Ayodele Fayose
Within the ambits of what God has endowed me with, I have been very supportive of others. And I know I will get the support of the Ekiti people again to actualise my dream. Besides, I’m a much better human being, having learnt a lot o lesson. Let me state here very clearly that when you are in the saddle, the people will always worship you. They will only appreciate you when you are still on that seat, because they tend to benefit. I hardly see any friend again; I hardly see one per cent of the people that God used me for while in office. They don’t even call me on the phone. If I call, they don’t even pick. So, that is life. But this has taught me that what God has asked you to do, you should always do it.
However, I want to appreciate my wife, Feyisetan Oluyemi. I will be indebted to her forever. There are wives and there are wives, but this one is a strong, reliable and pious woman that God uses in my life. She is always on her knees fighting my cause as anybody. So, if what had happened to me should happen to some people, they would have been under the ground. But I thank God for her life.
What precisely are some of your regrets? Let me put it this way. A space of 10 years in one’s life can make you a different man. I joined politics in 2000, which makes it exactly 12 years ago. I became governor nine years ago. Let me state clearly that even if nobody offended me, I may have offended some people. But there is a considerable change in my pattern of life. I have become more matured, forgiving and a better listener. I ‘m not getting younger.
As a governor, you must take certain drastic steps and measures at a point in time. Whoever I must have offended, I tender an apology. I’m not a perfect man, not infallible.
You are going into the race with what some see as certain grey areas in your antecedents while in office which they claim could pose a major threat to your ambition?
A man remains innocent until otherwise proved by the law court. All these things they call grey areas are mere propaganda of some charlatans. The same Fayose contested the senatorial election after being cleared by INEC. I’m not afraid of justice.
How do you hope to overcome the influence of such PDP leaders like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, as they may not have individually forgotten your face-off with them in the past over some salient issues?Have you heard about an issue that can never be resolved? We are not promoters of enmity in this world. We are for peace. One time or the other, I may have wronged him. But I have reconciled with him. I have written to him and he has replied. And I have equally appreciated him for his role in my return. So, those that are still going about the memories of sour relationship of the past will be shocked when our glory appears. And don’t forget that I have the responsibility to make peace with all manner of men.
Some critics say you lack principle because of your frequent switch from one political camp to another? Aren’t they justified, going by your actions in the last two or three years?I have never denied that I supported Governor Kayode Fayemi. I am at liberty to take decisions for myself. I have never jumped from party to party. I have only moved from PDP to the Labour Party [LP]. It is not only me that moved. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar moved and came back. He actually flew the flag of ACN. I did not fly its flag. So many leaders at different points, can get aggrieved when the system does not do what it is supposed to do. However, for one to move from one party to another is even allowed under the constitution of the country, otherwise nobody would move. So, I’ m not doing anything that contravenes any provisions of the constitution.
What is the attraction in PDP as far as you are concerned, as opposition parties claim the party has not made any meaningful impact on the lives of the ordinary man since 1999?You can win an election. That perception is personal. But what has changed in other parties/? How many roads have been tarred in states being controlled by other parties? What miracle have they performed to make them special? Even where there has been a change of government from one party to another, did manna fall from heaven? So, it is not about political parties. It is about individual politicians and the innate ability of an individual to deliver services to the people as when due.
What progress do you think Ekiti has been able to achieve since you left office six years ago? I have always said that I am a more matured politician, who would not think about myself first over and above the facts on ground. One, part of the facts on ground is that we have more than two million citizens in Ekiti. I would rather allow them to assess the past, the present and shape their future based on realities on the ground. When I was governor, it was Fayose that was the black leg in the opinion of my detractors and blackmailers. It was Fayose that was squandering the wealth of the state. It was Fayose that was killing people, but today, the song is different.
The story is different because the only thing that is constant apart from change, is truth; it will always come forth and defeat lies, falsehood, evil machinations and conspiracy over time. I remember clearly that I opened up the state and the resources then was so small but within the ambits of those resources, I was able to open up the state. The first ever dual carriage way in the state [up to the point where it is today] was carried out under my administration. To crown it all, today everybody goes to the capital market to source billions without remembering what I did. Despite challenges like the debts that I met on ground, I was able to pay workers’ salaries that had accumulated for 11 months.
