While addressing workers during the last May Day in Ado Ekiti,
Ekiti state capital, Governor Ayodele Fayose had told agitated workers and
other people who cared to listen that he would never seek any political office
again. Prior this declaration, there was insinuation that Fayose was eyeing
either the vice presidential or senatorial position in 2019.
The governor had said that his main preoccupation after his
exit in 2018 is to continue to agitate for better treatments for the Nigerian
populace from the federal and state governments. However, the governor made a
u-turn last Friday when he appeared on the state’s electronic medium during the
May edition of his monthly ‘Governor Explains’ programme where he said among
other things that he would seek redress in the apex court over possible
extension of his tenure beyond 2018 on account of his impeachment in
2006 by the state House of Assembly.
He said since the Supreme Court had ruled that his impeachment
on October 16, 2016 was illegal, null
and void, he reserved the constitutional right to so contest the removal.
The apex court had in its judgment ruled that his tenure
was illegally truncated.
Fayose said the
pertinent question to ask the court is whether by virtue of an earlier
judgement in his favour, dismissing his
removal, he had no right to seek to complete his remaining tenure of seven
months.
He emphasised that the case as to whether he was entitled to
complete his tenure or not must first be determined before there could be
another governorship election in the state next year.
The governor was sworn in for the first term tenure in May, 2003, but got his tenure terminated by
impeachment on Oct. 16, 2006. He came back in October 2014, for a second term
after defeating the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the APC.
Fayose must have drawn references
Since the governor had served in the office before in that
capacity, nobody had dreamt of he coming out with what many considered as a
third term agenda which has no place in
the nation’s constitution.
The governor, who is the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum,
had at different forum asked the people of the state to pray for him to be able
to bequeath a good successor to the state.
Fayose, who is fondly
called ‘Oshokomole’ by his admirers in the state and beyond, no doubt is
popular among the downtrodden in the state and could be considered as a
grassroots politician.
Not to be caught unawares, following the division in the PDP
and its possible consequences, the governor had recently formed a new political
group called Oshoko Mass Movement, mainly made up of his loyalists, political
leaders in and outside the PDP, launched in Ikere Ekiti to start registration
of members in the South Senatorial District ahead of the 2018 governorship election
in the state.
It was believed that the launch of the political movement,
attended by members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, local government
chairmen, political appointees, youths as well as members of the PDP, might be
an exit plan by the governor from the PDP to a new political party. But the Director of Media and Publicity of
the movement, who is also a member of the state assembly, Mr. Adedayo Akinleye,
said this should not be mistaken as an exit plan for Fayose.
He said: “We are telling the whole world that wherever Fayose
goes anytime from now we will follow him en-mass. It is all about sustaining
the Ayo Fayose legacy beyond 2018 and particularly to tell the whole world and
in particular, Ekiti people, that wherever Fayose is going in 2018, we are
going with him. Whoever Ayo Fayose and our people pick in 2018 for the
governorship race, we will support.”
Fayose has since denied the speculation. It would be recalled
that the governor indicated that he might use another political platform to
prosecute his succession battle during
the 2018 governorship poll in the state.
Aside the formation of the movement, Fayose’s supporters have
produced with posters, bearing his portrait pictures and the message ‘Ekiti
2018 Continuity ...Fayose leads, we follow.” The poster is, however, without
the name of a political party or any logo ahead of the 2018 governorship
election in the state. There are also branded vehicles bearing same messages.
At a meeting in Ikere Ekiti sometimes in January with the
members of the Suppliers’ Association of Nigeria, Ikere chapter, the governor
had also said that he was yet to settle for any of the political parties
registered with the INEC.
He said: “I don’t know
the platform I will use for the 2018
election yet and at the appropriate time, I will tell you. We are still
studying the situation . We have to play the game left, right and centre and
whoever we are going to use and the platform, you will all be part of the
process because party politics is about the people.”
Since Fayose made his intention known, there have been mixed
reactions. A former member of the House of Representatives and a governorship
aspirant in the state, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, said such a dream could only
exist in the wildest imagination of a “theatric like Fayose, who sees
governance as a comic relief, rather than a serious business.”
Faparusi clarified that the Supreme Court in the case of
former Governor of Adamawa State, Mr. Murtala
Nyako Vs FG ruled that a governor whose tenure was abruptly terminated
via illegal impeachment can only be entitled to the perks of office throughout the time there was
a vacancy and not tenure elongation.
He said, “The governor should have known that he cannot be
entitled to third term in office, neither can the oath of office be
administered on him three times. What former Governor Nyako wanted to achieve
was to finish the remaining nine months of his second term tenure before he was
ousted and Supreme Court was so unequivocal that since that dispensation had
lapsed, he could only be entitled to the benefits and that has become a functus
officio as far as this case is concerned.
“Governor Fayose should refrain from wasting the precious time
of the court by wanting to engage in
mere academic exercise that has no legal fecundity, having been earlier
determined by the apex court.”
However, many see the governor’s plan as a way of unsettling
and reducing the strength of the opposition, especially the APC, in the state.
Whether the governor is serious and determined or whether it
is a mere political gimmick, only the Supreme Court can determine the next
step.
0 comments:
Post a Comment