Fayose’s Return

Comfort Obi

Ayo Fayose, former governor of Ekiti State, returned home on Tuesday, December 4, thus ending a one year self-exile. Fayose, you would remember, was impeached in controversial circumstances.
A carefree and quarrelsome fellow, he fell out with almost every who is who in Ekiti State. It was like he had something against the elite, including traditional rulers. He behaved as if he was on a vengeance mission against the rich who, as a kid, he probably saw as oppressors, and the learned, who he felt were laughing at him because he had no doctorate degree, and was not a professor – a common thing in Ekiti! He regarded himself as one with a mass appeal. Atimes, he went to road side bukas to have his meal. But those were not his undoing.
What undid him was what his political opponents tagged his “intolerance.” They alleged that he never brooked any opposition. He confronted alleged opponents head-on. He was alleged to be the brain behind a few murders in the state. Another charge is that of alleged corruption. A tooth brush was used to look at every contract he awarded. Petitions, in their dozens, were sent to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The most compelling was the Ekiti poultry project. But the allegations never moved Fayose. He was an emperor. He spoke with confidence, invoking emotions. Once, I caught myself shedding tears as I watched him vigorously telling his listeners: "My only crime is that my parents are poor." He looked so helpless and abandoned. But that was in his final days in office. Before then, he had relied on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his political godfather. But soon, typical of Obasanjo, he abandoned Fayose mid-way. When some members of the State House of Assembly connived with the EFCC to impeach him, Faysoe fled the country. But on Tuesday, December 4, he came back to Ekiti.
For all the serious allegations against him, Fayose didn’t come back like a prodigal son. He arranged a triumphant return. Thousands of people – the elderly, the young, civil servants, school children, market men and women – trooped out to welcome him. He rode in an open jeep, and drove round the state capital like a victorious war general. At some points, he stopped to address the people. The crowd was unprecedented. For security, he used the "OPC squad." Nobody could dare him. Even when the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Femi Bamisile, wanted to meet him to, allegedly, warn him of the security implications of what he was doing, the OPC stopped him. Fayose intervened.
He came back battle-ready. The way he dressed showed that. An army khaki trouser and shirt with a face cap of the same colour. And he was in a combative, talkative mood. He said he came back to face the EFCC and to clear his name. He said: “I have forgiven everybody. Politics of bitterness is not possible in Ekiti State because we are all one." Surprising. He didn’t quite see it that way when he was reigning. But soon, he veered into politics, and became confrontational. While claiming to still be in the PDP, he provocatively waved a bunch of broom sticks (the AC symbol) at the crowd. Then he said: “If it is People’s Democratic Party that will make Ekiti better, I am in support, and if it is Action Congress, it is good.” He alleged that he left the sum of N5.4 billion in the state’s coffers and another N1.4 billion as payment to Oodua Group. Who asked him? He accused the Governor, Engr. Segun Oni, of sitting on his personal effects. Why didn't he pack them when he was running away?
Fayose's triumphant return shows what a sick society we are in. Here is a man who fled the country on serious allegations of murder and looting of the state treasury. And here, the people whose relations he allegely killed, whose treasury he allegedly looted, are welcoming him like a king. What does that teach us? And where does it leave the war on corruption? It shows that no matter how crooked a man is, he can be white-washed as long as there is cash. It shows that it is the people who encourage the atrocities being committed by their leaders. Money is the ultimate. Otherwise, what would those thousands of people be doing welcoming Fayose?
Even school children? Who sent them? The meaning is that their teachers joined them. I suggest that the Headmasters and Principals of such schools be seriously disciplined by the government. And civil servants? They too joined the groove. Those civil servants who left their offices to join Fayose’s party should be shown the way out. They are idle.
As for Fayose, his loud return, and utterances show that he has learnt nothing. Otherwise, he would have come in quietly, and gone with his lawyers to the EFCC to start the process of clearing his name. His behaviour on arrival is not only uncivilised, it is obscene. What did he want to prove? That he is popular? Indeed, that is the behaviour of the average Nigerian politician.
DSP Alamieyeseigha did the same thing on arrival from prison. He was later to turn history upside down while telling his listeners why he was arrested. Joshua Dariye did the same on arrival from London after his arrest. A few weeks ago, he shamelessly alleged that the EFCC had stolen the money he stole from his impoverished state. They did not declare all the money they got from him, he alleged.
But back to Fayose. He was lucky that Governor Oni ignored his antics, either because he is a gentleman, or because he is not yet sure how his case before the Election Tribunal will go. Otherwise, he would not have been allowed to shamelessly drive round the state like he did, not to talk of addressing the people. In his days in office, Fayose wouldn’t have allowed such rascality. Was it not the same Fayose who kept his former colleague, Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, under “House Arrest” for entering Ekiti without permission? It is a shame.