Ekiti: An Update - Nigerian Village Square

May

2009

	By *Reuben Abati* 08 May 2009

Ekiti: An update

By Reuben Abati

GOVERNOR Segun Oni of Ekiti State and his PDP kith and kin were so triumphant on television two days ago, you would think what they have on their hands was a clean electoral trophy. But the victory that the PDP has snatched from the re-run election in 10 local councils and 63 wards in the just concluded process in Ekiti is a pyrrhic victory. Segun Oni may have won the battle, but he must prepare for the war ahead. Already, the Action Congress and its candidate in that election, Kayode Fayemi are threatening to go back to the election petition tribunal to challenge the legitimacy of the new mandate that Governor Segun Oni has claimed.

This would mean another round of litigation, and the deployment of state resources to fight what now appears to be an unending electoral struggle in Ekiti State. When will Ekiti have peace? The bigger challenge that Governor Oni faces is that he is in no better position than he was after the 2007 election. The true test of an election is in its being free and fair and being seen to be so. In both Ekiti State and outside, there is no one, that I know who is convinced that what has just taken place in Ekiti is free, fair or peaceful.

For this being so, it is Governor Oni who must take the blame. Between April 25 and May 5 when the postponed election in Oye-Ekiti took place, there was no clear evidence that one of the candidates, Segun Oni, had spent 21 months in office as Governor. This should have translated into a big advantage for him, 21 months is long enough for him to capture the popular imagination. But he obviously wasted that opportunity. And so he found himself struggling so hard to secure a 4,000-margin victory in an election that was loaded with greater histrionics and confusion than the recent Chelsea-Barcelona, Arsenal-Manchester United encounters. Can you imagine a Babatunde Fashola having to run for an election right now after 21 months in office in Lagos State?

He would not only win convincingly, I doubt if anyone can summon the courage to challenge him. Fashola's greatest protection is his performance in office, the manner in which he has shown all and sundry that what governance requires is focus and hardwork, not politics and slogans. I have before me a document detailing Segun Oni's achievements in his 21 months in office as Governor, but how come most Ekiti people are not aware of these achievements? Why are they not talking about it? If they are, it made no difference in the Ekiti re-run. Segun Oni had to be backed up by all the forces within the PDP and even by gladiators from neighbouring states before he could win. Now that he is back in the Government House, all his supporters would go back home, and he will be left with the responsibility of governing Ekiti State.

It is unfortunate that he faces the prospect of returning to office as a Governor who may not be welcomed in certain parts of the state. He may have won majority votes, but not such a majority that can be considered superior. There is a lesson here for all Governors, now and in the future, that it may be costly to take the people for granted in any way.

However, there is a certain problematic involved in this. In Ekiti, the politics that we have just seen placed so much emphasis on territories: There was a strange assumption that if a particular politician comes from a town or local government, then he must win in that place by all means. The PDP had to win in Ido-Osi LGA we are told, because that is the territory of Segun Oni and Babalola Borishade, and the two wards in Oye Ekiti must be won by the PDP because that is Ayo Arise's local government and of course, Fayemi must win in Isan-Ekiti because he is from there, although there was no election in Isan. This son of the soil syndrome, translated into a high measurement for electoral outcomes is a sign of the underdevelopment of Nigerian politics and another argument for the urgency of electoral reform.

Given the violence that attended the election and the politics of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, the election had to be concluded with the help of the military. In Oye-Ekiti on Tuesday, turn-out was low and the scope of violent protest had reduced considerably because there were soldiers parading the streets fully armed to the teeth. The same band of protesters who had threatened mayhem on April 22-27 had suddenly become moderate. What message does this send across? That Nigerians cannot have a peaceful election except when it is backed with military presence? It is a dangerous signal.

Segun Oni has extended a hand of friendship to the opposition. And he is promising the people a lot of development initiatives which would transform their lives. This is probably the first time that anyone would talk seriously about the interest of the people of Ekiti since the campaigns for the re-run elections started. Lagos, Osun and Abuja probably featured more in the re-run elections than Ekiti. But now is the time for Oni to play the statesman. He must not act as a PDP Governor but as a Governor of Ekiti state. We have seen a demonstration in Ekiti of both the good and the bad sides of a two-party system in Nigeria. There were no moderating influences; Ekiti was so sharply divided it was almost on the boil.

