Politics: Fayemi, Ojudu and attritional war in Ekiti APC

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 02:43 pm

The feud between Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, has continued unabated with the duo firing salvos and tantrums at one another on a daily basis. KnowAfrika examines the implication of the brawl on the fortunes of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti ahead of the 2022 governorship poll.

Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) schemed a return to government in Ekiti state in 2018, the internal crisis besetting the state chapter has continued to linger and gain fiercer momentum, which might have a possible far reaching adverse effects on the quests of the leadership to sustain its stronghold on the state.

The major dramatis personae in the ongoing supremacy battle ahead of the 2022 governorship election are Governor Kayode Fayemi and the Special Adviser to President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu.

The duo were once close political allies, united as a fist and ready to crush any opposition until things fell apart. Now, the political matrix has been altered and things are no longer at ease between both gladiators who are currently at loggerheads over political relevance.

The current crisis is a carry over from the dispute over the March 26, 2018 governorship where Fayemi emerged as the APC candidate.

The governor who was then the Minister of Mines and Steel Development joined the race a few weeks to the party’s primary and altered the political equations.

This development created a bad blood among the frontline aspirants like Chief Segun Oni, Ojudu, Hon. Femi Bamisile, Dr. Wole Oluyede, Hon. Oyetunde Ojo and Hon. Bimbo Daramola to the extent that some aspirants ganged up against Fayemi.

When the first primary was held, it was disrupted because Fayemi was coasting home to victory.

The primary which was supervised by the then Nasarawa State governor, Tanko Almakura, was described as a show of shame as aspirants and their supporters openly chanted, ‘ole, ole’ (thief, thief) at Fayemi.

However, with the deployment of heavily armed security personnel to the venue of the second primary election, Fayemi trounced all the 33 aspirants in the keenly contested shadow election with a total of 941 votes.

Apparently, the outcome of the poll did not go down well with Ojudu and some other aspirants but the reconciliation efforts of both the party’s National leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the national secretariat were able to calm frayed nerves as they all jettisoned their differences and worked for Fayemi’s electoral success in the July 14 poll.

However, When Ekiti people thought the political differences would be resolved after the truimphant entry of APC into the Oke-bareke Government House, the ruling party was enmeshed with self-inflicted crisis.

Fayemi who could not trust the likes of Daramola, Ojudu , Oni and perceived them as more of enemies for political reasons tactically ostracized them from the running of APC.

According to Dipe, Ojudu was sounding like an outsider who had lost touch with what was happening in the state.

“Ojudu is sounding like people are claiming he is. He is guilty of what people is accusing people of. We believe his appointment can’t be divorced from being an Ekiti man. Yes, Senator Ojudu doesn’t come home and doesn’t recognize Ekiti at the moment.

“What you don’t understand you will always see fault in it. For now, he is excused from seeing the negative side because he is already a stranger and alien to the people and the party.”

(TheNation)