Otunba Bisi Kolawole, the Ekiti State gubernatorial candidate for PDP is a freeborn of Efon-Alaaye, a historic town founded by Obalufon Alayemore, a direct descendant of Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yorubas. This is the town where the iconic, worldwide evangelist, prophet and apostle, Joseph Ayodele Babalola, lived and was buried.
Bisi Kolawole
Today, near the market square in Efon, are the tombs of Babalola and his father, a place that has become a tourist attraction for Christians all over Nigeria.
You are curious and ask, what has Babalola got to do with Bisi K and politics? You may be right, but in this discourse, the works of the prophet living after him form the nexus.
Those who are old enough heard Babalola prophesying that Efon would one day, not too far into the future, produce a son who would deliver his people from economic bondage and give them affluence and economic buoyancy, just as Awolowo was doing to his people then. Awolowo’s people being the old Western Region and by extension, Kolawole’s people being the present Ekiti State.
So, is Bisi K fulfilling this prophesy? I bet he is, as Ekiti State is currently in economic dungeon and bondage begging for a rescuer not only economically but in all strata of governance, such as education, health, infrastructure, employment, agriculture and others are crying for attention.
Oyebanji
He is the new bright light in the sky to remove the darkness hovering over Ekiti State. The star boy who will set a higher standard of governance in Ekiti.
And to make things easy for this child of prophecy, APC, the dominant opposition party has gone gaga. We will come to that later, but first, let us look at the other indices working for Bisi K.
Of all the contestants, except for Oyebanji perhaps, and even our former governors, this is the only guy who rose through the ranks from councilor, to House of Assembly member, commissioner, DG of two governors campaign teams, chairman of party and now the big one. A real son of the soil who knows and understands each locality’s peculiarities.
Adebayo rode on the back of his dad and was not governor for any political dexterity or experience. The Ekiti political colossus, Fayose became governor for his political savvy not experience and of course we all know Fayemi was a political novice who got to power sitting on the shoulder of Jagaban even as some of his political jobbers and scavengers would like to rewrite history that unfolded under our noses.
Segun Oni was a political accident. If his first coming was a political accident, his coming this time around is a political misadventure. The man is too desperate and unprincipled. How do you belong to three political parties in a spate of two years? Ekitis do not fancy people like Segun Oni.
Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything. From PDP to APC back to PDP and now SDP. Each time he crosses to another political party, he diminishes his political capital, which must have reached ground zero with his latest potting.
Ekitis only know APC and PDP and as would happen on the day of election, it will frustrate his few supporters looking for his party logo on the ballot paper.
Verdict. Any vote for Segun Oni is a wasted vote. He would do well to align with Bisi K and hope for a better tomorrow, otherwise, after this election, he goes to political wilderness and oblivion.
We are now left with the two major contenders, Bisi Kolawole of PDP and Biodun Oyebanji of APC, because Famuyibo and the other twelve on the ballot paper are not contestants, but resources wasting pretenders. None of them will garner a hundred votes.
They have just succeeded in unnecessarily elongating the ballot paper and will waste voters time looking for the logos of the genuine contenders.
To be candid, Oyebanji has an intimidating political CV, but he is coming on a wrong card. He has been in Ekiti political burner right from the beginning in this republic with Governor Adebayo, but APC non-performance is too big an albatross for him to carry and fly.
Ekitis are sick of these people. Another four years of APC in Ekiti, an extension of Fayemi’s clueless rule, will be too catastrophic and would obliterate the state from the club of progressive states.
Besides, something strikes me anytime I watch the Ikogosi born politician and I am not sure I am alone here. He looks forlorn, uninterested and long distanced. He strikes you as a candidate being forced on a journey he is not interested in. Contrastingly, when you watch Bisi Kolawole, the PDP candidate, you see enthusiasm; you see charisma; you see elegance, surefootedness and eagerness to hit the ground running.
The question is, do we need an accidental candidate who is being forced on Ekiti people?
We are in perilous times with new dynamics of life unfolding every day. A month ago, whoever thought that we could be on the brink of a third world war as the world is today?