But more importantly, Nigerian politicians have not changed: they are bad winners and bad losers. In this regard, just as Oni is advised to be less triumphant and conduct himself after the fashion of a statesman, the Action Congress candidate, Kayode Fayemi and his supporters must learn to tone down their rhetoric. What should be more important: power by all means necessary or the future of Ekiti? Throughout the re-run process, AC supporters acted as if they were destined to win the election and that if they did not, no other outcome would be acceptable. And so they took to the streets shouting "Rig and Roast". They are still at it. They must resist the temptation to resort to self-help.

Circumstances played out in their favour when the Resident Electoral Commissioner made the terrible mistake of jumping into the arena and turned herself into a major issue. She disappeared, she resigned, and then she reappeared. Promptly, the AC propaganda machinery claimed her as an ally with a "Christian conscience". The very powerful Action Congress media empire labelled her a heroine and celebrated her as a woman of real conscience. Nearly every columnist and editorial writer in that empire expressed the same view in stories, commentaries and reports.

Oni who had a scrappy media presence had only two newspapers arguing his case. For a whole week, it was as if we were back to the old days of the First Republic when journalists were party thugs and agents, and the media was used to prosecute political warfare. A review of the media coverage of the Ekiti re-run election would reveal much that is wrong with the emergent generation of newspapers and other media organs that are owned by politicians.

Consider this: the same AC media empire that had described Mrs Ayoka Adebayo as a heroine and a symbol of integrity has since turned round in less than a week to describe her as a PDP stooge who allowed her conscience to fly away in the face of intimidation! On the other hand, the pro-PDP newspapers are now promoting the line that Mrs Ayoka Adebayo's conscience is intact. And yet, when she agreed to return to Ekiti, the same PDP gang had protested that the woman's character is unstable. This follow-the-weather, read-my-lips style of journalism raises serious questions about the ownership factor in the Nigerian media and the vulnerability of the average Nigerian journalist.

Mrs Ayoka Adebayo provides a good case study for future electoral commissioners about how an umpire should maintain a position of complete neutrality and an aesthetic distance. She was like a football referee who made the mistake of helping to kick the ball. In the end, nobody is thanking her. And the general public remains uncertain about her role in the entire saga. What actually happened in Ido-Osi? And why did she have to declare publicly in presenting the results that whoever is aggrieved is free to go to the courts? When she spoke about Christian conscience in her controversial letter of resignation, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) was quick to praise her. Has CAN changed its mind now that a partisan crowd is raising questions about "the Christian conscience"?

The Nigeria Police Force must be relieved that the re-run election is over. But there are issues that it would still have to address. There is obviously a proliferation of small arms in Ekiti with all the weapons that were on display in the course of the elections. Charms and amulets were also freely used, and there were women exposing their breasts in public, the police may not be able to do anything about this, but it can make an effort to mop up the small arms in circulation and to investigate and bring to book the promoters of violence in that election.

If Ekiti is a precursor of what to expect in 2011, then a lie has been put to government's sincerity about electoral reform. In all the states where the PDP has had to take part in a re-run Gubernatorial election, it ended up winning - Kogi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Adamawa and now Ekiti. INEC of course has shown up again very badly, no thanks to Mrs Adebayo. But where is our collective sense of shame as Nigerians? The challenge that we all face is that of forgetfulness. Nigerians have a short memory. In a few weeks, the Ekiti re-run election will become another episode on the calendar, and we would all move on to the next dramatic episode that catches our fancy. It is a shame.

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Robot

# 1 | 08.05.2009 08:19

	Ekiti: An update By Reuben Abati GOVERNOR Segun Oni of Ekiti State and his PDP kith and kin were so triumphant on television two days ago, you would think what they have on their hands was a clean electoral trophy. But the victory that the PDP has snatched from the re-run election in 10 local councils and 63 wards in the just concluded process in Ekiti is a pyrrhic victory. Segun Oni may have won the battle, but he must prepare for the war ahead. Already, the Action Congress and its candidate in that election, Kayode Fayemi are threatening to go back to the election petition tribunal to challenge the legitimacy of the new mandate that Governor Segun Oni has claimed. This would mean another round of litigation, and the deployment of state resources to fight what now appears to be an unending electoral struggle in Ekiti State. When will Ekiti have peace? The bigger challenge that Governor Oni faces is that he i...Read the full article.

