July 04, (THEWILL) – The Independent National Electoral Commission, penultimate week, announced June 18, 2022 as the date for the Ekiti State Governorship Election.
In announcing the date, INEC said the tenure of the incumbent governor of the state, Dr Kayode Fayemi, would end on October 15, 2022.
The time-table of the election, which was extracted from the INEC Website, also revealed that the conduct of primaries by political parties, including the resolution of disputes arising from the primaries, would take place between January 4 and 29, 2022.
Other details on the time-table include the publication of the personal particulars of candidates ( EC9) by INEC, February 11, 2022; last day for withdrawal by candidate (s)/replacement of withdrawn candidate (s) by political parties, February 25, 2021; and the last day for submission of nomination form (EC13B) by political parties, March 11, 2022.
According to INEC, political parties will begin public campaign on March 20, 2022, while the last date for the campaign by political parties and their candidates has been given as March 26, 2022. This will be preceded by the final list of publication of nominated candidates by the commission on May, 2022.
The incumbent governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who is from the All Progressives Congress, is on his second and last term as stipulated by the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The fact that he is not eligible to contest the forthcoming election has thrown the race open to eligible members of his party and they have started expressing their intention to the people of the state.
Ekiti State is used to rotating its governors between two main parties since the inception of the present democratic dispensation. The parties involved are the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, which evolved from a merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (previously known as the Alliance for Democracy) with the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party and the All Progressive Grand Alliance.
Political analysts and watchers of political developments in Ekiti unanimously agree that the 2022 governorship election in the state will be a straight battle between the PDP and APC.
It is therefore pertinent to look at the situation in both parties. The truth is that the two parties are enmeshed in internal crises, which has left them weakened and divided into factions.
Ekiti State PDP, for example, has two factions and each of them has a different chairman. While former Governor Ayodele Fayose’s faction is chaired by Bisi Kolawole, Senator Biodun Olujimi’s faction has Kehinde Odebunmi as its Chairman.
The polarisation of the party is the direct result of a struggle for supremacy between Fayose and his former Deputy, Olujimi.
Olujimi who is currently the Senate Minority Whip is the only serving PDP Senator from Ekiti State. According to party’s convention, since she is the highest elected PDP politician in the state, this makes her the leader of the party. But Fayose would not want to hear anything like it. The crisis worsened when both factions organised separate state congresses that produced two different executives.
While former Commissioner for Environment, Bisi Kolawole emerged as chairman from the group loyal to Fayose and another former governor of the state, Segun Oni, Odebunmi was elected chairman by the faction loyal to Olujimi.
Speaking after his election at the parallel congress held at Lotus Hotel, Ado Ekiti, Odebunmi, who was backed by Olujimi, Sikiru Lawal and others, said the task of repositioning Ekiti PDP had begun with his emergence.
Odebunmi lambasted Fayose for trying to forcefully take over the party’s structures in flagrant violation of the existing statute and extant laws guiding the PDP.
Speaking with THEWILL, the South-West Secretary of the PDP, Mr Rahman Owokoniran, allayed the fear that the prevailing crisis would affect the party in the forthcoming governorship election, saying that reconciliation was ongoing.
He said, “You know the South-West Executive of the party was just recently inaugurated. From the speech of our regional National Vice Chairman, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, the task before us is to reconcile all aggrieved members across the South-West. This we are committed to achieve. The PDP is strong in Ekiti State and we are going to win the next election.”
The situation in the Ekiti State chapter of the APC is not better, as the party has also been split into two. The main APC faction is led by Governor Fayemi, while Dayo Adeyeye is in charge of the South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA).
Fayemi’s undeclared intention to contest the Presidential election alongside the National Leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is believed, is the source of the crisis in the Ekiti APC .
It is gathered that although Fayemi will not contest next the 2022 governorship election in the state, he is interested in anointing a candidate that will succeed him.
Although the governor has not openly declared his interest in the 2023 presidential race, his body language says it all. He and his loyalists view anybody supporting Tinubu’s 2023 presidential ambition as their enemy.
According to sources, members of SWAGA have gone to town with complaints of marginalisation. Some of them even claimed to have been suspended from the party. A source within the group told THEWILL, on the condition of anonymity, that the Ekiti APC had already broken into two, saying the party was getting ready to hold its state congress, beginning from the ward level, on July 24, 2021. A new state executive is expected to emerge at the end of the event on September 18, 2021.
“Those of us in SWAGA will go into the congress and ensure we take over the leadership of the party. We have information that Fayemi wants to retain members of the party executive, except for a few of them that are in SWAGA. We shall resist it. We will have our own candidates during the congress and at the party’s governorship primaries,”the source said.
Also speaking, the Chairman of Ekiti SWAGA, Senator Tony Adeniyi, said he was miffed by the Ekiti State Government’s efforts to subvert the group and frustrate its activities through needless witch-hunting of its members.
Taking stock of activities before, during and after the inauguration of SWAGA, Adeniyi condemned the ongoing victimisation of members of the group across the state and the recent refusal of the state government to allow the group erect its billboards in the state despite observing due protocol.
He said, “SWAGA is a group within the APC, rooting for and canvassing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to show interest in the 2023 presidential race and also generating support for the party’s electoral success in coming elections.”
Adeniyi wondered why a group set up to boost the electoral viability of APC in coming elections would become an enemy of a self acclaimed progressive within the party.
He condemned the recent suspension of one Kayode Adetifa and Jide Osho, both of who are leaders of the APC in the Oye Local Government Council of Ekiti State, over their sympathy for SWAGA and warned that any further attempt to muzzle the group would be resisted.
But the Publicity Secretary of APC in Ekiti, Ade Ajayi, said the suspension of some members of the party had nothing to do with SWAGA, adding that they were punished for disobeying the party’s orders and dividing it through their actions.
“They were not suspended because of SWAGA. They have been dividing the party and all efforts to rein them in failed. Nobody is bigger than the party,” Ajayi said.
Although he confirmed the existence of SWAGA, Ajayi said the APC in Ekiti was still one and there was no room for factions.
Political analysts rule out the involvement of a third force in the internal crises rocking the two political parties in Ekiti, but they expressed the opinion that the leadership of both parties need to sort out the problems within.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
