come
And your expectations are just too high
Know you not that the seeds of yesterday
Which are but weeds in disguise
Have drained all the soil nutrients?
You will need to be patient with us.”
Those are the lyrics of the song
Of our new seeds,
Who like their predecessors
See no darkness and never go famished
For our bloody sweats
Supply all their needs
According to our riches in suffering.

Oh, fatherland!
For how long wilt thou be raped
By these genuine weeds
Which pose but as seeds?
Fatherland, answer me fatherland
For how long wilt thou be stripped
For thy neighbours to mock your nudity
Orchestrated by the artistry of thy own artists?
Fatherland, when wilt thy thirst be halted
Which is brought upon you
By your own seeds
Who have more than enough waters and nutrients?

Rise, fatherland rise!
The rhetoric of thy seeds are but ruses
Take up thy sharpened armed tongues
And thy prodding swords and write
Shout to the hinterlands with thy bloody paper
Tell of your inglorious rapes
But by your own seeds.

Tell, fatherland tell
Tell for your children
For whom you planted the seeds
Die of unquenchable hunger
While the seedlings of thy seeds
Grow fatter every second.

Tell, fatherland tell
Tell of thy amiable darkness
For which you exorbitantly pay
Albeit every ten and a score days
Tell of thy elusive surrounding water
Tell of thy snail speed on thy roads
Because the roads are menacingly tarred
With punctuating potholes
Tell of the denigrating neglects
Of all thy utilities
Have thou faithfully forgotten, fatherland
How many of thy children pass on  annually
But for curable ailment
For they couldn't afford the generous bills?

Tell, fatherland tell
Lest your fire be extinguished among nations!

THE SHAMELESSNESS OF YAM RACE POLITICIANS

A salient fact about our existence that often elude the thoughts of evil doers is the fact that nothing covered would remain so for long; everything would, at the right moments, come to limelight.

Events happened, albeit behind closed doors, and maybe, in the deep of the night. Great grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers and big uncles threw cautions into the air and  turned deaf ears to the lonely cries of their self-respect and both family and personal dignities, all because of their shameless unquenchable greed.

The can of worms opening and spilling in the public domain, and which has become a banana peel, in the last few weeks constitutes a source of concern to well-meaning Nigerians that such dastardly and mindless bazaar could be perpetrated in a land where over 70% of the youths are jobless, callous insurgency is ravaging, several thousands go about in hunger and other social problems stare people blankly in their faces day--in, day-out.

Myriad of questions are boggling my mind. Chief amongst these is whether there still are people in this country who could be called elder statesmen.

I was writing my promotion exams to the sophomore class of Junior Secondary School when Sambo Dasuki came to limelight alongside others as one of the powerful IBB boys. I was in my year one of the Senior Secondary School when Pa. Bode George was the military governor of the then Ondo State. Chief Olu Falae had been Secretary to the Federal government for a number of years and Chief Aneineh (Mr fix it) had been around for a couple of decades. The above scenario is very true also of other unscrupulous yam-eaters of the last ignoble regime which specialized in the infamous squandering of our collective heritage.

I strongly believe that politics is linked to developments. However, this politics of "yam race" is totally uncalled for. A situation where men that have variously been referred to or should be referred to as elder statesmen, and therefore, barn-guides,  are the ones stealing from the barns, is pathetic and really calls for a national concern.

Do Nigerian politicians have conscience at all? Or have their consciences been seared as with a hot knife? A person of conscience would want to do the right thing at all time. He/she would be mindful of the consequences of his/her actions not only on him/her as an individual, but on the people close to him/her or and even people faraway and the entire society.

The reckless and mindless money sharing spree of the principal actors in the erstwhile government  commonsensically justify the unanimous decision of Nigerians to not return them to power again.

I salute the courage of their children to have continued to call them fathers; they simply have forfeited that right by shamelessly dragging the family name in the mud.

WHEN THE OPPOSITION IS DEAD

One of the beauties of democracy is the separation of power amongst the three arms of government. Most often, this is mostly visible between the executive and the legislature. The usual power tussle makes for the necessary checks and balances to avoid misrule, often, on the part of the executive. These corrective exercises are mostly fueled and projected by the opposition party in the legislative arm of government. Ordinarily, the opposition functions as the custodian of the tenets of the rule of law and a fighter for the interests of the poor masses.

The opposition in the legislative arm of government is usually members of another major party different from the one heading and controlling the executive arm of government. Most often, they occupy the least seat in the legislature, but are usually more vocal and energetic in the discharge of their legislative duties. They serve in their capacity as opposition to checkmate most of the moves of the ruling party which they consider inimical to the interests of the masses. They seldom compromise.

Being the watch-dog that they are to the ruling party, part of their functions is to always sniff-out all government agencies, as part of their oversight functions, to know when certain obnoxious policies are about to be implemented and bark it out to the public domain. This function had on many occasions saved the masses from the cold-heartiness of the ruling party. As always is the case, the alarms they raise had saved the masses from socio-economic perils, many times.

