My colleagues, is this the dance of the witches in broad daylight or what? But witches don't operate in broad daylight. Pls, I am confused, try and convince me. Happy reading:
SENATOR BURUJI KASHAMU's INTERVIEW ON GOV AYO FAYOSE OF EKITI !
The hard truth is that the architect of the current crisis facing the PDP is Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State.
That is why he has been the most vociferous and the loudest among the governors striving laboriously to justify his “bolekaja” and thuggish kind of politics.
I saw him the other day on TV after the PDP Governors’ Forum meeting expressing his jaundiced personal views as those of the Forum. He is the only one who can indulge in such loose talks as if his job as governor is to be shooting from the hip at all times.
He talks down on the President and every other person as if that is the job he was elected to do as Governor of Ekiti State, at the detriment of the good people of the state.
I am aware that various aids and intervention programmes of the Federal Government, such as the Cashew/Cococa and Fertiliser Intervention Funds have been launched, without Ekiti State benefitting from them because he refused to attend or send representatives to the meetings held in respect of the programmes before they were launched.
He has used the same blind politics to scheme Ekiti State out of the recently-launched School Feeding Programme. He neither attended the launch nor sent a representative. In one breath, he said the invitation was sent late.
The next moment, he said Ekiti State does not have money to support it. But, when it comes to his fancies, the state will have money to meet them. Every Friday, he hosts young girls of easy virtues, who are young enough to be his grand children, lavishing money on them.
He betrayed the trust of one of his aides who had worked for him for over 20 years by sleeping with his wife. Today, two of the five children born by the woman are for him. He slept with the girlfriends of two of his children. One of them got annoyed and made away with millions of naira.
In Port Harcourt, when Fayose saw that Sheriff would not support his VP ambition, he resorted to blackmailing him. At a time Ekiti workers are suffering because of his inability to pay salaries, he took the state funds to pay lawyers and part-sponsor the botched convention where he said they spent N1.5billion.
Fayose alleged that Sheriff has Presidential ambition and lied that he had promised him Vice-Presidential ticket, just like he had allegedly promised other governors.
The question is: even if it is true that Sheriff promised him such, people should ask him why it took Sheriff’s refusal to be his lapdog for him to begin to sing like a bird? I know many
governors who have Vice-Presidential ambitions like Fayose, and quite naturally they were angry and decided to move against Sheriff when they heard that some other persons had been promised the same ticket.
They fell for Fayose’s cheap blackmail of Sheriff with the intention to disgrace him out of office. They sought to embarrass an accomplished Nigerian and rubbish his career, forgetting that they were the same people who brought him months ago and told the rest of us to support him as the best man for the job.
When they saw that they could not manipulate him as they had erroneously thought, they resorted to lying against him. We are not fools.
It was based on the position of the Governors that Sheriff was the best man for the job, other critical stakeholders and organs of the party followed them. We trusted their sense of judgment because we know some of them are well-exposed and educated.
Confusion set in when they allowed a psychiatric patient from the South West to brainwash and manipulate them; it is like mixing apples with oranges.
The questions all genuine stakeholders should ask are: Why is it that no National Chairman of the PDP has stayed for four years? Why do we take delight in disgracing and embarrassing them out of office?
Do we enjoy the bad reputation of being seen as a lawless organization? If there is anyone or group of persons that is making this bad image to stick, it is those trampling on due process, the rule of law and the constitution of our party. You do not use the media to destroy people’s career, and by extension the party.
I am not against members of the National Caretaker Committee but the process that brought them is faulty and it has to be addressed in such a way that whatever they do will not be injurious to the party in the nearest future. For me, the process is as important as the end that we earnestly seek.
In my position paper, I proposed that the NEC give dignified respite to Sheriff and
subsequently ratify the appointment of members of the Caretaker Committee in such a way that they will become members of an interim National Working Committee that will pilot the affairs of the party till an acceptable and all-embracing National Convention is held.
There was no need to resort to impunity and the attendant public ridicule that the actions and inactions of a few misguided persons have brought upon the party.
I agree that nobody is bigger than the party and the National Convention is the highest decision-making organ of the party. But, this saying should not be limited to certain people. It should also apply to Governors, lawmakers, BoT members and other classes of people.
Let us not just parrot it when it is convenient for us. If anything, I dare say that those that are trampling on the constitution of the party and the rule of law are the people acting as if they are bigger than the party and the laws of the land.
The National Convention and the party itself are creations of the law and they cannot be bigger than the Nigerian constitution which created the courts. Instead of resorting to hooliganism and violence, the courts are there for civilized people to ventilate their grievances and allow the courts to adjudicate on them.
