- Ekiti Guber Aspirant Reveals How Ekiti-Koya Helped Fayose Seize Power
By ‘Dotun Akintomide
The renaming of University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD) to Ekiti State University (EKSU), its current nomenclature has been fingered as the deep-rooted cause of the failure suffered by the immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi in claiming the governorship seat when he sought to be re-elected by Ekiti voters during the 2014 gubernatorial election in the state, THE NEW DIPLOMAT has been told exclusively.
According to the Accord Party candidate in the 2014 guber election, Barrister Kole Ajayi, who contested against Fayemi and the incumbent Governor, Ayodele Fayose, Fayemi, the current Minister of Solid Minerals fell out of the pecking order in Ekiti because of his sheer deviance to have UNAD renamed as EKSU, not minding the sundry conflicts and backlash that ensued among Ekiti people who wanted status quo to remain.
Speaking exclusively with The New Diplomat, Ajayi disclosed that the Ekiti Gate scandal notwithstanding, where the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in cahoot with top officers of the Nigerian Army were alleged to have bribed officials of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to rig the election in favour of its candidate, Fayose, Fayemi’s unwavering stance in renaming the university became his major albatross in the election and the reason for his unpopularity in Ekiti till date after suffering a shocking defeat at the poll.
“When Fayemi got to power, of course with the solidarity of the alumni of Christ School Ado-Ekiti, everybody was optimistic, but my first grouse with him was when he said he’s going to change the name of (the then) University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD) to Ekiti State University (EKSU). That was his major problem, and that was what caused his fall (in Ekiti) and I’m sure till today, he doesn’t know that, students were against it, the entire alumni were against it, all the Ekiti people were against it, because when you change from UNAD to EKSU that means you have demeaned the university. One is always bold to say I’m from UI, OAU or UNILAG for instance, but you feel ashamed when you say you’re from EKSU. UNAD on its own has even become a selling brand,” Ajayi said.
Ajayi, who has served as a national President of the university’s alumni and a member of the university’s governing council recounted how the alumni demanded the former Governor to back down on his plan, but he never buckled and that every intervention by several interventionists never materialized as Fayemi remained resolute to actualize the university’s renaming which he did.
“Throughout his four year tenure, I met Fayemi once, and it was only on the account of renaming the university.
“You may not be aware, but the university started with, OAU, after that it became, OSUA (Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti before the carving out of Ekiti State from Ondo), then UNAD and now you are changing it to EKSU. In fact, it was after speaking with Fayemi that K was added to it, ordinarily what was sent to the Ekiti House of Assembly for confirmation was ESU (Laughs) which would have further demeaned the university (because ESU means devil in Yoruba). It was after the discussion that he said, ah! I will tell them to put K.”
“I now told him that a lot of our graduates are facing serious identification problems around the world, especially when they want to get jobs, pursue further studies, because of a different name the transcript will be carrying,” Ajayi explained.
He lamented that several past graduates of the university have missed out on top jobs, admissions and other opportunities for the different name changes that the university had witnessed over time from OAU, OSUA, UNAD and now EKSU.
Ajayi further said, Fayemi had justified his decision of renaming the university on the need to give the entire Ekiti people a sense of belonging by renaming it EKSU, rather than glorifying Ado-Ekiti, the state capital alone with its former name, UNAD.
“But, I told him, you said you have travelled wide, university of London was named after London because it’s domiciled in London, but it’s owned by the UK government. What about University of Birmingham and several others. For instance, University of Ibadan was named after Ibadan not because it’s owned by the Ibadan people, but the entire Nigeria, same thing goes for UNILAG. That was how I parted ways with Fayemi and the following week I started Ekiti Koya (meaning Ekiti rejects suffering) and I was the national coordinator and the founder.”
He added that Ekiti-Koya was a pressure group that was created on grounds that since the creation of Ekiti state, “all the Governors we have had were not homegrown. We had Niyi Adebayo from Lagos, he has never been to Ekiti before. Then Fayose, he also grew up at Orita Challenge in Ibadan and he doesn’t know Ekiti.
“People have always capitalized on the vulnerability of the Ekiti people in terms of poverty to impose candidates on them. They come in, give them a ‘congo of rice’ to lure them. When (Segun) Oni came too, there was no impact, Fayemi came and did the worst, he was totally disconnected from the people. Till today none of the Governors can speak the Ekiti dialect, and Ekiti is so unique that it has a homogenous dialect.”
Ajayi, who is aspiring to be nominated as the All Progressives Congress’s governorship candidate in the coming Ekiti 2018 Guber poll said, Ekiti Koya, a pressure group he founded became a torn in the flesh of the Fayemi-led administration in the state which will later stop him from getting re-elected, thereby putting a jolt to his second term ambition in the state.
Recall, when the former Governor failed in his second term bid, losing the 2014 gubernatorial election to the incumbent Governor Fayose, political pundits were shocked to their bone marrows, as Fayemi’s lost became anti-thetical to his infrastructural strides often used to rate incumbent candidates ahead of election, especially in Nigeria’s contemporary democracy. But Ajayi stressed that, against political permutations from outside, Ekiti insiders knew that Ekiti-Koya was the political tool that Fayose rode on to power after voters rejected Fayemi for disconnecting himself from the people and for running an elitist’s government.
“There was no opposition against Fayemi except Ekiti Koya, everybody including Fayose all cued behind Ekiti Koya then. Ekiti Koya was that unique group where everybody wants to belong, but we were preaching homegrown leadership. That anybody that will become Governor in Ekiti must be somebody that has been in the system. That will understand how the people feel, their problems and the culture,” Ajayi said.
