Action Congress! Troubled Congress!

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, prides itself as a progressive party. It controls five states in the South West and Edo in the south-south. Of recent though, the actions of some of its governors have put serious question marks on the progressiveness of the party. From Lagos to Osun, Ekiti, Ogun to Oyo, it has been a litany of fumbling that have left the people wondering if they have joined the wrong vehicle. The failure of the party to add Ondo to its account, though being taken in its strides by the leaders of the party, appears a big signal that the hegemony is in trouble. Add that to the breaking of ranks with its army of human rights supporters, the answer is a party in crisis. GEOFFREY EKENNA, Group Political Editor, reports. 

Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, foremost human rights activist in the mould of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Late Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti, is a woman of wars. From her days in Ilorin until she met and married her husband, Yinka, through the days of the late General Sani Abacha until 1999 when Nigeria’s current democratic journey began, Okei- Odumakin, has been a regular fixture in anything activism and protest against injustice and bad governance. Many had also seen Okei-Odumakin as more critical of the Federal Government-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, than the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which holds sway in the South-West. 

But like every romance story, there is always an end. It came between ACN and Okei-Odumakin in the Ondo State governorship election won by Governor Olusegun Mimiko. Okei-Odumakin has had enough of the propaganda machinery of the party led by the irrepressible Alhaji Lai Mohammed. For starters, Yinka Odumakin, Joe’s husband and an activist of note too, had broken off from the ACN party and endorsed Mimiko for a second term in an election the ACN has thrown all the bins they could muster to discredit Mimiko and win. Odumakin’s reason for supporting Mimiko is not clear yet. But it may not be unconnected with the politics of 2011, when he worked as a media spokesman for the candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Gen. Mohamadu Buhari, who not only failed to reach a coalition arrangement with the ACN but was jilted by leadership of the ACN, who cast their votes for President Goodluck Jonathan.

But Mohammed apparently mistook the husband for the wife and wanted the Women Arise, a nongovernmental organisation ran by Joe to be disaccredited from monitoring the election in Ondo on the basis of the husband’s endorsement. The ACN’s spokesman’s position caused a media war between him and Okei-Odumakin, who branded Mohammed, ACN’s lie machine. Hell was virtually let loose between the two camps.
For uninitiated, the war of words between the two camp simply reflected the  depth of the rot within the ACN and the speed with which many, who were hitherto hoodwinked into buying the fabrics of propaganda churned out by Mohammed and the ACN have come to see the real stuff. 

Ordinarily, Okei-Odumakin’s group had championed and participated in the ACN’s push and protest for the restoration to the position of the President of the Court of Appeal of now deposed Justice Ayo Salami by the National Judicial Council and the presidency. But details of the “popular demand” for Salami’s restoration emerged during the Mohammed-Okei-Odumakin public quarrel. In one of her statements, Okei-Odumakin stated that her group refused to participate in the second protest in favour of Salami because it was discovered that the first protest was paid for and stage managed by the ACN. Salami is alleged to be the ACN’s henchman in the Appeal Court who delivered Edo, Ekiti and Osun states on a platter to the ACN.

Said Okei-Odumakin in one statement, “In twenty four hours, Alhaji Mohammed has issued two statements against us repeating the same baseless and puerile allegations against our organisation .
In what has become a special forte of Alhaji Mohammed, one set of rules for ACN and a different one for others, the ACN spokesman's  only allegation against Women Arise is that the group cannot be independent because the hubby of the president has expressed his personal opinion. 
Yet Lai Mohammed and his party insist that the volume of calls himself and other leaders of his party had with Justice Salami who was giving judgments in ACN favour had no relationships.
It is more absurd that he in one breath wants CODER which was formed and is being funded by the ACN leader accredited and in another asks for de-accreditation of Women Arise with no evidence of link to any political party.”
The Ondo election has come and gone. The candidate of the party in the election, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu came third behind Mimiko and Mr Olusola Oke of the PDP.