Alternatively, being political issues, they can be resolved in a give-and- take manner. But, people have to be open-minded, genuine and sincere.
I wish to also say that the renewed hostilities would not have arisen if the issues had been well managed. There was an impasse and the Police moved in and sealed off the National Secretariat.
Upon the intervention of our respected leaders and elders in the BoT, the Police opened the secretariat and handed it over to them. How could anyone have handed over the secretariat to one of the contending parties without reaching a truce with the other party? That was what raised the tension between the contending groups.
But thankfully, apart from the issues being in court, respectable leaders and elders of the party have intervened and peace talks are ongoing.
The tension between the Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State and the Federal Government is palpable, what do you think is the reason for this imbroglio?
Recent revelations have shown that Fayose has been lying and deceiving Ekiti people and Nigerians that he is fighting for the masses.
Where is his credibility with all the revelations we are now hearing?
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Nigerians can now see that all of Fayose’s criticisms against the anti-corruption fight and other policies of the Government are self-serving.
As the Governor of Ekiti State, the welfare of the people of the state and Nigerians from all walks of life who live in the state should be his priority. And no interest, whether political or otherwise, should override that.
He chose to elevate rabid criticisms of almost every action of the Federal Government as if that is the official policy of the state government or what he was elected to do and as if that is what will bring the dividends of democracy to the good people of Ekiti State.
For goodness sake, the elections are over. Every reasonable politician and leader should know that what will matter at the end of the day is what you were able to do for the people and not how strident you were in criticizing anyone.
It should be recalled that I had in the past stated that the loudest and the most vociferous among us are not necessarily the cleanest. Some of them have defecated in the public arena.
They have skeletons in their cupboard and merely want to prepare the ground to make their wanton criticisms of the government their alibi when the searchlight is turned on them. Now the wind has blown and the fowl’s anus has been opened.
He kept acting as if he was a messiah that was fighting for the interest of the masses whereas he was one of the beneficiaries of the funds that were meant to buy arms for the security of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Even if he says someone does not know how to do it right, the questions to ask are: what has he done differently? What innovation has he brought to governance in Ekiti State?
How come once there is a shortfall in monthly allocation governance grinds to a halt in the state? Does he have the moral right to criticize anyone if he cannot provide answers to these posers?
Now that his secrets have been exposed, he lied against Zenith Bank that it was the bank that funded his election.
How could a bank fund anybody’s election? The most any organization can do is to make a donation towards a candidate’s cause. They do it across the board, but not so much as to claim that the bank was the major sponsor of his election.
He didn’t say how much Zenith Bank gave him. I think he decided to rope in the bank because he felt the bank did not cooperate with him. I will not be surprised if he chooses to implicate more individuals and organizations in his desperate bid to extricate and exonerate himself.
But thankfully, records don’t lie. If the bank did, the records will show it; if not, the records will also show it. And there are people involved in all these transactions.
The other day, he turned a visit meant to discuss the state’s indebtedness to the bank given recent developments into a comic show, saying the bank officials came to beg him. How does that comedy show detract from the facts of the case as rightly put out by the media and EFCC?
We have also heard that he ran to the bank two weeks ago asking them to perfect the records.
In his statement, Fayose claimed that the bank asked him to submit the name of a trusted ally in whose name the account could be opened.
That in itself is curious. How could a bank have suggested to you in whose name an account should be opened and you agreed if you have no criminal motive or intention? I think he suffered some kind of depression when he was younger.
Only God knows what happened to him in his early years. While he was in Ibadan, he was said to have worked as a courier of some prohibited substances for a certain Charlie, maybe he is still high on those substances.
That must be the reason why he is attacking innocent people and even those who helped him on his way up. He has betrayed almost all his benefactors and paid them back in bad coin, destroying the lives of over 40 of them.
But Fayose insists that he is being targeted because of his principled stand against the APC-led Federal Government and his fight for the interests of the masses?
It is all deceit. What principles is he talking about? It is all about his personal interest. First, he wants to be seen as the leader of the opposition; two, he wants to position himself for the Vice-Presidential ticket of the PDP in 2019 and he wants to prepare the ground to blackmail the Government as he is doing now once they call him to account for the arms fund which he also benefitted from.
In essence, it is all about his interest alone and not that of the highly sophisticated and good people of Ekiti State, let alone other Nigerians. This is not about political party affiliation or any other interest. I have always condemned all those who diverted the funds that were meant to secure Nigeria and Nigerians.
This is about a few individuals feeding fat on our commonwealth at the detriment of the vast majority of our people. Instead of the beneficiaries to accept their faults and apologise to Nigerians, they are trying to justify the unjustifiable and grandstanding all over the place. It is a shame.
