Fayose, Nnamani clash in Ogun

…Over Buhari’s electoral reform committee

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 By Olusola AJIBIKE (Abeokuta)

NIGERIA: EKITI State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the former Senate President, Dr. Ken Nnamani, on Wednesday clashed over the composition of the constitutional and electoral reform committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari had last year constituted the body, headed by Nnanami, who about six months ago defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressive Congress (APC), to look into how to strengthen the nation’s electoral process.

Fayose, who spoke at the committee’s public hearing in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said that the composition was politically skewed in favour of APC as Nnamani is currently the regional leader of the party in the South East.

As a result of this position, Fayose, who was represented on the occasion by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon. Samuel Omotoso, declared that Nnamani was not credible and fit to chair the committee.

But Nnamani fired back, saying that he saw nothing wrong in his chairmanship of the committee.

He assured Fayose, who raised the issue after he was no longer a member of PDP, that he should not entertain fear as the committee’s report would still go through the Presidency and the National Assembly.

According to him, the Governor should know that the members of the National Assembly, who will still look at the final report, are from different political parties.

While adducing reasons for his stance, Fayose maintained: “If this government is actually serious about electoral reform, then the chairman of this committee should resign and allow an independent person to take over.

“Senator (Dr.) Ken Nnamani is a South-East regional leader of APC, and hence incapable of rising above primordial and party sentiments to give us anything different from electoral inclusiveness that we have at the moment.”

Fayose further said in his three-page speech that the committee was not needed until its members are made equitable, apolitical and lack influence from the ruling APC government.

He maintained that “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands,” while adding that he had no reservation about reviewing and reforming electoral process.

The Governor, however, said that he was hesitant on the “sincerity of purpose deploy each time we display such political hallucinations under the guise of reforms.”

“This has amounted severally to playing to the gallery and this committee just like others that have embarked on several wild goose chases in the past is not likely to be different,” Fayose stressed.

He also said that it was only during the tenure of ex-President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, who picked former Chief Justice, Justice Mohammed Uwais, as the Chairman, that he country made serious efforts at ensuring a reliable electoral reform.

He stated: “This singular move gave the panel credibility, widespread acceptability and massive supports from all over the country and across political divides.”

According to him, this could not be said of Nnamani-led committee that has been overshadowed with massive moral burdens and conflict of interest as a result of his card-carrying membership of APC.

Fayose also accused the police of allowing itself to be used during electoral process for the selfish interest of government in power.

“We all know those who commit crimes during the elections, but this same people are protected using the police, who is supposed to ensure orderliness and legal consequences for electoral infractions,” the Governor said.

He also stressed: “The police would rather arrest and prosecute the victims of electoral malpractice and violence while releasing the actual aggressors due to the relationship of these offenders to the government in power.”

Also, while further responding to Fayose, the ex-Senate President said: “It does not make sense to say that because I am no longer a member of the PDP that I will compromise.

“Six months ago, I was with PDP and then nobody is talking about being compromised now I am in APC and the story is changing.”

Nnamani queried: “Does it mean I don’t have the fundamental right to belong to any association, which the Governor of Ekiti State is trying to infringe upon?”

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