Observer Observer is offline

# 2 | 08.05.2009 09:08

	Yes, RA is right. Ekiti re-run election is a shame to Nigeria. What do we do to the shameless people who are causing pain to us all? Mrs Adebayo, a grandmother who should lay good examples for the young ones, has behaved like a tout in the market place. What is the pedigree of this woman who raised our hopes, only to dash them shortly after? This woman has not behaved like an umpire with conscience. As for the press, RA should realise that journalists report events as they occur. Journalists did not have enough time to reflect on the events and predict what would happen next. Who was to know that Adebayo was an actor, acting out a role? The PDP should REPENT. The stupid ambition that PDP must rule in every state is a sure path to self-destruction. The day of judgment is approaching fast.

maikanodahiru maikanodahiru is offline

# 3 | 08.05.2009 10:08

	Ekiti re-run election is a shame to Nigeria and is an indicator of more omnious portents of events to expect in 2011 election. The best thing is for the PDP to change its notion of trying to 'capture' every state by all means,and should rather concentrate on how to move the nation forward.The opposition should also resist any attempt to rig future elections. They should also prove to Nigerians that they are different from PDP by showing exemplary leadership in the states they are ruling. Abdullahi

busanga busanga is offline

# 4 | 08.05.2009 22:05

	All these big grammar Abati and nothing comes out of it? This article is the best example I see to date of what critics like Sabella has accused the Guardian of being: a toothless bulldog. No condemnation of a President that kept a fraudulent and failure INEC in place. No request for Iwu's resignation. No dissection of the magic votes in Ido Osi and how that turnout is mathematically impossible. No shining the light investigation of the conscience turn about of INEC REC. No analysis of the damp the deployment of military men, and the resulting intimidation puts on the electorates, and how it diminishes our democracy. Abati should be ashamed of himself...and so should 90% of Nigerian journalists (less the guys at the Punch- the only true newspaper on the side of the Nigerian people). Guardian is a pathetic case of media failure; very much like the failure of the American media in the run up to the Iraq war. There is no middle ground when fighting injustice, and trying to edge your bets is simply playing the devil. I can handle knowing Thisday and Tribune are no tools in the hands of our oppressors but Guardian? The so called vanguard of truth and good conscience? The flagship of Nigerian journalism? How has the mighty fallen! The media was single handely responsible for the return of democracy to Nigeria, but it is shame they are struggling to enthrone a democratic culture. Our journalists have been taken over by brown envelopes, parochial considerations and need to have access to power. Corrupt power. Laziness prevails in our editorial rooms, where editors like Abati have no appetite for speaking truth to power or conducting detailed investigative journalism that will put EFCC to shame. This article should be titled: "Ekiti: My Cop Out!" Shame on Abati!

