The next governorship election in Ekiti State is one and half years away. But, a gradual build up towards the contest, where Governor Ayodele Fayose is expected to anoint a successor, is already becoming discernible. The governor’s camp is unsettled by an alleged plan to defect to another party, following the protracted crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports.

SINCE last year’s defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the presidential elections, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has been playing the role of a self-acclaimed opposition figure . He is quick to respond to issues concerning the party, particularly at the national level. Apart from his endless criticism of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, Fayose has also been the rallying point of PDP governors, in a bid to bring the party back to winning ways. He had repeatedly vowed never to quit the PDP, even if he remains the lone voice crying in the wilderness. Fayose’s current active role in national affairs is believed to be a ploy to position himself for the 2019 general elections, when he is expected to emerge as the party’s vice presidential candidate.

It is against this backdrop that the governor’s alleged plan to dump the PDP is giving members of the party, particularly in the Southwest, a serious concern. The party has not been able to get its acts together since it lost power at the national level last year. The battle for the soul of the party at the national level between the two factions led by Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff, which began as a child’s play, was left to fester for too long. The crisis has further battered the already bad image of the party. The recent loss of power in Ondo State, to the All Progressives Congress (APC), is believed to be a signal that the ruling party is determined to take over in Ekiti in 2018.

Already, there are cracks within the PDP in Ekiti. Two factions are struggling for the control of the state. The faction loyal to Fayose is led by former Commissioner for Information, Gboyega Oguntuase and it operates from the party’s secretariat. This is the faction loyal to the Makarfi committee. The faction loyal to Sheriff is reportedly being sponsored by the Senator Buruji Kashamu, who represents Ogun East in the upper legislative chamber. It is led by Williams Ajayi and it operates from the state secretariat of Southwest PDP Contact and Mobilisation Committee.

But why would Fayose contemplate leaving the party? Observers believe that the governor is trying to guard against the fate that befell his Ondo State counterpart, Olusegun Mimiko, who is facing the ignominy of not being succeeded by his anointed candidate. Although the Appeal Court has ordered Sheriff to stop parading himself as the PDP National Chairman, there are still some issues to be resolved by the court to lay the leadership tussle bedeviling the party to rest.

Fayose dropped the bombshell that he may dump the PDP on November 30, in Ikere-Ekiti, during a meeting with members of the state chapter of Suppliers’ Association of Nigeria. The governor told his audience that he was still studying the situation on the party platform he would move his political family to, promising to disclose his decision to loyalists and other stakeholders at the appropriate time.

Lamenting on the recent governorship election in Ondo, Fayose alleged that the electorate sold their votes. He promised that the scenario will not repeat itself in Ekiti. He said the victory of Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu, did not confer legitimacy on the election.

On his political future, Fayose said: “I don’t know the platform I will use for the 2018 election yet; at the appropriate time, I will tell you. We are still studying the situation. We have to play the game left, right and centre and whoever we are going to use and the platform, you will all be part of the process, because party politics is about the people.

“You all saw how people sold their votes in Ondo State; I am confident that that will not happen in Ekiti. I am close to the people; you are the source of my strength. Even if it requires just 48 hours to any election, if I tell you where to go, you will surely follow me there.”
At another meeting held with civil servants on Grade Levels 01 to 06, Fayose boasted that he would defeat the APC again in the 16 local government areas in 2018; like he did in the June 21, 2014, governorship contest. He pledged to give priority to workers’ welfare by paying their salaries, carrying them along on receipts from the Federation Account and bridging communication gap with the workers.

Fayose added: “The APC will be fooling itself if it thinks it will conquer Ekiti, like it did in Ondo. Ekiti is a peculiar place and I am the man on ground here. I want to assure my supporters and Nigerians that the APC won’t win a local government here in 2018; even if President Muhammadu Buhari moves down all the money in Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA).

“Governor Olusegun Mimiko and Eyitayo Jegede might have lost in Ondo State, but that does not mean the people voted rightly. In 2015, people clamoured for change and what have we got now? Nigerians are becoming poorer by the day. Today, I am the only one among the APC governors in the Southwest. I am now like the nation of Israel surrounded by enemies. But I shall defeat and triumph over them in 2018.

“The APC has never defeated me in any battle, either political or legal. Whether they like it or not, I will win in Ekiti, no matter the animosity, because I have the people behind me.” Fayose’s remarks shocked many Nigerians, because people are finding it difficult come to terms with the alleged defection plan, given the gusto with which he had defended the party and previous promises he made never to jump ship.

A competent Government House source revealed that Fayose’s phones were inundated with calls from fellow PDP governors, National Assembly members, top shots of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, Board of Trusteees chieftains and other well-meaning Nigerians, who wanted to know whether he really made the statement or not.

Nigerians became more confused the following day, when Fayose used the occasion of conferment of an award of ‘Outstanding Achiever of Our Time’ given to him by the Ado Progressive Union (APU) at the Ewi’s Palace to declare that he will not join the APC. This followed speculations that he was on his way out of the ruling party. Some political pundits said the statement did little to dispel the speculation of his alleged plan to defect from the PDP as “not joining APC does not mean the he won’t quit PDP”.

Fayose said: “I will never dump the PDP for the APC. I remain strong and unshaken for the PDP. I can’t jump the boat, even if I want to jump, I won’t jump into the Red Sea. Why should I leave the PDP and join a party of hunger like the APC? Ekiti is different from Ondo. By the grace of God, there will be a repeat of history here in 2018; I shall repeat the 16-0 that I gave them in 2014.

“I operate like the biblical Elisha, because those with us are greater than theirs. The God of Israel that conquered Philistines shall be on our side. What I said is that if the current man-made crisis rocking the PDP persists till 2018, rather than allow them mess us up, like they did in Ondo, we may have to seek an alternative and credible platform.

