2018: Will Ekiti re-enact June 21, 2014 miracle?

June 21, 2014 is a date not easily forgotten in Ekiti state. It was on this day that the people decided to change the APC government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi and replace it with a PDP government led by Mr. Ayodele Fayose. As another governorship election beckons in Ekiti in 2018, the talk of the town is whether Ekiti will re-enact the miracle of 2014 where Fayose won in all the 16 local government areas while Fayemi, the incumbent, lost in all. That is what Fayose and his supporters mean when they say “16 – 0”.

While Fayose and his supporters believe history will repeat itself, APC leaders are pleading with the people not to allow an encore. The uniqueness of June 21 is not limited to the fact that the people achieved their aim but also the manner in which they did so. Their resolve to demonstrate “people power” was not in doubt. So, as early as 5:00 am, people had started trooping out in large numbers to make sure they beat the restriction of movement order and reach their polling booths before voting procedures began. People trekked kilometres just to cast their vote.

There was the case of a man who trekked from Ado-Ekiti to Ilawe-Ekiti, since there were no vehicles plying the road, just for him to cast his vote. Some had left two or three days’ earlier to their home towns where they registered as voters. The turn-out was unprecedented and there were long queues at the various polling units. As if reading the mood of the people, officials and ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission arrived at their various polling units in good time. They quickly erected their collapsible polling booths and settled for the business of the day. There were no reports of absentee officials or late arrival of materials. By 8:00 am, accreditation had begun as expected. There were enough security officials to check any security breach. Thus, reports at the end of the day showed that the election was largely peaceful and violence-free. This was a great departure from the way things were in the past when ballot box-snatching, stuffing and smashing were rampant.

Whereas there were cases of violence and skirmishes during the campaign that preceded the election, on the day of the election proper, which was June 21, peace pervaded the whole state. People queued at their polling units as they patiently awaited their turn to be accredited and then vote. The sunshine that day was scorching and there was simmering heat but the people waited patiently after casting their vote for the results that came several hours after to be announced. There were no altercations or any fight. The people’s general perception of the Fayemi administration was that it was too elitist.

There was a yawning gap between the people and the government. For example, the two principal political appointments given to Ado-Ekiti, the state capital with huge electoral votes, went to two professors, Modupe Adelabu, who was the Deputy Governor, while Afolabi Fasuba was the Commissioner for Health: Both of them were not known in their wards as politicians. So, there was no way they could mobilise Ado-Ekiti people to vote Fayemi. Tayo Ekundayo, former NITEL PRO, from Ise-Ekiti, was the Commissioner for Information. He never had grassroots touch in his home town. Fayemi’s government was like a foreign government imposed on the people. It appeared as if no local politician in Ekiti state was fit to be made commissioner under that government. It was almost an alien government. This, probably, was one of the reasons why the people vehemently rejected it.
As the results were announced at the various polling booths, people jumped up for joy and hugged one another. People in their large numbers followed the results to the various collating centres. As the results trickled in, dejected APC members started leaving their head office in Ajilosun and the place soon became desolate.

Conversely, people began to troop to the Spotless Hotel at the Government Residential Area (GRA) Ado-Ekiti, which was the situation office of the Ayo Fayose campaign organisation. Here, where a lot of unofficial results sent in by various party agents across the state had indicated landslide victory for Ayo Fayose and the PDP, it was celebration galore as people bought drinks and drank to the party’s success at the poll. It was an all-night party; the official INEC result, which came in at night, further ignited the jubilation.
It was victory for democracy as the people’s will prevailed; they freely exercised their franchise and their votes counted. Local, national, and foreign observers described the election in succinct terms as free, fair, credible, and violence-free.

The government ushered in by that watershed election is more than half-way through with its tenure and another governorship election is due next year; that is, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Gov. Fayose recently flew a kite when he said he would approach the court to see if he could retrieve the unused seven months of his first term, which he was denied as a result of a kangaroo impeachment subsequently declared illegal by the Supreme Court. If he succeeds, then, election may not hold in Ekiti until 2019. In the event that he does not; he is not leaving anything to chances as he, too, is making feverish plans to ensure that he installs a successor after his heart.

The name of the game is called “Continuity 2018: Fayose leads, Ekiti follows”. In the APC camp, aspirants, who included former one-term governors like Segun Oni and Fayemi, are already revealing their hands.
PDP and Fayose boast they will make it 16-0 again in 2018, a reference to the June 21, 2014 election which they won in all the 16 local government areas of the state while Fayemi/APC lost in all the LGAs.

The incumbent Fayose is counting on so many positives to give his camp another landslide victory come 2018: Fayose’s ‘man of the people’ style of politics as opposed to the elitist disposition of his opponents has served him well in the past. It promises to do so again in 2018. Then, of course, is the governor’s rising profile nationwide as the lone voice of opposition in the aridity of sane voices speaking truth to power. Fayose’s group will also most likely reap political capital from the discordant voices in the Ekiti APC. If the battle to secure the APC flag becomes fight-to-finish, then, whoever emerges in the end may be too weak to face a consummate politician like Fayose.

Mindful of the ‘banana peel’ that the factionalization of his own party, PDP, can cause, Fayose has seized on every opportunity to enlighten his supporters to await his directives on which party to board for the 2018 gubernatorial poll in Ekiti. This is a very delicate issue for Fayose. If he gets it right and there is no implosion in the ranks of his supporters, then, APC, which is virtually non-existent in Ekiti as of today, will be no serious headache for him.

Laleye Lashore is a veteran broadcast journalist based in Ado-Ekiti

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