The Fulani menace is there. Our youths are wasting away with lack of opportunities as they are being eaten up by drugs and illicit gins while our daughters are selling their bodies to feed their parents as opportunities diminish everyday under APC mis-governance.
No, we need a decisive leader who would take decisions quickly and stand by them. We need a governor whose sneeze would make the Fulanis scamper for safety in their holes.
We don’t need two deputy governors where the wife of the governor is the de facto governor and we definitely do not need a leader who will trade our interest for national political ambition by ceding our land to their Fulani masters.
As if to manifest Babalola’s prophecy, Bisi Kolawole is coming at a time the opposition has performed profoundly dismally. Ekiti APC government must rank top on non-performance index among the 36 states in Nigeria. There is nothing concrete on the ground to point to.
Yes, they brought in some cattle and I ask where is the milk? They made noise about building an Agro-Airport and I ask where are the cashews, cocoa and yam tubers to fly to heaven knows where.
Their government has abandoned the farmers (our mainstay) to their abject poverty and penury while boasting of paying salary as if the teachers and the civil servants are all there is to Ekiti.
Any fool can stay in the government house and pay salary, but what separates the men from the boys are capital development, infrastructure, services, education, welfarism, etc.
Some people point to the polytechnic at Isan as some achievement claiming it is better than siting it in Ghana, but then, the polytechnic is a bundle of cluelessness and indecision, a hallmark of Fayemi administration.
- fayemi
They could not decide whether to call it a college of agriculture or a polytechnic, so they bundle both together and name it: Ekiti State-Owned Polytechnic, known as Ekiti State College of Agriculture and Technology, Isan-Ekiti. (See their Facebook page)
Notwithstanding, it would have passed for an achievement if they sited this in another town, but establishing it at Isan, Fayemi’s hometown has robbed if of any decency. It is crass opportunism.
A government of frivolities? The wife of the governor (some people say she is the governor) led other governors’ wives to Dubai to present birthday cake to the president’s wife, months after her husband used our money to fund Edo election against his own party and sponsored a grandpa as NANS president.
Yet, for several months, Erio-Aramoko road was impassible, and you had to detour to other places to access the state capital. What are we talking about? Where in Ekiti do we have good roads? Go to Ilawe, Ikole, Ifaki, Efon-Alaaye, Ido, Omuo and other towns. You would wonder whether we have any government at all.
A mean fellow who made the Oba of his village to chair the council of Obas, an aberration of the highest order. And he has so cowed everybody and those who should talk are busy licking his poo because of crumps from the table.
Nobody dares make Akire of Ikire the head of such council in Oshun State, where you have the likes of Ooni, Ataoja and Agunlejika. But here we have an Oba of a village of barely100 houses with no historical significance bossing Ewi, Elekole and Alaaye.
In his first coming, Fayemi performed creditably well. He gave the primary school where I graduated a computer laboratory, each ward in my council had a health center and all primary schools were re-roofed not forgetting the 5km of road but this his second coming is a disaster and a colossal waste of resources.
It does not surprise us the least, because there is no way you would perform as Ekiti governor when you are using our resources to load your war chest to fight a moneyed person like Jagaban.
- Omoluabi. Fayemi Greeting Tinubu
No government impact anywhere. The only government presence in Efon-Alaaye today is the road from Idagba to the palace made by Fayose. It is the only passable road in the town and well-lit in the night, at least the last time I was there.
Honestly, this Fayemi government is for the pick for any serious candidate. It is simple. When they come campaigning, just ask them to point to something they have done in your community and ask them to tell you where they want to site their RUGA. They will go dumb.
The federal government asked them to distribute 1000 slots to the unemployed in each local government. Instead of spreading it, they divided it among themselves and their cronies, including some government workers, on level 12 and above. Shameless greedy lot.
Now, their madness.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. They went bunkers in their primary election just as they did in 2014, alienating the guys who brought them and APC to Ekiti. We should remember that the exit of Opeyemi Bamidele was part of the reasons they lost that election.
