The Fayose phenomenon by Wale Fatade

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State is in the news again. That might not be entirely correct, as he has always been. If not attempting to ‘rescue’ a friend’s wife and her baby from the EFCC clutches, he might be ‘coordinating’ or ‘supervising’ a judge being manhandled and that was even when judges have not been demonized as they are presently. The voluble governor has also been very busy buying condiments from market sellers, usually women, all of which I hope usually end up in someone’s pot of soup, at least if not the Government House kitchen. By the way, I hope he does not forget iru Ado or iru Ikere locust beans from two major towns in the state.

He is a phenomenon and has always been. Seemingly unafraid to take up anybody in battle or say his mind, the seat he occupies notwithstanding; he easily divides and unites too with his actions and comments. For those of us who have followed him from afar, his defence of Bola Tinubu was not surprising as he has always been a street-wise politician who swings to wherever is expedient. The current interrogation of his (erstwhile) friend, former minister and comrade in arms, Musiliu Obanikoro, surely is a box office stuff even as we hear how they conducted themselves in the last election where he emerged governor. Sometimes, you think the description of Russia by Winston Churchill in a radio address broadcast by the BBC on October 1. 1939 as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” was referring to Fayose.

But his politics of expediency might have a nuisance value too. That is one way to view the current kerfuffle over the Anti-Grazing law of Ekiti State. Signed into law in August, it seeks to protect the state against the antics and menace of cattle herders who, in their operation, are sometimes worse off than terrorists. Nearly all states of the federation have suffered attacks with terrible consequences from the activities of these herders. That was Fayose’s way of dealing with a situation that has become a conflagration in the land. And with our president’s tardiness in dealing with the situation or even commiserating with victims in many instances, Fayose took the bull by the horns deciding to test the frontiers of our federalism with the law. It criminalises grazing in some places and puts time limit to it in the state. While signing the bill to law then, Fayose said it would check incessant attacks or killings of local residents and destruction of farmlands by herders and their cattle.

The law, however, threw up some snafus.  One was enforcement as the policemen in the state are not under the control of Fayose and so might not be willing of enforcing the law. But he came up with another solution: he established a militia, Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshalls (EGEM), who in local parlance is called “Anti malu” to enforce the law. So, while the federal government and its agents, at a level, will not do anything about security of lives and properties in Ekiti, the governor rose to the occasion and offered a practical alternative. Thereafter, everything seemingly went back to normal until EGEM, last Friday, allegedly shot five cows and “carted awa the meat,” said a statement by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria released at the weekend. It complained further about the “unscrupulous action of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State against our members who are bona fide citizens of the country.”

Suddenly Miyetti Allah remembered there is something called “the rule of law” even when its members have become law unto themselves all over Nigeria.  “Ekiti State is not an island of its own, but a state within the Federal Republic of Nigeria and while the Governor is permitted to carry out actions geared towards protecting the interest of Ekiti State, such actions should follow the rule of law,” said Miyeti Allah. Hopefully the association remembers the horror perpetrated by its members in southern Kaduna leading to loss of lives and conduct themselves within the ambit of law too. It was the activities of its members in May this year at Oke Ako Ekiti in Ikole Ekiti local government area, which left some people dead that propelled Fayose to send the anti-grazing bill to the state assembly.

Where do these leave us as a country? We must look at our federation wherein a state governor, technically the chief security officer, cannot protect the citizens he leads as the security apparatus is not under his purview. It is also worrisome that until the president reacts, nothing tangible gets done especially when security is concerned. Further, what’s the federal government response beyond the glib condolence messages and “instructions” to security agents to fish out perpetrators after repeated herders’ attacks? Pretence is suicidal as this is a problem that will not go away, we just have to tackle it.

Thieving telecommunication companies  

A text message from Airtel on October 7 tersely informed me that “Facebook Weekly service has been renewed on your Airtel Mobile at N25 for 7 days” and pronto, the money was deducted. Renewal supposed I subscribed to the service initially, but I never did. Attempts at reaching its customer service department failed until twitter came to the rescue. Three days after, another text informed me that the service has been stopped but my money has not been refunded yet.

An informal online poll revealed that other telephone companies too indulge in such brazen theft of customers’ money. As at March, there were over 148 million active subscribers to the GSM network services based on data from the Nigerian Communication Commission and one could imagine how much N25 on each subscriber translate to. My fear, however, is that with the kind of nominees to the NCC board as we saw at the screening of a member last week, telecom companies will continue to rob us. For Airtel, no more topping up until you refund my money.