On Fayose’s Vile Politics (1) -By Igboeli Arinze

I’m writing this in the aftermath of the Peoples Democratic Party’s caucus meeting and the party’s whining on the recent developments in Nigeria. But it’s Governor Ayo Fayose that I want to discuss. In particular, his perpetual penchant for tirades against the Buhari administration.

I used to be a symphatiser of Fayose, while he went through his ordeal in the hands of President Obasanjo as a first term Governor of Ekiti State. Much as he was the poster boy for what was branded as Area Boy democracy, not a few persons felt that his ordeal was more about his youth than his actions in government . The elite in the state saw him as a rascal, an ursurper, a champion of the lumpen proletariat and sought to pull the rug from his feet. Countering them and motivated by a genuine sense of outrage, Fayose dared those intellectual fusspots who identified themselves as tin gods and gave them a run for their money, before he eventually was impeached.

However, since his second coming as governor, Fayose has sought to alienate a number of persons who saw him as the hope of the common man. First, his return as governor was shrouded with massive irregularities ,such as the Obanikoror- General Momoh- Chris Uba scandal, where he benefitted immensely from the intimidation of the Ekiti citizenry during the June 21st gubernatorial elections. Even at that, one would have expected Fayose to be a better fellow, doing away with some of those agbero tendencies of his and try at the least to outdo his predecessor in terms of performance.

Like a leopard known for its spots, Fayose began his second journey as governor on a heightened scale of reducing governance to the levels of agberoism and puerile infantilism .

If Ekiti State is not in the news for the invasion of a court room by thugs and the beating up of a judge who was set to hear a case on the eligibility of Fayose, then it was in the news for the unbelievable when seven legislators impeached the speaker and suspended 19 of their colleagues.

As if this was not enough, Fayose assumed the role of the specter of death, when during the heated campaign for the general elections, where many showed restraint owing to the pervasive nature of the polls and the consequences of overheating the polity, our Fayose chose to go gaga, sponsoring an advert where he placed the image of past dead leaders of Northern Nigerian extraction and the image of President Jonathan accompanied with biblical quotations from the book of Deutronomy, urging Nigerians to choose between life and death. That advert was indeed the lowest point in the 2015 polls and it so ruffled feathers that Fayose’s own party had to disown the advert.

Readers here should please not see me as a cynical fellow — and I’m prepared to cut Fayose some slack, but the man seems to be using up whatever goodwill he has left.

Though this is true of a lot of politicians to squander whatever goodwill they earn, in Fayose’s case, you get the impression that the man has vowed to destroy himself and can’t even afford himself the opportunity of self redemption.

Fayose acts like a tribal warrior of old, who goes gung ho on the slightest incident, baying for blood where there is none! Leaving the real business of governing Ekiti, his new found hobby has been to rail, rant and rave at the Buhari administration.

Fayose has sought to criticise President Buhari for everything under the sun, leaving one to wonder whether the last presidential elections were contested by Fayose. Fayose’s criticisms so far are nothing more than the venting of ethnocentric and partisan prejudices, take for example his criticism of Buhari’s anti-corruption war, which he described as sectional and partisan in outlook.

Fayose needs to be schooled on the manner by which the EFCC operates. The EFCC acts on petitions written by people or groups, these petitions are then investigated and if they are water tight then the accused persons are invited for questioning before their eventual arrest and prosecution. On his perception that the war against corruption is partisan, Fayose only y needs to look at the ongoing trial of the Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, or is Saraki now a PDP member?

It is on record that Governor Nyako, the former Governor of Adamawa State was the first on EFCC’s list when this administration took over, or is Nyako too a PDP member? Even if the EFCC’s war against corruption is one sided as Fayose would mischievously want Nigerians to believe , does it negate the fact these persons aren’t corrupt?

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