In experienced campaign/election leadership, high-handedness and the all-knowing dispositions to party and membership matters by the out-going governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose and other factors combined to set the ball for the electoral defeat and final collapse of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) rolling in Ekiti State.
It would be recalled that in 2014, Fayose, in the presence of party stalwarts at the Pathfinder Hotel and Suites, in Ekiti State, shortly after his governorship rally which was attended by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan made this statement, which came back to hurt him four years after.
“Again, I have chosen a deputy governor and I have told him from the beginning that the two of us will pack our load and leave the Government House because I don’t want a deputy that will start playing politics behind me when we are in government and will be distracting me, I don’t want that again. So, he is practically here for me to look after certain things for me and ensure that we succeed. When I am going, I will hold his hand and say bye to Ekiti people.”
Did Fayose keep to his words? The answer is capital NO.
It is instructive to state here without mincing words that Governor Fayose and insignificant others within the party caused the defeat in Ekiti.
The choice of a political neophyte, a greenhorn in election planning and management and execution and above all, one-term governor, who has never faced any national elections challenges, safe for local government elections, in person of Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, as the Chairman of the Campaign Committee for Ekiti governorship poll, party faithfuls argued, played very significant role in the needless defeat.
From information gathered, the person who was saddled with the task of returning PDP to Ekiti government House, has never been faced with such a tasking political responsibility. The election that brought him into office was handled by his predecessor and current Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio.
How do you then expect such a person to deliver the state?
Why was none of the former two-term governors made to chair the campaign committee?
Politicians of note, who have contested and won elections with the requisite experiences and wherewithal to deliver on election days like former governors Liyel Imoke, Theodore Orji, Sam Egwu, Sule Lamido and even a sitting two-term governor Dakwambo, were all relegated to the back ground for Udom Emmanuel, who lacks the experience for such exercise.
Similarly, the no love lost attitude which dogged the relationship between Fayose and members of the National Assembly from his state by extension, the NASS caucus of the party contributed immensely to the needless defeat last Saturday.
Two Senators from the PDP stable in the state, left the party and Fayose felt he could win the election without them.
It was also gathered that efforts by the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio to reconcile the Ekiti senator(Rasaki)before her defection with the almighty Oshokomole, were blatantly rebuffed by Fayose.
It became even worrisome when the party leadership in the NASS led by the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio and the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, were not involved from the planning to the execution stage of the Ekiti Mega rally and election proper.
The question on the lips of party stakeholders in the state, therefore, is if Akpabio had a premonition of the impending defeat and therefore stayed away or, if he had been involved abinitio, would the result have been different?
They even went further to allude that if the Senate Minority Leader, with his vast experience in politics coupled with the grace and luck he exudes, which according to them, propelled the Super Eagles to victory against Iceland at the brink of defeat, he should have been made to be deeply involved in the pre election arrangements.
Akin to the above, was the conspicuous absence of Senator Ekweremadu. Both Akpabio and Ekweremadu were not in Ekiti for the Mega rally of the PDP. Ekweremadu, from information pieced together is in far away Russia for the semis and final matches of the world cup. Akpabio’s absence in Ekiti was too loud to be ignored.
The development has once again, brought to the fore, the cold war between members of the National Assembly and state governors on the running of the party.
PDP governors still live under the illusion that they are all conquering Lords of the manor and could therefore, do anything and go away with it.
Those era are gone for good in present day politics. Modern day politics is piloted on the wheel of inclusiveness and not grandstanding.
It is high time PDP governors see national assembly members as progress partners.
Fayose lost the battle to install his successor also because of the needless controversies he personally engineered before the party primaries. He fought virtually all those who mattered in the state chapter of the party and beyond. The people he fought and made them leave the party for the opposition, Fayose forgot, are political leaders in their own rights and they did everything within their power to teach Fayose, how not to be a leader.
The lessons from the Ekiti defeat, which has reduced PDP governors from 11 to 10 is that the overbearing influence of the governors in the party should and must be checked because their influence cannot be compared to when they were 28 in number.
They need to carry members of the National and state assemblies along. If not, more surprises await them in their states in 2019, including even APC controlled states.
I hope governors, who see themselves as the party, have learnt from Fayose’s high-horse crash, and are now ready to amend their selfish ways by accomodating decenting views and not play god.
Adetutu, writes from Kabba, Kogi State.
