By Lere Olayinka
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
I was about 12-year-old when my grandfather told me the story of a bird. I used to
hear the tiny, bright-coloured bird make two different sounds and out of curiosity,
I had asked my grandfather why the bird used to sing two different tunes.
“Olamilere Adisa my son,” my grandfather had said, looking into my eyes” “That bird represents the attitude of human beings to life. Whenever it is hungry and there is no food to eat, the bird would sing on top of its voice” “un o ku o ngbo yi” (I must leave this forest). But immediately it finds something to eat, it changes its tune to “igbo yi dun” (this forest is sweet).
Over 20 years after that brief encounter with my grandfather on the antics of the bird, events in Ekiti State in the last three months have not stopped reminding me of that bird and its attitude to life.
When the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appointed Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo as the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) for Ekiti State, leaders of the Action Congres (AC) in the state went to town, shouting themselves hoarse that the woman was sent to the state to perfect the rigging they alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) perpetrated during the April 14, 2007 governorship election. To the AC leaders, Mrs. Adebayo was a devil that must be sent out of Ekiti State because she was an agent of the PDP.
That notion, however, changed on April 26, 2009. The rerun governorship election ordered by the Court of Appeal in 63 wards in 10 out of the 16 local councils in the State did the magic!
INEC had successfully conducted the rerun election in nine out of the 10 local government areas where the election was ordered and it was obvious that the PDP was coasting home to victory. The impending electoral failure could only be reversed by the cancellation of the Ido/Osi Local Government where the PDP polled 15,939. Efforts to get the election cancelled through burning of the electoral materials had failed because the arsonists allegedly led to Ido, headquarters of Ido/Osi Local Government had failed because the materials had been moved to a police station before they arrived. Hence, the AC and its vociferous leaders who were desirous of clinging to anything to clinch the governorship of Ekiti State suddenly realised that Mrs. Adebayo was principal to the achievement of this inordinate ambition. They allegedly pulled a call through to her, threatening to visit her and her entire family with terror if she accepted the result of eight out of the 11 wards in Ido/Osi Local Government. The jittery 74-year-old woman hurriedly suspended collation of results and fled.
Nigerians were to later be treated to the dramas of the REC’s resignation, her disappearance and reappearance. It was at this point that Mrs. Adebayo became a saint in the eyes of the desperate leaders of the AC. To them, Mrs. Adebayo was a woman of conscience who had vowed to do what was right as against what the powers that be wanted her to do. And in the minds of the AC leaders and their supporters, what was right was nothing but the cancellation of Ido/Osi Local Government results and declaration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi as the governor of Ekiti State . Mrs. Adebayo was praised to the skies. She was described as epitome of hope for democracy in Nigeria by the AC leaders who insisted that they would not accept election results declared by any other REC apart from her.
All these happened between April 26 and May 5, 2009. By 10.00 p.m. of Tuesday, May 5, 2009, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo had turned to a devil in the eyes of the AC leaders. She had lost her conscience and dignity and the same AC leaders who sang her praises had changed their tune. Why? Because the woman refused to be blackmailed into assuming the role of the court by canceling an election that was duly conducted, results collated and recorded in all relevant forms.
From available records, elections were properly conducted in nine local government areas, including Ido/Osi on Saturday, April 25, 2009. Votes were counted and collated in all the polling units by electoral officers in the presence of all party agents and relevant security personnel. The INEC officials that conducted the elections at the polling units and the ones who did the collation at the wards and local government levels acknowledged that the elections were properly conducted.
Yet, the AC leaders would want the REC, who was not present at the polling units where the elections were held to cancel the results and accept only those of the three wards in the same council areas where the AC won. The two-faced democrats in the AC mischievously elected not to tell the public that all their agents signed Forms EC8A at the various polling units where elections took place. The agents also signed Forms EC8B at the point of collation of results at the ward level after which collation was done at the local government level.
To the AC leaders who obviously are like that bird who would threaten to leave the forest when it had no food to eat and sing a different tune immediately it finds something to eat, Engr. Segun Oni, the PDP governorship candidate, could not have scored 15,939 votes out of the 47,587 registered voters in his local government of origin. The fact that Fayemi polled 3,022 votes in his ward out of the 3,085 votes cast was immaterial.
It also made no sense to the AC and its paid agents that out of the total of 11,337 votes scored by Fayemi in the entire 12 wards of Oye Local Government, 3,022 (26.7%) came from only his (Fayemi) ward.
Ironically, those leaders of the AC who have been most vociferous in their condemnation of the Ido/Osi results are themselves beneficiaries of the homeboy advantage, which is a factor known to politics the world over. For example, in the 1980 US Presidential Election, Jimmy Carter won resoundingly in Georgia in what was overall a landslide victory for Ronald Reagan. Again, in the most recent 2008 US Presidential Election, Barack Obama won overwhelmingly in Illinois while John McCain won resoundingly in Arizona .
Here in Nigeria , Chief Adekunle Ajasin from Owo, as Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Governorship candidate in 1979, had 51,372 votes (97.95% of total votes in Owo Local Government). In 1983, he had 88,250 votes (98.40%).
In 1991, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua from Ikere-Ekiti, as Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate had 21,697 votes (94.5% of total votes in Ikere, his hometown. The total votes scored by Olumilua far out-numbered the population of the town!
In 1999, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, from Iyin, as Alliance for Democracy (AD) Governorship candidate had 53,856 votes (81.08% of total votes in Irepodun/Ifelodun LGA). It should be noted that in 1999, two council areas, Irepodun/Ifelodun and Ikole, gave the AD 110,430 votes, (i.e. 36.8% of the total votes of 300,180) with which the party won the governorship election.
In 2003, Otunba Niyi Adebayo (AD) and Mr. Ayo Fayose (PDP), who hail from the same Local Government Area scored 98.49% and 96.94% respectively in their home towns. It should be of interest that voters’ turnout in Afao (Fayose's home town) was dead on 100 percent as the registered voters were 3,399 while votes cast were 3,399!
Olayinka wrote from Ado Ekiti.
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