Without mincing words, I left about N10.4 billion in the coffers of Ekiti. I am yet to see such record after my government. That means that I was a good administrator of both human and material resources. So, all I am saying is that I cannot list all I was able to do in this interview. For the Ekiti people that have seen all of us from the very stage of the creation of our state to date who gave them the best of service.
Then, why do you think that the same people are against your current move to return to power through the 2014 governorship election by disrupting your meetings, meant to put you in good stead ahead the poll?The people are not against me. You should not attribute the activities of sponsored thugs to the good people of Ekiti state. Rather the people are raining curses on those who are causing the violence and unleashing terror on the citizenry. In the last two weeks, the thugs would converge on the entry points of each local government, block roads, wielding machetes and harassing the people because they know the implication and positive impact of my visits to any local government. They know that the movement I move round, the political fortunes of a lot of people who may not be doing well in their various local governments, will be affected. I want the whole world to know that a lot of people have been wounded. So, if fayose is not popular, why should they use thugs to unleash terror on the people and block roads? They claim Fayose has lost a Senate election, I agree.
Whether the election was manipulated or whether it was true that I lost it, there is nothing wrong with you trying and trying until you succeed. I was told of an American president who tried over 12 times but eventually won at the poll to occupy the White House.
I have always said that I want to be governor of Ekiti State again. I have declared an intention and it will be formalised very soon. I am not somebody who pretends. I am a grass roots man. I go down to the level of the people. I was not a governor that would wind up the glass of my car. I was not a governor who could not be reached or touched by the people. How many people have left offices six, seven or more years after and still have my kind of clout even in spite of the circumstances that surrounded my exit? If not for the contrived circumstances I left office, I should have faded out of Ekiti politics. They still send text messages around. One body called Ekiti Voices sends text messages, as propaganda. That is part of the signs of fear. Some alleged that I committed murder; that my paper was before the governor, who was still keeping it in view until an auspicious time.
Why don’t they prosecute me? Why should the shadow of a man, who left office about six years ago, be making people jittery? Who is fooling who? Is it a political tool in their hands to nail me? If anybody wants to arrest me, I am here, always in Ekiti; I go around my business. All these machinations were as a result of the clearance given to me by PDP, which is suggestive that I will contest the 2014 election, first in the primaries of my party and my visits to the local government areas were meant to interact with the party members in preparation for the primaries. How does that affect another party or what is the interest of another party?
But the claim in the other camp is that the problem you are going through is being induced in PDP, your party?Even if there is a crisis in my party, the issue is that we know the people orchestrating the current crime; we know the party they represent; the T-shirts they put on show where they come from. And let we tell you emphatically that there is no PDP man that will carry cutlass against anybody. Besides, how does going to any local government affect PDP or the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] or any other party? How does the freedom of movement of another man affect a party? They went as far as trying to look for an electoral law that I cannot move around as other citizens.
They went to INEC. They asked the state commissioner of police to gather information from INEC. I was with him and he was talking about the electoral law and I said ‘Show me the law. When you are able to provide it, you should juxtapose it with the relevant section of the Nigerian constitution, which guarantees the freedom of association and freedom of movement. The CP is mandated to handle security matters. He clearly approved all the visits. The OC [Operations] in the state sent a letter to PDP and I know their antics and so every visit I make, I write to the party, which puts a covering letter for all aspirants so that it will not be personalised.
Why do you think the police have not been able to make any arrest over the matter so far?We should ask them. That was why I went to the police headquarters in Abuja because nobody has the monopoly of violence. We don’t want a situation, where we will be forced to take laws into our hands. That is why we have asked the authorities to intervene. These [political intolerance and other crimes] were the things we jointly and severally condemned in the past. Some of them claimed that when I was in office, I did not allow them to move. That is not correct but if it was true, must you live in the past? Again, why should a police man start getting involved in an issue that does not concern him, and if you have to intervene, you must do it decently, with decorum and based on facts and figures as well as the laws of the land. Your duty is to protect both the government and the people, including members of the opposition parties. This is the essence of democracy.
