TheCable

BY OLUKAYODE THOMAS

Christians and followers of other religion are probably familiar with the story of Saul, the son of Kish, the first King of the Jews.

From the tribe of Benjamin, the least of the 12 tribes of Israel, Saul did not in any way qualify to be chosen as King. When the Jews cried for one, the Almighty God, in His infinite mercy, instructed Samuel to anoint Saul king over Israel.

When his pedigree is considered, Ayo Oluwayiose, later Fayose, does not qualify to be governor. In Ekiti, where having two or three professors in a family is the norm, he does not possess the academic qualification or the wealth and pedigree of other aspirants for the position.

But Fayose has a praying mother, Mama Oluwayiose, native intelligence, and the grace of God.

It was divine intervention from the throne of grace that catapulted him to government house as governor in 2003. I got a whiff of Fayose’s gubernatorial ambition at Mama Oluwayiose’s house around 2000.

After a prayer vigil at Mama’s house in Challenge, Ibadan, she brought out the poster of a gubernatorial aspirant and asked us to pray for divine intervention for his election as governor of Ekiti State.

I joined in the prayer. But even as I prayed, I kept asking myself, how shall this be? As a reporter, I knew most of the key players in Yoruba politics. I have never heard of Oluwayoise in political circles. Secondly, he was aspiring on the platform of PDP, a party treated with disdain in Yoruba land.

After the vigil, I asked Mama, “Do you believe that God will make your son governor considering his pedigree and the huge financial resources required?”

Mama laughed and said, “The Holy Spirit will do it”.

She could still see doubt on my face. That was when stories of God’s faithfulness started, and Mama can talk about God all day and all night.

She recounted stories of how, as a single mother, she was able to raise her children, educate them and they are now successful in business all to the glory of God.

“God is still on the throne, He will intervene and Ayo will become governor,’’ said Mama Oluwayiose.

DIVINE INTERVENTION ENTHRONES FAYOSE

When I shared Mama’s vision with my brother-in-law, a strong believer who introduced me to Mama, he also declared that Fayose would be elected the next governor of Ekiti.

He had met Oluwayiose under unusual circumstances. Then the DPO of Challenge police station in the 1990s, my in-law  got to the office one day to meet Oluwayiose, then a major importer of vehicles, car parts and accessories, who had come  to make a case for his trailers and goods that had been detained by policemen the previous night.

After a thorough examination of his documents, my in-law ordered the release of the trailers since his papers were in order.

They were shocked that their goods could be released without gratification. Thus, a relationship developed between the two families and I was a beneficiary of the relationship as I was always invited to Mama’s house for prayers whenever I travelled to Ibadan. I also got to know Fayose’s younger brother, John, who was always of immense assistance to me in London either at his office at Old Kent Road or at his house in South-East London.

My in-law spoke about Fayose’s empowerment programmes, which included scholarships to hundreds of students, construction of boreholes and helping small scale businesses. The masses, he concluded, are in love with him. He also spoke of his Christ-like virtues.

Against all expectations and permutations, Fayose defeated the incumbent and became governor, thanks to divine intervention.

But like the biblical King Saul who became disobedient and even tore the garment of Samuel, the man that anointed him, shortly after he became king, Fayose forgot his covenant with God and started obeying flesh.

From disrespecting traditional rulers, to problems with his initial deputy governor, Biodun Aluko, his ‘sins’ include allegations of corruption, misappropriation, murder, hooliganism and bad governance.

The home front too was not a haven of peace. I remember he had problems with most of his siblings. My last contact with any member of Oluwayiose/Fayose family was at the Allen Avenue office of erudite lawyer Wahab Shittu where, on Mama’s instruction, I had gone to persuade one of Fayose’s sisters to stop washing the family’s linen in public, and to desist from suing her brother.

Fayose’s problems reached the climax when 24 out of the 26 members of Ekiti state house served an impeachment notice on him and his deputy, Biodun Olujimi.

His impeachment was just the beginning of his ordeal. For about eight years, he was in the political wilderness. Taken to court about 59 times, he spent 45 days in Ikoyi Prisons. The man who played a prominent role in ensuring Kayode Fayemi was elected governor could not even win a senatorial election.

FAYOSE’S SECOND CHANCE

But unlike Saul who died in the battle against the Philistines along with three of his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkishua, God gave Fayose another chance.

In the run up to the election, I remember telling a friend that if the PDP allowed a fair and free primary, Fayose will not only win the primary, but the election. My friend, a doubting Thomas, did not believe Fayose will win the primary, not to talk of the election. When the likes of Segun Oni decamped to APC, he was more than convinced that Fayose would lose while I insisted he would win.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Fayose, a man who was impeached, returned as governor. He was faithful to acknowledge that it was not flesh and blood that made it possible but God.

In a testimony at Deeper Life Bible Church in Ado Ekiti, he described his return to office as rare and divine.

“Having a second chance is very rare. If this time had been in the Bible days, my name would have been one of the names to be recorded as those whom God gave a second chance. So, this time, my mission is to look after the Ekiti people and not to fight anybody. I will not allow this position to go into my head or use it to oppress anybody. I don’t have anybody in mind to punish or any political battle to fight,” he said.

LIKE FAYOSE, LIKE BOURBON DYNASTY

However, even before he was sworn in, Fayose had returned to his vomit. From allegedly sending thugs to court premises, to disrupting the court of the chief judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, and allegedly getting Justice J. A. Adeyeye beaten and dragged on the ground. Then there are the seven lawmakers approving a list of political appointees and the same lawmakers, in a House of 26 members, sacking the Speaker. It has been one bad headline after the other.

The mother of all acts of indiscretion was, however, an advert he placed in newspapers wishing Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC, dead.

Despite the general condemnation that greeted the advert, with his party, PDP, disassociating itself from it, Fayose has continued to attack Buhari. Like Bourbon dynasty, Fayose has shown that he has learnt nothing from his past acts of indiscretions that led to his ordeals before God intervened to restore his glory.

Like the Yoruba will say Omo ose ni ko ponpo ba Iya e, many commentators who are bad-mannered like Fayose, have been calling Fayose’s family, especially his mother, all manner of unprintable names for not bringing him up properly. This is quite unfortunate, because Mama Oluwayiose epitomised what a good mother should be.

But it’s not too late for Fayose to amend his ways. He could start with a public apology to Buhari and make peace with his political rivals in his state, obeying the Biblical injunction that we should live at peace with all men.

He should not choose the path of perdition. As Mama Oluwayiose’s son, I’m sure he is well versed in the Bible and familiar with John 5:14, where Jesus told the man He healed:  “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”