With this kind of a massive work, mostly in the interests of the members of the public, what then happens “when the opposition is dead?” The unfortunate incident of having a dead opposition is put as when there is no opposition in the legislative arm. That is, no single member of any rival parties is elected into the legislative arm of government. Which means, just one party, in a multi-party democracy, controls both the executive and the legislative arms of government.

Ekiti people may not know now, the implications of the evil they’ve brought on themselves. When a governor had handpicked his legislature, most of whom were not qualified, experience and education-wise, to have a seat in the hallowed chamber, one may not be too wrong to hurriedly conclude that he, the governor, has the legislature in his pocket. A good number of possibilities may be expected.

The first gory implication of this kind of an unfortunate scenario is that the executive is going to have a field day. It is a situation in which there would not be any watch-dogs to checkmate the excesses of the executive because party sympathy and loyalty would undoubtedly override any other kind of interests on the part of the legislature. More so, in this monetized kind of democracy of ours, one may not be too wrong to say that the executive is going to have a jolly ride all-through.

In this kind of a situation, it could be corruption galore on both sides of the divides as they would, because of party loyalty, be ready to cover for themselves. Therefore, the meager resources that ought to be used for the people may end up in private pockets with no one making no fuse about it.

The people of our land should expect impunity and executive recklessness to reign supreme because as it is said, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have ignorantly created, not only a one-party, but a one-man state where he could do and undo. There is no gainsaying that when a man wields too much power like in this situation that we have created, anything could happen.

Let many who contributed to this with the hope of creating a harmonious government not so conclude in a hurry because we could have a turbulently peaceful government at the end of the day. With what is on ground now, any member of the executive or the legislature could be removed from their positions at the whims and caprices of Mr. Governor without any of the expected consequences. So, we could end up having a silent war engendering unstable stability.

On the final analysis, with what has been happening in the state since October 16^th, 2014, notable members of the opposition who want to reside in the state should know that their cases are no different from that of a mouse who want to attend a cat’s naming ceremony; there surely, would be more meat to serve at the party. Vocal opposition members therefore, must know how to keep quiet or be ready to pay heavy fines for “poke-nosing.”

When the opposition is dead, the people, whether they know it or not, would suffer silently without anyone to rescue them.

POLITICAL PROGRESSIVISM AMIDST ILLITERATE VOTERS: A POLITICAL HARA-KIRI? - Ekiti State, Nigeria, as a case study.

The world over, the government of a nation exists, to bring general good to the generality of the people. What may be argued, however, is whether this is true of every government. The veracity or not of that statement notwithstanding, it is expectedly known that every government exists for its citizens, whether good or bad. What remains debatable is the extent to which the government serves the people. This is undoubtedly, partly a function of the political awareness of the people.

Operationally, “political progressivism” here defines an ideological enclave that believes that the business of governance is the provision of basic amenities for the people, and they go to any extent to make these available to the people. “Illiterate voters” here are a group of politically ill-informed party loyalists, enthusiasts, supporters and sympathizers who cast their votes based on certain sentiments. To these, it does not matter who the party’s candidate is. By this definition therefore, the politically illiterate fellow may be well-read, maybe a Professor, but s/he lacks some requisite knowledge of the political indices of inter-governmental relationships and functionalities.

The Yorubas, of which Ekitis are a part, have one popular political slogan: “omo wa ni, e je o see.” This literally translates as “he’s our child, whether he qualifies or not, get him/her voted in.” Expectedly, such candidates got into positions and fumbled to the chagrin of all that voted them into power. After many such political errors, it seems that the other states in Yorubaland, the southwestern Nigeria, except Ekiti state, have learnt their lessons.

The progressive political experiment in Nigeria that began in Lagos state, the commercial nerve-center of the nation, in no time, engulfed other southwestern states, including Ekiti state. The rate of infrastructural development became overwhelming and so, like an angry harmattan inferno, the entire southwest was eaten up by the progressive flame.

Time ran past, and it was time for another election in Ekiti state. Lo and behold, the unexpected happened. Rubbishing the achievements of the erstwhile progressive governor, the candidate, considered by political watchers, as the least qualified was elected by the people, considered, to be the most well-read in the country, and therefore should embrace progressivism as a hobby. As if the gubernatorial election was a magic, the presidential and national assembly elections’ results were also overwhelmingly won by the party of this same candidate even when the people of the state knew that the whole country have decided to go the progressive way. The state’s House of Assembly election too was worst for the progressives in the state.

To this extent, the progressive group/party in the state is almost going into extinction. They are fast becoming a voiceless minority. Now, it’s as if progressivism is an endemic sin in the “Fountain of Knowledge.”

The baffling thing in this whole scenario is how the people of Ekiti would be happy to be in opposition in a federal system where the lives of the states depend on the Federal government. Other states in the southwestern Nigeria, namely, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun and Ondo, despite the perceived shortcomings of their progressive governors in governance, for example, Osun state civil servants are owed six months salary, still went ahead to re-vote their progressive governors and also gave all their votes to the progressives in both the national and state assembly elections.

