Bimbo Daramola: There’s Nothing Mysterious about Fayose

While the Ekiti State governor Ayodele Fayose is busy
criticising President Muhammadu Buhari, people at home are equally complaining
about his administration.

It’s obvious
that we have not cut a very good deal. If I say this most people will interpret
that to mean, one, this is a sour grape. That he is saying this because his
candidate did not win at that election. Don’t
forget that I was the Director-General of the Kayode Fayemi re-election, so, if
I begin to put up my assessment, whatever I put up is going to be tainted to
imply that it is because we lost election, what do you expect? But the truth of
the matter is that I am also a stakeholder in that place. I am an Ekiti State
indigene. I lived the first 25 years of my life in the state and I have my
concerns. So, in terms of tangible impact and all of that I am not too sure
that the past four years have vindicated those who voted for Peter Ayodele
Fayose.

The people voted for stomach infrastructure because if you
look at it critically that was the main reason that tilted the vote Inn Fayose’s favour. Do you think your
people have benefited from the concept of stomach infrastructure?

Let me make this clear to you, we would let history makers
decide whether Ekiti people actually voted for stomach infrastructure because
today, they are hungry. You need to reconcile the paradox of winning election
on the basis or riding on the popularity, so to speak, of stomach
infrastructure or a political philosophy that amplified tokenism as against
enduring political philosophy like the one Dr. Kayode Fayemi did. So, today, if
eight months salary have not been paid you will now connect the dot to know
that stomach infrastructure as a philosophy has failed.

So, I am not too sure that Ekiti people voted for stomach
infrastructure and I am convinced that today, nobody needs to be told; civil
servants who have not been paid for eight months, pensioners who are
languishing in debts and wallowing in poverty and all of that need to now
undertake an introspection to determine whether the choice of Peter Ayodele
Fayose was right in the first place.

I think there were a number of things that worked against us
at that election and I dare say one of them will be the fact that we had people
even who were beneficiaries, people who were officials of government who
decided to take a pound of flesh against the administration at the time. And of
course, you cannot oversight the fact that the federal government at that time
reined heavily against us. They wanted to win at all cost. As I sit with you I have
a compact disc to show to that effect. My 87 year old man was beaten black and
blue. So many people were sacked from their polling units and all of that.
Election is a process, when you eventually see them count the ballot paper and
all of that there are conditions precedent to that and you should be generous
enough to know that if the process leading to the end of the story is wrong, it
is not likely that the result would have been right.

Away from such issues, now you state is heading for another
election, what do you think should be the defining issues in who becomes the
next governor?

Track record! If you allow me to speak to that I will tell
you. You know the only thing that validates your promises is your reputation.
If you say I am going to do this for you tomorrow, the only thing that makes
you believe is the fact that he said it yesterday and he did it. So, Ekiti
people should be looking out for a man who has proven beyond reasonable doubt,
against all circumstances to say first and foremost what is your reputation?
Come with your strong reasons.

Why would you say you are the best candidate?

I am not going to say I am the best candidate. I like to shy
away from words like the best, superlative descriptions like that but I know
that I am going to be a very good governor. One, I have a reputation that goes
ahead of me. I was in the House of Representatives for four years and by the
grace of God I challenge you to go to my constituency and see what I have done
and compare it, humbly speaking, and compare it with 16 years of representation
before me. Today, we have a 32 bed-hospital built by me, we have intervened in
the lives of many people; medically, educationally, all kinds of manners and
ways. There is no town or village in my constituency that does not have the
impact of Bimbo Daramola. I never cut deal with anybody. I am in touch with
them. The young people believe in me, the elderly trust me, so, what else are
you looking for? As a parliamentarian I was opening rural road network from my
pocket.

Why do you want to be the governor of Ekiti State?