MrOneNaija MrOneNaija is offline

# 5 | 08.05.2009 22:32

	THE CRIME SYNDICATE CALLED THE PDP Again, we should avoid the trap of tergiversation and put the blame for the orchestrated Ekiti disaster squarely on the crooked shoulders of the devious and sleazy impostor called Yar'Adua and his crime syndicate, the PDP. It is a sad commentary that the only thing Umoru can boast of since he was rigged into office by his mentor and godfather, the ex-tyrant from Otta, is the fact that he and his soi-disant regime have been actively abusing state institutions and thus rigging themselves to power in the various states where elections have been ordered by the courts. Let me reiterate here that Yar'Adua and his PDP rigging machine will not escape the consequences of the evil they have sown in Ekiti and elsewhere in the country. And we cannot at this juncture exclude the Jerry Rawlings option of cleansing the land of political dregs. The vermin currently finding refuge under the sinister canopy of the anti-people vehicle of impunity and greed known as the PDP have murdered sleep and they shall sleep no more. This perspective by the Abuja daily, Leadership: http://www.leadershipnigeri... Front Page Comment: End Of The Road For Democracy Written by Jacob Friday, 08 May 2009 02:22 Even before the governorship election rerun in 10 local government areas of Ekiti State on April 25, many a PDP linchpin was stating publicly that Ekiti was too important to be lost by the party. As it turned out, that was also the view of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Ayo Arise, Olusegun Obasanjo, Mike Okiro and, of course, Maurice Iwu all of whom have no respect for democracy. Ostensibly, that was why the federal government deployed its armed forces and security agencies to the small state to deliver it to the ruling PDP. For, in a free and fair poll, the grouping that has severally been rechristened "Painted Devils' Party", "People Deceiving Party" or "Poverty Development Party" had no chance to win. What are the facts? Ten thousand policemen were sent to Ekiti on Election Day, not to maintain law and order - there was no peace anyway - but to intimidate voters and observers sympathetic to the opposition. Many stood up to the election riggers, to the extent that it was only in Ido/Osi LGA that the criminals had the courage to collate "results" from a police station. The state commissioner of police, acting on orders from his bosses, was at the neck of the resident electoral commissioner (REC), Mrs Olusola Ayoka Adebayo, to accept the figures endorsed by agents of the PDP alone in a contest involving at least 12 parties. Those who cooked the figures had given the PDP candidate 15, 939 and the AC candidate 3, 793 votes. The REC resigned, citing "circumstances changed in the middle of the process" and which were in conflict with her conscience as a Christian. The federal government rejected her resignation and Inspector-general of Police Mike Okiro threatened to declare her wanted if she failed to report to a police station or INEC office within 24 hours. Inside Aso Rock, President Yar'adua was holding endless meetings with his henchmen - the national security adviser, the director of the State Security Service, IGP Okiro, INEC chairman Iwu, PDP chairman Vincent Ogbulafor and others - to find ways of fending off the REC's embarrassment. Nobody from any other political party was invited. In no time, according to credible sources, REC Adebayo was seized and guns pointed to her head: she was to choose between her life and doing the party’s bidding. She chose the latter. Thus, she had to withdraw her resignation, complete the election in Ekiti (voting in Oye-Ekiti LGA had been postponed) and announce the results. A “repentant” Adebayo, surrounded by gun-wielding soldiers and security agents, announced the results including the figures for Ido/Osi LGA that she had rejected, and declared PDP’s Segun Oni the winner. Oni had “defeated” AC candidate Kayode Fayemi by 4, 123 votes! In our editorial of last Monday (“Again, The Gathering Clouds”), we warned that “just as the Ekiti vote is snowballing into a farce, the 2011 elections could mark the end of democracy in Nigeria or worse”. We have cause to edit that statement now: With that robbery carried out by the shameless rulers of Nigeria and their attack dogs, it is already goodnight to democracy in Nigeria. It is of no use wasting public funds on “elections” anymore. We advise the powers that be to quickly scrap INEC. In 2011, the party in power and its security agents should simply compile the names of selected representatives of the people. The billions of dollars that would have been frittered away or embezzled should be saved in our foreign reserve. It takes unusual restraint to be law-abiding in the face of injustice. Accordingly, we commend the Ekiti AC for not repeating the mayhem of 1983. We support the resolve of Dr Fayemi to go back to the courts. Nigerians must never allow unscrupulous politicians to push them into another civil war of which innocent men, women and children would be victims. Until they see genuine change, they should no longer bother to register as voters or vote in polls whose results are prepared well advance of Election Day by criminals appointed for that purpose. Yar’Adua has deceived all of us. It is now clear that his promises of electoral reform, rule of law, servant leadership and other garbage he uttered during his inauguration on May 29, 2007, were hypocritical. While this cunning president shed crocodile tears over the fraudulent election that brought him and many crooks to office in 2007, we never knew his government would be the one to complete the job of murdering democracy that his predecessor Obasanjo had pursued with missionary zeal. But true democracy, we predict, will resurrect in this country at a time none of the current mandate thieves will be able to enjoy it. The doomed never see foresee their own destruction. The proponents of “Re-branding Nigeria” can now see that they cannot succeed unless they can hoodwink, intimidate or “settle” all decent Nigerians and foreigners. Whenever elections like the one conducted in Ekiti takes place, embassies and high commissions in Nigeria collect factual information which they dispatch to their home governments. Their reports - and the reports of other observers - form other countries’ judgement of our country. How will a devious government re-brand brigandage, robbery or assassination of voters by policemen and thugs working for a party? Will foreign investors prefer Nigeria to countries like the United States, Ghana, India, Iceland and South Africa that freely elected their leaders recently? Nigeria is undeveloped today - and apparently incapable of developing tomorrow - due to the absence of genuine democracy.

ifeolooni ifeolooni is offline

# 6 | 09.05.2009 09:17

	what is the difference btw abati and adebayo,well let me tell u ,sincerity(alst we now know who ayoka is) reuben u are doing hack of a job.u are nothing but a hack. where is yara dumb in all ur jeun jeun write up

Beloved Beloved is online

# 7 | 09.05.2009 10:02

	Stale news. Back to business as ujuuual o'jare.

