WIFE of Ekiti State governor, Chief Bisi Fayemi, has alleged that “events unfolding after the June 21 governorship election in the state suggest that the election was manipulated from source.”
Mrs Fayemi said in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday, that “in due course, the full story of how the elections were manipulated against the governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, would be revealed.”
She was said to have bared her mind while delivering a keynote address at the 50th Anniversary Public Lecture and Award ceremony of the state chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).
Speaking on the theme: “Women yesterday, today and tomorrow – the Ekiti experience,” the governor’s wife said “ many armchair analysts and commentators have opined that the electorate embraced patronage, popularly known as ‘stomach infrastructure’, as opposed to sustainable development during the last elections.
“I will like to state that we have not heard the last about the election. Two weeks after the immediate confusion and hysteria of the June 21 elections, a picture has began to emerge. This will, hopefully, reframe the debates emanating from and about Ekiti and the choice made on that day.
According to her, “ one of the implications, as it concerns women, was that all policies, laws and structures put in place over the past three years to protect them counted for nothing.”
She said: “In an attempt to twist facts and hastily rewrite the history and legacy of Fayemi, she said some writers labeled the governor as one who was disconnected from the people of the state.
“It will be very hard for any informed analyst writing about Ekiti to accuse Governor Fayemi of not working to improve the economy of Ekiti State. It, of course, serves the interest of some to hastily attempt to rewrite the history of Governor Fayemi as one who was disconnected from his people.
“ Was it not the same people he constructed roads for, provided electricity and water for, provided health care for, developed education for and introduced social security payment for?
“The same people he visited in their 132 communities every year, without fail, to listen to their priorities for the next budget? The same people whose children he employed in the thousands through the Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development, Peace Corps and other youth-focused initiatives?”
She expressed the view that “the governor only stood guilty of refusal to accept the supposed significance of stomach infrastructure,” which she described as “the unfortunate addition to the country’s political lexicon.”
She noted that in the last three years and nine months, she had “ partnered many stakeholders, including Ekiti FIDA, to draft legislative and policy frameworks that serve to guarantee women’s rights and gender equality in the state” and listed among the gains of her engagements the enactment of the gender-based violence prohibition law, equal opportunities law and domestication of the National Gender Policy.
Source: Tribune