Meanwhile, progressivism is nothing less than a plague, to be seriously avoided, and it is as good as dead in Ekiti state. What I discover now is that a good percentage of the voters don’t even want to hear anything about progressivism. It is as if the last progressive regime in Ekiti committed an unforgivable heinous crime, and thus, had exterminated and entombed the party with his exit because even when one is in the leftist party but has progressive ideas, such is quickly passed up.

What I seem to be missing, however, is the rationale behind my people’s political behaviour. I had expected that no one would vote a governorship aspirant, whom was the only one, among all, that had no manifesto. I had expected that the patronage would wane after he came in and declared that no physical project should be expected from him. What I seem to be missing is how a state that is predominantly a civil service state hope to survive without any federal backings, alleged huge debt profile – courtesy of the erstwhile progressive governor – and with no other resources aside the IGR.

With a leftist party in the state and a progressive at the center, and given all that transpired during the electioneering, what becomes of my state within the next four years is better imagined.

WE SING OF A CHANGE

 Since like a night in the grave

Our eyes rove

Even as our hands grope

And our bodies ache

So, we sing of a change.

Since we search and wait

And our eyes have travelled far

Far into their sockets

Like those of men of the other world

And we like watchmen

Wait eagerly but endlessly

For an elusive tomorrow

So, we sing of a change.

Since our treasured treasures

Have doth shamelessly transformed

Into private and personal estates

But of a few egocentric opportunists

So, we sing of a change.

Since the rain water

Falling on our land

Are quickly drained by siphons

Whose gullets are larger than the Euphrates’s

And since our land

Has become like the vampires

Drinking the blood of her children

So, we sing of a change.

Since we have now

But two countries in one

And the umbrella is too weak

To protect us from the vicious rain

Of Boko’s bullets which doth wet our bodies

And lay us peaceably on our land

Untimely though,

When supposed we are

To be up and running with vitality

From the milk and honey of our land

So, we sing of a change.

Yes, we sing of a change

Even when we know that

But for the king of our change kingdom

The other chiefs and kingmakers are saintly rogues

Scoundrels, dressed in untainted garbs

Still, we sing of a change.

Yes, we sing of a change

Even as vultures and eagles

Surround the only dove amongst them

Whom they push forward but as a sacrificial lamb

To be slaughtered on the altar

Of selfish crazy ambitions and corrupt brigandage

Still, we sing of a change.

Yes, we sing of a change

Even though we know

That there is no difference

Between six and half a dozen

For the new had been part of the old; they were alter egos

Still, we sing of a change.

The REAL CHANGE of which we sing

May not be this, and may be years away

For this change may be oblique

But the REAL CHANGE is like

A journey of a thousand miles

So, let’s start with this step

And continue . . .

. . . to sing of a change.

THIS SONG OF “CHANGE”

This song of change is sweet

And like a whirlwind

Has swept across the land

And roared like a lion in the jungle

Against the sacred cows of the land

Is so sweet to be heard; and most needed

In a land so belligerently desolate

Because of the greed of a few insatiable men

Who wouldn’t ever have enough

And like the grave, they crave for more

Even as their cups overflow

When many of their impoverished adherents

Have got none for themselves!

This song of change is sweet

But the sincerity of the symphony is doubtful

For the conductors and the drivers

Are but famously familiar faces

Men, who desecrated our land

Who drank our waters and drained

Our common treasure without care.

Past kings of clans and villages

Who desire to rule over an expanse

And become emperors over our kingdom

And over our common treasures.

This song of change is sweet

But, how our land, and indeed the choir

Stand to gain remains a puzzle

When the charioteers see

Their cry for change as an investment

That must come with an ROI

And therefore engage every foul means

To recoup their investment.

So, this song of change

Oh, this song change

And this song of change . . . .

BETWEEN THE BRAIN AND THE PAPER

Life is full of many ironies. The hilarious paradoxes of life brings into it, many dimensions that leave life nothing but a misery to ordinary, undiscerning minds. One of such is the old popular fabble of how little tortoise made the giant elephant fall into a deep pit and thereby killed it by simply playing a lofty trick on his victim by making him, the elephant, feel on-top-of-the-world. Such hilarious paradox has not seized to play out even in our polity now. Ours is a society that celebrates and honours certificated mediocrity at the expense of uncertificated excellence. Ours is a society that ululates and praises to high heavens, criminal and under-performing achievements even at the risk of relegating and denigrating obvious intelligensia sagacity. Our political atmosphere is charged. The volume of political electrons running in the veins of the major actors have escalated of late. Hence, the debate about the brain and the paper. The ruling party has presented Buhari, the opposition's presidential candidate, as a stack illiterate, or at best, a failed educated fellow who has been unable to produce, not even the least of his certificates as required by law(?) The hilarious part of it all is that the people have aptly compared Buhari and Jonathan, the sitting certificated President, in terms of performances, and the unanimous decision is that Buhari, the "illiterate" is better than our doctorate degree holder. The paradoxical element in this whole saga is that Buhari, the uncertificated BRAIN is cruising, while Jonathan, the celebrated PAPER is cringing politically as the campaigns proceed. If Buhari wins, that aspect of the constitution will have to be expunged to allow our uncerticated brains exhume this country from the dark doldrums into which the certificated papers have plunged it.

