The feud between Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and President Muhammadu Buhari’s adviser on political matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has continued unabated, creating a crack in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The power tussle, which started during the buildup to the July 2018 governorship election in the state, reached its crescendo weeks ago when suspension was slammed on Ojudu and nine chieftains of the party in his camp.
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The suspension was slammed on them by the Architect Paul Omotosho-led faction of the party in the state over alleged anti-party activities.
In retaliation, Ojudu’s faction of the party also announced the suspension of Governor Kayode Fayemi over alleged anti-party activities.
But the national leadership of the party said the suspension of Fayemi and other members by the Ojudu group was a nullity.
To halt the festering crisis, the national chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, aside quashing the suspension of Fayemi, constituted a six-member high-level reconciliation committee headed by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to look into the crisis.
But a day after the constitution of the reconciliation panel, the party in Ekiti State insisted on the suspension of Ojudu and nine other members of his camp.
The spokesperson of the party in the state, Ade Ajayi, said the suspension of Ojudu and others subsisted despite El-Rufai’s peace panel.
Ajayi added that the El-Rufai committee and the disciplinary panel set up at the state level, which recommended the suspension of Ojudu and others, were saddled with distinct responsibilities, with no overlapping effect.
“Let me clarify here that it was only the suspension of the illegal body imposed on Governor Kayode Fayemi that was nullified and not the one that was carried out by the state disciplinary committee,” he said.
With the latest position of the APC in Ekiti State, all eyes are now on El-Rufai and members of his peace panel to quench the fire in the state chapter of the party.
As it is, the governor and the presidential aide are not only working against each other, they are all out for a supremacy battle.
In 2018, Ojudu contested the governorship primary of the party with 33 others.
He participated in the first primary election but pulled out few days to the second primary.
He alleged that the exercise was manipulated in favour of Fayemi, who was seeking a second term at that time.
After the primary, many aspirants were aggrieved, but Fayemi, who picked the party’s ticket, visited them and solicited their support to win the poll.
As the 2022 governorship election in the state gathers momentum, efforts to grab the soul of the party by various camps, according to pundits, were part of the factors fuelling the crisis in the state chapter.
Ojudu and others had accused Governor Fayemi of influencing the party executives to alienate critics of his government.
This, they said, was responsible for the festering crisis.
The scheming for the 2023 presidential election is another issue fuelling the crisis.
The two camps belong to different blocs of the party at the national level.
Also, the litigation challenging the composition of the state executives by the stakeholders in Ojudu’s camp is another factor.
The stakeholders had alleged that there was no election that brought in the state
executive council, saying they were handpicked into various positions.
But the publicity secretary of the party debunked the allegation that they were handpicked.
According to him, the elections were held on September 14 and 15, 2020 and witnessed by the then National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and ratified by the state stakeholders’ meeting, where Ojudu and Adeyeye were present.
To the camp of the governor, the refusal by the stakeholders to withdraw the litigation despite President Buhari’s order was tantamount to anti-party.
A former national legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bashir Maidugu, a lawyer, said crises in political parties were caused by lack of fairness and justice.
Maidugu, the special adviser to the Borno State governor on trade and investment, advised key actors in the Ekiti crisis and the national leadership of the APC to resolve it by adopting the instrumentality of fairness and justice.
“Crises are caused by ego and refusal to compromise for the sake of fairness. So everything centres around fairness.
“The stakeholders should sit down and agree on fairness.
“The governor should be fair, those involved should be fair and the national leadership of the party should be fair.
“That way, the crisis will be resolved. All crises are caused by lack of fairness and justice,’’ he said.
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In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust on telephone, Ojudu accused the governor of deliberately driving away supporters of the party by staying away from the state.
He said Fayemi’s moves showed that he was not ready for reconciliation as directed by the party’s national body.
“At the end of the day, there has to be reconciliation; we can’t continue to fight.
“We are waiting for that reconciliation, but sadly, he (Fayemi) said he was not going to listen to anybody.
“He said there shouldn’t be a committee; and I don’t think that is right.
“Everybody is angry with him now.
“Call anybody in that state now, including your colleagues, and ask how popular Fayemi is in Ekiti State.
“If we conduct election in Ekiti State today, he can’t win 50 per cent of the total votes.
“That is why we said there’s the need to speak out and let people know, so that we can fix the party.
“We still have time. 2023 is still far away, so if we can agree now and be reasonable, we can fix the party and be able to win elections,’’ Ojudu said.
He continued, “If he doesn’t change his way and continues to disturb us, shutting everybody as he is shutting the committee in Abuja, and all those moves, that will be a disaster for our party come 2022.
“The committee should call him to order.
“He can’t be bigger that the party.
“He can’t be bigger than everybody. He can’t be bigger than the president or vice president and the committee.
“Let him listen. Let’s dialogue with people at the grassroots level. Let’s dialogue with leaders. No party activity is taking place, no caucus, no leader, only him and his small cronies are the ones ruling the party in the state.’’
He further explained that the genesis of their feud was not about his rumoured 2022 governorship ambition, saying it started when Fayemi was advised not to suspend 13 first-class monarchs in the state.
He added that the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum also got angry when he was advised by the party leaders to stay in the state and stop ruling from Abuja.
“I think you know we all supported him to be governor, even when we knew he was not quite popular in the state.
“We know how he was shut out of the state after the 2014 governorship election.
“When he became governor, we expected him to impress the people and mobilise them to the party, but he didn’t do so.
“He will not stay in the state; he is always in Abuja.
“The disagreement between me and him initially was when he wanted to suspend 13 first-class traditional rulers.
“We said such action would affect the fortunes of our party in 2022/2023 elections.
“You cannot suspend traditional rulers in Ekiti State. We all came back to oppose that.
“We told him to stay in the state, govern very well and make our job easier in 2022.
“That was when he got angry and started going to our wards to get us suspended.
“But our wards told him that he could not suspend us,’’ he said.
When contacted for reaction to Ojudu’s allegations, the chief press secretary to Governor Fayemi, Mr Yinka Oyebode said, “No comment.”
