Every situation produces some characters that stand out whether positively or negatively depending on which angle you stand to access it. In the last 17 years, this democracy has not failed in this wise to throw up some unique characters that have contributed significantly in enriching our democratic evolution. One of such characters for our discussion today is the Governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Peter Ayodele Fayose, who has come to symbolize the Peoples’ power in politics. It may be easy to dislike Governor Fayose.
His style may appear very exasperating to many, but it is also not easy to ignore or wave him aside as a mere attention seeker, not after he successfully utilized the peoples’ power the way he did in 2003 and 2014.
My first contact with Governor Fayose was in April 2005, during his first term as Governor of Ekiti state. As the Group Political Editor of THISDAY Newspaper I was anxious to meet a young politician who came from nowhere to defeat the incumbent Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor and son of a highly respected Yoruba retired General, Niyi Adebayo.
This man Fayose had no known rich family background, no enviable educational qualification; in fact, his Higher National Diploma HND was being disputed, as the AD propaganda machine made most Nigerians believe that he had no classmate in Ibadan Polytechnic, where he went. I was longing to interview this young politician who, against all odds, pushed his way into Ekiti Government House.
The opportunity came when one of Fayose’s friend, Collins Edomaruse my colleague and friend in the THISDAY family suggested I visit Ekiti state to see what he did ahead of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s visit to the state.
The visit was to be the first by any Nigerian leader, whether military or civilian since the creation of the state by late dictator General Sani Abacha in 1996, a feat made possible by Governor Fayose. At the interview,
he bared his mind on his two years in office, particularly what he was going to showcase to the visiting President. Before the interview on my arrival at Ado Ekiti the state capital, I was kept at the anteroom of the Governor waiting to be ushered in, but within 15 minutes, Fayose came out wearing a T-shirt, looking smart like someone going for golf or Lawn Tennis training. That was strange to me because it was on a Monday. “Where is the editor from Lagos?” he asked.
I stood up because there were about eight people at the waiting room. “Editor, I know you have no time but I want you to accompany me to one or two functions before the interview”. I obliged thinking we were heading to the vehicle but he hit the road trekking to inspect two projects, a township road and main market all under construction in Ado Ekiti the state capital.
Along the way, he stopped to greet, young, old, male, female, enquiring from them about their families and businesses, and he waited patiently to listen to their responses. He bought ‘akara’ and groundnuts and dropped money as he matched along but never asked for change. As he moved, the crowd followed him in a visible ecstasy, dropping small complaints, which he never ignored. He never failed to reprimand some overzealous security operatives who tried to be harsh on some surging youths.
“Be careful with them, without them me and you won’t be here” he admonished the operatives. After the interview in his office, he insisted that we take lunch together in his house before returning to Lagos. At his house, there was no official, only the wife and a little maid dished the food. All the paraphernalia of office was missing “Editor, manage whatever madam brings, this is how we live, she owns here and I don’t challenge her, we live like this so that when we leave here nothing will change in us” he explained apologetically.
Few months after my trip and after the Presidential visit, where Obasanjo poured encomium on him for his achievements, trouble ensued between him and the President, resulting in his bizarre impeachment. Rumour mill then had it that the laudable poultry project by Fayose, which the visiting Obasanjo found threatening to Ota farm, actually laid foundation for the spat between them. Having been booted out in the polemic impeachment, he did not chicken out.
Rather he tried to keep himself relevant, moving between political parties, but kept himself close to the people. When he showed interest to return to the government house to complete his second term, few took him serious.
Precisely the road and the speed with which he swept the AD incumbent governor in 2003, was what he applied and swept away another gentleman, the incumbent Dr. Kayode Fayemi of APC in 2014, using his now famous stomach infrastructure technique. Since then, the visibly angry and discoloured APC leadership under the command of the Bourdillon political war horse Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, have been applying all means to disconcert him, but he remained firm, relying heavily on the power of the people upon whose mandate he rode to power twice.
To his people, he lives the words he preaches and for that they are ready to die for him. When they came for Fayose using federal might, the people stood, when they used security apparatus, the people stood, when they arm twisted the court to get questionable justice, the people stood, when they used media propaganda to run him down, the people responded swiftly, when they used the legislature to get another questionable impeachment on him, the people still stood and frustrated it.
When Fayose and his people threw stones at a mad dog that has the capacity to bite, the dog feared the crowd and ignored the stone. During the last Presidential campaign, Governor Fayose, more than any other Nigerian politician made more provocative statements and has continued to make, yet in the realm of politics, he remains safer than any other because of the power of the people he enjoys. He has indubitably become the politician who is sometimes stunning and does things in a way that is very different from normal.
His often offensive behaviour and strikingly heretical remarks have somewhat qualified him to wear the garb of L’Enfant Terrible of our democracy. But what goes for him is that while he governs the most elitist state in Nigeria with his downtrodden masses, using his informal method, being with the Okada riders, the disabled, the aged, he never fails to provide those things that even the elite cherish. Why not if one of the most strategic elite leaders in the state, the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado- Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola noted that the Ekiti State governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has and is showing the zeal to re-position education in the state and restore its lost glory.
The renowned lawyer, who commented on the Education Summit organized by the state government, said a similar one organized during Fayose’s first term, really improved the standard of education in the state and catapulted it to be among the best in the country. Chief Afe Babalola was said to have recalled that the governor organized a summit 12 years ago, which yielded fruits as shown by the performance of students from the state in public examinations. According to the astute lawyer, “Fayose is a man of action. I love him because he’s a realistic man.
He’s dynamic, fearless and when he says yes it is yes, when he says no it is no. He is energetic and you need an energetic person to carry out anything you want to do” In the new political dispensation, Governor Fayose has become an enigma of sort when style and method are put in the political laboratory for analysis. He has more than any political actor in recent time demonstrated the fact that in a democracy, power really belongs to the people. Political watchers have seen that even in his shortcomings, he has survived because a body clothed by the people in politics, is sure safe from the pneumonia of the game.
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