By Ekiti Patriotic Consultative Forum
‘’When insulted by injustice, face it, stand up against it and demand your right and justice.’’
We woke up to the hogwash published on 24th November 2022 by an online gossip news platform named Globalhotlinenews, issued by a faceless group, Ekiti Development Agenda through a pseudo name tagged Mr Odun Igbalajobi without any known address nor relations in Ekiti. This is because no true-born Ekiti would ever allow himself to be used as an instrument to insult men who represent our symbol of excellence in Ekiti, mentors of great minds and biggest contributors to the Ekiti project. Any attack on any of our illustrious sons and daughters who have contributed to the survival of the state with their blood and sweat will be resisted and never allowed to pass without a deserving response to tell the world that Ekiti People are generally not of the creed of Igbalajobi.
Having forgotten that they have left office, the sponsors of the faceless writer issued the reckless statement with the logo of the Ekiti State Government. We would not have taken such gonzo journalism seriously save for the fact that the well-known author and sponsor of the writeup deliberately murdered history to justify his attempt to accentuate his political hegemony in Ekiti State, and by so doing he took the needless effort to ridicule, disparage and tell blatant lies against our revered Legal Icons in Ekiti, an accolade they earned through sheer hard work, self-development, and not on the altar of any political abracadabra or patronage.
These are illustrious sons of Ekiti, who had created a niche for themselves, and they have strived in their private endeavours to place the name of Ekiti on the world map. They continue to make Ekiti a relevant entity in the comity of States, far beyond where any professional politician, a power monger could ever push it. These men are real leaders, and anyone can boast of their enviable achievements in life. Any civilised society would love to associate with them to always take advantage of their wealth of experience and draw from their pool of wisdom.
We wish to applaud and queue behind the noble intervention of these brave men over the ongoing needless political crisis in our dear State which was fuelled by the sheer inordinate ambition of a political marauder whom the author has unwittingly unveiled in his write-up. The current happenings in the State should be of serious worry and concern to every patriotic indigene of Ekiti, for having our state as the centrepiece of political rascality and theatre of acts that are antithetical to normal democratic practices. We thought such time has passed in our anal as a State.
We wish to correct the misconceived impression painted by the author of the writeup that once their Party leaders and their political party are satisfied with the activities in the Ekiti State House of Assembly that nothing should concern anyone else in the State. It should be noted, and they should have it sink to their thin skulls that the Ekiti State House of Assembly belong to Ekiti State and not any political party, or her promoters; maybe they have forgotten that the Assembly is being maintained with tax-payers fund and not their political party’s money. Moreso, they represent the good people of Ekiti State in the Assembly, not their political party as erroneously propagated. The unconscious ignorance of arrogating the Assembly to a political party is misplaced and such political entitlement should stop forthwith.
We would not delve into those issues that have been raised by our fathers in the communique signed by them in their opposition against the ignoble, undemocratic and politically orchestrated act of impeachment of the Speaker by the Honourable members of the House of Assembly; however, we shall react to those baseless and blatant allegations levied against these nobles by the promoter of the political shenanigan in order to justify the shameless act of hand twisting the parliamentary business of Ekiti-State.
In the shallow mind of the pseudo writer and the promoters, they were of the opinion that these legal icons in Ekiti were masquerading to fight their political Cesar, Mr. Kayode Fayemi and because of that the former Governor went on a lie spree to convince his gullible readers that the intervention of these nobles and elder statemen were laced with ulterior motives to show resentment to him (Kayode Fayemi) and to fight because of beef they have against him. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and it can only come from a deluded mind. Lies told unchallenged maybe taken to be the truth.
To start with, aside from the State Government, Aare Afe Babalola, OFR, CON, SAN remains the biggest contributor to the development and economic prosperity of Ekiti State. Taking into consideration his contributions towards the creation of Ekiti state, and his personal efforts towards the siting of Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti in the town and other notable developmental intervention of his in Ekiti, the biggest of them all is the establishment of Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) in Ekiti in 2010, which turned out to be the biggest investment by any individual on the soil of Ekiti today. A world class, 21st century citadel of learning that has drawn great people from all walks of life to Ekiti State in the last twelve years more than ever. People who ordinarily won’t have had any cause to come to Ekiti now visit Ekiti because of ABUAD, and it has greatly brought several investment and revenue to the State through income tax. Today, Afe Babalola Hospital remains the darling of all Nigerians who take advantage of their modern equipment that no government health facilities could boast of in Nigeria. This has been attested to by the stakeholders and supervisory agencies in that sector.
Without being immodest, within just twelve years of establishment of ABUAD, the institution has been ranked among the best in the world which is evidenced by the various National and global awards received by the institution; we truly think ABUAD should be a pride of every true Ekiti person and the Government of the state for having such heritage in our state regardless of our size and fortune.
