The Ekiti State gubernatorial election will soon take place this weekend, and politicking has been taken to a very high level in the state. A lot of intrigues and even controversies, claims and counterclaims have been seen and/or heard. But the question paramount on everyone’s lips is “who will win the election?” Is it the incumbent governor, the cerebral Dr. John Kayode Fayemi or the gregarious former governor, Ayodele Fayose? I think the governorship race is between these two contestants even if there are other candidates.
I do not live in the state
so it will be difficult to compare the tenure of Fayose when he was governor
with the tenure of the present governor, Fayemi. But friends and colleagues who
live in the state or who have had cause to travel to the state in the recent
past have brought news to me of the goings-on in the state the likely winner of
the election.
If one was to judge by the
incumbent governor’s pedigree as a PhD holder one would conclude that residents
of the state would have had it good in the last four years but we cannot go by
that because the person at the helm of affairs in the country also boast of a
PhD but Nigerians cannot say it’s been some wonderful five or so years. One may
also want to quickly assume that with Ayo Fayose’s educational background, he
would pose no real threat to the ambitions of JKF, as the incumbent governor is
popularly referred to. But such an assumption will be a very costly one.
Feelers from Ekiti State
suggest that a sizable chunk of the state’s population is not satisfied with
the performance of the incumbent governor thus giving Fayose the chance to win
the approaching election. In fact, Fayose is said to be riding on the persona
that he is man of the people and he is making claims that he is closer to the
people of the state and more popular than the governor. It is also said that the
residents of the state believe the former governor performed fairly well when
he was governor of the state and so is likely to do well if given another
chance.
Why will a less educated and
uncouth impeached former governor be a great threat a refined and suave
incumbent governor? Since I am not resident in the state I can only hazard some
guesses. It is very possible that JKF has not demonstrated enough to the people of
Ekiti State that he can bring about the desired improvements the citizens of
the state so eagerly desire or maybe the think he is too slow. It is also
possible that Ekiti people do not think of the governor as someone who is in
touch with the realities of the common man and that voting Fayose into power
will bring government closer to the people. Maybe it is because JKF has not
done what Fashola has done in Lagos, Aregbesola in Osun and Oshiomole in Edo.
One thing that is certain is
that if Kayode Fayemi loses the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State, it will
be because he failed to totally extinguish the influence of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in the state through numerous commendable and undeniable achievements. But the
truth is that I will be sad to see such a fine and polished
gentleman as JKF lose the upcoming election in Ekiti State. Whatever the outcome of the election may be, my number one wish is that the election be free and fair.
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