EKITI, THE SEARCH CONTINUES

The news of Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB)'s defection (he was never a member of APC) to the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday at the party's presidential rally in Ado Ekiti came to many of us, his ardent followers, as a rude shock. It is very typical of the proverbial dog going back to its vomit. The acrimony generated in his bid to occupy the highest political seat in Ekiti is better left untold. The number of people who lost their lives or parts of their bodies as well as properties are myriads. It is only unfortunate that the people we sometimes stand to take a bullet for are actually the ones behind the trigger. It is a pity that MOB could be so terribly driven by ambition so as to throw morals in air without caution. That is why it is better that when coming into politics, it is ALWAYS better to come alone without being attached to anyone's apron. The fate that befell MOB is because of his long-standing relationship with Tinubu; but to think that he would swallow all he said before June 21, 2014, beats me. All political bigots and thugs should learn that the only way out is to be men and women of themselves, not depending on all these self-proclaimed leaders. I wish MOB all the best as he goes back to where he hitherto belong. However, he should know that he has betrayed the trust reposed in him by the ordinary people of Ekiti who saw him as their long-awaited light into political freedom and unnecessary external influence in their political affairs. We had thought it was time for SELF-DETERMINISM in Ekiti; but that is now a very unattainable distant mirage. While I don't regret ever working for him, even using my personal resources, my concern is how many Ekiti people will ever take him serious again for he has proved unworthy. Ekiti, the long search for a messiah continues!

2015 ELECTIONS: NIGERIANS BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA

Democratic governance has as one of its beauties, the conferment of the right to choose who governs, on the people, and most often, even when the elections are rigged, they are skewed in the direction of the majority of the people. That position may be contestable, anyway.

December 2014 is running as fast as its legs could carry it to open the door for Year 2015, the year I called, year of great decision for Nigerians. The question as to whether we will get it right as a people hangs in the balance because even the “getting-it-right” is right now, a relatively personal issue. This is because the choice as to which is better between the two major contending parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is, to every discerning mind, not better than a gamble.

Interestingly, I believe by a stroke of fate to prove my point above that the decision to choose any of PDP and APC in the coming general elections remains a gamble, the debate for local government financial and political autonomy resurfaced barely four months to the general elections. After the two chambers of the National Assembly had jointly passed the bill, it was transferred to the states for the constitutionally required 2/3 endorsement from the state Houses of Assembly.

Regrettably however, 23 states went against, killed and buried the bill. They are: Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Rivers, Cross-River, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu and Imo states. Their flimsy reasons to stifle life out of the people they are eating (not serving) are anchored on the following: irregularities in the bill, lack of sustainability of the proposed autonomy and immaturity of the local governments to be left unchecked by the state legislature.

Interestingly, all the states mentioned above who voted against the people are divided between the two leading contending parties, PDP & APC. Meanwhile, a state like Anambra, controlled by a small party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, voted in favour of the bill.

For the avoidance of doubt, without local government autonomy, the rampaging poverty, infrastructural decay, rural-urban migration, unemployment and other societal problems would continue unabated. That is the matter in this case. These states’ governors and their Houses of Assembly members know these facts, but felt unconcerned since their own nests are being well-feathered from our collective till.

My concern is how I will go out in February 2015 to either re-vote a party, to whom my plight is nothing, or newly vote into power, a party, to whom my breakthrough must, at best, remain a mirage. Let me worthily mention it that all these state Houses of Assembly voted in favour of financial autonomy for the Houses of Assembly; meaning that they have more money for themselves, and they have it as at when due, directly from source without any undue interference from the governors. However, that part that would further and better acquaint the people with the dividends of democracy was not only vehemently, but also unanimously opposed.

Nigerians, behold your two messiahs. Choose for yourselves, whichever you preferred: the devil or the deep sea?

EKITI, OSUN ELECTIONS: A POST MORTEM

Like every election, these two elections did not fail to come with their own jitters of what would likely happen, in terms of violence and who would or would not win. The rate of violence that heralded the electioneering campaigns was a major headache to all well-meaning citizens. Accusations and counter-accusations flew freely. Negative propaganda was rife with different rumours emanating from different camps against their most perceived electoral enemies. Personality and character assassinations became the other of the day with many hitherto angels and heroes becoming the devil and the villains just because of their political leanings, ideologies and colourations.

The razzmatazz of the Principal actors and their supporters was ebulliently enjoyed while it lasted. A few millionaires were made silently, especially in the entertainment world and amongst top politicians who knew their ways. Some artisans who were well connected also got their fingers oily in the event of things. Events unfolded, but are now folded back. The frenzy and flurry of the die-hard supporters that made them unnecessarily step on toes are now gone, and as it is said in some quarters, “their eyes don clear.”

