ABIODUN NEJO reports that the February 25, 2023 National Assembly elections in Ekiti State will be yet another time to separate men from boys as far as popularity and election prosecution are concerned
In Ekiti, the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Social Democratic Party, are the three most pronounced political parties that will go neck to neck in the senatorial and House of Representatives polls.
While the ruling APC believes it will win the three senatorial districts based on its acceptability as a party and achievements in government in the state, the PDP believes that due to the APC’s alleged failure in power, Ekiti people will vote for Atiku Abubakar for president and the party’s senatorial candidates.
Also, the SDP is persuaded that the qualities and visions of its candidates, as well as Ekiti people’s sympathy for its 2022 governorship candidate, Chief Segun Oni, will make people vote for its three senatorial candidates.
South senatorial district
While the APC’s South District candidate, Chief Yemi Adaramodu, is a House of Representatives member and former Chief of Staff to Ekiti State Governor, the PDP’s Biodun Olujimi is a sitting two-term senator, former representative, and ex-deputy governor, and the SDP’s Abiodun Fasakin is a lawyer and former governorship aspirant.
A political watcher, Busuyi Olalere, said, “We are expecting a tough contest here in the South given the quality of the three contenders, APC, PDP, and SDP. These are experienced people in terms of politicking.
“One cannot wish Adaramodu away. Everybody knows he was popular as CoS, and people can see his imprint as a National Assembly member. The same applies to Senator Olujimi, a very strong politician who has been winning her elections. Fasakin, a legal luminary of note cannot be pushed aside as well,” he said.
Also commenting, the APC State Deputy Chairman, Sola Elesin, said, “Adaramodu has been in the House for the past four years and has been performing exceedingly well. He is currently campaigning in the nooks and crannies of Ekiti South Senatorial District.
“He has received more than 15 chieftaincy titles in the last three months from the traditional rulers, who are the custodians of our tradition and the closest people to the grassroots. Adaramodu is looking good to win the election in February,” Elesin said.
Also, the PDP’s state Publicity Secretary, Raphael Adeyanju, said the party’s flagbearer in the district, Senator Olujimi, “is an experienced person. She is competent, capable, and is among the most experienced senators in Nigeria, particularly in the Southwest.
“It will be very unwise for the people of the South Senatorial District, political party differences notwithstanding, not to prefer such a person to a greenhorn. She will be an asset to Ekiti and the Southwest as a whole,” the PDP spokesperson said.
SDP State Chairman, Dr Bamidele Ekunola, speaking on the qualities and competence of his party’s candidate for South, Abiodun Fasakin, said the former National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party ‘’would leave no stone unturned to win the election. He is popular, and his activities and achievements are lofty.”
Central senatorial district
In the Central Senatorial District, the APC candidate, Bamidele Opeyemi, is a sitting senator, who was a Reps member and former commissioner in Lagos State. The PDP candidate, Lateef Ajijola, is a businessman turned politician who previously ran for the Senate and governorship seats.
The standard bearer for SDP in the Central Senatorial District is a businessman, politician, and philanthropist, Chief David Arowolo, fondly called Oluomo of Ijero Kingdom, who has a penchant for raising the bar in whatever he does.
A resident of Ado Ekiti, Kayode Agbebi, who noted that the contest among the three candidates would be interesting and tension-soaked given their strengths, said, “Ajijola is popular, especially among the youth population, while for Bamidele and Arowolo, their milk of kindness, which has positively impacted on the people of this constituency, is strength for them.”
SDP State Chairman, Ekunola, said, “Our candidate, Oluomo Arowolo, has all it takes to win and looks set to win the election. You had to be there last Thursday when he inaugurated his campaign committee in Aramoko Ekiti. The crowd was unprecedented. There is no doubting his victory in the 2023 senatorial election.”
The PDP spokesperson, Adeyanju, in his comment, said, “Our candidate, Ajijola, is a seasoned politician who has aspired to the Senate; he is a governorship aspirant. He has really mastered the art of politics.
“It was because of his popularity that the PDP members in the Central District decided to vote for him as the candidate. When he gets to the National Assembly, I know he will be a blessing to the constituency and indeed Ekiti State,” Adeyanju said.
In his contribution, APC deputy chairman, Elesin, said our party’s flagbearer, popularly known as MOB, is a veteran, and in Ekiti politics, he is not a pushover. He is good enough to go to the National Assembly.
“He was in the House; he is at present in the Senate, where he is Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary. He is very popular among Ekiti people, especially in his senatorial zone, where he has affected lives positively,” the APC chief said.
