EKITI DECIDES: How parties stand in the districts

We are ready —Ekiti electorate:

THE Ekiti governorship election is just a few days away, and thus comes the long-awaited July 14th, 2018 for Ekiti people to elect a new governor. The various political parties involved in the election have been engaged in various forms of campaigns to attract the electorate and make them vote for their candidates.

Chief Segun Adewale of Action Democratic Congress (ADC); Chief Bisi Omoyeni, now of Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN); Mr. Akin Aiyegbusi of the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Reverend Tunde Afe of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP); Chief Abiodun Aluko of Accord; Ambassador Dare Bejide of People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN) and Mr Emmanuel Agboola of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) have all been visible in the state in the run up to the election.

They have all created various impacts on the electorate and also in various ways, they have been receiving the reviews of the prospective voters and commentators. The candidates themselves have been highlighting their unique selling points, all for the favour they seek from the people which is their votes.

The electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that the contest involves 35 political parties and candidates, but certain developments have rejigged the numbers. For instance, Chief Bisi Omoyeni of Mega Party was the candidate of People’s Alliance for National Development and Liberty (PENDEL), but has upstaged Dr Sunday Balogun through a court order. Thus, PANDEL no longer has a candidate in the election, thereby changing the number of candidates.

However, the Ekiti electorate claim they are ready for the various candidates as they file out on Saturday, some of them told Sunday Tribune. The people also said that they are also looking forward to a fair conduct of the polls by INEC, as well as the provision of adequate security for all and sundry by the various agencies saddled with that responsibility.

Part of the activities to show their readiness, according to an observer, is their swarming of the INEC secretariat in Ado Ekiti on Monday last week for their voter cards. The prospective voters had stormed the INEC office in their hundreds, claiming that they wanted their cards, which they had left unattended to for nearly four years since the last election, in the state’s INEC office. Some people in the crowd had even contended that their cards had allegedly been sold by officials of the commission.

As awkward as the timing of the people’s action was, INEC through its public relations officer in the state, Mr Taiwo Gbadegesin, still responded to and acted on their request. Gbadegesin said their cards had been available all along, and that they were being sorted according to their local governments. He said they would be delivered to their various local government secretariats where the people would collect them accordingly.

 

The contenders:

As much as the campaigns have gone in the state capital and other major towns of Ekiti State, there are contentions still that many of the candidates would not muster enough clout to be categorised as some others. It is the belief in many quarters in and outside the state that, the efforts of the other political parties notwithstanding, the election is mainly between two candidates.

The entire processes of the build-up to the election lend credence to the contention that the candidates of ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Kolapo Olubunmi Olusola and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr John Kayode Fayemi, are the two major men in the picture of the electorate.

It is the observation of many that, at every major stop in the run up to Saturday’s election, the actions of PDP and APC and their candidates have been the determinant of the reactions of the Ekiti electorate and the general public. For instance, the rallies that had been talked about were those of the two political parties, even though the SDP also had a rally that was large and colourful.

Some Ekiti people outside the state also corroborate these contentions and even suggest that some of the political parties in the race should cede their places and join any of the major contenders. The claim of those in this school of thought is that at the end of the day, the parties they have placed under the others would end up “spoiling the votes of the major political parties and in some cases, impact negatively on the chances of their communities that belong to those major parties.”

 

A look at the districts

Observers of the events in the party cited the instance of the candidates from Ekiti South district, especially Ikere community where no fewer than three candidates hail from. Ikere community is believed to be the headquarters of Ekiti South Senatorial district and is reputed to have the highest number of votes in the state after Ado Ekiti.

Three candidates namely Professor Kolapo Olusola of the PDP; Chief Abiodun Aluko of Accord and Chief Bisi Omoyeni of MPN are all from Ikere-Ekiti, and some observers are of the opinion that the emergence of these prominent sons of the town would not be healthy for the votes of any of them. It is their belief that if they rally together and support one, in one of the parties the community stands a better chance of producing a governor of the state.

However, some others are of the opinion that the candidacy of Chief Omoyeni in MPN and Chief Aluko in Accord will not negatively affect the chances of Professor Olusola of the PDP. Their contention is that PDP presents the community the best opportunity to produce a governor for the South district, which has never produced a governor since the creation of Ekiti State. They cited the example of many of their “popular sons and daughters with electoral value,” whom they said had “rallied behind Professor Olusola not because they belong to the PDP but because our community interest matters more to them and their personal interests, because this would count in the end.”

A prominent son of Ikere told Sunday Tribune on Friday that it is expected that some few people will not queue behind the man who stands the best chance to win in the election. He said: “We’ve seen that before. During the time of the election that produced Bamidele Olumilua, most of us knew that it was the chance of Ikere and we said let’s stand behind our son. But we have a few people who chose to disregard that path. At the end of the day, Olumilua got over 90 per cent of the votes from the town.”

