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.