What first struck me after reading Pius Adesanmi's essay is this general acknowledgement that the greatest writers in times like this are arm-chair script writers far removed from the setting of their works yet write eloquently to earn some degree of scholarship from their unsuspecting victims who hate to seek the truth or who do not have the “faintest” idea of the motivation of such writers.
What first struck me after reading Pius Adesanmi's essay is this general acknowledgement that the greatest writers in times like this are arm-chair script writers far removed from the setting of their works yet write eloquently to earn some degree of scholarship from their unsuspecting victims who hate to seek the truth or who do not have the “faintest” idea of the motivation of such writers.
They are characteristically ambivalent, oscillating between neutrality and sly or direct attack to achieve a pre-determined goal. Very curious in Adesanmi's essay is this sweeping characterisation of Governor Fayemi as a vindictive personality who has no slightest tolerance for opposition. It is on this strength that I put a question mark of Adesanmi's scholarship. Dr Fayemi has spent two years as the governor of the state. He declared to Ekiti people that he is no governor for ACN supporters but governor of all Ekiti people. Some of his programmes that have direct benefits for Ekiti people are not partisanship-inclined. The instances include social security scheme and volunteer corps recruitment. Also immediately after assumption of office, Governor Fayemi paid all the past political office holders their severance allowances. Incidentally, all these people served in Fayose and Mr. Segun Oni’s administrations. The towns and villages that won't see Governor Fayemi's posters on their walls during campaigns are today enjoying same privileges in terms of projects with the pro-Fayemi communities, among other instances. In a rare show of magnanimity, Governor Fayemi gave the sum of 1.5 million naira as relief to one of his critics and adversary who was a Chieftain of the PDP when his own petrol tanker crashed into his building and razed it down.
I had expected that a scholar that is worth his salt will list instances of Gov Fayemi's high-handedness before arriving at his conclusion that Dr Fayemi is a Stalin in embryo. Adesanmi instead displayed intellectual tragedy and dishonesty when he failed to list the instances where Lere proved conclusively that he is a politician cast in the mould of the devil as he always tries with everything he has to set the people against the government. He lied against the people. He lied against SSS. He once said he saw a dead body hanging on the tree in Dr Fayemi's compound. He was behind the story that Governor Fayemi built a university in Ghana. He was the one who wrote that Dr Fayemi was drawing N100 million weekly for not staying in the Govt House on assumption of office. He once lied that the Governor fainted two times in three days while the Governor was busy attending to state matters. He was the brain behind story that Dr Fayemi was arrested in London recently for money laundering on a day Governor Fayemi was signing MOU with Samsung Corporation in South Korea to establish engineering academy and plant in Ekiti State, among other several mischievous and seditious activities to paint the governor black. At the height of Lere's malicious activities against the police and SSS, the two security agencies declared him wanted. He went underground but when his leaders led him to these agencies for interrogation, Lere swore to be of good behaviour. He signed an undertaking to conduct himself in civil manner. All this while, Governor Fayemi ignored all Lere's antics; no agent of government made any move to arrest him. Adesanmi was blind to all these. The ink in his pen evaporated and with the lapse of time, all these activities did not take place.
Now, Lere believes he has not done enough. He mobilised to disrupt the exam by the teachers. He did not only plant thugs to stone the obedient teachers; he personally joined them in the stoning. He was spotted. The police were called in. He bolted. The police in hot pursuit arrested him in front of Adekaitan Filling Station close to Ola-oluwa Grammar School. He had earlier written on FB that he was indeed at Ola-oluwa where he said he did not see teachers writing the exam. He was furious that some teachers indeed wrote the exam and so he led an attack against them. In police cell, Lere could not explain his action or deny his presence at Ola-oluwa exam centre because he was shown the evidence. His godfathers, including Olubolade and Bola Olu-Ojo, tried to help secure his bail. The evidence against Lere was too overwhelming that they had to leave the station tongue-tied, so much that they wondered why Lere refused to heed their advice to tread softly in his seditious activities. Even as those that are in Nigeria cannot conveniently defend Lere, Adesanmi in far away Britian (or is it America) took it upon himself to mislead the world in his essay. His admission that he follows Lere on facebook shows there is a link between him and Lere Olayinka despite his demonization of the PDP to hoodwink his unsuspecting readers.
Remember, when Lere and Bolanle Bruce were natives of the Government House and the rest of us in opposition were strangers in our own state, the greatest offence any opposition element could commit was visiting the Government House. For instance, the then spokesman of the Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Yemi Adaramodu was incarcerated twice in one week by the SSS at the instance of the Segun Oni led government. Adaramodu’s offence was issuing a press release about the staff of the State’s Broadcasting Corporation who protested against the government that forced them to broadcast falsehood to the public. During that time, Adesanmi was holidaying in the Mars and so he did not know all these details. But a mere official reaction to rein in a desperate opposition element still mourning the loss of something he did not have, Adesanmi is painting a picture of a state in an emergency dispensation where anybody who sneezes outside government's prescription is guilty of sedition. We wonder where Mr. Pius Adesanmi was when Ekiti became a haven for killers, rough-necks, kidnappers and armed robbers under the PDP government when life was nasty, brutish and short. Today, Ekiti remains one of the most peaceful states in the country and E kiti people are happy with Governor Fayemi whose legitimacy and security measures has put the hoodlums in check.
Lere has not only criticised this government ceaselessly which we believe he has the right to do anyway, but he has also issued to the public deliberate falsehood and this government has ignored him. It was the court that remanded him in police custody so what is Fayemi's business in that? Mr . Pius Adesanmi has refused to find out what really happened before castigating Fayemi whose powers do not include stopping the police from doing its job. Gov Fayemi remains an activist and democrat but he would not misuse his executive powers by preventing the law enforcement agents from maintaining peace and order in his State.
One good thing about Ekiti State is that we have gone beyond the prism of Adesanmi's characterisation of Ekiti people as a bunch of fools. But then another good thing is that Adesanmi has sold himself cheaply as a scholar sadly lacking in the pursuit and commitment of scholarship in the civilised world. This is the season of weaving conclusion of research works with demeaning validities even before the beginning of that research. We are on guard and no weapon fashioned against the current development stride in our state shall thrive.
Wole Olujobi writes from Ado-Ekiti
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