How has such challenge deterred you in the pursuit of your ambition to return to power through the ballot box? How will it deter me? Don’t you know that I am a man who always remains focused; who will never look back once he has decided to on a mission ; where I am going is always my target and nothing else. I am not a Muslim, but in the Islamic religion, I love something they always say when they bury the dead. As they turn the face down, the faithful will counsel the body, ‘face where you are going.’ So, I always face where I am going. I am a man. In those days when we had elections, we had to fight; I fought. I did not fold my arm and even when it was serious then that I had to go on the television to say my mind and move around, I remained myself. They should not forget that the more they are attacking me now, the more popular I become and it is in their interest to be wise and civil.
What should the public expect henceforth if there is a repeat of the scenario your team experienced during the aborted visits? Don’t forget that the society is not about you and I alone. It is about everybody. I am going to embark on another round of visits to my party members throughout the council areas. The letters will soon be out. We will send them to the police. We will notify them and I remember that I have written the CP in Ekiti state 17 times about threats to my life.
What action has the CP taken on the petitions?The CP, I must confess, has not been fair enough. The police will see thugs brandishing cutlasses, weapons and in fact, he came to one of the rallies in Oye local government and had to personally dismantle the blockade erected by thugs. He saw it himself at Ire-Eekiti. The question is that one of us must be lying. You are the same person that issued permits and thugs are operating where you issued permits. When we requested for permit and security, you granted it. The other party will go and occupy the opposite side of the venue at 7 am on the day of the approved rally.
Again, it is the same people that are moving from one local government to the other. And you know them.
What excuse did the police offer for not acting on your complaints?A:I do not know. I have just told you that he would tell me that some of people told him that when I was governor, I also curtailed their freedom. But how has that got to do with the security of lives and property. So, we had to take the matter to the Inspector General of Police, who saw the documents signed by the CP himself. Now, I think the authorities have started taking necessary actions; they have invited them. They have asked our boys to come and confront them. They brought all the telephones seized by them and people sliced in the head came. I actually took those boys and their vehicles to the CP before I went to Abuja to lodge a complaint. We hope the CP will change or see reasons to change and he should remember that police job remains what it is. He is not the first CP in Ekiti. We have had enough CP s in the state and those of them that messed up realities, we fought them. I am a former governor; I am not a small boy in the system. We fought them and made the public to see their files. And we allowed the authorities that posted them to our state to remind them that they were in the state for purely for police work. How can a CP be denying that he did not instruct his OC in charge of Operations to sign the letter he sent to us and he forgot that he himself was copied in the letter. When he was writing it, telling me that I was the one causing the problem, he did not attach the other correspondence. And I wrote back to him, ’you are not the first to come and you are not going to be the last.’ I have used more senior CPS, when he was probably an ACP. I was not a small boy in the state. So, the police must be neutral; they must discharge their duties and allow respect for themselves.
Don’t you think the current attempt to heat up the polity in the state is healthy for genuine development, even as the election is about one and half years from now?Let me tell you that the guilty are afraid. When you have conscience that I devoid of offence, you have no fear. If fayose is no threat, don’t be afraid. I don’t have money to travel on endless trips; I’m not the governor. I don’t have money to pay salaries, in fact, going ahead to say that I’m the one causing problems in the nine weeks’ strike by local government, I’m the one inciting the teachers, I’m the one inciting the health workers on strike, I’m the one inciting those in the judiciary, is most unfortunate. If indeed I’m the one doing all these, then I have a very intimidating clout and influence. I do not pay their salaries. So, how many people can I give money to incite? So, I advise that we should do everything possible to make our people happy, even somebody doesn’t win an election after his first tenure, he has a name to protect. He has an image to protect. I have made up my mind that I will never come out openly to criticize my governor. No! Dr. Kayode Fayemi is my governor.
No comments:
Post a Comment