“There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli.
The easiest thing to do in life is to criticize and do nothing! This appears to be the pastime for which my dear brother, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has gained notoriety. For months now, Ekiti State has been in the news albeit for negative reasons because of the misleading activities of Ojudu and his co-travellers. It took me this long to react because I wanted to get my facts right on what could have gone amiss to set my brother on a war path with the government and Governor of his state from the same political family.
A thorough analysis of his political misadventures in the State in the recent times, has pointed in two major directions; first is the threat of Fayemi towering political profile and his rumoured presidential ambition that is unsettling certain camp; the second is Ojudu’s personal ambition to take over from Fayemi in 2022. In fairness to my brother, Ojudu, there is nothing illegitimate in aspiring to govern Ekiti State after Fayemi or defending his parochial interest, but it’s absolutely wrong and barbaric to stay outside and be throwing stones at your father’s glasshouse to achieve that.
My brother needs to know that it takes more than baseless criticisms and attacks on Fayemi to win the hearts of the electorate, especially my own unique and peculiar people of Ekiti State. With or without Presidential ambition, the rising profile and activities of Kayode Fayemi are things of joy and pride for the generality of Ekiti sons and daughters. If my brother fails to understand and appreciate this, then I agree that he has lost touch with the reality in Ekiti State as people have posited. Ojudu, is gradually becoming an audio-politician!
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” – The Matrix. John Kayode Fayemi does not only know the path but he is surely walking the path to the admiration of many and contempt of the disgruntled few. Ekiti sons and daughters at home and in the diaspora, heaved a sigh of relief with the re-election of the incumbent governor, John Kayode Fayemi, hoping that the negative publicity for which Ekiti State was reputed in the past four years, would give way for the much needed positive vibes and publicity. Ekiti State was notorious for uncharitable news and tagged as the state of one-week one-drama back then.
True to type, Kayode Fayemi did not disappoint majority of well-meaning Ekiti citizens. He hit the ground running within days of his inauguration, cancelling some draconian and obnoxious laws and policies of the immediate past administration that inflicted untold hardships on the hapless residents. The first executive order of Kayode Fayemi (Executive Order No. 001 of 2018) cancelled the universal levies in all primary and secondary schools across Ekiti State. This marked the beginning of the expected positive news Ekiti-kete have been earnestly yearning for. He followed this up with many laudable and life-touching policies, programmes and projects, thereby registering the name of the State among the States regarded as bastions of good governance.
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Dennis Waitley. Fayemi is gradually changing the face of governance in Ekiti State, reordering priorities in conformity to the dictate of time, fulfilling his promises and stabilizing Ekiti State against all odds. You may not like Fayemi, you don’t have to! As a matter of fact, I don’t like politicians but, as a true son of Ekiti (Ado Ekiti, to be precise), I love what Fayemi is currently doing in Ekiti State. As a scholar, life has taught me to always appraise and criticize objectively and constructively, putting all indices in proper perspective. Fayemi is not a saint, neither is he a magician; he is a man with flesh and blood like us, desirous to turn the page of time, albeit positively for the good of all. Therefore, I am not looking for a perfect governor in him. Rather, I am looking for a governor that will utilize the meagre resources of my dear State for the benefits of all and the generation yet unborn.
Without being immodest, Kayode Fayemi is not only managing the affairs of Ekiti State well, but he is also building enduring legacies for future generation. There is no senatorial district in Ekiti State that you can travel to or through that you will not see, at least one ongoing road project. All the hitherto abandoned projects that littered Ekiti State are being revived and some are ready for commissioning. Even the projects he inherited from the immediate past administration are receiving steady and speedy attentions, and almost completed. Ikun Dairy Farm is now functional and ready to produce 10,000 litres of milk per day. The giant strides of Fayemi in agribusiness are immeasurable with the number of rice mills and other agriculture value chain businesses springing up in Ekiti State. The list of legacy projects of this administration is endless. The proposed Cargo Airport is receiving adequate attention with the perimeter fencing almost completed. I was ecstatic when Governor Fayemi said recently that the Cargo Airport project would be completed and commissioned before the end of his tenure. I unconsciously shouted, “So help you God!” It is, therefore, presumptuous and disingenuous for my brother, Babafemi Ojudu, to say “there is no government in Ekiti State”. One may safely conclude that, in coming to this conclusion, it is either our renown journalist is ‘jealously’ mischievous or blatantly out of tune with the current reality in the state.
Just like every government the world over, the ongoing administration in Ekiti State is not perfect and I doubt if it lays claim to any. In reality, there will always be something government(s) could have done better. This, indeed, is one of the reasons for the existence of oppositions in any democratic setting to put governments on their toes with a view to making them come to terms with their obligations and responsibilities toward the citizenry. Ojudu is more than knowledgeable enough to understand this basic political precept to descend into the arena of peddling falsehood and making claims that lack empirical facts.
In Ekiti State, the opposing political parties have been docile for a while because there is no genuine ground for factual and objective criticisms. In fact, most of my colleagues that have sympathy for the previous government in Ekiti State continuously attest to the fact that we are far better as a State and people than we were few years back. Just like he built a legacy and befitting Governor’s house in his first term for Ekiti State, Fayemi has rehabilitated the abandoned Oduduwa Governor’s lodge in Lagos and also in the process of building a befitting Ekiti State House at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. To stay in the news, what we now see from the major opposition, PDP, are pockets of misplaced grumblings on the quality of jobs being done at the various projects sites. My analogy here is that, there are many ongoing projects across the length and breadth of Ekiti State to engage the scrutiny of the people, yet my brother, Babafemi Ojudu, decided to walk the blind path of “there is no government in Ekiti State”.
