Ayoka Adebayo: Not a Heroine

Comfort obi

If President Umaru Yar’Adua is wondering why Nigeria, inspite of its human and material resources, is treated with contempt by the civilised world, the shame in Ekiti provides the answer. If anybody still wonders why African countries, some of which military salaries Nigeria has helped to offset, still treat us as nobodies, the shame in Ekiti provides the answer. If we think that given the scenario in Ekiti State, Nigeria will remain in one piece, during and after the 2011 general elections, Ekiti State has just told us to prepare for war.
For weeks, the signs were there that members of the Action Congress (AC), and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), would put us into trouble over Ekiti. For weeks, everybody watched as they pushed Nigeria to the brink. For weeks, they threatened fire and brimstone. The AC’s governorship candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, and his backers, had deployed so much propaganda that it was like heavens would fall if he loses the election. When they say that the people’s will must be respected, it is actually their will they are talking about. The way they were putting it, it was as if Fayemi is an Ekiti son, while Engr. Segun Oni is a bastard. Fayemi was threatening war in Ekiti if he loses. He reminded us of how the civil war started. He reminded us of the wild-wild West. He and his backers pulled no punches in telling us that blood would flow. They asked President Umaru Yar’Adua not to set foot on Ekiti soil to campaign for his party and its candidate. Meanwhile, the AC was using every arsenal in its war chest, including politicising a house Senator Bola Tinubu built for the late Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, to campaign. The PDP had also its own share of intimidation.
The Speaker of the House of Represpentatives, The Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole allowed his mouth to run riot when he said soldiers would be deployed to Ekiti for the election. Given how much the polity was over-heated, the deployment of soldiers would not have been a bad idea. But in saying it, he handed to the AC a blackmail tool which it used to maximum effect.
Finally, the governorship re-election was held, and a tar was cast on Yar’Adua. This is the first election under his watch, and he failed woefullly. Why are we this cursed?
Look at the drama in Ekiti. Tears, sorrow, blood, and embarrassment. Gun shots boomed. People were shot. People were matcheted. Where were the thousands of security agents? A photo-journalist was beaten to a pulp. The police should fish out those who beat him up, and were caught on camera, and treat them like the criminals they are. But the biggest embarrassment in the Ekiti shame is Mrs Ayoka Adebayo, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, who some people now want to cast in the mould of a heroine.
When the AC raised a doubt on her credibility, based on what it termed her intimate relationship with Obasanjo, I was one of those who defended her, wondering what a 74-year-old woman would have with Obasanjo. Now, I regret. This woman was given the responsibility of conducting an election. Twice now, she failed. The court dismissed as a sham, the governorship election she held in 2007. On April 25, 2009, she was given another chance. This time, in only 10 LGAs. She not only failed again, she embarrassed herself and the nation. Mrs Adebayo abandoned her job, and went into hiding.
When nobody could reach her, including her boss, Professor Maurice Iwu, a lie had to be told by Iwu in the confusion which ensued. Iwu said she took ill because of the pressure. But Adebayo put a lie to Iwu’s excuse in an interview purportedly granted by an anonymous PPA chieftain. She said she was not ill, that she escaped so as not to succumb to pressure and announce a fake result; that she was a Christian, and so, her conscience will not allow her tell a lie. So we clap? Not so fast. She has become part of the confusion in Ekiti. In running away, she compromised her job as an umpire. She proved it in her three-paragraph useless resignation letter on April 28, to the President, dripping with insinuations. She said she was resigning her appointment with a heavy heart. She said she resigned because the rule of law and circumstances in Ekiti “changed in the middle of the process." She concluded the damning letter by saying: “My conscience, as a Christian, cannot allow me to further participate in this process.” Shockingly, 24 hours later, she made an about-face, declaring that she was a member of the INEC family, and would go back to Ekiti to finish the election. This is nonsense.
I submit that Adebayo is a bad family member. I submit that she deliberately embarrassed everybody. For those who now want to cast her in the mould of a heroine, I submit that she is not made of the stuff of heroines. She should not be trusted with a sensitive job. She has many questions to answer on her role in the debacle in Ekiti.
Why did she resign? Why did she change her mind? What changed? She said she was being put under pressure to declare fake results. Who put her under pressure? Who gave her the fake results? In case she does not know, what she has done is to cast aspersion on the federal government and INEC. One report said the Vice President was pushing (her?) for a cancellation of the result because Fayemi won? Did Adebayo deny the story? Why does she think she can change her mind on her resignation within 24 hours? Who would take her seriously now? How do we know what her conscience told her before, and what it is telling her now? Why should we believe any result she announces now? The Ekiti State PDP has said they no longer have confidence in her. The party is right. If she declares the AC candidate the winner, the PDP will reject it. And if she declares the PDP candidate the winner, the AC will reject it, and say she was pressurised by INEC and the presidency to declare the PDP candidate winner. Both parties would be right to reject the results.
My submission is that Adebayo is no heroine. She has become part of the Ekiti problem. She has become a tool in the hands of desperate politicians. She cannot be trusted to complete the election. Her resignation should stand. Otherwise, she should be given the sack that she rightly deserves. And, finally, since INEC and Nigeria cannot organise an election even in 10 LGAs, perhaps, we should invite the United Nations to do it for us. Good people, Great Nation? Na lie. The slogan should be: Shameless people! Shameless Nation.