The newly appointed Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi on Public Communications, Segun Dipe, has hit the ground moving fast with a quick demand from the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose, to apologise to the people of the state, for despoiling their values and giving them poor image in the eyes of the world.
Dipe, in a release today described Fayose’s four-year reign between October 2014 and October 2018 as the worst that ever happened in Ekiti, which every discerning son and daughter must never wish for again.
He described Fayose as an enemy of the people, who came to Ekiti to loot, to kill and to destroy. He added that Fayose’s indecency so rubbed off on the image of the state that people started regarding everyone from Ekiti negatively.
“Fayose was a disaster that happened to Ekiti. He ruled as if his reign had no expiry date. He had no respect for the rule of law, he was the executive, the legislative and the judiciary rolled into one, preparing the state budget, presenting it to himself and approving it by himself.”
The erudite journalist and former Editor with The Punch Newspaper said though Fayose would be brought to book, his negative vibes on the rhythm of Ekiti State would continue to resonate for a long time and never again would such a mindless rascal be allowed to govern a state such as Ekiti.
Dipe recalled that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, which is Fayose’s political party, once tendered an unreserved apology to Nigerians for shamelessly throwing the nation into economic mess in its sixteen harrowing years of reign and urged Fayose to also be man enough to do the same to the people of Ekiti.
“Ekiti people are ready to forgive Fayose, if he can confess his sins, repent from his ways and tender an unreserved apology to them. But history will not forgive him if he fails to show remorse with the way he had despoiled Ekiti. He scammed the people who pride themselves in their academic feats and prowess.
“Ekiti people are genuinely principled. Due to their display of high dose of integrity and sincerity, Dr. Fayemi elevated the motto of the state to “Land of Honour; land of integrity, ( *ile iyi, ile eye* )” in 2011 during his first tenure, but Fayose came back to reverse the motto, perhaps because he could not uphold such high value.
“Fayose ruled with deception. Due to his avarice, he threw the state deep into a humongous debt of N120bn. He didn’t do so to meet the needs of the people, but he wasted it on his personal needs. Despite the huge borrowing, the various bailouts he got directly from the federal government and the heavy taxes he imposed on the people and their children, Fayose still refused to honour his monthly commitment to the workers, owing them months of salary and throwing crumbs at them once in a blue moon. Whereas he was pretending to be a man of the people, an ‘Ore mekunu’.
“Where he could not steal directly without drawing the ire of the EFCC and other security operatives, Fayose would come up with phoney projects, hugely inflate the contract figures and rush to execute them in a shady manner. Three good examples are the needless Fajuyi Bridge in Ado Ekiti, the new High Court, which has been criticised as ill-conceived, ill-executed, and his much trumpeted Oja Oba market, which he rushed to build without minding the structural defects, yet went ahead to swindle the innocent and undiscerning people of their hard earned money by making them pay into a fake government account for fraudulently allocated defective stalls.
“In abject violation of the values Ekiti holds so dear, Fayose was no respecter of age or nobility. He would rain curses on elders and rubbish royalty, making the kings and chiefs, who should be revered, to literarily worship him and eat from his palm.
Fayose was the substantive Speaker of the House of Assembly, with the elected Speaker as mere surrogate and other lawmakers as his footstool. Any lawmaker who dared to challenge any of his actions often had his/her wings clipped.
“Despite being richer than the state which he governed, Fayose continued to loot and scam the people endlessly. He baited them with false hopes, over-promising and under-delivering. He presented himself to them as their Messiah, the immovable rock. He would rush to the media to broadcast lies against his real or perceived enemies, to the extent of committing treason. Once he declared the President and Commander-in-Chief of the country incapacitated, another time he went on air to tell the people of the state to shun the president who was visiting the state. Yet another time, he went on air to declare some fake election results.
“Fayose used his power to grab generational lands from the people, demolishing their houses and erecting personal ones in their places. Only God can tell how many properties Fayose now owns in Ado Ekiti.
“With all these and other sins Fayose committed against the innocent people of Ekiti, it will amount to a display of sheer arrogance, calling their bluff and insulting the people he once described as stupid and ignorant, should he fail to apologise to them, especially now that it has dawned on everyone that he was merely taking them for a ride for four years, covering his atrocities with decoy and bravado tactics,” he stressed.
By Gboyega Adeoye
