While growing up in the hilly town of Okemesi-Ekiti, one habit my grandfather used to warn me against was arrogance. He used to point it out to me that of the many bad habits human beings were known for, arrogance should rank among the worst. The old man understood arrogance as a feeling or an impression of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or presumptuous claims.

Even though he was not a Moslem, my grandfather used to tell me how Satan (Iblis) fell out of God’s favour. According to him, it was on account of Satan’s arrogance that he was dismissed from Allah’s mercy and grace.



“Allah created Adam and commanded the angels to prostrate themselves to him. They obeyed Allah’s command, with the exception of Satan. He claimed to be a creature superior to man, and haughtily disobeyed Allah. Olamilere Adisa, my son, ‘Igberaga nii siwaju iparun’ (pride goes before a fall). You see, a blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide,” Tenibiaje, ganmuganmu ose lu oju ibembe, my grandfather would say after telling us the story of the deer and the toad – the ‘oba efon labata, o yo obe ti, se oro wipe omi lo munku’ fame.



Events in Ekiti State before and after the April 14, 2007 general elections have not stopped reminding me of the great lessons I learnt from my grandfather.



A few weeks ago, the State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni told journalists during an interactive session that he was consulting with opposition parties in the state on the need to form a unity government and this was subsequently reported in the newspapers. However, in his reaction to this cheery news, the Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi described the proposed unity government as fraud, saying; “he was the rightful person to govern the state and so could not join an impostor to govern the state.”



While I do not want to question Fayemi’s claim to the sole-ownership of the right to govern Ekiti State, he will however do himself a lot of good if he swallows his pride and begin to credit others with some level of intelligence, bearing in mind that “Eni to gbon, to ni enikeji ogbon ni baba were” (A wise man who sees himself as the sole custodian of wisdom is the biggest fool).



As it appears now, Fayemi and his party seem to have taken arrogance as their second name, hence; all the realities that confronted them before and after the elections do not make meanings. Imagine Fayemi refusing to take photograph with the Deputy Governor, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal at a function? Not only that, he went on to tell the deputy governor not to take him for a photo advantage! God bless former governor, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, I have had cause to send several of his photographs with Governor Segun Oni and other top functionaries of the government for publication in the newspapers and he had never complained of being used for photo advantage. But here was Fayemi, a mere governorship candidate telling a serving deputy governor not to take him for a photo advantage. Who is superior to whom? One may ask.



It was this same show of sheer egotism that made Fayemi and his AC party not to foresee danger when 13 governorship aspirants left the AC in annoyance and teamed up with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Also the fact that AC fielded two candidates – Chief Simeon Adeyanju (Weluwelu) and Bimbo Daramola in the election into Ekiti North Federal Constituency I, and that the duo filed petitions against the election of Hon. Wale Aribisala of the PDP at the Election Petitions Tribunal did not make any sense too. A situation where two AC members laid claim to the party’s candidature in an election even up to the tribunal ought to have been a source of worry to reasonable minds, but Fayemi and his men never bothered.



Also, immediately after the election, Fayemi and his AC went to town with the story of their satellite camera invention. A world press conference was even addressed at a popular hotel in Ogba, Lagos where Fayemi made it known that various incidences of election rigging, including the ones carried out inside the bedroom of some prominent traditional rulers were captured with the aid of satellite cameras. But throughout the over one year he spent presenting his case at the tribunal, no single pictorial evidence (Still or Motion) was presented. Yet this made no meaning to Fayemi and his cohorts in the AC.



Again, Mr. Adrian Forty, the forensic expert whose evidence Fayemi and his party so much relied upon to get a favourable judgment at the tribunal was not the one who signed the affidavit on which his so-called forensic examination was premised.



Fayemi had filed a statement on Oath purportedly deposed to by Adrian Forty on May 11, 2007. One of the AC lawyers, Sulyman Babakebe also deposed to another affidavit on March 3, 2008 affirming that Mr. Adrian Forty was indeed before the Commissioner for Oaths, Governorship/Legislative Houses Election Petitions Tribunal in Ado-Ekiti on May 11, 2007.



However, on February 14, 2008, Adrian Forty deposed to another affidavit and claimed in paragraph 8 that on May 11, 2007, he was invited by Mr.Oba Nsugbe QC to his chamber at Pump Court Chambers, 34, Pump Court Temple, London and he (Forty) did have a meeting with the said Oba Nsugbe.



Also On March, 12, 2008, Adrian Forty, under cross examination at the Tribunal said that he was in London throughout May 11, 2007 and that he was not the author of the affidavit deposed to on his name on May 11, 2007.



And in the judgment, which Fayemi and his AC have been trying albeit unsuccessfully to rubbish, the Justice Usman Bwala led Election Petitions Tribunal noted that; “In cross examination, it was shown to the Tribunal that the PW17 – Mr. Adrian Forty (one of the petitioner’s witnesses) did not in fact sign the Statement on Oath Exhibit P. 17B he purportedly signed on 11th May, 2007 which was filed along with the petition. He denied authorship of the Statement on Oath saying he was in the United Kingdom on the day he supposedly deposed to the said Statement on Oath.



“The Tribunal is surprised at this and noted that throughout the proceedings, the Petitioner offered no explanation to this anomaly.”



