He doesn’t fight shy; he takes them as they come. Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State takes no prisoner. A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) helmsman, he has been the party’s arrowhead on the political campaign battlefield – in the battle of words and raw nerves, that is. Through this campaign season, he remains the most strident and consistent critic of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, opposition APC presidential candidate. Even now, Fayose may well be considered the most controversial governor in the country today.
Few days ago, he sat with BOLAJI TUNJI and BRUCE MALOGO to discuss his famed politics
I hear people call you Osokomole. What’s that?
Osokomole is a name coined by the common people of Ekiti State for me. They call me that name because God has raised me in this place, to stand up for them in this age; to support them and to lead them in humility, and they have also been able to compare me with governors that passed through the state, and they came up with that name Osokomole. It means a leader who says and obeys, and if you look at my history very well, and what has happened in this place since year 2003, by the grace of God, I defeated an incumbent governor and I was the second governor to do so. By my performance, I became a household name that you can’t ignore. Even in pains of exile, and even in the face of blackmail and name-calling, I was able to join hands with Fayemi and his supporters in Ekiti State to defeat former governor, Segun Oni, and I came back again to defeat Fayemi himself. To make it all interesting, both former governors Niyi Adebayo, the man I took over from, Segun Oni, and the man I took over from again, Fayemi, came together under the same party, and by the grace of God, I defeated them, and in the history of Nigeria, I came back in an unusual way, in unusual situation, and in unusual place.
I have not seen where a governor will even leave office in four years and came back, not to talk of eight years as in my own situation, and also to come back same date, same time, and same hour.
I left office in pains on October 16, 2006. I was removed forcefully from office by the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and I came back to office on October 16, 2014, exactly the same time, eight years after to defeat an incumbent in the 16 local government areas in Ekiti State. That is why in Ekiti State today, some people call me 16 – 0. Not only that, you remember that I left office on the 16th October and I came back on 16th October. I defeated an incumbent governor in 16 local government areas, and even the Court of Appeal judgment came up on 16th February. That goes to show that there is something significant about me as a person; and so the people that came up with the name Osokomole for me, have seen some qualities in me that distinguish me as a leader. In short, that name simply means I’m a man of history.
You punctuate many of your statements with spirituality. It’s your wife that many associate with things spiritual. So, how spiritual are you, then?
You see, I’m not as spiritual as my wife, and that is the truth. In this our politics, there is trouble everyday, sometime somebody will slap you, and you will retaliate because if you laugh at them when they slap you, they will still give you another slap. So, for me, I’m not as spiritual as my wife, but at the same time I’m trying to be gentle but that does not mean I must be foolish. Just let me digress a bit. Look at how they have taken the simplicity of the President (Goodluck Jonathan) for granted. Look at how people are treating a man, who has refused to be like Obasanjo, who is ready to remove any governor any day; who is ready to trample on the constitution any day; to destroy a whole community any day in anger and is ready to remove Senate presidents like five, six at the same time.
When you look at Jonathan, Jonathan can’t hurt a fly and as a result, people treat and talk to him anyhow.
What I’m trying to say is that, like if you ask an Israeli, “why are you waging war?” He will say, “I’m defending my territory.” That is what an Israeli will tell you, and so I’m spiritual to the extent that I’m defending my territory.
