While teaching at Ekiti State University,
Dr. Tope Aluko once returned a book to
the library. The busy librarian had his
head down.
Aluko slammed the book on the
counter and
bellowed:
“I read this entire novel; there are too many
names of people and no story at all in it!"
The Librarian looked up, took the book from him
and responded:
“Idiot! So you were the one who took the
Attendance register?"
This is the joke that most aptly describes the
tragedy that is Dr. Temitope Aluko, the former
Ekiti State PDP Secretary who is now
unearthing all the political corpses he helped
bury in shallow graves. Watching him on TV, you
can’t but agree with the adage: “book sense is
inferior to common sense”.
The sad thing about Aluko’s admission - that he
was part of the ignoble team that rigged the
2014 Ekiti Guber election in favor of Ayodele
Fayose - is not the rigging itself. Rigging is
rampant in our elections. It is the fact that he
walked away from the Channels television
studio freely and went about his business as if
nothing had happened. In fact, he went on to
another TV station and granted more interviews
where he continued to give lurid details about
how he and fellow unpatriotic Nigerians
suborned Nigeria’s electoral process with
impunity. Then he spoke on the Radio and
granted interviews to the print media too.
Yet, as I write this, he is walking freely amongst
decent, law-abiding people. He might as well
have called a World Press Conference in Abuja,
right there in the Conference Room of the DSS
or even the Police Headquarters , and described
in the sort of details only the killer would know,
how he killed Dele Giwa, Alfred Rewane and
Bola Ige, and nothing would happen to him.
What are the law enforcement agents waiting
for? An arrest order from the President? A
warrant of arrest from a judge? Probable cause
maybe? Here is a man holding a knife with fresh
blood dripping from it, telling you he just killed
people and describing to you how he did it and
where he put the bodies; yet, you are waiting
for…I don’t know what.
Sadder even is the confirmation (for we all
already knew from the famous Ekitigate audio
tape) that Soldiers, Police Officers and members
of the DSS participated in the last-minute
stifling, harassment, robbing and illegal
detention of opposition party leaders so that the
PDP would have a free range on that election
day in 2014. Those officers, who all swore to an
oath of fairness and integrity before being
issued their uniforms and weapons, aided the
systematic disintegration of the moral and
physical fibers of the country they swore to
protect. And they had no compunction about it.
It is one thing to defeat the incumbent
Governor. But it is another thing to rout him in
all 16 local governments – a humiliation that
was the epitome of crudity and unbridled greed.
One opposition party leader said his Ward was
awarded one vote…one single vote, even though
he and his wife, children and other family
members voted for his party!
But the saddest part of the sordid saga…the
one that takes the trophy for treason…is the
confirmation that the Commander-in-Chief
himself facilitated the entrenchment of moral
decadence and adulteration of national ethos in
a section of his own country, just so he could
be re-elected. First tranche was a $2 million for
Fayose to win just the PDP primary? Goodluck
Jonathan gave $2 million to one PDP candidate
contesting against other candidates of the same
party? Then followed by a second tranche of
$35 million for him to win the general election?
Alleged drug baron and fugitive-from-American-
justice, Buruji Nashamu, also reportedly chipped
in? Musiliu Obanikoro was the alleged courier of
$35 million raw cash? They took the money to
Onitsha and changed it to naira? (Who owns the
Bureau de Change that changed the money for
them?) This is the kind of revelation that causes
you to hope that God (or the Devil, in this case)
has a special furnace in hell for some of our
politicians. Even in those days when the naira
had a respectable showing against the dollar,
$37 million dollars was not chump change to
anybody. If Otedola lost $37 million, he would
miss it. If Dangote lost $37 million, he would
miss it. Heck, if Bill Gates lost $37 million, he
would miss it! The only way you could spend
that kind of money in pursuit of a hollow,
tainted, pyrrhic victory and not bat an eyelid is
if you stole it in the first place. And only if you
have a lot more than that left from your theft.
Good luck to Jonathan on his quest for that
Nobel Prize for Peace.