The personality of Aare Afe Babalola is not something we should be telling any person in Nigeria, he is an enigma, a legal luminary of repute, an educationist, a philanthropist, and a core lover of Ekiti state, no wonder he resisted every entreaty to persuade him in siting the school in more urban site like Ibadan as against Ekiti. In an attempt by the writer to raise issues on why Aare Afe Babalola would want to be angry with Former Governor Fayemi, he placed heavy weather on the issues of Airport, How Fayemi became the Governor without Aare Afe’s support, and how he honoured Engr. Segun Oni with a honourary Doctorate Degree of ABUAD.
We would like to say that the writer has written from the standpoint of abundance of ignorance, he has attested to the love and willingness to contribute to the development of Ekiti by Chief Afe Babalola in his writeup by offering to singlehandedly build the Terminal for the proposed Airport in Ado Ekiti, which was rejected by Kayode Fayemi for whatever reason best known to him. How on earth would a state government reject a private collaboration to build infrastructure, no matter the financial structure? except for under dealings that such participation may frustrate, especially with someone like Aare. It is pertinent to ask whether Mr. Fayemi delivered a Terminal at the Airport before he left.
On the issue of supporting a candidate for Governorship in Ekiti, with the place of Baba in life, anyone that wants to become the President of Nigeria would normally enlist his endorsement and support, not to talk of the Governor of his State. It is nothing but stupidity for anyone to want to drag Baba to the lowest and dirty arena of their local politics, just because he queried and asked for the right thing to be done.
On the issue of conferring Honorary Doctorate degree on Engr. Segun Oni, it is an expression of non-understanding of how issues of that nature are arrived at in an Institution like ABUAD that has a functional and effective system. The decision of whom to be conferred with Honorary Doctorate cannot be that of the Founder alone but of the entire Senate and board of trustees of the Institution. Howbeit, due to the amnesia of the writer and his handlers, they have quickly forgotten that in the year 2021, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of APC was the recipient of the Honorary Doctorate Degree from ABUAD. The bible says ‘’The sinner runneth when he is not being chased’’. The imaginary enemies created by Kayode Fayemi should be kept in his head and mind without using it to trivialise an issue that is very important and germane to the survival of Ekiti.
In furtherance of their emptiness and pettiness, they descended on Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN., Chairman Body of Benchers, to say that because Mr. Akinlaja, SAN was dropped as the Attorney General in 2018, as well as the fact that he showed political support for his kinsman who ran as Governor which Fayemi eventually won, and that Odo Oja was granted autonomy were sufficient reasons that made Chief Olanipekun want to fight Kayode Fayemi. How does those puerile issues relate to the unlawful impeachment of the Speaker?. We got bewildered with the quality of thought by these people, including the Former Governor who is aiding all the instability in the State or why should he think Chief Wole Olanipekun will not know the appropriate forum to approach to ventilate issues and instead would be waiting this long to react. We think it is an insult on our collective intelligence in Ekiti and it is too hard to believe any Ekiti man will think low of Chief Wole Olanipekun like that.
Mr. Femi Falana was not spared in their vituperations. We do not know if there is anything wrong for any Ekiti man to show interest to become the Governor of Ekiti, and the last time we checked, Mr. Femi Falana contested to be Governor of Ekiti in the year 2003, long before Fayemi was packaged for Ekiti people. We want him to know that if becoming Ekiti State Governor is the lifetime ambition of Mr. Falana he would not throw in the towel rather he would have joined one of the major parties and we are not too sure that somebody like him (Fayemi) would have had a chance to have a bite. Also, the position of Attorney General is exclusive for the lawyers and Fayemi is never a lawyer, how come Femi Falana contested the ministerial position with him?. They are just stamping logic on the head, and it shows the incoherence of their state of mind.
Finally, we condemn the tirade, innuendo, and open attack on our revered Icons of repute, these are noble men of international stature, and men that their names open doors for Ekiti indigenes in Nigeria. They are Legal luminaries that their opinions are sought for over National issues as Ministers in the temple of justice, and they would be betraying their calling if they refuse to stand and challenge injustice festering to suffocate the rule of law in their home state just because they are afraid to be tagged names by the political ragtags.
A single state is having the trio of Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Wole Olanipekun, and Mr. Femi Falana as leading lights, yet some charlatans want to turn such state to a theatre of political rascality while portraying them in negative light to supress their voices. The intelligent citizens among us shall continue to offer support for these great men till every appearance of despot and governance by proxy is defeated and permanently put to extinction in our polity. We shall leave you with the words of Max Eastman which says, ‘’Patriotism is one of the unalterable facts of man’s nature. It is a virtue if you like it, and a vice if you don’t like it’’
SINGED
GBENGA BABAWIBE, ESQ. MCIArb (UK)
Ekiti Patriotic Consultative Forum, Kilometre 10 Ado-Ikere Road, Ajilosun, Ado–Ekiti,
Ekiti, State, Email:- EPCF@yahoo.com