Barely four weeks after the Ekiti governorship election, it is still being talked about. The wife of Ekiti Governor, Erelu Fayemi has claimed that the election was manipulated from the source and this claim seems to be at variance with the position of the APC, writes EMMA ALOZIE
Ekiti gubernatorial election may have come and gone, the election may have been won and lost, but the ripples promise to linger for so long after.
The wife of the defeated Ekiti state governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi has opened fresh perspectives to the election by claiming that the election that was adjudged free, fair and credible was after all manipulated from where she described as the source, to favour the governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose.
At the 50th anniversary public lecture and award ceremony of the state chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, Erelu Fayemi claimed that the Ekiti voters could not have voted the way they voted without external inducement and she seriously doubted whether the voters voted the way the result was portrayed to be.
“I would like to state that we have not heard the last about the election. Two weeks after the immediate confusion and hysteria of the June 21 elections, a picture has begun to emerge.
“This will, hopefully, reframe the debates emanating from source about Ekiti and the choices they allegedly made on that day. In due course, the full and real story of how the Ekiti elections of June 21 were manipulated from source will be revealed. There are many implications of Ekiti people having voted the way they supposedly did.”
The Ekiti First Lady blamed those she described as armchair analysts and commentators for trying to rewrite the history of her husband’s tenure in office.
“It will be very hard for any informed analyst writing about Ekiti to accuse Governor Fayemi of not working to improve the economy of Ekiti state.
“It, of course, serves the interest of some to hastily attempt to rewrite the history of Governor Fayemi as one who was disconnected from his people.
“The same people he built roads for, provided electricity and water for, provided healthcare for, developed education for and introduced social security payment for?
“The same people he visited in their 132 communities every year, without fail, to listen to their priorities for the next budget? The same people whose children he employed in thousands through the Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development, Peace Corps and other youth-focused initiatives?” she asked.
As swiftly as Erelu Fayemi attempted to dismiss the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party, the Ekiti state chapter of the party came out to describe the Ekiti First Lady as an uninformed mind.
The party said, trather than blaming imaginary forces for her husband’s defeat at the poll, she should advise her husband and his party to concentrate efforts at being a responsible opposition which the electorate had consigned them to by their popular voice, and be ready to offer constructive criticism for the development and uplifting of Ekiti State.
However, Erelu Fayemi is obviously not the only one who seriously questions the propriety of the Ekiti state election and the subsequent results.
Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN of Lagos state on many occasions doubted the outcome of the election. He went ahead to describe the outcome as frightening. “It is frightening for me in a democracy,” Governor Fashola said.
““When one looks at the way people have behaved one week before the election, no one could say Fayemi will lose the election. The worse anyone could say was that the election look close.
“Does a governor whom everyone has said did well, lose in his own ward? If he was such a bad governor, was the deputy bad too? Was the speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly also bad? I know this may be difficult to convey, but I want Nigerians to examine the message and not the messenger,” the governor said.
The man whose mandate is being questioned, Ayo Fayose, also hit back at those who doubt the outcome of the election. He described Governor Fashola as a man who may not appreciate the principle of democracy because he is a product of godfatherism.
“Governor Fashola is a product of imposition, of god-fatherism. I remember when Fashola and Asiwaju Tinubu had issues, there were trumped-up charges against him through the House of Assembly. I remember vividly that he had to go to the court to clip their wings, otherwise they would have messed him up. And even at that, they still kept a tab on him. How would you be a governor, not elected in a transparent primary, but selected by one leader and you would still be surprised if an election was won through due process? Fashola knows that when he accused Asiwaju of not allowing due process or internal process in the party,” Fayose said.
The irony of the whole controversy is that the All Progressives Congress, APC has steered clear of contesting the election proper, rather the process leading to the election. According to Lai Mohammed, APC’s spokesperson, the day of the election may not have been the problem, but the process leading to the election.
“While voting on Election Day may not have been characterized by the usual brigandage and violence, we submit that the entire process was everything but free and fair. If an integral part of the process was badly tainted as we have clearly and fully demonstrated above, then the entire process cannot but be tainted. Voting in Ekiti may have been free of the usual violence or manipulation at the collation centres, but the entire electoral process in the state was neither free, fair nor credible,” APC said.
Like the outgoing Ekiti governor said that the election may have evolved a new sociology of the Ekiti people, and like his wife said that the last may not have been heard about the election, scholars in both the near and distant future will continue to refer to the June 21 election that has awakened the consciousness of even many apolitical Nigerians.