When we lost Dr. Fayemi re-election, I keep saying we
because I appropriate that lost too. The lost of Dr. Fayemi in that election
was my lost, because I was massively involved in the enterprise. May be the
governor, his wife and a few others will say we did much more. Now, what got me
interested in this race, riding on the back of our lost at Dr. Fayemi’s election and it was logical
we were going to lose anyway because there will be bandwagon effect, so I
pulled away, I said I was done with politics but when people began to show
interest in this race and there were twenty four people at that time, eight
assembly members came to me and said we are not saying you should run or you
should not run but look at these twenty four people, tell us one of them by
your own estimation, who thoroughly represents the ideals and the ideas of this
party?

I can humbly say to you that I have been an active member of
this party for twelve years. I am a die-in-the-wool progressive, I have never
shifted my ground one day, I have remained with the people. And more than
anything else, I have the will to do. That is one of my strongest edge.

If you win the mandate, what are those things you will be
doing differently?

The first challenge that I am going to deal with is the
perception that is very rife in town that Ekiti is a dead zone – a far flung place, a rejected
place, a desert – a place
that should be forgotten. That is the very first thing I needed to break and
that is why the mantra of my campaign is ‘Restoring
our Pristine Identity.’ The same
state that had the appellation of the state that breeds professors already is
now the scumbag among states. I need to fix that. And there is something I call
the softer side of government, if you don’t
get the idea of softer side of government; any idiot can build schools, do
roads and things like that but it will take a man who is completely deep to
know that one of the challenges that we have in Ekiti State today is the fact
that we have been stereotyped and our minds are beginning to accept that
stereotype to accept that nothing good can come out of Ekiti State.

So, the first thing I am going to do is, one, bring out the
value that is inherent in that state and once I have the value restored and
everybody accepts there is value, value added to any product, people will pay
for it.

How do you intend to cross the hurdle of the primary?

Let me make this clear abundantly, I am not a desperate man.
If it is the will of God it is going to happen. Number two, I am a man of
faith. Number three, I am in with a strong resolve. Number four, in terms of
nitty-gritty, out of the2400 delegates that will be showing up at that primary
elections I am too sure 1500 of them have met with me one-on-one. As the
Director-General of a gubernatorial election, I was the quasi-candidate, so, I
was just wearing the face of Dr. Fayemi.

Every village that I visited, every youth leader, every
woman leader, every chairman that I spoke to will have a recourse to the day
that I took the battle of Dr. Fayemi on my head as if it was my battle and
indeed it was my battle. It is about time to tell them that the same person who
did that is the person who is right here now before you.

Out of the 46 or 50 people who are jumping around wanting to
be the candidate, many of them will need introduction, I don’t need any introduction. So, in the minds of these
delegates, everyone of them has the picture of who Bimbo Daramola is.

Do you think the incumbent governor will play strong roles
in determining who becomes the governor?

I am not too sure. He has already gone ahead to pick his
candidate of the PDP. You know, you can’t
take that away from him. Ayodele Peter Fayose has political mastery but he
doesn’t have political mystery.
There is nothing mysterious about Fayose but the man understands the psychology
of the people. For instance, when he gives you food he is in your face and let
your face take him to your heart. That is a simple philosophy. Even if you feed
some livestocks for too long, they become loyal to you. So, that is the simple
analogy. Let me tell you another thing Ekiti people want a governor who is in
touch, who robs shoulders with them, who they feel is their own, who they can
take ownership of, and I am that kind of person. They call me lover of the
elders and friend of the youths.

Primary is an attempt to bring the best out of a family – to bring your best foot
forward, there is no family that will be desirous of running a relay race or
400m race and go and bring a great grandfather to run the race, you will rather
pick a young man.

Do you see other party leaders who are also eyeing the
ticket conceding it to you?

I have a very good relationship with virtually all of them,
I believe so, except the new entrants that we don’t know. You can imagine a man like me who may not
know some of these aspirants. If you leave Redeemed today as a pastor who has
your own leisure and you go to Winners Chapel would they make you a pastor the
same day?