I have it on good authority that the former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro is willing to testify against Fayose as a prime witness. ‘Koro told a lawyer that he was sent to give Fayose over N2 billion from the arms fund in the build up to the governorship primary election.
He said he could not understand why Fayose is running his mouth, abusing the President, his wife and everybody when he knows he is culpable. So, why is Fayose lying and deceiving the good people of Ekiti State, Nigerians and the international community? He is fooling himself, not anyone.
The good and sophisticated people of Ekiti State gave him another opportunity because they thought he would have changed. Indeed, he told everyone and anyone who cared to listen that he was a changed person; more matured and experienced.
But alas, it is a fluke. For a man who could hardly pay his bills, we now know that in just two years, he has bought houses in Lagos and Abuja and a lot of exotic cars while workers are being owed in Ekiti State.
People are hungry and relocating to their villages because of the poor economic situation in the state. How can a man who is fortunate enough to escape from the throes of poverty consign others to it? One would have thought that his various life experiences would have shaped him into a better person. He once told me of how he worked as a bus conductor and danfo (bus) driver in Ibadan.
One would have thought that all the years he was shouting “Mokola, Mokola”; “Bodija, Bodija”; “Dugbe, Dugbe” all over Ibadan would have changed his perception, character and disposition.
At least he later managed to go the Polytechnic in Ibadan. If he did not go to school, people would have said he is behaving the way he does because he did not go to school.
The education should have made him to be intelligent a bit.
Although it is true that education itself does not guarantee intelligence. The irony is that before he became governor he was going everywhere prostrating; he could hardly feed and pay his bills. After his emergence as Governor, he turned himself to a thin-god.
When he is going on the road, he will be pushing people off the road as if the other road users do not have the right of way.
I have cautioned him twice against such attitude. I told him that it was important for him to always realise that all powers belong to the Almighty Allah, and so he should be humble and learn to invest in people. But, he will not. Rather, he continued in his arrogance and only gives to girls in exchange for their bodies. God neither sleeps nor slumber.
But some people argue that the actions of the EFCC are arbitrary and unlawful, how would you react to this?
On the contrary, I commend the acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, for the detailed and methodological approach to their investigations. The EFCC under Magu is more professional and thorough. The President did not make a mistake in appointing Magu. He has shown that he is a thorough-bred professional, a crack detective, a patriotic Nigerian and a man of integrity. That is not to say they might have some shortcomings as with every human organisation. But, let us be real and honest with ourselves. Given the harm that corruption has done to our country, there is no way this country will move forward without first cleaning the Augean Stable. And this must be done with some level of zeal and seriousness, albeit within the ambit of the law.
The problems in various parts of our national life are caused majorly by corruption. Mr. President, I urge you to continue to clean up Nigeria for a better tomorrow. I wish to implore my fellow Nigerians to patiently continue supporting the anti-corruption fight. What has come to the open is that the funds that could have been used to secure our country, build infrastructure and develop our economy were cornered by a few people through various means. And as people gradually realize that there are consequences for every act of corruption that they perpetrate, they will be careful and the nation will be the better for it; and within the next one year or thereabout things will improve. Meanwhile, let all those who have questions to answer honourably do so.
But as a serving governor, Fayose enjoys immunity...
I think it is high time the National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Government in general took another look at the Immunity Clause. I am sure that the intendment of the drafters of our constitution was not to provide a cover for criminals in public offices. The drafters of our constitution had expected the highest level of responsibility from our leaders and thought it fit to provide for their immunity to prosecution. But when people have demonstrated crass irresponsibility and betrayed the trust of the people, I think we should take another look at such a provision. We should not condone criminals and allow them to hide under the Immunity Clause to shield them from being held accountable for their actions. Can a lawless person enjoy immunity? Can immunity cover someone who is involved in treasonable acts by going against the interests of his state and nation? Is such a person qualified to enjoy immunity from prosecution?
Fayose cannot seek refuge from laws he flagrantly violates because he can simply refer to Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution. I cannot imagine how someone who has been a beneficiary of the law and derives his authority and power from the law would boldly encourage the violation of the same law. Let’s take a look at his track records; he knew that the tenure of the South West Zonal exco has not expired and the court ordered that no election should be conducted to replace them, yet he chose to ignore the court order and went ahead to organize a sham congress.
He took the impostors and another set of renegades from Ogun State to the National Convention in clear violation of the party’s constitution and subsisting orders of the court.
As if all these were not enough, he printed and super-imposed the name of fake delegates as representing the zonal exco and other states in the South West that refused to join him in his illegalities. He went against the orders of the court and the sound legal advice of his lawyers on the impropriety of his actions. I think it is safe to say with his current predicament, it is the Law of Karma that is catching up with him.
