Ekiti Assembly: Peace Takes Flight as Two Presidents Emerge in One Week

The principle of separation of powers provides that the three branches of government would operate interdependently and act as checks and balances to each other, to thwart arbitrariness. This principle of governance, proposed by John Montesquieu, is observed in the rupture at the level of the States. The legislature and the judiciary are like mere appendages of the governors. Perhaps there is relative respect for the principle at the federal level. The situation in Ekiti State is no different from what is happening in other states.

From the above, elections to the State House of Assembly to appoint principal officers are usually a simple fait accompli, as the governor ensures that only men loyal to the party are elected. This is why in 2019, the 26 members of the Ekiti State Assembly were carefully choreographed for election by the then Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who ensured that they emerge victorious in their various constituencies. In return, lawmakers remained intransigent to him and his government. Even when a major crisis erupted within the party leadership over seemingly irreconcilable conflicts of interest, lawmakers stood by their governor.

In May, there were primary elections and the legislators had hoped that their tickets would be handed out automatically, as a reward for their loyalty to the governor. But it didn't work because the mode of the primary changed. At first, the party controlled the sales of nomination forms in such a way that some legislators did not have the opportunity to buy, thus ending their ambition. On the other hand, those who received the form and who had bet on the support of the governor and the party to win were downright beaten. Although they grumbled openly, they were pacified to support the party's gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Abiodun Oyebanji, to win the poll in June.

It has emerged that former Governor Fayemi, who at the time was busy pursuing his presidential ambitions, gave the party leadership a stern instruction to help lawmakers win. The result of the shadow poll showed that the leaders failed to comply with this instruction or disobeyed Fayemi. Sources said Fayemi was very angry at the turn of events, but there was nothing he could do to change the outcome of the primaries.

Therefore, the seed of the crisis shaking the state legislature was sown at the end of the primary elections which gave birth to those who are aggrieved and those who must watch to secure their victory. Last Monday, when lawmakers were set to elect a new president to replace the late Funminiyi Afuye, who represented Ikere 1 Constituency in the Southern Senatorial District, but died after a brief illness Oct. 19 at Ekiti State Teaching Hospital, the crisis was to ensue.

Even though, there was a meeting between the former governor and lawmakers on the Sunday before election day, where he urged them to go through consensus to support his preferred candidate, leader Bunmi Adelugba representing the Emure riding, it was a chaotic scene.

Oyebanji

Adelugba was one of the victims of the primary election in May, as she lost the ticket for the House of Representatives to Mr. Femi Bamisile.

The ex-governor, we learned, wanted to use the presidency to pacify her and get her to finish the term of Afuye who came from the same senatorial district. But this plot went against the political calculus of the Northern Senatorial District, since the new governor and his deputy are from the Central and Southern Senatorial Districts, respectively.

House Majority Leader Gboyega Aribisogan, who later became president, was also a victim of the primary. The two-term lawmaker, who decamped from the People's Democratic Party (...