Fayemi’s political abracadabra side-tracked Otunba ‘Demola Popoola; Kayode Ojo; former Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye; Oluwatoyin Afolabi; member representing Ekiti South 1 in the House of Representatives Mr. Olufemi Bamishile; former commissioner for Utility, Bamidele Faparusi and the Senator representing Ekiti Central, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele.
Because of his inordinate ambition to become the president, he severally went perfidious and treacherous, stabbing his benefactor in the back, slicing the APC into two and dividing the remaining half by sponsoring a doctored primary.
These people have vowed to teach APC a lesson. Bamidele and co will not leave the party for these ungrateful elements this time around, but will fight them from within. They will maintain a loud silence and ask their supporters to vote according to their conscience and how do you expect the wounded hearts to vote?
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We will see how he will make the SWAGA people vote for Oyebanji, his candidate.
I smell a protest vote where their supporters vote PDP not because they love PDP, but because they hate Fayemi’s autocracy and despondency. Fayemi has indeed made the job easier for Bisi K.
Readers should mark this. If Fayemi betrayed Tinubu, nothing stops him from abandoning Oyebanji at the last minute to have a good hold on Ekiti APC when he eventually realizes there is no more room for him in Abuja. He is a character like that.
- fayose
And the Fayose factor. You may not like him, but you cannot ignore him or deny him of his political sagacity. He is always miles ahead of the pack and he somehow gets things done.
Only he could have checkmated the rough necks who wanted to disrupt the PDP primary in Ado Ekiti. (Did you see the hand of God there in fulfilling this prophecy?)
Unbelievably, even as he is out of government, he still wields enormous political power. Recently, an Okada rider in Ado Ekiti told me, if Fayose asked them to block all roads in the capital, they will do so with no hesitation. Such is the hold he has on Ekiti people.
He may have lived his youthful years outside Ekiti, Fayose understands the psyche of the people more than any other politician. If you do any political calculation in Ekiti without factoring Fayose into the equation, you are likely going to arrive at a wrong answer. He is not a politician I would like to have at the opposing corner in a political contest. Fayose in Bisi Kolawole’s corner is a big plus.
Besides the aforementioned, Bisi Kolawole has Ekiti political tradition on his side. No political party has won the gubernatorial election in Ekiti back-to-back. It has been turn by turn and if this tradition subsists, Ekiti will return Bisi K and his party PDP on 18th of June instant.
In 2014, with their incumbency factor and fair performance, tradition worked against them and Fayose trounced them 16:0. There is no reason history will not repeat itself in this election.
Now, the big question, will Bisi K perform when given the chance? Yes, I believe he will. There is no reason for him to fail. He inherited politics and has been an achiever from his youth getting to where he is today through a dint of hard work, perseverance, and loyalty to superiors.
Kolawole knows Ekiti like the back of his hands, having spent his formative years in Ekiti. A bridge builder with unblemished character, even as he did not hold any principal office when he was in the house of assembly, he stabilized the house to the admiration of both divides.
Kolawole had his primary school education at St Johns Anglican Primary School, Efon-Alaaye and his secondary education at Doherty Memorial Grammar School, Ijero-Ekiti.
Though from a privileged background, sired by Obaloja Ezekiel Kolawole, the third in hierarchy to the then Alaaye, Oba Aladegbemi, Bisi K has deliberately been close enough to the ground to understand the feelings, yearnings and aspirations of the average person and working through the political ranks to get this far has prepared him for the task ahead.
Finally, and I think this is most important, he is God’s chosen. Bisi Kolawole is God’s project and God does not abandon his own project. If he would not perform, God would not have chosen him and prepared him. God did not abandon Moses; he didn’t abandon Samuel, neither did he abandon David. He will not abandon this child of destiny born on a Sunday.
Ekitis should embrace this promise of God and return Bisi Kolawole as governor on 18th of June 2022. It is the only sensible way to go.
Jide Omiyale is an SME Expert and amateur political analyst