This Adrian Forty’s forensic forgery saga as messy as it was did not make any sense to the moral sheriffs in the AC too! Despite the forgery saga, which the tribunal said Fayemi’s counsel was unable to defend and the outright abandonment of pleadings in the petition, Fayemi and his AC have continued to arrogantly carry themselves around as Saints who behaved like the Pope while some Lucifer in the PDP were stealing their imaginary mandate. They have refused to acknowledge the fact that the loss of the governorship election was a price they had to pay for their arrogant disposition to those who made sure that the Alliance for Democracy (AD) did not die in Ekiti State after the year 2003 electoral misfortune.



The hawks in the AC simply chose to play ostrich to the fact that the same people who were treated with so much contempt by Fayemi after he was returned as the party flag-bearer were the ones who were able to deliver their senatorial district and Federal Constituency to the AD in 2003. That blatant display of political arrogance was what Fayemi and his AC were made to pay for on April 14, 2007 and more stories of electoral woes still await them should they fail to bring their minds back to the world of realities.



For the avoidance of doubt, Fayemi only came to be known in Ekiti politics in late 2005. Unlike Governor Oni who had been an active member of the PDP since its formation, Fayemi had no single political presence in Ekiti prior to his emergence as Tinubu’s anointed candidate.



Every politically conscious Ekiti person knew that Fayemi was a product of political manipulation by some foreign interests and Ekiti people realised this, hence his rejection at the polls. Or how possible would it have been for Fayemi, whose only credential as a politician was his closeness to Tinubu to have won the April 14, 2007 governorship election when those on whose sweat the AD which metamorphosed into AC was sustained had teamed up with another party?

However, instead of facing the realities of a self-inflicted electoral woe, Fayemi and his AC have chosen the path of the Biblical Harlot who, having lost her child owing to her own carelessness opted to have that of her colleague killed too. Lies are being concocted with beautiful grammatical expressions that would have made the devil to be seen as a saint. For instance, AC’s defacto spokesperson, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu while reacting to some articles written on the tribunal judgment said; “After all, five days before the ruling, Mr. Oni had gone on air to broadcast to a surprised public that the tribunal had concluded to hand him a favourable ruling while he told all how many lawful votes he would have and that of Fayemi.”

What Adaramodu would want people to believe was that Governor Oni was privy to the judgment? What a thought coming from a demented mind? Perhaps Adaramodu, a retired freelance cartoonist must have forgotten that Ekiti people are yet to forget that it was Fayemi and his AC that appeared privy to the workings of the tribunal through their actions and inactions. That must have explained why they were able to get a ruling of the tribunal posted on the Internet and sent to journalists on Monday, August 6, 2007, 72 clear hours before the ruling was given on Wednesday, August 8, 2007. The ruling was posted on the internet by Hakeem Jamiu through his e-mail address; This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

It is also on record that on the eve of the judgment, AC supporters had bought Aso-Ebi and other souvenirs with which they intended to celebrate their imaginary victory at the tribunal. A top journalist who is an ardent supporter of the AC even brought press men from Lagos and lodged them in a guest house located at Okesa area of Ado-Ekiti.

Again, Adaramodu in trying to justify his master’s claim to electoral victory despite all the odds that were even visible to the blinds, went on to describe the governorship aspirants that abandoned AC for the PDP as a result of Fayemi’s imposition, as men of no electoral value. This same position was expressed by Fayemi before the 2007 election and I guess having failed both at the poll and the tribunal, it is only a product of self-deceit that he has not been able to face reality.

Methinks, it is only a man whose mind had been taken over by superciliousness that would choose to describe politicians like Chief Paul Alabi (former deputy governor of Ekiti State), Rtd. Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (former military administrator of Bayelsa State), Barr. Afolabi Ojuawo (former Secretary to the State Government), Prince Dayo Adeyeye (former Afenifere publicity secretary), Rt. Hon. Kola Adefemi (former Speaker of the State House of Assembly), Dr. Afolabi Popoola (former provost of College of Education, Ikere), Barr. Obafemi Adewale (former commissioner for works, attorney general and commissioner for justice), Chief Dipo Anisulowo (chairman, Ekiti State Chamber of Commerce), Bashorun Tunde Odetola, Senator Ayo Arise, Chief Dapo Alibaloye, Hon. Femi Dada (the only AD member in the House of Representatives from Ekiti, 2003-2007), Senator Bode Olowoporoku, and a host of others as political neophytes and the earlier Fayemi and his AC swallow their pride; the better for them. After all, former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to pacify some aggrieved AC governorship aspirants after Governor Babatunde Fashola clinched the party ticket. Tinubu never carried himself as an imperial overlord as done by Fayemi after he was awarded the AC gubernatorial ticket. He (Tinubu) even had to drop his senatorial ambition and gave his ticket to Senator Ganiyu Solomon, and to a very large extent, this spirit of give and take exhibited by Tinubu made the electoral success recorded by the AC in Lagos possible.

Therefore while I appreciate the fact that the likes of Adaramodu must continue to express their frustration and that of their paymaster, they should however endeavour to cast their minds back to where they stumbled with a view to making amends instead of spending valuable time and resources on propaganda and advertisement of their political arrogance. They should bear in mind that this same propaganda and self-deceit failed them both at the polls and the tribunal.

Olayinka is a Special Assistant on Media to Ekiti State Governor