Gov. Fayose

By Segun Dipe

Ekiti, in recent times, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and this is injuring its pride greatly. No thanks to the state governor, Ayodele Fayose, who has taken up the gauntlet against the federal government, fighting perceived battles and decking himself up in the toga of opposition leader against the president and the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress.
For no other aparent reason than not being in the same party with the president, every policy emanating from Abuja, the seat of federal government is bad for Ekiti and every action of those appointed into the federal government positions from the state is evil.

Governor Fayose continued playing the blame game last week when the federal government rolled out the school feeding and the 500,000 teachers employment programmes. First, he refused to attend the launching of the twin programmes held in Abuja on Thursday 9 June 2016. Neither did he send a representative nor did he send an apology. He simply boycotted the programme to buoy his personal ego. But when he sensed that the action was an unpopular one and his red-herring could not hold any water to the people of the state who have been agonising under the pangs of hunger gnawing hard at them and praying to be liberated, Fayose followed up his miscalculated steps with the usual blame game. According to him, he got the invitation to attend very late and there were subterrenean moves by some people to isolate Ekiti from benefitting from the federal largesse. Pheeew!

We may attempt to play the devil’s advocate here by assuming that Fayose actually got the invitation very late, much later than when other state governors got theirs, and that someone who wanted him to fail and the state to suffer actually caused it to happen. But was that Fayose’s first time of boycotting federal government’s meeting/programmes? Is the reason the same for Fayose’s perpetual boycott of the National Economic Council’s meeting? Was someone perpetually withholding the invitation from getting to the governor on time?

Governor Fayose continued playing the blame game last week when the federal government rolled out the school feeding and the 500,000 teachers employment programmes. First, he refused to attend the launching of the twin programmes held in Abuja on Thursday 9 June 2016. Neither did he send a representative nor did he send an apology. He simply boycotted the programme to buoy his personal ego

Was the federal government perpetually isolating Ekiti and denying the state from benefitting from the largesse from the federal government? Has Ekiti ever been denied of any benefit since the APC government took control at the centre? For example, did Ekiti get its own share of the intervention fund or not? Was the state reimbursed for the repairs of federal roads? Has its monthly allocation been delayed or denied for once? Has its appointment quota eluded the state because Fayose is the governor? So, who is fooling who?

It is about time that the people of the state woke up from their stupored slumber and take their fortune in their hands. It is about time people told Fayose to stop playing politics with the fortune of his people. Poverty and hunger know no party borderline. What Ekiti is displaying at the moment is called “agidi talika.” Those who had earlier been hoodwinked by Fayose to think he meant well for them as “ore mekunnu” should start shining their eyes to see clearly that they are being led towards starvation by their rascal governor.
Truth be told and heard at this point, the Number One enemy of Ekiti is Governor Ayodele Fayose himself.

Nobody is powerful enough to block the chief executive of a state from relating with the federal government. The federal government meetings Fayose has been boycotting, while other PDP governors are attending, are the only congregation of governors and federal government where great initiatives are coming out from. Great partnerships are also being formed between states and with the federal government. Many hitherto poor and vulnerable states have started reaping the benefits and having their fortunes being turned around.

For instance, within a year, Kebbi State has benefitted N18 billion from the rice intevention fund. Just in one season, farmers in Kebbi have harvested one million tons of rice paddy. Already, Lagos and Kebbi are collaborating in rice production, a relationship developed from one of the several meetings boycotted by Fayose in the name of opposition politics. Yet in the actual fact, Ekiti surpasses Kebbi and several other states in rice farming. While Kebbi boasts three seasons of rice growth in a year, Ekiti boasts four. Apart from rice, Ekiti has the capacity of growing other food and cash crops in much demand with relative ease, such as yam, cassava, plantain, palm trees, cocoa, cashew, to mention but few. Yet we are not benefitting from any of the intervention funds now being made available to the farmers. We are simply suffering amidst plenty resources and plenty opportunities to harness them for no other reason than the display of arrogance by the governor.

But it is never too late to key into the revolution. All well-meaning sons and daughters of Ekiti should drop their political affiliations at this juncture and call on Fayose to toe the path that will liberate our people. Fayose cannot be playing political ostritch with the lives of the people. If his guilty conscience would not allow him to participate directly, he can send representations. Poverty is in the land, visible on the faces of the people, thick enough to slice with knife. The only person that can give succour to the people is Fayose, only if he will come down from his imaginary high horse and allow Ekiti people to reap from the commonwealth.

How can Ekiti miss out of the 500,000 teachers employment scheme without the attendant pangs of pain? Imagine how many farmers, poultry owners, suppliers and other spin-off beneficiaries will lose out, should Ekiti boycott the school feeding scheme?

Let everyone direct their angst towards Fayose right now and make him do the needful. Let everyone ask him to stop the blame game and join the federal government’s intervention programmes. The state stands a chance to gain more from being part of the federation than isolating itself.

The time to rein Fayose in and save Ekiti from his destructive tendencies is NOW!

Segun Dipe is the Director, Media and Publicity, All Progressives Congress, Ekiti State