The Ikere enthusiast said “many of us are not politicians, and we don’t belong to any political party. We are more interested in the development of Ikere-Ekiti and indeed, Ekiti State. So, we see the opportunity to achieve our dream to produce a governor of the state as a people. That is what interests us the most.

“We have weighed our chances with the options presented us by the various political parties. We and all others have seen that it is obvious that the platform that offered Professor Olusola (Eleka) its ticket has the widest reach and is strong indeed to win the election. So, as a reasonable people, we opted for that and we believe that as they say “minority will have their say, majority will have their way’ and we the majority of Ikere people have decided to go with Professor Olusola and PDP.”

Beyond Ikere, the election is also a test of the Ekiti South agenda, for which many people had stuck out their necks for the zone to produce a governor of the state. The Senator representing Ekiti South in the National Assembly, Mrs Biodun Olujimi, has been campaigning for the PDP on this plank of thought. Olujimi, who is the Senate Minority Whip, is said to have been going through the six local governments that make up her constituency for this purpose.

However, the APC also has presence in Ikere. A member of the state’s House of Assembly, Mr Sunday Akinniyi recently defected to the APC to join in the campaign for APC’s Dr Fayemi. Also, the aspirants in the party who contested the APC ticket with Dr Fayemi are still in the town and the belief is that they would work for their party, and among them is a former commissioner in the Fayemi administration, Mr Funminiyi Afuye.

There are numerous APC chiefs in the other towns that make up Ekiti South district, including Chief Yemi Adaramodu, from Ilawe, who are all working hard to ensure victory for their party.

Prince Dayo Adeyeye, who said he wouldn’t work with the candidate of PDP, has even pitted himself against the party and had gone all out when he defected to the APC. His clout in the South district is also under test, as people are on the lookout for what the turnout of the election would be in his native Ise-Ekiti and the entire district.

Apart from Ekiti South West and Ikere local governments, Ekiti East, Gbonyin, Emure and Ise/Orun (Prince Adedayo’s  local government) are the tigers that make up the district.

 

North vs South?

The fact that Dr Fayemi hails from Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government of Ekiti North district has thrown up the North versus South contention among some observers of Saturday’s election. The holders of this opinion, who are sympathetic to the cause of Ekiti South agenda, held that the diverse communities in Oye Local Government and indeed Ekiti North were not united in their support for Dr Fayemi.

But this contention was punctured with the argument by the supporters of Fayemi that his popularity, said to have been earned because he worked hard when he served the first term as governor, made him popular among the people not just in Ekiti North, but across the state.

“In Ifaki, the APC has Chief Segun Oni and Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi in Oye, Senator Ayo Arise and others are there and you can keep counting the political heavyweights like that whose clout would swing the election in our favour in the North district,” a supporter of Fayemi, who gave his name as Idowu Ogundele stated.

The north versus south contention, however, isn’t pronounced from the responses from the people.

 

What the Central holds

The central district is where the two APC and PDP picked their candidates’ running mates from. The PDP settled for 39-year-old Mr Kazeem Ayodeji Ogunsakin, which the party also intends to represent the Muslim community, while the APC chose 74-year-old veteran, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi as Dr Fayemi’s running mate. Both Egbeyemi and Ogunsakin are prominent sons of Ado Ekiti Local Government, and both represent different generations of the people. Chief Egbeyemi has experience on his side while he is also said to have been a kind of rallying point for the members of the APC as, according to sources, “he was the choice that didn’t bring any rancour after our rancorous primary election.”

Ogunsakin, on his part, is to satisfy the yearning of the Ekiti Muslim community who had demanded nothing less than the position of a deputy governor. Being a son of a former Chief Imam, Ogunsakin some have contended, “fits into the mould and being young, at 39, he also represents the youth and also brings the ‘not-too-young law’ into effect in Ekiti State.”

Both parties are keen in getting the upper hand in the votes of Ado Ekiti, which is the prime voting community in the state.

Governor Ayodele Fayose, the chief promoter of Professor Olusola is also from the Central district, hailing from Afao community in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area. Both the APC and PDP claim to have made gains in the Central district. Last week, APC supporters in the state had widely used the social media to celebrate what they claimed was the defection of Senator Fatimat Raji-Rasaki, representing the Central District, to the APC. Although Mrs Raji Rasaki herself has not confirmed the widely posted defection, she has not denied it either, directly or indirectly.

The many communities in the district would also play major roles in who emerges the governor after the election. There have been movements in Ijero, Efon, Aramoko, Igede, Iyin, Erijiyan, Okemesi, Ipole, Ido Ile and many other communities in the area.

The parties are ready and the people have also expressed readiness to participate in the election. The police authorities have established its Police Complaint Rapid Response Unit in the state ahead of the polls and also expressed its plans to ensure a smooth exercise. By next Sunday, Nigerians would see how the election has played out.