Akb

# 8 | 09.05.2009 12:23

	Circumstances played out in their favour when the Resident Electoral Commissioner made the terrible mistake of jumping into the arena and turned herself into a major issue. She disappeared, she resigned, and then she reappeared. Abati with the above has really shown on whose side he was. So the REC purpoted resignation was a terrible mistake! Hmmmm, now we all can see why the guardian's coverage of the Ekiti re-run was so lopsided. The editors seem to be in on it. Promptly, the AC propaganda machinery claimed her as an ally with a "Christian conscience". The very powerful Action Congress media empire labelled her a heroine and celebrated her as a woman of real conscience. Nearly every columnist and editorial writer in that empire expressed the same view in stories, commentaries and reports. So now Abati can label the press to be pro-AC, and by extension, since The Guardian did not join in the condemnation, we can say they are pro-PDP. He said *nearly every* because he of course knew where his own establishment stood, against the people! Wait a minute, the entire article article did not address a single point, propose a fresh wa y forward nor identify/name any perpetrator! Hmmm, how very considerate. What a way to wreite a load of rubbish. BTW maybe the editors were being settled with land because the re0runs werew coming:D

i-go-better i-go-better is offline

# 9 | 09.05.2009 13:00

	=busanga;354544>All these big grammar Abati and nothing comes out of it? This article is the best example I see to date of what critics like Sabella has accused the Guardian of being: a toothless bulldog. No condemnation of a President that kept a fraudulent and failure INEC in place. No request for Iwu's resignation. No dissection of the magic votes in Ido Osi and how that turnout is mathematically impossible. No shining the light investigation of the conscience turn about of INEC REC. No analysis of the damp the deployment of military men, and the resulting intimidation puts on the electorates, and how it diminishes our democracy. Abati should be ashamed of himself...and so should 90% of Nigerian journalists (less the guys at the Punch- the only true newspaper on the side of the Nigerian people). Guardian is a pathetic case of media failure; very much like the failure of the American media in the run up to the Iraq war. There is no middle ground when fighting injustice, and trying to edge your bets is simply playing the devil. I can handle knowing Thisday and Tribune are no tools in the hands of our oppressors but Guardian? The so called vanguard of truth and good conscience? The flagship of Nigerian journalism? How has the mighty fallen! The media was single handely responsible for the return of democracy to Nigeria, but it is shame they are struggling to enthrone a democratic culture. Our journalists have been taken over by brown envelopes, parochial considerations and need to have access to power. Corrupt power. Laziness prevails in our editorial rooms, where editors like Abati have no appetite for speaking truth to power or conducting detailed investigative journalism that will put EFCC to shame. This article should be titled: "Ekiti: My Cop Out!" Shame on Abati! Exactly my opinion on this and RA's recent insidious reprobate neutrality on Ekiti fiasco. Shame indeed.

Dapxin Dapxin is offline

# 10 | 09.05.2009 16:11

	=busanga;354544>All these big grammar Abati and nothing comes out of it? This article is the best example I see to date of what critics like Sabella has accused the Guardian of being: a toothless bulldog. No condemnation of a President that kept a fraudulent and failure INEC in place. No request for Iwu's resignation. No dissection of the magic votes in Ido Osi and how that turnout is mathematically impossible. No shining the light investigation of the conscience turn about of INEC REC. No analysis of the damp the deployment of military men, and the resulting intimidation puts on the electorates, and how it diminishes our democracy. Abati should be ashamed of himself...and so should 90% of Nigerian journalists (less the guys at the Punch- the only true newspaper on the side of the Nigerian people). Guardian is a pathetic case of media failure; very much like the failure of the American media in the run up to the Iraq war. There is no middle ground when fighting injustice, and trying to edge your bets is simply playing the devil. I can handle knowing Thisday and Tribune are no tools in the hands of our oppressors but Guardian? The so called vanguard of truth and good conscience? The flagship of Nigerian journalism? How has the mighty fallen! The media was single handely responsible for the return of democracy to Nigeria, but it is shame they are struggling to enthrone a democratic culture. Our journalists have been taken over by brown envelopes, parochial considerations and need to have access to power. Corrupt power. Laziness prevails in our editorial rooms, where editors like Abati have no appetite for speaking truth to power or conducting detailed investigative journalism that will put EFCC to shame. This article should be titled: "Ekiti: My Cop Out!" Shame on Abati! +1 +1 +1 Reuben is a shadow of himself. I read this on my mobile at a religious function I was invited to (got bored of it but couldnt leave), and the shoddy attempts to rationalize or pose balance, or even worse bark bark and bark without a bite is so pitiful I just felt uncomfortable.... How in the world, there isnt one line of scathing assessment for deadi b00di president is unimaginable, given the atrocious evil the deadman + Okiro + madam disgust Dora + Ayoka perpetuated via the s-election. And he talks about forgetfulness per Nigerians when he clearly actually signals the mass dementia off himself with the style of his delivery ? Reueben's almost become a waste of time, less the Guardian. Bullox.

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