In the ensuing event of things, many friends became enemies and vice versa, just because of their conflicting personal political interests. Many broken bridges were mended while many very healthy bridges cracked, and some, broken beyond repairs.  The axiom that “there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics” became frequentative as major players gullibly and frenziedly embraced the new political course, introduced right from the national assembly, jumpology, which describes the sudden and unusual defections as well as secret alliances amongst principal political actors. The question of whether these alliances were made in good faith with the downtrodden millions at heart is furiously begging for answers. How long the said alliances would stand is yet another matter altogether as some of the Jumping Masters have found that their known devils were far better than their new-found angels. Where all these leave their hopeless sheep is best known to God; not the masters, not the following sheep.

Before these two elections which were frantically fought for by the two principal parties, the PDP and APC, there was no gainsaying that most people, especially the opposition at the center were nervous as to what the electoral umpire, INEC, was up to. They accused the body of bias even before the exercises, thus predicting the gender of the chicken even before the egg was hatched. This undoubtedly heated up the polity as many types of rubbish were written on social media and the print media. When the Ekiti election came and it fell to the lot of the party at the center, Nigerians were treated to the best of what I know is the exclusive best asset of the APC, unrivalled intelligence, as a new English was added to our dictionary, photochromic and photochromism. While many battled within themselves to crack the meaning of this new political vocabulary, many of us with curious minds fled to our dictionaries. When we found it not, we took to Wikipedia; many thanks to Wikipedia that delivered us from the brain-cracking grammar of APC. Now, we know what that means!

Interestingly and as providence would have it, the election in Osun turned out to favour the opposition, and the margin between the parties was cognate with what we had in Ekiti. Many have now started asking the question as to whether the electoral umpire accused of having photochromically rigged the Ekiti election for the ruling party at the center has done same for the opposition party in Osun. To me, I strongly believe that this shows the end of human cogitations in the dynamics of God’s workings.

To be continued . . . .

THESE ABSURDITIES CALLED PERFORMANCE -2

continued from last week . . . 

AGRICULTURE

Ekiti State remains one of the most blessed lands in the whole universe. This assertion is because apart from other Western Nigerian states, Ekiti boasts of green vegetation all through the year. As well, we benefit from the two rainy seasons per year being enjoyed by some other parts of the country.

With this premise, Ekiti can boast of her agricultural prowess to conveniently feed the entire nation. No other state, save other Western states, qualifies to be given the acronym, “Food Basket of the Nation” except Ekiti state. Unfortunately, this natural endowment has been painfully neglected by this administration. I hope Mr. Governor and his boys will be able to tell the whole world, with practical visual figures, the number of tons of rice, maize and other grains as well as other food crops, harvested in the last one or two years which are being presently stored for the people of Ekiti state to feed from in year 2014.

It must be noted that Governors who came in after Fayemi have harvested food for their people to feed on or to replant for the benefit of their people. A good example of that is the Ogun state governor, who harvested 20 hectares of rice in December, 2013. In September, 2013, when Ekiti and some other like lazy states were finding it difficult to pay salaries, Uduaghan, the Delta state governor, boasted on AIT that they were able to surmount that obstacle via their investment in agriculture. Even the dry lands of the North, for example, Gombe, had used their initiatives to co-opt the Bank of Agric to benefit their people in agriculture.

In Ekiti, what we have is a promise that, come 2015, Ekiti will feed the West. The question therefore is when is this administration statutorily expected to lapse? Why playing on people’s intelligence by promising them 2015 when you know that the mandate you were given ends in 2014? Does that not amount to double-dealing and a dubious attempt to perpetrate oneself in office beyond the stipulated time?

My Governor and his boys will like to tell us about YCAD! Let them tell us the amount invested into YCAD for we read in “THE PUNCH” that some hundreds of thousands of US dollars have been expended on agriculture in Ekiti state. What has the state benefited from the inglorious agricultural programme? How many youths are presently involved, and what is their level of involvement? How many farms does the state have presently? How many tons of maize, rice and other grains and livestock have been produced and harvested for the people’s consumption in the last three years of this administration?

Timely answers to these questions will in no small measure help Ekiti people, home and abroad, in taking their decisions in the forthcoming election in choosing who steers the ship of the state for another four years starting from October 16^th, 2014.

SOCIAL SECURITIES

I consider it rather intellectually insulting, the practice of some of our politicians, who import programmes to Nigeria from Europe, America and other parts of the world, without a corresponding intellectual input from the so-called importers.

The Dr. Fayemi-led administration has prided itself over the last three years as the first to introduce social security funds into governance in Nigeria. Whether this argument is true is not the issue now; the issues are: how are the social securities carried out? Can the state’s economy support it? Is it a priority as far as the state is concerned? Are the beneficiaries getting the tokens as at when due? Couldn’t the meager resources being wantonly wasted on these be put into a rather productive use from which a larger number of these hapless people could benefit now, and for a longer period of time?

A paltry sum of five thousand naira (#5,000) is being haphazardly given to the aged. As at press time, the poor old people being hoodwinked by this shylock generousity are still being owned three months arrears which are likely to become a continued carry-over till the end of this administration’s life span. Our university graduates are being reduced to the level of boarding-house students who are being given the one-time popular pocket-money for sustenance. An insulting ten thousand naira (#10,000) a month is being dashed-out to our enterprising egg-heads after their many years’ training in higher schools of learning where they had been taught how to contribute immensely to the growth and development of our dear state in every ramification.