“We are not people who betray the confidence of our people. If there will be change at all, it will not be spur-of-the-moment. We shall carry our leaders and the people along.”This is not the first time that Fayose would be enmeshed in defection drama. He had dumped the PDP ahead of the 2011 general elections, when he defected to the Labour Party (LP) to run for Ekiti Central senatorial seat. He was defeated by the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Babafemi Ojudu.

He later came back to the PDP in 2012 when he teamed up with a caucus loyal to former Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Omoniyi Olubolade (retd) to install a new state exco of the party led by Chief Makanjuola Ogundipe ahead of the 2014 governorship election, which he won by defeating the then incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Before the 2011 general elections, he had worked for and sponsored candidates on the platform of political parties like the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) and campaigned for the defunct Action Congress (AC) in the 2009 rerun governorship election.
This time around, speculations are rife that Fayose and his political family are heading to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the platform on which he hopes to anoint a successor, as he is constitutionally barred from running again in 2018.

He was believed to have held meetings with some interest groups in the Southwest APC who were alleged to be on their way out of the ruling party, in protest against the treatment meted out to the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu by forces loyal to the Presidency, ahead of the recent Ondo election.Although Fayose is yet to reveal his next political move, the AD is believed to be the platform he was referring to at the Ikere meeting, because of the thick cloud of uncertainty ominously hanging over the future of the PDP.

The alleged defection drama has sparked exchange of words between the two major parties in Ekiti, the opposition APC and the ruling PDP. While the APC declared that Fayose is not wanted in its fold, the PDP fired back that Fayose has no intention of dumping its platform, saying “nobody will love to leave the city for the jungle” as represented by the APC.

The APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said Fayose is day-dreaming, if he was nursing any hope of seeking refuge in the APC that controls the Federal Government “because he cannot survive in an opposition party”. His words: “Fayose is always seeking to be relevant in party politics with his party dominating at the centre, to enable him get away with his many cases of illegality and lawless conducts. Fayose has been jittery and confused since the PDP lost Ondo State to the ruling APC, against all odds and calculations and as a political gambler, who has traversed many parties since 2003 till present, starting from the PDP to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), the LP, and brief romance with the ACN and the PPA, before moving back to the PDP, he is at his wits again to save his skin.

“Sensing that the PDP is in the throes of death, he is contemplating dumping the party for the APC, but there is no place for him in the APC, as he is only looking for an escape route from prosecution for his various infractions on the law since his first aborted tenure as governor.”

He added: “Fayose is a disgrace to any political association he finds himself. For instance, he chased those who helped him win election in 2003 away from the PDP and attacked several other members with thugs before he was sacked over criminal conduct, only to return to the same party to cause more confusion in Sheriff/Makarfi power tussle, where he paid his benefactors, including Buruji Kashamu, with evil.

“The APC will never accept such a destabilising character and does not have a space for such a demagogue without any ideological bent, other than to seize state powers for personal benefits, after causing confusion and disaffection among the leaders and running members to the bush.
“No amount of defection to any party would save Fayose from prosecution.

It is an act of insincerity on the part of Fayose, who boasts daily that he is the leader of the opposition, to now dump his party for the party in power, with the belief that the move will save him from prosecution. “The party he is planning to defect to is the same party whose members he has clamped in jail for over two years on trumped-up charges and whose many members were harassed, maimed and chased out of town shortly before the Presidential and National Assembly elections in 2015.”

In a quick response, the PDP Publicity Secretary, Jackson Adebayo, accused the APC of being responsible for flying the kite of Fayose’s “purported defection plan” which he said only exists in the imagination of the opposition. Adebayo said the defection rumour was being sponsored by the opposition to confuse the people in a bid to score cheap political points. He said Fayose is focused on providing good governance to the people who elected him and rejected the APC in the 2014 governorship poll.

He said: “The statement coming from the APC that Governor Ayo Fayose is not wanted in their party is unfortunate, because no reasonable Nigerian would even want to join the APC that has brought Nigeria to its knees within short period its stint in power. “Fayose can never contemplate going to the APC for anything, let alone becoming its member, because decamping from the PDP to a party like the APC is akin to jumping from land into a dangerous deep sea. The statement by the APC cannot be separated from the level of intelligence of those who spewed the propaganda in the first instance. The APC has confirmed that its handlers have been sold into the delusional mentality, hence they don’t know how well to promote their party again.

“The governor had said earlier that he would never have anything to do with the APC, because it is only a politician who deliberately wants to commit political suicide that could be nursing the ambition of decamping to the dying party now. “Fayose does not possess the characteristic of an average APC person whose only political strategy is propaganda and economic innovation is recession and depression and whose government’s anti-corruption war is fake; like what we are experiencing under President Muhammadu Buhari.

“If the APC should have a dream of having a new member they should not waste their time looking in the direction of Governor Ayo Fayose. Rather, the party should focus its attention on how to solve its internal crisis, which has pitched its former governor in Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi against his mentor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

“Fayose is not given to deceit and fake promises, which is the hallmark of the APC, because the welfare of the people is paramount to him, unlike the APC which is impoverishing the country. The APC statement has also confirmed that all the so-called anti corruption war of the Buhari-led administration is designed to threaten the opposition, so that they could decamp to the APC and become saint.

“We want to say without sounding immodest that even if the APC consults oracle from now till 2018, Fayose will not join them because nobody would leave city for the jungle to search for mansion.”

Fayose is clever

Though am not a fan of Fayose

yns4real:
http://thenationonlineng.net/fayoses-2018-calculations/

copy and paste the full gist jare