Northern senatorial district
For the Northern Senatorial District, the APC is fielding Cyril Fasuyi, a businessman and politician who previously served as the Director-General of the Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji Governorship Campaign Organisation.
The PDP candidate for the district is Funso Ayeni, a politician and philanthropist described by the people as competent and experienced to lead the Northern District to the desired promised land.
And in the SDP, an ex-banker and politician, Akinloye Ayegbusi, a former governorship candidate of the party, is the party’s candidate.
According to Ekunola, Ayegbusi, whose campaign officially began on December 26 alongside the Reps candidates in the district of Otun Ekiti, is prepared and ready to win the election, with all necessary plans and committees in place.
A PDP member, Kayode Agbede, while commenting on the party’s candidate, said, “Ayeni is the man to beat in the 2023 senatorial election in Ekiti North. He is acceptable to the people in view of his philanthropy and vision for the district.”
And for the APC candidate, Fasuyi, the party’s deputy state chairman described him as a veteran, saying, “He was the DG of the BAO governorship campaign outfit and he succeeded, if he could succeed in the whole of Ekiti State, how much less his senatorial district. I believe he will perform exceedingly well in the forthcoming election.”
Confidence crises
The APC appears to have had its own internal wrangling following the 2022 governorship primaries. While the party was able to resolve it with the aspirants, including Bamidele, who is now the APC senatorial flagbearer for Central, an aspirant, Kayode Ojo, who went to court to seek redress, lost out at the lower, appeal, and apex courts.
Except for any ill feelings from some members of Ojo’s group, the APC senatorial candidates appear to be at home with the party and its members, but such is not the case with the PDP and SDP candidates.
The PDP crisis over some members’ dissatisfaction with former Governor Ayodele Fayose threatens to have negative repercussions for the three candidates.
Following court judgments, it was only early this month (December) that the PDP conducted fresh senatorial primaries, where Ajijola and Ayeni, who are pro-Fayose, emerged as candidates for the Central and North, respectively.
In the South, the seemingly irreconcilable differences between Fayose and Olujimi remain an issue, with the former governor’s loyalists from Ise/Orun and Emure local government areas in the South endorsing the APC senatorial candidate, Adaramodu, for the 2023 National Assembly election against the PDP candidate, Olujimi, in November.
They had based their action on what they called “collective conviction,” about Adaramodu’s competence, in addition to the fact that anybody who disrespected Fayose, who is the PDP leader in the state, should take no elective stance.
But in a countermove, some PDP leaders in the senatorial district, who gathered in Ado Ekiti days later, threatened to discipline Fayose’s loyalists for alleged anti-party activities.
In a communique signed by PDP Chairman in the District, Chief Femi Tijani, the leaders reiterated their support for Olujimi’s reelection bid and cautioned those stoking the fire of discord in the party by flaunting anti-Olujimi cards and threatening to work against her interest in the senatorial contest to be wary of their actions or face the consequences.
Again, some PDP National Assembly candidates view the inclusion of SDP members by the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation in the Presidential Campaign Committee and Campaign Management Committee for Ekiti State as an apparent threat to their success in the election.
As such, in a letter to the PDP PCO Director General, Aminu Tambuwwal, by seven National Assembly candidates, including Ayeni and Ajijola, on December 18, titled “Rejection of Ekiti State PCC and CMC,” the National Assembly candidates said, “The persons appointed as Directors of Campaign for the Central and North Senatorial Districts are members of the SDP.
“In the aforementioned senatorial districts, the SDP is fielding senatorial, House of Representatives, and House of Assembly candidates. On the list, the majority of the nominees are not members of the PDP. They are SDP members. Our elections will be held alongside those of the president.
“The implication is that members of the SDP will work against us as our senatorial directors of campaign for our elections. To this end, as stakeholders/candidates whose elections will hold alongside the presidential election, we reject the composition of the CMC in its entirety, and demand the implementation of the earlier list submitted by the party,” the PDP candidates stated.
Also in the SDP, litigation over the genuine senatorial candidates in the Northern and Central senatorial districts could be a threat, although the party says it is exploring internal mechanisms for resolution.
A former attorney general of the state, Obafemi Adewale (SAN), and a former member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Princess Titilayo Owolabi-Akerele, who contested for the Central and Northern tickets, respectively, challenged the candidates for the two districts.
Owolabi-Akerele, who described the alleged substitution of her name with another person for the 2023 Ekiti North senatorial contest as illegal, insisted that “such illegal action can’t stand in the face of the law and the new Electoral Act.”