There is nothing God cannot do, but there are many things God will never do. God can create opportunity for you, but he will not help you manage and sustain the opportunity. The sustainability of that opportunity depends largely on you and how valuable you present yourself to utilise it for the good of all. It’s a known fact that most critics are not good managers. At least 90% of critics are worse managers of men and resources. The remaining 10% are special breed with ability to practise what they preach. Babafemi Ojudu is in the majority bracket. God, in His infinite mercy, wanted to redeem my brother and convert him to a populist and good manager of men and resources. That was why God made him a Senator against the wishes of the people. Ojudu had good four (4) years to redeem himself, but he failed. He misused the opportunity and failed woefully to warm his way to the hearts of the people. He lacks the temperament, compassion and astuteness to transform himself to a good manager of men. The number one job of a good politician is to manage people and resources. This is what stands Kayode Fayemi out of the crowd, despite his own imperfections. As a student of history. Ojudu should have known that audio-politician do not have a chance with our people. Fundamentally, you do not just criticize without providing alternatives. According to Mother Teresa of blessed memory, one of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody. Ojudu was nobody in the life of Ekiti-kete all through his time at the Senate. Unfortunately, the trend continues even as a Special Adviser to the President.
In Ekiti State, when Ayodele Fayose criticized the government of Otunba Niyi Adebayo, he did not just stay in Ibadan to talk to the press or sneak to Akure to grant interview on Adaba FM. He actually came to Ekiti State and for three (3) good years, he helped some people with what he said the government of Niyi Adebayo could not offer. He presented himself as a viable alternative and the people rewarded him with their votes. Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State also did similar thing with his Gateway Foundation to dislodge Chief Segun Osoba. Those were samples of how to play opposition in politics, unlike what audio-politicians are doing now. I do not blame Ojudu; he sees no reason to come home and help his people, after all he does not really need them and their votes much. As a senatorial aspirant, he was imposed on the people against the wishes of the party members in Ekiti State, and at the general election, the euphoria then of the recently inaugurated government of Kayode Fayemi, paved the way and helped him to be elected as a Senator. When it was time for him to test his real popularity and acceptance with his people for his second term senatorial election, he ran away because Fayemi who could have helped him again, was not re-elected. Like a coward, my brother Babafemi Ojudu, ran away with his tail between his legs.
The God of second chance located Ojudu again and helped him with the political appointment as a Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) on Political Matters. This was significant. He could have been made an Adviser on other areas but Political Matters. God gave him this golden opportunity of second chance to again redeem himself, but instead of doing that, he is chasing shadows, attacking imaginary enemy in Kayode Fayemi. Ojudu spent four (4) years at the Senate with no meaningful impact on the lives of the people in Ekiti Central that he represented or Ado Ekiti, our hometown. Now he has spent another five (5) years as a Special Adviser with no visible impact on the lives of the people. According to Cicero, any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. My brother, Ojudu, is repeating the mistakes he made as a Senator by not taking care of our people. His attempt to portray himself as being caring by criticizing and attacking Fayemi and his government is an effort in futility. As a Special Adviser on Political Matters to the President, he is busy rubbishing his own political party at home. The same party he aspires to lead as a governor. Even PMB’s photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, that has never contested or be voted for by Ekiti people has done something meaningful for his people in Ijero Ekiti.
I am pained that my brother, Babafemi Ojudu, whom God has so blessed and given countless opportunities to make meaningful difference in Ekiti is now known by what Yoruba would call “modaru” (destroyer) because of his antecedents. Your negative exploits worry many elites of Ekiti extraction. Unfortunately, you seem not to be bothered. Why is it that whenever external evil forces are looking for an internal evil collaborator to execute their plot, you always come handy? Remember you did it against Niyi Adebayo, Fayose, Segun Oni and even against Fayemi, a government in which you were a Senator and a member of the kitchen cabinet! Immediately Fayemi lost election in 2014, you were the first to castigate him the following day and you thereafter launched an attack under the auspices of the action group spearheaded by you. You assembled other renegades whom you used and dumped when you became a Special Adviser! Many of them now know better and they are cursing you today! You again lived up to your name of “modaru” in 2018 during the primaries but you failed woefully because neither God nor our people was with you. In the face of an impending excruciating defeat at the primaries, despite sponsoring your thugs to disrupt the first exercise, you later withdrew to safe your face! You have started again but, you do not need any soothsayer to tell you again that your latest plot will also end in fiasco and mark your final descent into political oblivion both at the State and the National level. It is high time you jettisoned your perfidious politics for the common good of Ekiti people.
My brother, Babafemi Ojudu, is frantically funding his goons to attack Fayemi and his government to appease his godfather with the hope that he would be compensated with an automatic governorship ticket against the dictate of the people, again. I regret to announce to my brother that his perfidious politics will be his undoing. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw. You are doing nothing to support and help our people at home, and you think you can gain their attention by constantly putting Ekiti State in the news for negative reasons just for your own selfish interest. You are simply digging your own grave politically. You are spoiling your already battered and shattered image among Ekiti-kete. Tic-tac, tic-tac you are wasting away your God-given second chance by fighting Fayemi unwarrantedly instead of helping our people at home. Why not copy that young man, Bayo Omoboriowo? It’s never too late. A determined mind and a positive attitude, will increase your ability to achieve and succeed in any goal you set out for. The Ekiti of our dream will not be possible as long as people like my brother, Babafemi Ojudu, continue to stay out there, throwing stones at the father’s glasshouse.
Eniola Fadipe, PhD, writes from Ekute, Ado Ekiti.