 The break-away of Oeki-Odumakin is just one of the numerous signs that the house of the ACN is going tatters. Analysts are of the view that if something does not give within the party soon, its control of the five states in the south west and Edo is endangered. There are wide-spread evidence in Ekiti, Lagos, Osun, Oyo and Ogun states that the ACN’s propaganda machine and muscle might have been seen through by not only Okei-Odumakin but many other citizens, who are not getting what they bargained for. Analysts are also of the view that massive anger is whaling up against the party in all the states it controls, save for Edo.

 In Lagos for instance, the recent ban on commercial motorcyclists popularly known as Okada is one issue that is not being well received. Although applauded as a right step by the elite and car owners, it is neither acceptable to the cyclists or the masses, who have resorted to trekking long distances, high jerk up of transport fares and long hours of traffic. Recently, the government announced that it destroyed 3, 000 motorcycles seized from operators. One of those affected is a taxi driver based in Ikeja, who gave his name as Adelani. He told Compass that the general feeling is that specifically, ACN should not return in Ogun, Lagos in 2015 and Ekiti in 2014. Why? He told his story. Thus, “In Ogun State, Senator Amosun has been in office for nearly two years? He was fighting Gbenga Daniel in those two years. My brother, was he elected to fight Gbenga Daniel? He has not done anything to fulfil his campaign promises. I am a proper Yoruba and I can tell you that people are already disappointed with him. Unless he performs a miracle between now and 2015, forget it”.

He continued, “Have you see the problem in Ekiti. The governor there is fighting almost everybody. Is that the reason for election him? I travel to Ekiti often and I know what goes on there. The people are not happy with him. Call me a taxi driver but I know the way our people behave.”
Further inquiry revealed why Adelani believes ACN will not win Lagos. He is an aggrieved man. Said he,“My younger brother has been jobless for many years. Recently, I bought a motorcycle for him, telling him that since he knows how to ride , let him use it to feed himself and his family. Three months after that, he brought a friend of his to me to help and I bought another bike for the guy. It is less than six months ago but today, the two motorcycles have been seized by the government. Tell me, in other places where Okada was banned, did they seize people’s motocycles? Why is Lagos different?”

Well, he might be right. In some other states of the Federation where Okada is banned or restricted, they were either replaced with tricycles or taxies. In the south East and south south, tricycles have replaced motocycles in states like Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers, while Enugu and Rivers states opted for taxies.  There are also numerous taxies in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja which replaced Motocycles when former Minister of the FCT, Mallam Nasir El rufai opted to ban Okada from the town.
But the argument of Okada is one fashola hold strongly and foor good reasons to an extent. He recently asked those oppsed to the ban to visit hospitals and emergency wards “to see the plight of those who have lost their limbs, arms, children or those who have been made orphans by the recklessness of okada riders.”

According to Fashola, motorcycles should not have been allowed to become a means of transport in the first place. He argued that in less than two decades, motorbikes have become so prominent so much that they are now a phenomenon. “The only way to stop the business from flourishing is by not patronising them. It is a business that if the income from it dwindles, the business proposition of those in it will change”, he said.
Citing an overview of various facets of life in the State, Governor Fashola explained that he had taken it upon himself to show leadership by example; by shunning the use of siren to escape from the traffic as well as always taking it upon himself to fight against any attempt by very Important Personalities to block roads.

But the issue of restriction of motorcycles is a small problem to the ACN in Lagos. At least, it is seen as welcome by some people. But the issue of the high school fees in the state owned Lagos State University, the tolling of the Lekki-Epe road the local government election where the ACN claimed victory even in areas where victory was declared for the PDP by electoral officers are reasons people are waiting for the government of Fashola to berth in 2015. In the local government election conducted in October 2011, the results of the election in Badagry Local government was announced, proclaiming the PDP candidate as the winner. The result was even video-taped and uploaded on Ytube. That of Ikoyi-Obalende, won by Jide, son of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro was not announced. 

He has been declared winner by the electon tribunal but not sworn in. ACN said it has appealed. The PDP is laying claims t about six other local governments in the state, which the results said it won but the ACN through the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC claimed victory in all. The people of Lekki-Epe were also hounded by the Police for a peaceful protest. The story is replete in many areas of the state, since Fashola assumed office.
In Ekiti, the situation is a more serious. For nearly three months now, workers in the local government areas of the state have been on strike. The first signs of trouble appeared when the National Union of Local Government Employees in the state accused the Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of illegally deducting their money. Fayemi, rather than face the question demanded an apology even in the face of a looming strike. The workers have gone on strike since and nothing is forthcoming from the government.

Fayemi has followed up that controversy with a competence test for teachers. It was shunned by most teachers. Frustrated, Fayemi opted to arrest Lere Olayinka, the Media Adviser to a former Governor of the State, Engr Segun Oni and charged him with Sedition and incitement. Notable human rights activists raised their voices against the Governor, telling him that a Court in Enugu killed Sedition as a law over 30 years ago. Olayinka, who was beaten black and blue, dragged on the floor and accused of stopping teachers from writing the competence test is still on trial. 

On his arrest and trial, Olayinka said, “On Tuesday, October 9 that I was charged to court, the first charge was that I published seditious publications against Governor Kayode Fayemi. Sedition in a democracy? That's how democratic Fayemi and his party, the ACN are. They also accused me of inciting teachers against the government, preventing the teachers from writing examination and most ridiculously, and that I was engaged in conduct likely to cause breach of public peace. Like I have queried, Fayemi must have to tell Nigerians when eating pounded yam and vegetable soup mixed with Okro started causing breach of public peace?”
Fayemi had while speaking at a seminar on “Youth Empowerment” organised by Igbimo Ure Ekiti, September 2011 taken a swipe at principals of secondary schools in the state, following a test administered on them.
The governor openly lamented that the result of the test showed that the heads of secondary schools performed woefully in the examination.

He said: “The result was very horrible and is one of the reasons students perform woefully in internal and public examinations.” That prompted the recent reasons for the test on teachers.
The Ekiti NUT, in a communiqué dated April 11, 2012, blew the matter open when it issued a warning on the proposed test. It said in the communiqué that the State Wing Executive Council (SWEC) “deliberated extensively on the introduction of proposed competency assessment /examination of teachers in both primary and secondary schools in the state,” and claimed that “the SWEC-in session could not comprehend or decipher the motive or rationale behind the introduction of the said competency assessment for teachers, majority of whom had been certified and had been teaching professionally for more than 20 years.”

Fayemi crowned his efforts with the receipt of the best governor award from a newspaper house, an award that was roundly jeered at, considering that local government areas and teachers were at unrest when he went to Abuja to receive the award. The PDP in the south west described the award to Fayemi as “insulting,” “a celebration of nothing” and “a show of emptiness by a failed governor.”
The party added, “Even a five-year-old in Ekiti knows that Fayemi cannot be chosen as Governor of the Year among his fellow Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governors in the Southwest states much less among the 36 governors in the country.”

In a release issued by the zonal Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Kayode Babade, it claimed that over N100m that went into the award jamboree could have been used to salvage the Ekiti State health sector currently in coma 
Querying the criteria used to arrive at Fayemi as Governor of the Year, PDP noted that media organisations stand the risk of losing credibility by celebrating a governor like Fayemi, whose state is almost grounded.
"In Ekiti State today, cholera is killing people everywhere; taps are no longer running; local government workers are on strike (meaning that all primary health care institutions in the state are grounded); judiciary workers are warming up to begin their own strike, having handed the government a seven-day ultimatum; teachers cannot resume work; doctors are leaving the state-owned University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Ado; borrowed N30b is being spent to lay asphalt on already asphalted roads and build new Government House;  and Fayemi is adjudged as  ‘Best Governor of the Year? That is a fraud!” 

