Samuel Ogundare: Ekiti 2015: What applies to one specie of kolanut applies to the other

As precise as ever, the Yorubas have an instructive adage for every situation which most times makes it possible for them to say so much without saying so much.

After reading the press statement of former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday, it felt like one of such occasions when elderly persons in Yoruba land wade into difficult or knotty situations to douse the tension, instituting corrective measures in the process and yet ensuring that no party feels neglected or cheated. This action finds its roots in the Yoruba adage which says “Agba ti o binu l’omo e po” (A patient elder will always have many around him).

As an elder, Tinubu was right to have questioned the removal of Opeyemi Bamidele as the head of the Ekiti caucus in the House of Representatives. As right as this is, one must also not forget that the same democratic tenets which allow Opeyemi Bamidele to choose a path for himself allows the other to also choose their own path, especially as democracy is rooted in the strength of the majority.

Precisely on Wednesday 3, July 2013, ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, and the party’s National Leader, Bola Tinubu, were in Ekiti to resolve the lingering crisis. Despite Opeyemi’s absence at the meeting, Tinubu, in the mode of a patient elder, instructed that no one should sing divisive songs against Opeyemi.

But in an almost hysterical manner, Opeyemi took to town two days later (despite the strict obedience to the party leadership’s directive by the Fayemi camp) to declare his governorship ambition, stating that no one can stop him “from contesting the governorship election.” On this same day, he said he would not be celebrating his 50th birthday because there was “poverty in Ekiti.” Isn’t it strange that Opeyemi did not realize that there was “poverty” in Ekiti when he celebrated his 48th and 49th birthdays in the same state that he has suddenly grown so much to love now?

There were those who expected the Fayemi camp to respond to this, but the governor only reiterated his earlier position that Opeyemi Bamidele has a right to contest. This probably wasn’t Opeyemi’s intended result as he took to the pages of newspapers the following day vowing to upstage the incumbent and a member of the same party to which Opeyemi still claims to belong to, in spite of the entreaties of the party leadership’s position.

As reported in The Punch on Monday 8 July, 2013: ‘Bamidele added that he was not only determined to participate in the election but was confident to oust Fayemi from the Government House.
The lawmaker was, however, silent on which party’s platform he is likely to contest. Bamidele, a former Commissioner for Information in Lagos State, who alleged that some persons were trying to cause a strain in his relationship with former Governor Bola Tinubu, noted that the attempt would fail.

He said, “I am stating unequivocally that by the grace of God and the encouragement of the well meaning people of Ekiti State I, Opeyemi Bamidele, will be contesting election to be governor of Ekiti State in 2014. It is an irrevocable conclusion based on popular yearnings as well as my personal conviction and commitment to human capital development and the creation of a new and united Ekiti.

“The deliberate mismanagement of information of the meeting proceedings, no doubt, is in furtherance of a series of attempts to push me and my supporters out of the ACN. The purveyors of the information have forgotten that even if they had succeeded in doing that, it still would not deter me from pursuing my vision and ambition on other progressive party platforms based on divine guidance and the leading of Ekiti stakeholders home and abroad.” ‘

With the above statement, Opeyemi seems set on a journey of no return and it would not be out of place if the other five representatives from Ekiti in the House of Reps felt it was time to remove Opeyemi as their leader. They had chosen him based on their belief in his commitment to a common cause. Democracy allows for his removal if he no longer shares the same views with the other five, especially since he is just one out of six. Reports abound of how they had tried to reason with him and had scheduled several meetings for which Opeyemi himself personally picked date, time and venue, but only for him to leave them waiting till “eternity”. This attitude in itself is not just an affront on the five, but a debasement of their self-dignity and spirit of unity and brotherliness. What leader abandons his flock? Even if he must – even if his position is not popular among them – he must give them reasons for his unyielding position. By failing to do so and by having a different position, which, of course, is not undemocratic, he is telling them two things: (1) I cannot lead you to the destination you believe in; (2) it is either you jettison your belief and join me or let me continue to be the leader of your caucus despite the fact that I don’t believe in your common cause.

In any sane society, if those five are not willing to give up their majority belief for the minority cause of such leader, it behoves them to either remove him or watch him lead them to a destination they believe not in, for it seems no amount of entreaties would make him accommodate their views. So in line with the democratic tenet that “The minority will always have their say while the majority will have their way”, the representatives removed him. Being led by a leader who does not believe in your cause is as dangerous as being guarded by a guard who does not believe in your safety.

The other five members are not saying Opeyemi Bamidele did anything wrong, but they are saying they no longer believe in the direction that he was showing them. This, by all definitions, is democratic. If Opeyemi was not foisted on them in the first instance, I don’t think he should be foisted on them now, hence it would be undemocratic to force them to go back on his removal.

In the spirit of fairness, Opeyemi,just as the Fayemi camp, should be cautioned on his divisive statements which have lately taken on the form of hysteria, as Yorubas will say “Bo se wa l’obi lo wa ni gbanja” (What applies to one specie of kolanut applies to the other).

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule”- H. L Mencken

Samuel Ogundare writes from Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State