Which brings me to another sad thing; how
much of this $37 million did the people of Ekiti
actually get for themselves? Those Okada
riders; those NURTW members who used their
vehicles to block the opposition House of
Assembly from impeaching Fayose; all those
people who volunteered their vehicles to block
opposition members from entering Ekiti to
mobilize for Fayemi…how much did they receive
from this $37 million? I bet they only got a
pittance. They got a bag of rice and a hen. A
few luckier ones received a goat. Some got only
a half-gallon of vegetable oil. And Fayose
chalked it all up to his signature phrase:
Stomach Infrastructure.
The rest of the country watched in utter
disbelief as a state, previously renowned for
erudition, mortgaged the future of its
generations yet unborn at the altar of Stomach
Infrastructure. We watched in bewilderment as
rabble-rousers bundled out of office a cerebral
Dr. Kayode Fayemi who was systematically re-
engineering the state, and smuggled in a “motor
park tout” (apologies to Jonathan) who
hoodwinked them with a pseudo-populist mien
and a chicken drumstick.
Even now that we have heard from the horse’s
mouth and the whole world is fulminating and
condemning this admission of political rape,
there has been no scintilla of rage coming from
those who are the real victims of this abuse.
There have been no demonstrations from any
sector of Ekiti populace – be it teachers union,
students union, traders union, transporters union
or civil service union - none whatsoever. It’s like
everybody down there is in a trance, frozen in
place and unable to respond to nudging and
jarring. Could it be that they are still eating their
goats, chickens and vegetable oil?
And there have been no recriminations from any
traditional ruler, chief or even prominent citizens
of Ekiti State either. Those of us non-Ekiti who
dare to speak are told to mind our businesses
and stop crying more than the bereaved. It’s
like everybody is afraid of Fayose. Speak ill of
him and die in your sleep. Fayose’s Babalawo
must be something else!
Abiodun Ladepo
Ibadan, Oyo State
Oluyole2@yahoo.com
Sahara Reporters
Dr. Tope Aluko once returned a book to
the library. The busy librarian had his
head down.
Aluko slammed the book on the
counter and
bellowed:
“I read this entire novel; there are too many
names of people and no story at all in it!"
The Librarian looked up, took the book from him
and responded:
“Idiot! So you were the one who took the
Attendance register?"
This is the joke that most aptly describes the
tragedy that is Dr. Temitope Aluko, the former
Ekiti State PDP Secretary who is now
unearthing all the political corpses he helped
bury in shallow graves. Watching him on TV, you
can’t but agree with the adage: “book sense is
inferior to common sense”.
The sad thing about Aluko’s admission - that he
was part of the ignoble team that rigged the
2014 Ekiti Guber election in favor of Ayodele
Fayose - is not the rigging itself. Rigging is
rampant in our elections. It is the fact that he
walked away from the Channels television
studio freely and went about his business as if
nothing had happened. In fact, he went on to
another TV station and granted more interviews
where he continued to give lurid details about
how he and fellow unpatriotic Nigerians
suborned Nigeria’s electoral process with
impunity. Then he spoke on the Radio and
granted interviews to the print media too.
Yet, as I write this, he is walking freely amongst
decent, law-abiding people. He might as well
have called a World Press Conference in Abuja,
right there in the Conference Room of the DSS
or even the Police Headquarters , and described
in the sort of details only the killer would know,
how he killed Dele Giwa, Alfred Rewane and
Bola Ige, and nothing would happen to him.
What are the law enforcement agents waiting
for? An arrest order from the President? A
warrant of arrest from a judge? Probable cause
maybe? Here is a man holding a knife with fresh
blood dripping from it, telling you he just killed
people and describing to you how he did it and
where he put the bodies; yet, you are waiting
for…I don’t know what.
