A former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, who is the candidate of the Labour Party in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, in this interview with FEMI MAKINDE, speaks on politics in the state and advises politicians to shun violence. Excerpts:







The Labour Party is new in Ekiti State. Don’t you think this will reduce its chances in the forthcoming elections?



The Labour Party may be new in the state compared to parties like the Peoples Democratic Party and the Action Congress of Nigeria, but you should remember that its driver (me ) is not new. I am very popular and I want to say to you that even if I float another party now, it will still become popular. People now reckon with personalities more than parties. Political parties are very good but you may have a good party with a bad candidate and vice-versa. The Labour Party in Ekiti State is now more than a year old. Besides, we have gone very far to popularise the party. It is now a household name. Everybody in Ekiti knows that Fayose is synonymous with Labour Party and that Labour Party is synonymous with Fayose.



The Independent National Electoral Commission under Prof. Attahiru Jega conducted a by-election in Moba Local Government in December and your party came third. Are you confident that the INEC will be unbiased in the next poll?



I don’t want to talk about the Moba by-election because what happened there was political robbery. An armed robber knows he is an armed robber.



But the general election will be different because the election will not be limited to just five wards like we had in Moba. So perpetrators of the political robbery will face more challenges except they want to mar the name of their party. A good name is far better than winning elections at gun point. What happened in the 2007 elections haunted the perpetrators and hounded them out of office. If you are popular, why do you have to use force? Why do you have to rig? My counsel to everybody is: do what you preach. If you impose candidates, it means you already have the machinery you want to use to rig because you must expect protest votes. My advice to all political parties is, “Don’t do what you have condemned.”



You claimed you had an agreement on the Ekiti Central Senatorial District election with Governor Kayode Fayemi during the 2009 governorship rerun election, but Fayemi denied the claim through one of his aides. Who is saying the truth?



I have a lot of love for Governor Kayode Fayemi. I demonstrated this because I did everything I could for Dr. Fayemi. I used my father’s burial to campaign for him. I rode on okada (a motorcycle) to campaign for him everywhere. I was in all media houses to campaign for him.



We might not acknowledge the truth but we know it. Dr. Kayode Fayemi will forever remember my role if no one else does. Secondly, I have granted an interview where I mentioned the names of prominent people who were at the meeting where we agreed their party (the ACN) would not field any candidate against me in Ekiti Central Senatorial District if I worked for Dr. Fayemi. The meeting, which was held at Ikoyi Towers, had a serving governor in the South-West in attendance. The governor was the chairman of the meeting. I mentioned Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, and Dele Adesina, SAN. I mentioned Omoyeni and other prominent Ekiti indigenes and none of them has come out to deny this. Any aide can come out and talk because he is paid to do that but everybody who denies the truth has conscience. But so far, Governor Kayode Fayemi has not come out to say that there was no agreement between us. It is possible for the governor to be quiet on the matter but he cannot deny it.



Is it true that you are planning to defect to the PDP after the election?



I am the owner of my life and I play politics because I love to play it. I don’t play politics to the admiration of anybody. I came to contest for the governorship race and I won. I am still in politics because I want to be in politics. If I go to another party, it is my prerogative and if I choose not to, it is my right. There is no law which prevents me from joining any political party I wish.



The fact remains that most of my allies are still in the PDP and we remain friends. A lot of people want me back in the PDP but we will keep our fingers crossed and watch as events unfold. In life, nothing is impossible but right now, I am a Labour Party man.



The ACN candidate in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Mr. Babafemi Ojudu has written you off, saying you are no match for him in politics…



I respect Ojudu, Mr. Kayode Alufa of the PDP and other contestants and I see them as good citizens of our state. I will also not run them down and I will not talk much because I am an experienced politician. My mind is now more mature than before. Ojudu is a friend and he is a leader in our state. I know him to be a prominent journalist.



But I will counsel him, as a brother, to talk less. I will advise him to know that politics is different from journalism. It is different from being an activist. I will advise Ojudu to go and calm frayed nerves in his party because he has a lot of issues to contend with before coming to contest. If he wins the election in a transparent way, I will congratulate him. I will not go to court because somebody must win. But I want him to know that this election will not be contested on the pages of newspapers like the way he contested his primaries.



He said in his interview that “How can Dr. Kayode Fayemi leave his party’s candidate and support somebody from another party?” Has he forgotten that I supported Fayemi when I was in the PDP? Ojudu should watch the way he talks. He should drop journalism and activism and let us do politics of gentlemen. I came from my ward and I won the election in the whole state. He said that his people would not vote for me. They were his people when I constructed roads everywhere in Ado-Ekiti. They were his people when I built Fayose Market.


Link;http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201102222422734

I recommend Fayose’s humility, decent use of language and appeal to logic as exhibited in this interview to other politicians.

Fayoshe has indeed matured as this interview is impressive, for a wounded lion to be calm as he his is commendable.