By Okanga Agila
What Nigerian politicians have been unable to conquer in politicking is the fear of tomorrow; the fear of an uncertain future and the fear that kowtows to a bleak political future, greased by the unreasonable actions of today. Had Nigerian politicians overcome this force of nature, they would have mounted the podium and claimed conquest of the universe.
The voice of the oracle is saying someone in the Southwest is sick. He is gripped by the fever of end times. The fever is so intense and discomforting. But unfortunately, even doctors have no remedy to his ailment.
Its apparent there is bad fate awaiting the “chief executive” thug in Nigeria and Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose. To say, Fayose is bewitched by some bad gods and goddesses would be too much liberal and decent assessment for a man who has lost his soul and sold his conscience. He has no sense of decorum; he speaks and acts in self-foolery. He talks like a man with a heart in his palms.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria is getting messier. About a fortnight ago, the party crowned the clown, Ayo Fayose, the chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum in Nigeria. For sane minds, a party such as the PDP which is deeply enmeshed in self-inflicted political wounds that have refused to heal needs a leadership in a person who can actually deliver the “goods.” But PDP is not peopled by politicians with such nice thoughts. Moreover, its national leadership crisis and fading shadows in most states has even muzzled its voice as an effective opposition party in Nigeria.
So, enthroning characters like Fayose at any strata of leadership is consistent with the normal PDP character. PDP is a party which believes in hooliganism and in their “son” and faithful party loyalist, Ayo Fayose, they spotted enough traits of hooliganism and executive brigandage to anoint him leader of incumbent governors on the party’s platform.
And while accepting the fresh mandate to serve the collapsing and crumbling party, Fayose exploded as usual, “I take this responsibility at a time the party needs somebody to stand up. I am sure you all know that we will do it to represent Nigerians well. It is a call to pull the walls of Jericho down; it is a call to make a difference. Come 2019, we will take over again; we are going to come back again.”
In most cultures in Nigeria, the people believe in the axiom that a madman does not know he is mad, but rather refers to sane people as mad. Now, Fayose has the strength and wisdom to mobilize party members within the remaining time to achieve coherence to the level of toppling the administration of the progressives, the ruling APC government led by President Muhammedu Buhari in 2019. What a delusion, as especially as it is mouthed by someone now widely regarded as an epitome of foolishness laced in the worse breed of thuggery and senselessness.
To date, Fayose still thinks politicking in Nigeria is violence and brigandage where thugs invade polling units to snatch ballot boxes; security agents are compromised; where his soulmates invade court premises to beat up judges and destroy court records or where a governor violently assails the state legislature in his state to install a speaker. This mindset explains his Biblical allusion to pulling down the walls of Jericho.
But whether Fayose and his cohorts intend to pull down the walls America’s newest President, Mr. Donald Trump is planning to erect between America and Mexico, there will be no impact. As far as Nigerians are concerned and to the extent they know the decay of yesterday; the improvements and the hope of today, sighting a bright future, Fayose and his group are a bad products.
Fayose is neither an advertiser’s nor consumer’s choice in politics. His emergence on the leadership ladder of the PDP shows the extent the party has irredeemably crumbled.
The Ekiti state governor amuses a lot. Here is a man, who has refused to pay his state workers’ salaries from the bailout the federal government advanced to him. He guzzled it; bragged and dared anyone to challenge him. He lifted his sword and dared the Senate never to probe it. He swore to chase away the EFCC if they are sighted anywhere near Ekiti.
But he accumulated the workers salary debt, under the infamous PDP administration. However, when salvation came for the people, he still denied them the benefit and enjoyment of their legitimate entitlements.
Yet, like the proverbial madman who hardly knows he is mad, Fayose is busying everywhere campaigning to uninterested Nigerians about the economic hardships and sufferings in the land. A few days ago, Nigerian women under the auspices of “Patriotic Mothers Without Borders,” staged a protest against him and submitted a petition to the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) pressing for the investigation and prosecution of Governor Ayo Fayose over his alleged involvement in the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal. The women were angry that allegedly soiling his hands in such illicit funds negatively affected thousands of families in the country and the imperative to bring him to justice. It advertises how fresh the matter is still on the minds of Nigerians.
These are the issues jeering Fayose in the face. But instead of facing them or defending himself in the court, Fayose has resorted to cheap antics in order to curry public sympathy. He has become unnecessarily vociferous so that when the law berths in his compound to demand justice for the Nigerians he wickedly bruised and vicariously murdered, Fayose will begin to shout political persecution because he is a vocal voice of opposition.
But Fayose has neither the spirit nor voice of opposition. What everybody knows he possesses in abundance is beastly instincts and the knack for thuggery. Nigerians know him more deeply than his knows himself. He cannot blindfold anybody. Whatever he does, no one is in doubt about his prosecution over alleged implication in the Dasukigate and numerous other financial scandals.
Fayose is obviously afraid of tomorrow. He knows that after the expiration of his tenure in 2018 and when Ekiti people kick him out, the APC government will kindly ask of him to answer to the charges of fraud against him. So, he dreams that the APC government of President Buhari should have ceased to exist in 2019. But it is an unfounded wish and if wishes were horses, Fayose too would have ridden one. But wishes cannot be horses. It is the irony of life.
The fever or phobia of tomorrow is gradually consuming Fayose. Someone should help him out before he expires under the yoke of endless thoughts about his end times; his ousting through the ballot; the certain end to his immunity and his eventual prosecution.
Okanga, a traditional warrior writes from Agila, Benue State.