I make bold to say that these graduates are being paid for doing nothing when they could have been productively engaged. Little wonder then that many of them could not and can not account for what they used and are using the money they are being given for. The most appalling part of this frittering of our meager resources is that by October 16^th, 2014, this ignoble government would have squandered three billion, nine hundred and fifty million naira (#3,950,000,000) on this celebrated inglorious absurdity.

Painfully, the above amount could possibly have established at least two of the Aregbesola’s kind of garment industry, and nothing less than three thousand (3,000) people could have been gainfully employed. Alternatively, this father-Christmas administration could have used this wasted sum to revive the old Textile Industry discussed above, which painfully, has been converted to lock-up shops.

The beauty of these social securities is that Fayemi and his men have successfully turned Ekiti indigenes into beggars whilst encouraging and financing laziness amongst the youth populace.

EDUCATION

Shortly after inception, our dear governor and his incongruous team, in their wisdom, decided to distribute laptops to secondary school students and their teachers. In this project, the government distributed a total of forty-eight thousand (48,000) laptops at a cost not less than one hundred thousand (#100,000) naira per system. Simple primary school arithmetic brought the amount gratuitously blown away to four billion, eight hundred million naira (#4.8billion).

The project designed to pull the wool over the people’s eyes showed its thorough farcical nature as the computer illiterate students started using the systems for immoral purposes such as watching adult movies. Some of the students became experts in computer games while some others began to use the systems to learn and or perfect their internet fraud (yahoo-yahoo) skills. Beside these groups, some other sharp guys turned emergency DJs at social gatherings. The result of all these was that these students’ studies began to suffer. It took the intervention of some well-meaning parents to call the attention of Mr. Governor and his think-tank to these, after which they began to withdraw the laptops from the students. The students who refused to return theirs or whose had got spoilt were not and have not been given their WAEC and NECO results by their respective schools, even as this page is being typed.

It gladdens my heart to know that my governor is wide-travelled. I wouldn’t know whether the painting of school buildings is what is called educational development in all the overseas countries where he had travelled to. A school building, either newly built or just renovated and or painted, but without the necessary learning aids and facilities is like a brand new car that has no accelerator. We heard that there was an improvement in the students’ result last year, but we all know what happened in all the examination centers. I told people that the “excellent” result is not to be celebrated because there is no corresponding improvement on the students’ spoken English and performances in other areas. A visit to any Ekiti oriented group on facebook will testify to my words.

Likewise, we were told that we are running free education, but there is no single school in Ekiti state where fees are not being collected by using one logic or the other. The kind of free education we grew up to know is the kind where everything, I mean, everything, was free; not even PTA fee was paid. However, there is a modernization of free education today in Ekiti state; a senior friend, whose son attends one of the government-owned Government Colleges (names withheld), paid a total of Sixteen thousand naira (#16,000) at the beginning of this present session. What a way to give education free!

My dissident brothers may argue the free textbooks given to students, but I shall be quick to say that that is not a departure from what had been since the days of Awolowo and Ajasin (both of blessed memories) in the old Ondo State. What we clamour for in Ekiti state is a true change that will not only be, but engender a clear and total departure from the moribund pasts we have always had; not an intrusive repeat of them.

WORKERS’ WELFARE

I want to commend Mr. Governor and his team on this all-important area of Ekiti people’s lives, not because they have done anything commendable, but because they have not prided themselves as having done well in this area.

Fayemi’s administration has reduced the ever ebullient Nigerian workers, Ekiti state chapter, to a kind of servitude.  The local government workers are the hardest hit. It is only in this administration that I have come to see and know that if a worker came late (not absent for the whole day) to work on a single day, such worker will loose a whole month’s salary. I challenged some of Mr. Governor’s boys sometimes ago, on facebook, to tell me where such an erratically obnoxious provision is written in the Nigerian Labour Law. Unfortunately, none was able to say anything.

The e-payment system introduced by this government did not help situation either. This is a system that is programmed in such a way that if the name of a worker is wittingly or unwittingly omitted for one month, such a worker will definitely loose his/her salary for three months before such an error would be corrected; ditto for a worker who is either underpaid or overpaid.

The untold maltreatment meted out to the workers, especially at the local government level, by Mr. Governor’s Monitoring Teams popularly known as “Boko Haram”, is better not imagined. History has it that a pregnant woman who took to her heels to be able to get seen by these “Boko Harams” in order to save her salary fell on the way, and before she could be rushed to a nearby hospital, she gave up the ghost.

Many workers who have been due for promotion since 2010 when Fayemi came to power have never been promoted. Until now that he wants their votes for a second-term, Fayemi never thought it wise to work on the workers’ promotion. By so doing, the workers’ rights are being turned, not only to a privilege, but bait for them to vote Mr. Governor in for a second-term. The foolery of this administration shows more now in that virtually all the workers in the state are jostling for promotion now, all at the same time. What a government to behold!

