Fayose as metaphor

You have to lack home training like Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to routinely insult your father’s mates with relish and make a career of insolence as the young man has consistently done. Listening to the current tenant of the Ekiti Government House leaves one in no doubt that there is plenty of work […]

You have to lack home training like Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to routinely insult your father’s mates with relish and make a career of insolence as the young man has consistently done. Listening to the current tenant of the Ekiti Government House leaves one in no doubt that there is plenty of work yet to be done to restore sanity to all parts of Nigeria.
Some mothers do have them…. Perhaps it is safe to say that each of the six political zones in Nigeria has its own Fayose. It is the degree of psychosis that differs. You could say that there is a Fayose in many Nigerian politicians – which was why in the run-up to the last set of national elections there was a campaign calling on the national assembly to make psychiatric test compulsory for every political aspirant. The joke, however, was that it was the mental patient that was being asked to draw up his treatment regimen.
Ekiti State is a pearl in the Southwest of Nigeria. It is a land of intellectuals. It is a land of honour where a man would rather die poor than accept graft. In those days, only some decades ago, a young Ekiti man who made good outside his birthplace but could not explain the source of his wealth would avoid going home to avoid isolation. Yoruba people from other parts of the West openly admired Ekiti people for their forthrightness and fortitude. If an Ekiti person gave you his word, you could take it to the bank.
To think that it is that same section of Yorubaland that has produced the political embarrassment called Ayodele Fayose is sadder than embarrassing. For a man who rigged his way into power having used the instruments of state coercion to subvert the system, Fayose is quite brazen in his lawlessness. He has since beaten up judges and sacked courts in session, terrorised political opponents to the extent of chasing them out of the state, demeaned the office of the governor with his lowlife antics and generally dragged that land of principled people in the mud.
I have heard people say they are not surprised at the turn of vents in Ekiti State; that what else do you expect when you exchange a reputable PhD holder, Kayode Fayemi, with a Fayose whose HND certificate is still mired in controversy? Don’t ask me.
Having rigged himself into power, the carpetbagger reckons that he is the most important Yoruba person in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP. When the party announced Governor Mimiko of Ondo State as Chair of the PDP Governors’ Forum in succession to Akwa Ibom’s Godswill Akpabio, Fayose was the lone voice against his ‘brother’ from the contiguous state. He said Mimiko had only just defected to the PDP and that older hands in the party ought to have been chosen to lead the party’s governors. His colleagues have ignored him.
He fancies himself a populist, playing on gutter sentiments of fellow lowlifes. If he’s not wearing a tee-shirt to inaugurate the house of assembly (perhaps to show them how unimportant the occasion was), he would be found riding Okada commercial motorcycle around town or stopping  at the local market to buy some lobes of Ponmo. He thinks this is what is meant by bringing government closer to the people: eat pounded yam and goat meat with them; escort the meal down your gullet with a sachet of pure water; savour the taste of freshly tapped palm-wine and pick up the bills of fellow boozers.
The first time out as governor during the Obasanjo Administration, Fayose was chased out of office  via impeachment based on allegations of corruption. As always, he pretends to have forgotten how he left office and instead attempts to lampoon anyone perceived as credible or clean. When President Muhammadu Buhari’s and VP Osinbajo’s asset declarations were made public recently, Fayose laughed them to scorn. He said he would never have declared the two mud houses in Buhari’s asset list if they belonged to him. Of course, I believe him. In fact Fayose has never declared anything publicly in all his life. Why take a risk and tie yourself down to specifics when you can keep mum as many others have done and plunder at will?
One of the major scandals that chased Fayose out of power the first time around was the chicken farm he established for the state. Thousands of the fowls allegedly grew wings, and eggs vaporised. The old chicken farmer who was then the president smelt a ratty fowl and activated the domino process that separated the stormy petrel from power. Fayose or his apologists later claimed that they had gifted some of the chicken to Obasanjo’s Otta farms, a claim that was not documented. Now, assuming that he truly donated thousands of chickens to Obasanjo (like a robber who buys a bottle of Coke for a policeman), did that exculpate the governor?
I still don’t know the extent to which the revelations by Captain Sagir Musa who blew the whistle on Fayose’s electoral rigging will influence Fayose’s fate going forward. But I know that the security agencies are no longer in any doubt that they allow politicians to use them for evil activities only at their own peril.
Fayose is a metaphor for what is wrong with many states. If your state is peaceful and the young men in public service still respect the elders, don’t celebrate yet. It may just be that your own Fayose has just enrolled in the polytechnic. Wait until he shows up on the political rostrum.

Don’t Worry
This was partially inspired by the Face Book page of a friend: Do not ever worry about the beginning of any event or activity. Wait until the end. It does not matter how an event began. What should concern you is how it will end. Remember, Mussolini was praised and adored but was later hanged by the same people; Julius Caesar was dealt the unkindest blow by those closest to him; those who welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna to the son of David”, were the same people who later screamed, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”
Don’t worry about how a thing starts. Worry about the end. That is my counsel to those jumping the gun on Buhari’s ministerial appointments.