‘In Ekiti Project, there must be equal spread of opportunities’

At a press briefing held in Ikere Ekiti to press forward its agitation to give exclusive right for Ekiti South Senatorial district to produce the next governor of Ekiti State, leadership of Ekiti South for Governor’s Forum represented by its Chairman, Chief Oluwole Ariyo, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Barrister, Surveyor Wole Adebola and Secretary, Chief Oloruntoba Ajayi

Responding to questions from journalists, the Forum Chairman, Chief Oluwole Ariyo who appealed to the good consciences of Ekiti people gave reasons why the governorship slot should come to the district come 2018. ADEWUMI ADEMIJU was there.

Excerpt:

Sir, in your speech your mentioned that “the outcome of the primary would shock many people,” can you tell the people of Ekiti what you intended with that statement?

I said and I repeat, because a lot of people are already hitting the street singing hallelujah when we have not even started the game at all. The south has already made up their minds that we are going to vote for a southern candidate/aspirant. We have already held consultations with the leaders in the central senatorial district. We are planning to hold consultation with the leaders in the North, having been talking to some of them. In politics, this time, you don’t measure your popularity by the number of people and the size of the crowd, who are obviously not card-carrying members of the party, dancing around you. You will get disappointed.

Is this movement focusing on All Progressives Congress (APC) alone as a particular party? What happens if other political parties pick their candidates from the south?

We are members of All Progressives Congress. We feel and we are convinced that 21 years of Ekiti creation, the south deserves to have a governor coming from that zone.  It is commonsensical, logical, reasonable, it appeals to good conscience that next ticket should go to somebody in the third leg of the state, which is the south.

I am not here to speak for any other party, they can pick their candidates from any district, but I know that southerners from the other party also are not morons, they too are thinking along this line, recently Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South for Governor Agenda held a meeting in Ikere Ekiti. So anybody from the south would want the governor to come from the district in 2018.

 How united are the aspirants from the south senatorial district?

All relationship in politics is based on competition, which does not suggest there is no unity, everybody is given opportunity to pursue his ambition, but at the end of the day, we would come back to a round table and sort out the problem, because only one person would occupy the position. No matter the enormity of the competition, no matter how ferocious it is, we would still come back to the round table to support the party’s flag bearer.

Governance especially in a state like Ekiti, an educated state is about competence and acceptability.  In the past candidates from the south contested  against their counterparts in the central. For instance in 1999, 2007, when Dr Kayode Fayemi won the primary ticket, aspirants like Adeyeye and Olowoporoku  from the south contested against him and they lost. Sir, are you raising this alarm because you are nursing the fear that the south lacks competent and or acceptable persons who could to go out there and defeat aspirants from other zones. Besides, do you intend to conduct a shadow election for these aspirants to have a formidable aspirant that would go out there to win the primary for you?

The South parades the best offspring that we have in Ekiti State today.  Our agitation is not based on the fact that we have no competent people and therefore asking Ekiti people to concede to the south. We are only pleading to the good conscience of Ekiti people that during the primary, they should look towards the south in voting for the candidate that would bear the flag of the party. We are appealing to the sense of justice, equity, fair play of Ekiti people. If we don’t bring all these things to their consciousness, they would think all is well. We are saying, in Ekiti Project, there must be equal spread of opportunities, the North and Central have had the opportunities, and they are still having; let us look at the south. Agreed that there is nowhere in the constitution where it is stated that zoning should be adopted in choosing the flag bearer, but if we look at what is happening in Nigeria, the bane of our problem today is the lopsided nature of the  spread of opportunities in the Nigeria states. Why are the Igbo people crying they want to go away, why are the southwest spearheading the restructuring thing? As a matter of fact some northerners have even said there should be a restructuring so that everybody would have equal opportunities. But if Ekiti people say it’s the central and the North that would be dominating the position that belongs to the three of us, there is nothing we can do, we can’t go to war, but we would continue to tell the people the truth so that we don’t get ourselves into unnecessary rancorous situation. We don’t promote unnecessary disharmony among our people. We don’t unnecessarily create South- Kaduna problem within a small entity called Ekiti. We don’t unnecessarily call for another hiccup in a small place like Ekiti. If things are done with fair play and equity, no person rules by himself, but by a team that would give a particular governor his identity.

A good number of the aspirants, we parade in the south today, are far better. I mean far better, in all indexes of assessments and achievements, than even most of the ex- Governors that are on prowl, especially when they were not governors.

Do you consider the declaration of Engineer Segun Oni as a big challenge to the South Agenda?

Not at all! Engineer Segun Oni was a governor of this state. A gentleman, a member of our party, a leader in the party, has the right to contest, has made a legitimate declaration. We have other aspirants, like Dr. Wole Oluyede, Kola  Alabi,  Bamidele Faparusi,  Gbenga Aluko, Chief Diran Adesua, Rt.Hon Femi Bamisile, Dr. Makanjuola Owolabi, Sunday Adebomi, who have equally declared their intentions to contest at the State Party Secretariat.

A lot of people are still coming to declare. Others are warming up. We are not bothered of any particular aspirant making any declaration. What we are saying is that we are appealing to the good conscience of Ekiti people to allow harmony to exist among Ekiti people. No area should be turned to an area where nothing good can come from. We are born equal; therefore, all the opportunities should be spread equally among us. It is a constitutional matter. The constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria has already divided Ekiti into three.

Look at what happened in Ondo State; the North had Papa Adebayo Adefarati, the South had Dr. Olusegun Agagu, the Central had Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

it is just logical that when starting all over again, it goes to the North, and follows the line that would bring about peace among the people. But when you decide to say that a people should be permanently relegated, should not have opportunity, should be forgotten, and should be locked outside the gate as it were in Ekiti… it would breed bad feelings, disharmony and disunity.

We don’t want disunity. Ekiti is a homogenous place. We are very small. No attempt must be made to bring dissension to Ekiti. You can only bring crisis if you promote injustice, inequity and impunity, some people  are saying who are the people that we have in the south, as if there is any super man in the other areas

It is true that the number of aspirants in the south is large, about 18 aspirants now; but that doesn’t pose any problem at all. It is natural that when people feel that this is the area that a thing should come from many people would rush to take that thing. But am saying categorically as the chairman of this agenda that we have good contenders among the aspirants and we also have good pretenders among them.

The system would sort them out; and they are being sorted out. We don’t have more than five serious contenders among the aspirants in the south. We allow Ekiti people to find them out, locate them and point to them that this is the type of person that can rule Ekiti State. It shouldn’t be by imposition. All the aspirants in the south have agreed to support whoever that emerged at the primary.