The just concluded governorship election in Ekiti state saw the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) put up an underwhelming performance which culminated in an embarrassing third place finish.
Is Fayose to blame for PDP's woeful outing in Ekiti election?
The PDP finished a distant third in the Ekiti governorship election and all fingers are being pointed at Fayose.
Recommended articles
Going into the Saturday poll, the PDP candidate, Bisi Kolawole, was tagged as one of the favourites to win the election alongside the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Biodun Oyebanji, and a former governor and Social Democratic Party (SDP) flag-bearer, Segun Oni.
Oyebanji polled a total of 187,057 votes to defeat his closest challenger and Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Segun Oni who scored 82,211, while the PDP finished third with 67,457.
Indeed, the contest, which involved a total of 16 candidates and parties, was reduced to a three-horse race featuring the aforementioned candidates.
This was a fair prediction if you put into context the pedigree of the parties and the candidates on the ballot.
For instance, Oyebanji belongs to the ruling APC party, and it's a no brainer that he'll be massively propelled by the power of incumbency. That's not to diminish his competence in any manner.
Until recently, the APC candidate had functioned as the Secretary to the Ekiti state government, this was after serving as the Commissioner for Integration and Intergovernmental Affairs during Fayemi's first tenure in 2010.
Long before then, between 1999 and 2003, Oyebanji had served in three different positions in the administration Governor Niyi Adebayo, including being the Chief of Staff to the governor.
You can read more about the governor-elect here
The SDP candidate appeared like the most experienced among them having previously governed the state for three years between 2007-2010 before he was removed from office following an Appeal Court judgement..
Regardless of that, Oni has kept himself relevant in Ekiti politics having defected to the APC in 2014 where he was made the Deputy National Chairman South from 2014–2020 when he rejoined PDP.
Oni angrily left the PDP in February this year after he was defeated in the PDP governorship primary by Kolawole.
Kolawole, who was heavily backed by former Governor, Ayodele Fayose, became the party's flag-bearer.
On his part, he has also been in the corridor of power for a while having served one term in the Ekiti State House of Assembly and a three year stint as the Commissioner for Environment under the tenure of Fayose.
However, the manner in which he emerged as the PDP candidate didn't go down well with a lot of party stakeholders and this may be the reason for his poor outing at the poll.
Apart from Oni who left the party, former Deputy Governor and the flag-bearer in the 2018 election, Kolawole Eleka, is one of the top chieftains of the party who voiced their displeasure over what they termed as an imposition by Fayose.
By virtue of his status as a former governor, Fayose is the de facto leader of the PDP in Ekiti, and his influence also spread to other states in the South-West.
As much as the election seemed like a personal battle for Fayose to maintain his political relevance in Ekiti, it was equally important for his party to make a statement and boost confidence as the 2023 general election draws ever so near.
Surprisingly, neither Fayose nor the PDP showed any serious intent to win right from the get go.
As an opposition party, your main goal going into any election should be to win and that can only be done by putting up a united front. Both Fayose and the PDP failed in this regard.
It seemed the simmering internal wrangling in the PDP at the national level may have also played a role in their loss in Ekiti.
There's an air of uneasiness blowing across the party since the conclusion of the presidential primary where Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, felt hard done by.
Wike is an ally of Fayose and the latter backed the former to the hilt at the presidential primary which outcome may have given rise to some resentment towards the party.
While the presidential aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and some governors of the APC were in Ekiti for the party's mega rally few days before the election, the PDP flag-bearer, Atiku Abubakar, didn't step foot in the state as the party failed to hold a mega rally.
After fielding a less popular candidate, one would imagine that Fayose would lobby the national body for a maximum support, or at least his friend, Wike, would show enough interest, but what played out last Saturday looked like an orchestrated self-affliction.
Although it can be argued that the combined votes of the PDP and SDP candidates would still not have been enough to stop the APC from winning, there would have been some respect in the margin which would have won the PDP some confidence.
The goal here isn't to chat a path to victory for Fayose and the PDP, but to examine what both entities could have done to avert the electoral disgrace.
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng