The entire experience was about the determination of the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, to make Ayo Fayose, a former governor of the
State, its new governor.
Fayose was at the meeting. At first he also denied having been present,
and blamed the APC, alleging that a computer software had been used to
make his voice sound like his voice.
"There are softwares that can re-create voices and even bring the voices
of long-dead notable persons back to life,” he told the manipulated
people of Ekiti. “There are softwares that can turn printed text into
synthesized speech, making it possible for anyone to use recordings of a
person's voice to utter new things that the person never said. One of
such softwares is called 'Natural Voices.'”
But times change quickly, and Fayose was soon admitting that Fayose, the governor, was the Fayose on the tape.
That was partly because another person heard on the tape was identified
as Jelili Adesiyan, the Minister of Police Affairs, who was present at
the election-eve meeting in Akure on behalf of the PDP.
“I was there, Fayose was there, Otunba Omisore was there, Senator
Obanikoro was there,” Adesiyan declared to Sunday Punch. “I am not
denying that there was a conversation but it was not what they are
saying.”
Following Adesiyan’s admission, Fayose hopped from denial to denunciation.
“…Listen to the tape you will see that I was the one accusing the Army
of compromise,” he said, with no apology for his lie that the tape was
an invention. “Listen, take time to listen. But they would come back
with propaganda and saying it all as if the whole world of propaganda
belongs to them," he said.
Two-time governor Fayose is the father of several children, and it is
unclear exactly how they feel when they face their friends who have
listened to their father’s scandalous performance on the tape. The
governor almost engages in fisticuffs with General A.A Momoh as the PDP
mugging team orders military man to implement the rigging scheme and
work with PDP agents to that end. Momoh’s brief included the arresting
of selected APC stalwarts, including Bimbo Daramola, the
Director-General of the opposing Governor Kayode Fayemi campaign.
That plan included the use of a confidential and restricted “National
Security Task” sticker on official cars to help separate the PDP rigging
machine operators from others and help General Momoh’s Special Team
prevent APC voters from reaching the polls. Add that to the
widely-reported arrest of APC members in Ekiti during the election
period and the scandalous use of masks by so-called security officers
and it is clear that a shameful political crime has been committed.
On the tape, Fayose alludes to these schemes, but in admitting that the
tape was authentic, he says he was only “accusing the army of
compromise”. Adesiyan says it was just a conversation, and that the
meeting was to persuade General Momoh to release some detained PDP
agents.
General Momoh has so far said nothing. But he is known to have set up a
panel of inquiry to hunt-down Captain Koli. There is evidence that as
part of that process, he grabbed Adamu, the captain’s 15-year old
brother, and had him bound and tortured.
Momoh is alleged to have been acting in the election at the instance of
the Chief of Army Staff, who was executing President Jonathan’s script.
Little wonder then that the president has denied the authenticity of the
tape. “It’s all fabrications,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “Why
should I investigate things that are not real?”
That was despite the key figures on the recording admitting their
participation. Late last week, even the political traveler Femi
Fani-Kayode, who is currently the spokesman of Mr. Jonathan’s campaign,
controverted his boss.
“We have listened to the audio clip and we make bold to say that the
discussion that took place in it did not make any mention of any form of
rigging in the Ekiti state governorship election and neither did it
contain any evidence of any conspiracy to rig,” he said.
Few things in Nigeria can demonstrate why Nigeria does not work as the
“Ekitigate” tape does. Every time there is the opportunity to do the
right—and sometimes easier—thing, Mr. Jonathan chooses the wrong. Even
on a recording in which his name was deployed to do evil, he failed to
identify the opportunity to defend what is right.
But the reason the Ekiti rigging masterplan is such a sad story is that
somewhere in Abuja, the Chief of Army Staff is ignoring this clear
opportunity to clear the name of an army which tortured a 15-year old.
The CAS is afraid, or complicit.
Somewhere in Abuja, the Director General of the State Security Service
is ignoring this opportunity to serve his country, afraid or complicit.
Somewhere in Abuja, the Inspector General of Police is sitting on his hands, afraid or complicit.
Impunity, complicity, an absence of integrity and professional pride are
ruining Nigeria’s security services as their commanders accept errand
chores for politicians. In a quiet coup, the most scurrilous civilians
have taken over our disciplined forces.
In the end, the lesson to learn is that weak men—men of weak
character—cannot provide strong leadership. Weak men cannot build or
lead strong institutions. Weak men may loot and steal and kill, but they
cannot a strong nation build.
Let the history books reflect the fiction that in June 2014, Fayose
defeated incumbent Governor Fayemi by an incredible 203,090 votes to
120,433, beating him all over the state, including in Akure and Fayemi’s
own local government of origin.
Let those books record that Kayode’s loss was, in effect, an act of
armed robbery of the people. And let them show that the people of
Nigeria found out how the grand act of brigandage and deception was
carried out in full view of a scoffing world but nobody gave a damn.
I name this feeling: Shame!
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