Justifying the coup he plotted and executed in the Ekiti State House of Assembly last Thursday, the same day a similar madness was unfolding in Abuja, Governor Ayo Fayose claimed the leadership of the assembly had abandoned work. He was uninterested in what the constitution says, or the fact that he virtually drove the lawmakers out of town. Seven lawmakers out of the states 26 lawmakers could unseat Speaker Adewale Omirin and other legislative leaders, the governor and his rebel lawmakers argued. They also suggested that the circumstances of their rebellion and the continuing opposition of the APC lawmakers to the governor were more salient than the issue of whether or not seven members formed a quorum when they sat, or whether or not the constitution supported their actions.Mr Fayoses style is straight from Nazi book of propaganda. First demonise the victim using the most dismal forms of misinformation and disinformation, then savage him by unconscionably distorting the law and constitution, and then finally keep the electorate tethered to lies and sated on a diet of sweeping propaganda, creating a siege mentality and predicating subsequent subversion of the constitution on the victims supposed sins. After Mr Fayose was sworn in I had thrice attempted to draw the attention of Ekiti to the style of their governor and the complex he suffered from. But somehow, they had convinced themselves that the states enemy is somewhere in Lagos, as the governor alleges, and the resources of the state are plundered by that unseen and distant enemy.Having found the formula efficacious, Mr Fayose is likely to deploy it in all its bitter severity until the state is fed up with his atavism, the upheavals he is stirring, the decay enveloping the states democratic and judicial infrastructure, and the extension of his abuse of power to include his erstwhile supporters. Recall that he began his manipulation of the state even before he won the election and before he was inaugurated. He made a bogey out of APC leaders and accused former governor Kayode Fayemi of kowtowing to them in Lagos. He also accused Dr Fayemi of building a palatial mansion and founding a university in Ghana at the expense of Ekiti people. Once he won the election, and knowing he had neither a programme to govern nor the acumen to offer civilised leadership, he began to inflame the Ekiti mob, priming them for attacks against his enemies. Soon he was marshalling an attack on the judiciary, virtually intimidating them into silence. And he has now turned his gaze on the legislature to weaken it and destroy it by a series of intimidating measures. Rather than build Ekiti and make it a pride among states, he is set on destroying its image, dividing its people and wrecking whatever is left of its weakened institutions.Mr Fayose, at his inauguration and at other fora, said he was a changed man, sobered by age and his Christian ethic. His government, he promised, would be inclusive, and he would offer Ekiti the leadership it yearned for and probably deserved. Mr Fayose has not only refused to change; his inchoate ethos has in fact considerably declined, even as he has exhibited none of the wisdom and temperament that come with age. If he has any Christianity in him, in view of the spectacular thanksgiving he offered after his inauguration, it is not clear which verses of scriptures he rests it upon. He has mutated into the worst fascist any state can produce, and has become a propagandist and cruel and cynical manipulator of the peoples ignorance. He is cynical enough to continue to feed Ekiti the nauseous diet of fear of outside attackers, and he will stop at nothing to destroy those who oppose him. He will cast his enemies as stooges of Lagos money power, and his opponents and media critics as agents of destabilisation. He will create an atmosphere of fear and resentment, pitting Ekiti people against themselves, and setting the stage for the most pernicious attack on common sense and other symbols of Ekiti civilisation.But Mr Fayose, who reminds us of the sybaritic dictator of Haiti, Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier, will soon exceed even his own theatricality. Perhaps, then, Ekiti will finally wake up to the political nightmare they have brought upon themselves with the connivance of credulous Yoruba politicians and activists battling their own private demons and nursing their pet jealousies.]]>
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