The plight of Pensioners in the state is even worst! Presently, there are Pensioners in the state who still earn an insulting One thousand, five hundred naira (#1,500) as pension. When Mr. Governor was contacted on the gory welfare of the Pensioners and the fact that the Federal Government has reviewed Pensioners’ pays, the Governor replied that he was not aware of such developments. These developments and some others were the reasons the Pensioners in Ekiti state were the only set of Pensioners, the world over, who did not celebrate Pensioners’ Day on the 23^rd of November, 2013.

THESE ABSURDITIES CALLED PERFORMANCE - 1

It has been said that “when real initiatives are not present, politicians result to absurdities.” It is a common practice that when an individual has been long in an ailment, any drug brought to such is quickly taken with the highest hope of getting relieves from such. It is also not uncommon that when an individual has been hard hit by poverty, the least monetary note or even coin given comes as a saviour even if such can not provide one decent meal. Likewise, when a people had witnessed years of deprivation and impoverishments, their rights are quickly turned to privileges by any unthinking moron-turned hero.

By the way, I think the problem with governance really is the fact that governance is being reduced to the level of politics. The people in government need to know that governance is service. Governance is not gerrymandering. Politics should stop as soon as elections are won, and the elected need to busy themselves with services to the electorate (within and outside their parties). Invariably, it is the service or lack of it that will determine whether the people in power deserved to continue in power or whether they should be changed.

The above scenarios are not untrue of the past thirty-nine months of Dr. John Kayode Fayemi’s administration in Ekiti State. They have been months of intelligentsia absurdities by which the Doctor of war and his team have repeatedly insulted the intelligence of the people of the “Fountain of Wisdom.” Painfully, these affronts have gone unchallenged by the people of the state. Let us look at each of these absurdities, one after the other, that ignorant people celebrate as achievements, most of which were designed to hoodwink the populace.

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EMPLOYMENT

The outgoing administration boasts of having created thirty-eight thousand employment opportunities since its inception. The question is: what sort of employments? How gainful, reliable and dependable are the said employments? It is unfortunate that in a state that boasts of the best brains among the most populous African nation, Nigeria, an executive will make people redundant, whilst paying them, and call that employment.

What we have seen so far is duplicity of the Federal government establishments such the Traffic wardens (popularly known in Ekiti state as “Dagrin”), the Nigerian Police Force, and so on. Graduates who are engaged by the state government to control traffics and those enlisted into their “Peace Corps”, an unrecognized replica of the Nigerian Police, are being paid #10,000 a month. It must be on record that none of the said employments have any securities because (1) they have not been gazette by the state government and (2) none of the "employed" has been given any letter of appointment; hence, any successive government can easily do away with them. 

These were perfectly done while the state government converted the age-long Textile Industry into lock-up shops, most of which are not being presently used by anybody. Conversely, if the thinking of the government had been right, and the Textile Industry revived, it could have employed close to three thousand graduates if not more. Governor Aregbesola of the state of Osun never inherited any Textile Industry, but today, Osun has a functional garment factory that has absorbed about three thousand of their unemployed youths. Let me add that the Osun garment factory was coincidentally commissioned on the day Dr. Fayemi of Ekiti state distributed vehicles worth over One Billion naira (#1Bn) to Obas (traditional rulers) in Ekiti state while the youth remained unemployed or at best, frivolously employed.

Let it be known that this is the first government in Ekiti state that collected one thousand naira (#1,000) from her unemployed youths in order to employ them into the Civil service. It must be noted that out of almost eight thousand (8,000) eligible applicants, only seven hundred and fifty (750) were called for oral interview. As at the time this piece is being written, none has been given the said employment.

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ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Much of the noise of this administration has been about roads. It needs to be clarified that these roads are just being re-surfaced by this administration. It must be said that Fayemi’s administration, since inception, has not constructed any road in Ekiti State (save a 1.2 km road from Old garage through Ojumose to Atikankan in Ado Ekiti). All the roads being deceitfully exhibited on television stations by Fayemi and his cronies are roads constructed by the duo of Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni’s administrations respectively. In fact, the credit of opening up Ekiti state in terms of road projects must go to Ayo Fayose. It is not wrong to build on past administration’s achievements because government is continuous. However, it becomes an absurd when other people’s achievements are over-flogged as one’s. All the dual carriages within Ado Ekiti, the state capital were constructed by the Ayo Fayose’s administration.

Part of the absurdities is the Oye – Otun road - as a case study. No part of the road which is being celebrated by Mr. Governor and his boys has a sustainable drainage system save the few meters’ drainage within Iye; even, Isan, the governor’s town has no drainage, and sound is taking over parts of the road; thereby causing accidents. While I will not mention that the narrow bridge over River Ero (just after Ikun) was left unattended to, some parts of this road are already sinking (just three years on), and the part left undone at the boundary of Oye and Ilejemeje local governments has become the den of armed robbers. Apart from this boundary between Oye and Ilejemeje local governments, a very good part of the road remain as they were before Fayemi’s administration. I implore the public to travel through the road for more instructions.

