Fayose needs to sit down, be humble

It is no longer news that Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has a loud mouth.

A mouth so loud, it can’t be shut even after the governor’s handpicked candidate for the governorship election was 'humbled' at the ballot.

To be fair, there are several questions to be asked about the Ekiti election and I still think Kayode Fayemi's victory has been tainted by vote buying and ballot box snatching allegations. Pulse' correspondent who covered the election, reported instances of cash for votes across the political divide.

Ekiti has presented us with a conundrum for sure—are all elections henceforth going to be cases of who spends the most money carrying the day? The PDP also procured votes, according to sundry reports. There were no saints in Ekiti last week, it appears, which is sad news for our nascent democracy.

However, I am all for the PDP and Fayose challenging the results of the election in courts of competent jurisdiction if they are really convinced that they have a case.

I also believe that you can challenge the results of an election without heating up the polity or being a nuisance. I wasn’t expecting PDP candidate Prof Kolapo Olusola-Eleka and Fayose to accept that they had been beaten fair and square.

Fayose’s post-election remarks which read as follows: “President Buhari demonstrated truly that he is not a democrat, but a dictator and fascist per excellence”, and “On Garba Shehu, that fellow is not to be accorded any attention. Being a fair weather friend, he would soon desert his current pay masters”, were unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, Shehu had first attacked Fayose by calling him a “street-type thug”, but the bigger men are those who don’t respond to every jibe or attack. Fayose has always found it difficult being the bigger man or the man who knows when to keep it shut. Shehu offered him a bait which he swallowed without hesitation.

It is in the nature of the man to shout first and ask questions later. It is little wonder he is being scoffed at for boasting ahead of the election that his candidate was going to rub the nose of the APC in the sand with a thorough annihilation at the ballot.

Fayose has an election result to challenge. For once, he needs to be strategic and meticulous about the task ahead. He needs to sit down, be humble and approach this task with a clear head. For once, shouting from the rooftops would do the blabbermouth no good.