His latest controversy now is the sacking of a regent to the Ilasa-Ekiti crown in the Ekiti East Local Government Area of the state, Princess Jolaade Onipede. Some  people alleged to be aides of  Fayemi  had last week descended on the palace, left it vandalised and carted away valuables including beaded crowns.
Princess Onipede, who had to leave the palace for an undisclosed location for her safety, said at about 1pm on Wednesday, some people led by the Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on Internal Security, Mr Deji Adesokan, including local government officials, came into the palace in company with policemen and ransacked everywhere.
“I was attending to some youths at about 1pm when I heard gunshots and saw Adesokan and the LG chairman coming into the palace. They went into the rooms in the palace one after the other and ransacked the whole place. They went away with no fewer than six beaded crowns, walking sticks and broke window panes and left the palace in ruins,” she said.

Asked whether she was molested, the regent said the people did not touch her, as she watched helplessly as the palace was turned upside down.
She added that when her father passed on October 1, this year, the kingmakers informed the state government formally and that on October 6, she was appointed as the regent by the kingmakers and the same was duly communicated to the state government.
Onipede, who is Nigeria’s envoy to the Republic of Congo, said it was disappointing that Fayemi, who claims to be a human rights activist, could head a government that would be involved in criminal acts.
Commenting on the matter, the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, said it was obvious that Fayemi was jobless.

“If he is not jobless, he would not have dabbled into a matter that is purely traditional and which even a little Ekiti boy understands. That is why we say he is a foreigner.  If he is not, he would have known that when a king departs, it is the eldest daughter that would be chosen as the regent of the town pending the selection of a substantive Oba,” he said.
But the state government denied any nvolvement in the desecration of the palace. The Commissioner for Information, Mr Funminiyi Afuye, who spoke on the phone, said no official of the state government was involved in the attack on the Ilasa palace.
He said it would be better for the people in the palace to look inward and find out who carried out the attack.
It would be recalled that Onipede was formally installed the regent of the town on Tuesday, while the state government, through Afuye, on Wednesday, announced that it had appointed one Chief Mrs Comfort Dayo Idowu, as the regent of the town.
During her installation, Onipede said she would love the kingmakers to select a new monarch for the town as soon as possible.

Yet, he is not done. Throughout last week, Ayo Fayose and his supporters were chased around and had the roads blocked by alleged supporters of the ACN. The aim of the attacks was to stop Fayose, who just returned to the PDP from holding his meetings at all the local government areas. 
In Ogun State, Amosun appears to have grown battle weary after his attempts to nail his predecessor, Daniel fell flat. The Truth Commission he set up to probe the administration of Daniel could not establish any concrete fact beyond recommending Daniel’s wife, Olufunke, for trial for “slapping” a deposed local government chairman, Philip Oladunjoye in Ijebu Ife, as a “way of teaching other first ladies a lesson”. Many in the state believe that the Governor is yet to take off even though he is now in his second year in office. 

Even more perplexing to citizens of the state is his resort to the bond market to raise money for the state to execute capital projects; one of his campaign issues against Daniel. Amosun has succeeded in getting the state assembly key into the new projects. Yet, two years on, many in Sango, Iffo, Akute, and the border towns, where he insisted taxes must be collected are wondering what the government has done for them. He recently awarded contracts for the construction of some border roads for about N100b. They are yet to take off.
 Osun state remains the most dramatic, pragmatic and controversial. After his victory, it took the Governor, Rauf Aregbesola about one year to appoint commissioners. Till date, there is no Commissioner for Works yet. After the controversy he created with the State of Osun tag, the governor continues to move over from one controversy to the other. The most recent is the indictment of his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola by a panel he set up. The controversy continues.

Oyo is perhaps the least controversial of the lot. Ajimobi has succeeded in curbing the controversial National Union of Road Transport Workers in the state, thereby bringing a measure of peace to the state. But not many believe he has performed well. His own controversy appeared last week when the rumour mills went viral that his wife was arrested in London, which she denied and even threatened to sue the newspaper outfit that broke the story. Yet, not many in the state are convinced that Ajimobi has performed more than Senator Rasheed Ladoja of even Otunba Alao-Akala. Rather, it is his quiet disposition in a rather volatile town that has kept his head above the waters.
For the ACN therefore, the adage that the sound of the bitter kola does not mean the same taste is real. After stomping to victory in 2011 and hoping to annex the last state in the west, Ondo, which turned out a failed mission, the party is now on the long walk to redeem itself and prove why it is the party to trust in the zone in 2015 and beyond.

But perhaps, the loss of Ondo might bring one or two lessons closer. Some analysts believe that the problem is not the governors really, but the man behind the mask in the name of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
 In the run-up to the Ondo election, Tinubu had stormed Ondo with the story of how he made Mimiko the governor with millions of Pounds Sterling      
He said it was during the legal battle to reclaim his mandate after the 2007 election in the state.
Tinubu said, “Mimiko claimed that I did not spend money when he had problems with his mandate, this is not true. It is a lie. He came to me and begged me to support him, rolling on the ground.
“He (Mimiko) claimed that Wole Olanipekun was there when we were planning the strategy, this is not correct. Rotimi Akeredolu was among the lawyers we organised for him.

“He collected money from me. I spent millions of Pounds Sterling but he betrayed me. It was Yemi Osinbajo who travelled to Israel and other countries to arrange the experts that helped him prosecute the case.
“People warned me not to help him because of his antecedents of being a serial traitor. He betrayed Adebayo Adefarati, Olusegun Agagu, and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo among others, but I still helped him.
“Mimiko has called me a godfather, yes, I am a positive godfather and even, god fatherism is biblical and that is why Christians refer to God as their father.
“I play god-fatherism in the South-West for the good of our people. My godfatherism is for progress, it is for mentoring. I have brought development to Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Lagos, Edo and Ogun states and the people are better for it.”

Curiously, Tinubu, whose flaunted achievement in Lagos till date was the building of four mega schools, found time to  condemn the building of such schools by Mimiko. He argued that the schools were not meant for a low populated state like Ondo.
He said, “Mega school is not meant for Ondo. You don’t have the population. The mega school concept can only work in places like Lagos which is densely populated.
“Mimiko is just deceiving you with his mega school idea. It cannot work. We build millennium schools in Lagos where we have thousands of children. What you have in Ondo is a deceit.”
 but his comments and tirade did not go unchallenged. Both Mimiko and his campaign team answered him back, warning the people of the state to beware of serving a foreign God. Mimiko described Tinubu of being unworthy of the title of national leader of a national party accusing him of behaving like a common street boy in his manners and utterances.

Speaking through his campaign spokesman, Kolawole Olabisi, Mimiko condemned the use of what he called raw and dirty language that he claimed would even be detested by area boys.
Noting that the ACN leader lacked the moral credibility to address Mimiko, he said:
“Pray, isn’t it absurd that Tinubu could be asking the people to vote for his party when all over the South West where he controls, governance is at its lowest ebb? It has been strikes galore as workers and government are at loggerhead over unpaid salaries and emoluments.”
“Students of higher institutions are groaning while they pay through their noses. Yet, they say they want to capture Ondo State which is better governed than any of these states and has become a benchmark in the art of good governance in Nigeria.

“When so-called leaders dance naked on national television and unleash verbal abuses on a sitting Governor of a state who has chosen nothing but high sense of respect for him as well as assault the sensibility of the people of Ondo State, then such leaders should be prepared to be disgraced.”
“How can a leader also ask the people of Ondo State to re-enact the terrible episode of the 1983 election violence if his party should lose the election? We urge the security operatives to be abreast of all the vituperation and pure incitement of the people by Tinubu and other leaders of the ACN at today’s so-called redemption rally of theirs and take note of unfolding events as the election approaches,” the Mimiko campaign advised.
For now though, the party is still waxing strong in its grandeur. But whether the coming elections will consolidate its hold on the south west or mark its denouement is in the womb of time.



http://www.compassnewspaper.org/index.php/politics/interview/9542