Still on road construction, questions need to be asked on how much was expended on how many kilometers of road. A situation whereby, for example, a 1.2 kilometer road costs over a billion naira is highly questionable. It must be borne in mind that what we are looking at is road resurfacing, not construction.

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To be continued tomorrow. . . 

DO YOU KNOW MICHAEL OPEYEMI BAMIDELE (MOB)? - 2

MOB

How did the once upon a time a beautiful bride of Ekiti politics, Honourable Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, MOB, suddenly become a “traitor” and a bad person? How did a true “omo-oko” suddenly become a typical “omo-ale”? Is it because he asked for what rightfully belongs to us all? I have read many beautifully crafted lies about MOB; many of which I found so hard to swallow. Like I said before, it is a personal tragedy to attempt to define somebody when one can not even identify oneself, albeit properly.

Do you know MOB? I’m afraid many Ekiti people will answer this question in the affirmative, but if asked to exemplify their claims, they would falter, no doubt. Let me say, like I said in the part one of this piece that the name, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, and the face can be duplicated and carried by many people, thereby, giving a false impression of who MOB really is. For this reason therefore, I have chosen to know the man, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, through his deeds (which can not be replicated, but built upon) during his sojourn in Lagos State administration.

It is only a snake that passes over a rock and leaves no traces. MOB went outside this state to the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria and proved himself. My dearest brothers and sisters of Ekiti descent, I didn’t know MOB until I went to watch an FA Cup final between Heartland FC and Eyimba FC at the long-abandoned and derelict Teslim Balogun Stadium located at Surulere, Lagos. The magical turn-around of the abandoned edifice, the installation of the state-of-the-art sporting equipments and facilities and the beautification of the entire stadium are second-to-none. The derelict-turned edifice is what Lagos state government will guide jealously for generations to come. For this, MOB received a number of accolades. The most outstanding of these accolades and awards was the award given him by the family of Teslim “Thunder” Balogun in May 2007 as an “appreciation award for your ceaseless efforts in the completion of Teslim Balogun Stadium.”

                                                                        

Besides, MOB’s contributions to sports development in Lagos state by way of resuscitating grassroots sports, innovation and stimulation of private sector participation in sports sponsorship, establishments of coaching clinics for coaches and secondary schools’ games’ masters and the rejuvenation of Lagos state sports festival are just a few of MOB’s monumental achievements which will be the benchmark for people that would occupy the office of the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development in the future in Lagos state.

 I do not have the telephone number of any of the present Ekiti state executive council members, not even the commissioner from my noble town, but I have all of those of Lagos state. That is an innovation of MOB to re-define governance and give it a human face. With this innovation, Lagosians are able to reach their representatives, even the state governor; at any time they so choose, thus making the government really closer to the people.

It was during MOB’s era that Lagos State Television went on DSTV and the Radio Lagos launched on cyberspace, heralding the possibility of a worldwide audience.  Unlike our own EKTV whose signal is not received in most part of Ekiti state, these innovation ensures that both Radio Lagos and the age-long LTV are received in all parts of Lagos state as well as outside the state and even outside the shores of Nigeria. This kind of intellectual innovation, apart from ensuring that vital information reaches the people and contribute to in no small measure to the development of the entertainment industry which provided employment for thousands of youth, it also has its own way of immensely impacting positively on the social and economic well-being of the state; thus contributing to the financial fortunes of both the state and her inhabitants.

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Before the coming of Opeyemi Bamidele, Lagosians just go out in the morning not knowing where there was heavy traffic or not. It was MOB who established a dedicated Lagos Traffic Radio which gives the traffic report and situation all over Lagos state, every minute. With that innovation, the days of unnecessarily running into heavy traffic, either in the morning or evening has become a thing of the past except if one chooses to.

In Lagos state today, one does not need to search for ages before one could get information of whatever kind about the state. This has been facilitated by the establishment of Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB). LASRAB house is in Magodo, Lagos state. The essence of this kind of an innovation is seen in the gargantuan service it portends to render to researchers from any part of the world that may require one information or the other about the state. Likewise, this kind of a work ensures that the state’s history can not be lost. For this project, my people, MOB was recognized via an award called LASRAB AWARD in 2011 “in recognition of his contributions to the development of records and archives in Lagos state.”

                                                                           

                                                           LASRAB HOUSE, Magodo, Lagos                                                           

All these and many more that ‘am not able to mention here for space and time are what MOB did even as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, during which he also functioned as the Chief Image-maker of the state.

There are too many things to say about this enigma. In fact, twenty episodes of this kind of a write-up will never be enough to chronicle his past numerous achievements. Ekiti needs a thinking, God-fearing workaholic, industrious and sincere person to captain the ship of this state.

                                                           
                             Are you a Politician?  Have you ever 

                             contested an election? The purpose of
                             contesting an election is winning. Learn
                             how to win elections here: 
                             http://www.localvictory.com/learn-how-to-
                             win-any-election.html?hop=0