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SAY

 

CONCERNED EKITI INDIGENES ABROAD

 

An Advert in all of the Nigerian Media

 

 

June 2005

 

 

 

THE PRESENT CRISIS IN EKITI POLITY

Ever since May 2003 when a new administration came into existence, Ekiti citizens and in fact Nigeria at large have been regaled in the media by a ceaseless string of negative news emanating from the administration of the present Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).  Such news have ranged from political thuggery to intimidation and assassinations and near-assassinations, rudeness to elders and traditional authority, shameless boastfulness, self-aggrandizement and fraudulent political jobbery, and a crude display of contempt for education and intellectualism.

 

Despite public and private appeals and representations from indigenes at home (within and outside of Ekitiland) and those of us abroad to the Governor and his cabinet to reach out to political opponents, and even appeals to such opponents to let peace reign, tension in our land has continued unabated.  It is almost as if no day passes without something negative coming out of Ekiti State.  We have not recovered from the wanton killings of students in Ikere,  the attempted assassination of the Ado Ekiti Local Government chairman leading to the death of one of the suspected assassins (September 2004),  or the disgracefully manufactured open conflict between the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti and President Obasanjo (April 2005), only to be confronted within the past few days (May 29, 2005)  with two incidents:   the double killings and mayhem in Ifaki during the recent bye-elections there ostensibly won by the National Conscience Party  NCP (an opposition party),  as well as a disruption at Ado-Ekiti of  another opposition party?s (the Alliance for Democracy, AD) inauguration of its local government executive.  One of the victims in Ifaki  (Mr. Tunji Omojola) was a member of the Ekiti Diaspora from Germany, one who, unlike a few other Diaspora victims of political violence in Ekiti State, unfortunately paid the ultimate price of his life.

 

All indications are that both latest incidents were led by the Governor himself, not just his heavy-handed, violence-besotted surrogates.

 

Matters have not been further  helped,  when we now read  that the Deputy Governor Abiodun Aluko is appealing for "help" from President Obasanjo to avert further political mistreatment and public humiliation in the hands of Governor Fayose, and may be facing impeachment !

 

Therefore, we the undersigned CONDEMN without any reservations whatsoever and in a non-partisan manner the barbaric state of affairs which our state has degenerated to, and INSIST that the Governor Fayose and his acolytes curb forthwith  their tendency to throw their weight around and intimidate opponents.  We are NO LONGER in a military regime where the Governor is the be-all-and-end-all.  As the top elected official and chief security officer of the state, the Governor must realize that he is governor of all citizens of Ekiti State, opponents and supporters alike, members of his party and other parties alike, and that it is incumbent on him as much as possible to seek to accommodate all and sundry, and govern the state with transparency, accountability and integrity. 

 

No state can develop economically under the state of tension and feeling of siege that is generated by all of these troubles.  Any attempts at cheap popularity by the Governor such as the recent failed financially-wasteful attempt to send the whole state assembly on a visiting jamboree to the United States, will be revealed for exactly what they are ? cheap - and will continue to be resisted by all well-meaning citizens of Ekiti State.

 

In the time being,  while the antics of our Governor remain a butt of national joke and make us Ekiti indigenes the objects of head-scratching inquiries from our friends, we remain disrespected at the Federal level with no full-fledged Federal Minister to our state.  Our only Federal minister of note (Prof. Babalola Aborishade, formerly Education Minister ) was demoted to a Minister of State (Power and Steel) in 2003, even only after stiff opposition from the Senate.  Yet there is at least one minister (Lyel Imoke of Cross-River State) holding down two ministries (Power and Steel; and Education), while the recent removal of a full-fledged Minister of Housing from Ondo State (Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo) has seen two substitutes (Mr. Adetokunbo Kayode, Chief Bayo Yusuf)  from that state being offered up for consideration in succession, with a fourth person in the wings.

 

This disrespect must stop, but that will be delayed with the ongoing shenanigans from Ekiti State. 

 

 

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2007

 

Finally, we are fully aware that part of the problem has to do with new jockeyings for political positions in 2007, by the Governor who might wish to go for a second term, and others who might wish to replace him.

 

We the undersigned state without equivocation that such jockeyings should not and must not be at the expense of the long-suffering people of Ekitiland, who are being battered daily into greater poverty and immiseration.  For too long we have been the backwater of Yoruba and South-Western politics, and we are determined to take the destiny of Ekitiland into our own hands.  Our political future must not be determined in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Kaduna or Kano, but INSIDE Ekitiland and no where else.

 

Consequently, we urge:

 

1. that cool heads prevail in preparation for 2007, and any divisive elements in Ekiti polity must take themselves out of the contest for 2007 governorship, senatorial elections or any others for that matter.
   
2. that all potential contestants (aspirants) pledge towards free and fair elections at all levels from now on.
   
3. that all political parties pledge towards getting elected and unelected persons to work together to move our great state forward.
   
4. that our Obas recover their traditional roles of setting a high and  moral tone for the citizens within their domain rather than some of them being suspected to be tools in the hands of politicians.

 

On our part, we pledge that despite the fact that we may be physically far away from home, we will no longer sit idly by while our state is plagued with crisis after crisis.  We urge many of our Diaspora colleagues to stop sitting on the fence and stop giving comfort to intellectual mediocrity and political jobbery.  We further pledge that we will use all our God-given talents and financial resources and work with well-meaning citizens at home to right the wrongs that are being currently visited on our dear Ekitiland currently or have been visited on us in the recent past.

 

This is our solemn promise to our long-suffering Ekiti people.

 

Ekiti a gbe a o !

 

 

Signed:

 

 

Name                         Town of Origin          City & Country of Residence

 

Mike Adebayo             Usi                              Silver Spring, MD, USA

Ebenezer Adewumi     Ipoti                             Burtonsville, MD. USA

Segun Ajibulu              Ipao                            Raleigh, NC, USA

Mobolaji E.  Aluko       Ode                            Burtonsville, MD, USA

Anthony Ojo Ayodele   Ido-Ajinare                  Denver, CO, USA

Sam Ayodele               Ido-Ajinare                  Silver Spring, MD, USA

Ladiran Ojuolape        Ogotun                        Atlanta, GA, USA

Paul Olatoye               Okemesi                      Laurel, MD, USA

Sam Ola Rotimi           Ipao                             Washington Metropolitan,USA

Soji Tinubu                  Emure                         Atlanta, GA, USA

 

Please sign here:

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx         xxxxxxxx                      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Dear Reader:

 

 We are still very receptive to more signatories from Ekiti Indigenes and friends.

 

We only urge that you kindly pledge a minimum of $100 to offset the cost of publishing the adverts - and any future ones as the case may arise - with checks sent to:

 

         Ekiti-PAG (Ekiti Political Action Group)

         c/o P.O. 40731

         Arlington, VA 22204

         Memo:   Donation for Adverts

 

All comments and pledges to be included as a signatory should also be sent to:

 

                          ekitipag@comcast.net

 

Just let us know your name, Town of Origin (if from Ekiti State) or State of origin (if not from Ekiti State) as well as present Town and Country of Residence.

 

All donors will be included, if they so request, in a listserve:

 

                         ekitipag@yahoogroups.com

 

Current deadline:  June 18, 2005