EKITI: WHAT TREATMENT DOES FAYOSE DESERVE FROM THE PEOPLE? By Gbenga Ogedengbe
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t want to speak in the tone embedded in this narrative because of Fayemi’s failure to fulfill one vital aspect of his electoral promise if not for Ekiti project that is paramount to me.
For some time now, I am being inundated with cries by some innocent members of the public. In their conditioned opinion, Governor Fayemi should be condemned for doing certain things.
As somebody who is pathologically enthusiastic to take the bad reputation of any selfish government to the stake for public execution where pen would be the AK-47 assault riffle and ink, the bullets.. I would readily arrange available details..
In the arguments of Fayemi’s critics, Governor Kayode Fayemi is serially killing Ekiti State economy by wasting Ekiti State money on frivolities. Their example of such frivolity is that Fayemi gave the outgoing house of assembly members (those he inherited from Dr Ayo Fayose) the opportunity to officially travel out of the country for the first time in their four year tenure which will expire in three weeks’ time.
Instead of going to one of the numerous serene resort centres in Afao Ekiti, Fayemi organised a 3-day retreat in Iloko Ijesa for the states’ new political appointees so that they can understand the purpose of their callings and to enable them identify how to key in to the agenda of his government.
Three, Fayemi would be setting aside N100m every month to gradually clear the backlog of gratuities of some mature citizens of the state who had used the most useful aspect of their lives to serve the state….
Unlike Fayose, Fayemi has not only shown interest but has kick started the process of raising up young Ekiti citizens with special talents rather than doling out money to roadside miscreants and street rascals with a view to putting them on the standby to perform ignoble acts and score cheap political point.
Turning to the elders for a way forward may be pertinent at a time like this. A time in our history, a particular question caused the people in a village to have a rethink in their call that one of their women should be killed by demon for cooking a soup that was not sweet. But as they were about to start invoking demon for the execution, an old man asked a question.
The question, “if demon should be invoked to kill the cook who cooked non tasty soup, what should be invoked to kill the other women who did not cook any soup?”.
So, I wish to use the same wisdom of our forebears by asking similar question; if we must lead Governor Fayemi to the golgotha for holding a retreat in Osun State, what do we do to Fayose who had never organized any retreat and who has not till date accounted for the money meant for such programs?
What do we do to Fayose who did not pick any sense in paying gratuities of Ekiti retirees and who has not also told us where he has kept the money which he could have used for it?
What do we do to Fayose who would prefer his OWN parliamentarians to remain localised and uninformed rather than offering them the opportunity to increase their global exposure. And who has not seen the need to make public on what he had diverted the funds which was meant for retreats, seminars, symposia, public lectures and sensitization programs?
If we are to condemn Fayemi for spending Ekiti money to feed pupils who are the future of Ekiti, how do we pay Fayose who was never concerned about the mental development of Ekiti children and whose own core government policies are to collect tax from those poor pupils, withheld the salaries of their parents and spent the supposed salary on some other more important things which he has not been able to disclose till now?
We must not be unfair. I ask: if Governor Fayemi must be condemned, what treatment does Ayo Fayose deserve from the people???