Sadder even is the confirmation (for we all
already knew from the famous Ekitigate audio
tape) that Soldiers, Police Officers and members
of the DSS participated in the last-minute
stifling, harassment, robbing and illegal
detention of opposition party leaders so that the
PDP would have a free range on that election
day in 2014. Those officers, who all swore to an
oath of fairness and integrity before being
issued their uniforms and weapons, aided the
systematic disintegration of the moral and
physical fibers of the country they swore to
protect. And they had no compunction about it.
It is one thing to defeat the incumbent
Governor. But it is another thing to rout him in
all 16 local governments – a humiliation that
was the epitome of crudity and unbridled greed.
One opposition party leader said his Ward was
awarded one vote…one single vote, even though
he and his wife, children and other family
members voted for his party!
But the saddest part of the sordid saga…the
one that takes the trophy for treason…is the
confirmation that the Commander-in-Chief
himself facilitated the entrenchment of moral
decadence and adulteration of national ethos in
a section of his own country, just so he could
be re-elected. First tranche was a $2 million for
Fayose to win just the PDP primary? Goodluck
Jonathan gave $2 million to one PDP candidate
contesting against other candidates of the same
party? Then followed by a second tranche of
$35 million for him to win the general election?
Alleged drug baron and fugitive-from-American-
justice, Buruji Nashamu, also reportedly chipped
in? Musiliu Obanikoro was the alleged courier of
$35 million raw cash? They took the money to
Onitsha and changed it to naira? (Who owns the
Bureau de Change that changed the money for
them?) This is the kind of revelation that causes
you to hope that God (or the Devil, in this case)
has a special furnace in hell for some of our
politicians. Even in those days when the naira
had a respectable showing against the dollar,
$37 million dollars was not chump change to
anybody. If Otedola lost $37 million, he would
miss it. If Dangote lost $37 million, he would
miss it. Heck, if Bill Gates lost $37 million, he
would miss it! The only way you could spend
that kind of money in pursuit of a hollow,
tainted, pyrrhic victory and not bat an eyelid is
if you stole it in the first place. And only if you
have a lot more than that left from your theft.
Good luck to Jonathan on his quest for that
Nobel Prize for Peace.
Which brings me to another sad thing; how
much of this $37 million did the people of Ekiti
actually get for themselves? Those Okada
riders; those NURTW members who used their
vehicles to block the opposition House of
Assembly from impeaching Fayose; all those
people who volunteered their vehicles to block
opposition members from entering Ekiti to
mobilize for Fayemi…how much did they receive
from this $37 million? I bet they only got a
pittance. They got a bag of rice and a hen. A
few luckier ones received a goat. Some got only
a half-gallon of vegetable oil. And Fayose
chalked it all up to his signature phrase:
Stomach Infrastructure.
The rest of the country watched in utter
disbelief as a state, previously renowned for
erudition, mortgaged the future of its
generations yet unborn at the altar of Stomach
Infrastructure. We watched in bewilderment as
rabble-rousers bundled out of office a cerebral
Dr. Kayode Fayemi who was systematically re-
engineering the state, and smuggled in a “motor
park tout” (apologies to Jonathan) who
hoodwinked them with a pseudo-populist mien
and a chicken drumstick.
Even now that we have heard from the horse’s
mouth and the whole world is fulminating and
condemning this admission of political rape,
there has been no scintilla of rage coming from
those who are the real victims of this abuse.
There have been no demonstrations from any
sector of Ekiti populace – be it teachers union,
students union, traders union, transporters union
or civil service union - none whatsoever. It’s like
everybody down there is in a trance, frozen in
place and unable to respond to nudging and
jarring. Could it be that they are still eating their
goats, chickens and vegetable oil?
And there have been no recriminations from any
traditional ruler, chief or even prominent citizens
of Ekiti State either. Those of us non-Ekiti who
dare to speak are told to mind our businesses
and stop crying more than the bereaved. It’s
like everybody is afraid of Fayose. Speak ill of
him and die in your sleep. Fayose’s Babalawo
must be something else!
Abiodun Ladepo
Ibadan, Oyo State
Oluyole2@yahoo.com
Sahara Reporters
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