Fayemi: The Story Behind The Record Breaking Defeat, Humiliation and Sabotage

Although the Ekiti Governorship election has come and gone, won and lost,

checks by Pointblanknews.com reveal that Governor Kayode Fayemi, and his

team, plus a few external factors were responsible for the unprecedented

beating he received at the polls last Saturday.
Pundits expressed worry at the results because it was unprecedented for a

sitting Governor to lose in every local government. Most wards in his

local government he lost to Ayo Fayose. His deputy, members of the House,

Senators, Special Advisers were all disgraced in their local governments

by a man so many believed connected with the grassroots.

The factors that did him in, include strings of reversal of policies put

in place by Governor-Elect, Ayo Fayose and Ex Governor Segun Oni, the

attitude of his elitist and aloof kitchen cabinet including commissioners,

and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu's factor . The Tinubu's angles made some pundits

suggest Fayemi could have been sabotaged.
Trouble started for Fayemi when shortly after he came to power, decided to

reverse all policies that put some extra cash in the pockets of civil

servants and teachers, put in place by Fayose.
First was the teachers' pecuniary allowance which saw a 27.5 per cent hike

in their take home. Fayemi stopped it shortly after he came, and after

long drawn drama, negotiations, he agreed to make it 16 per cent. This was

a temporary relief but the teachers vowed to stop him, despite his

desperate last minute promise few weeks before election, to return to

status quo.
Then there was the Teachers development Needs Assessment (TDNA), fashioned

like the Edo state model. For over a year, the teachers said no to it

because it was designed to kick out a large number of them.

There was also the Service Reclassification exercise, which saw tons of

High school principals demoted to vice principals and vice principals

moved back to class teachers. Their primary school counterparts boycotted

the exercise, but when it was few weeks to election Fayemi said he would

stop it, but they did not buy it.
Checks also revealed that some key members of Fayemi's kitchen cabinet had

advised to play along until after election. Sources hinted that most of

those teachers who led the protest against need assessment were penciled

down for sack after election. This was the idea of Education commissioner,

Dr Eniola Ajayi, Pointblanknews.com learnt.
During Fayose and Oni there was what was called leave bonus for the

workers, with the excuse of paucity of funds, Fayemi stopped it. Also

before Fayemi came, no Ekiti pensioner or retiree was owed a dime by

Fayose and Oni. As at today , a long list of pension arrears and

gratuities are outstanding. As usual when Fayose entered the race Fayemi

went on air to promise he would pay up, but they did not trust him and

vowed to push him out.
Pointblanknews.com's chat with some students revealed that they were very

unhappy with Fayemi who failed to bring succor to them. Their problem were

school fees and bursary. According to our checks when he was made Governor

via Salamigate, Fayemi promised to cut fees from N80,000 to N40,000, but

after he resumed office fees went up to N150,000. As usual few weeks to

election he tried to woo the students with a promise of a downward review.

They did not buy it.
There was also the issue of bursary and scholarship stopped by Fayemi.

Under him the state scholarship board was comatose unlike under Oni.

Fayemi gave so much publicity to six students he claimed he gave

scholarship to the consternation of parents and students.

Pointblanknews.com learnt that during Oni 3000 indigent student got

scholarship. Phd in Nigeria got N500,000, while those who went abroad got

N1million. Msc got N500,000( Nigeria ) and N300,000 for those in Nigeria.

There was also a plan by Fayemi to ban the use of commercial motorcycles

(Okada) as a means of transportation in the Ado Ekiti metropolis.

Fayemi had no substantive local Government chairman inplace, all were his

surrogates, who were caretaker chairmen. This made most of those at that

level to move away from him because some of the ex council bosses had no

opportunity to return. They gravitated towards Fayose.

Then there was the Tinubu issue. Tinubu had fought hard to get the All

Progressive Congress to zone the VP slot to the South West. Ordinarily

there was nothing wrong with it, but the problem was Tinubu wanted to

occupy that slot which would make it a Muslim/Muslim ticket.

Some APC Governors and stakeholders did not like the image the pick would

give the party so asked Tinubu to shop for someone else. Lagos Governor

Babatude Fashola's name came up but his religion knocked him out, so the

best choice became Fayemi. This did not go down well with Tinubu who

believed Fayemi was one of those who kicked against him. Moreover he saw

Fayemi as too independent minded, so his support for his re election was

mere lip service. Did he sabotage Fayemi, no one can tell for now.

But another school disagrees. They insist Tinubu backed Fayemi even before

the election. According to them, it was Tinubu who insisted there should

be no primary, which vexed Opeyemi Bamidele, and led to his exit. They

also claim it was Tinubu that was behind what happened to Bamidele in the

House or Representatives when he was removed as leader Ekiti caucus. The

latter group pointed to the directive given by Tinubu to the House members

to reverse their decision for sake of peace.
The fight between Bamidele and Fayemi, sources say further weakened his

already weak structure.
According to our source, so many of those close to Fayemi misled him,

insisted he snubbed Bamidele who was a key member of his caucus, This

eroded some of his base.
Then there was the Obas angle. Tinubu had insulted them at the Awujale of

Ijebuland's palace during the latter's birthday. The Ooni of Ife, Oba

Sijuwade had taken a shot at Tinubu after his diatribe. This,

pointblanknews.com sources hinted, signaled a bad omen for the APC in the

south west.
There are also indications that the Afenifere and some other groups in the

South West outside the APC are not comfortable with Tinubu's dominant

stature.
Also, for several weeks' doctors in General Hospitals and state teaching

hospitals downed tools.   Problem was the refusal by Fayemi to implement

the Consolidate Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS). This was in place

during Fayose and Oni.
According to Pointblankews.com checks, two prominent members of Fayemi's

kitchen cabinet did not do much to connect him with the indigent and

grassroots fellows. His Chief of Staff who was Director of Communications,

Yemi Daramola alienated so many. He was defector deputy Governor and quite

arrogant. He was touted as the guy who would succeed Fayemi in 2018. He

was alleged to have a hit squad who attacked some Labor members in Emure

where Folusho Ogundare was killed.
Then they had the Director-General John Kayode Fayemi campaign

organization currently a member of the House in Abuja. He led an elite

corp for Fayemi who felt all that matters were Abuja and Ado Ekiti. It was

gathered that he was one of those who messed up the Fayemi campaign and

quest to return due to arrogance and naivety.
A development economist, Ayo Simpson Ilesanmi said “Dr. Fayemi is a

gentleman, a strategist and a PHD holder. All these are statement of

facts, but it has nothing to do with what he supported, what threw him up,

how he became the APC's candidate was nothing near democratic.

“Dr. Fayemi fought unnecessary battle with teachers, local government

teachers and the labour union; the olive branch waived at the twilight of

the election did not change anything, as they have made up their mind to

deal with him.” He said
According to him “The other APC governors should resist the temptation of

fighting the single block of voters that could be relied upon in time of

election. If Gov Oshiomole were to seek re- election, it would have been

interesting to see how he would have pulled through. Any serious

opposition must understand the politics of labour.”

There are related questions from pundits that may need answers. For

example, did Ekiti State electorate vote for Fayose, or did they vote

against Fayemi? Would they have voted this enthusiastically even if Fayose

weren't on the ballot? What role did party affiliations play? How would

things have played out were Fayose to be the candidate of a lesser-known

party, without the intimidating financial and logistical support of the

PDP? And, to stretch things somewhat improbably, what would have changed

were the incidence and extent of poverty to suddenly and remarkably fall

across Nigeria