Leadership, especially political leadership are hardly conceded to the ara-okes, they are believed to be easily malleable hence they have to be led and not allowed to lead.
This was the case until Governor Segun Mimiko proved that he had a mind of his own a few years ago and decided to do away with the leadership of the then ACN. It pained Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu but it dawned on the people of Ondo state that there was more to being in ACN as the opposition party was called then. Tinubu had allegedly looked at some of the beautiful model schools being built by Mimiko, and as if possessed by a spirit told a people who loved education with a passion that the schools were not good enough for them but for Lagos state where there was crowd.
As if that was not enough, while campaigning for his party’s candidate in the governorship elections, he disclosed how he gave Mimiko over 2 million Dollars to prosecute his case and secure his mandate and Mimiko did not return the money. The people of Ondo quickly put two plus two together, if Tinubu gave Mimiko a loan of 2 million Dollars, he expected Mimiko to steal and refund, Mimiko did not steal and refund the capital talk less of the interest on the investment, hence the former Lagos Governor’s anger. In a way, it destroyed the chance of Tinubu’s man in the election as they saw him as a stooge for Lagos.
And so when Fayose wanted to campaign to his people back home in Ekiti his team went door to door telling the old Ekiti people what APC, the successor to ACN meant- dominance of the Lagos people, dominance of the people who never saw anything good in them and regarded them as second class citizens. It worked like fire.
Secondly, Fayose despite his removal, has never been too far from the people. He has always been there. Even when he was not a governor, he still held court, like a governor, listened to them, attended to their needs. He was still accessible to them. You hardly have to fill a form to see him unlike Fayemi in and out office.
Fayemi’s wife was more of an albatross. They saw her as the defacto Governor. She was loud and all over the place. Her convoy at times was longer than her husband’s own and this the people noticed asking whether it was she they elected or her husband.
Apart from this, an analyst revealed shortly before the election, while Fayose and his people were busy going round town, and doing house to house campaign, using local or terrestrial stations, Fayemi was busy on television stations that you could only watch through DSTV and speaking big grammar.
Again the campaign content of the incumbent governor was also out of place. A sympathizer to his cause had to note a few days before the elections that if he lost, it would be the work of his foot-soldiers that caused him the election. According to that sympathizer, rather than facing issues, aides to the Governor when they ahd opportunity would face the personality of Fayose, and the PDP, they also faced the other me who made up the PDP attacking them forgetting that the same people of the state were living witnesses when Fayemi found it convenient to allow Fayose campaign with him in the last elections which he won. To the people, Fayemi and his people didn’t see Fayose as dirty then, it is now convenient for them to label him dirty, rather than tell the people what they had in stock.
As if this was not enough a lot of people oriented policies that should ordinarily have come up earlier in the life of the administration were believed to have been delayed till the last minute some of these include bursary for students, promotion and payment of teachers’ salaries as well as other issues which touched the lives of the people directly. The people did not feel comfortable that their governor for four years would wait until it was election time to now grant them things they have been agitating for for years.
APC is still a suspect among the people of the south west. It would need a lot of persuasion that APC is not about to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015. Even if not for anything that label, which has refused to go has been a major stigma for the party and that stigma would continue until they pick their presidential candidate and his running mate for the nation’s topmost job. Given the fact that APC was Fayemi’s umbrella, it was obvious that the people were not too comfortable with this.
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