#Ekiti and its man-made disaster

•The ‘repentant’ bank official on his knees.

It is a state famed for the high intellectual attainments of its people. Just as you would associate crude oil with Bayelsa or Rivers, the mere mention of Ekiti conjures up visions of a land crawling with professors and PhDs.

But curiously for a people so enamoured of learning, the political leader that has captured their imagination the most in the last 16 years is one not noted for his educational accomplishments.

It is as if the people became bored with the snooty ways of their super educated elite and hankered after someone earthy. Out of nowhere, Ayodele Fayose happened to them – igniting an on-and-off romance.

When he first ran for governor he would drive into a village without potable water and distribute the liquid free to villagers.
While he was meeting the people’s most pressing needs, his rivals who probably felt better qualified because of their pedigree, were lulling the people to sleep with the same old promises of what they would do.

Not surprisingly the man form nowhere swept away all in his path to become governor. After leaving office in ignominy and roaming the political wilderness for years, the connection he had with the people still remained. It was something his rivals just couldn’t explain.

The attraction between the people and Fayose could only be likened to the magnetic pull that draws good girls to bad boys. He can turn on his ‘man of the people’ charm one minute, and the next he’s leading a band of unruly supporters to rough up a High Court judge in his chambers.

It is not as if the people didn’t know his flaws. Still they chose him over a hardworking intellectual in Dr. Kayode Fayemi whose only sin was that he was aloof. But buyer’s remorse may very well be setting in.

Fayose is a gaffe machine that never stops giving. Just when you thought he had done his worst, he outdoes himself by drilling down into the basement.

He is bad news – and that’s not just his critics or members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) talking. Ali Modu Sheriff, one of the claimants to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chairmanship, has dismissed him as an embarrassment.


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