2014: Governorship zoning divides Ekiti PDP

No fewer than 10 chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State are jostling for the governorship ticket ahead of the 2014 elections.

Party sources confided that the gladiators had started setting up structures across the 16 local governments in the three senatorial districts.

Prominent among the contenders are former Governor Ayo Fayose, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Senator Gbenga Aluko, Senator Ayo Arise, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, Mr. Dare Bejide, Mr. Adebisi Omoyeni, Senator Sola Akinyede and Dr Sikiru Lawal. 

A top party chieftain hinted last week that former Education Minister Dr. Babalola Borisade, may be drafted into the race by the people he described as “Obasanjo forces”. He said former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has regard for Borisade who he often refers to as a strategist.

However, a major issue tearing the party apart ahead of the election is the question of which zone should have the slot. The South Senatorial District, which has not produced any governor in this dispensation, is pushing for zoning. Aspirants outside the zone have objected to the claim of the district.  They recalled that the Second Republic governor of old Ondo State, Evangelist Bamidele Olumilua from Ikere-Ekiti, hailed from the zone.

Party supporters from the Central and North Districts have also dismissed zoning as a non-issue, pointing out that Ekiti is one zone. They argued that Ekiti is not like Ondo, Oyo, Osun and Ogun States where a lot of sub-Yoruba tribes are cohabiting.

The only popular aspirant from the South, for now, is Adeyeye, a journalist, lawyer and former Afenifere Publicity Secretary, who defected from the Action Congress (AC) to the PDP in 2007. He is from Ise-Ekiti. However, he has not been lucky in previous attempts to secure high profile offices. In 1999, he was the only Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate who lost the senatorial election. Another bid to secure the Action Congress (AC) ticket in 2003 failed, and the PDP would not have him run the governorship race in 2007. When his name was dropped from the ministerial list, Mr  Segun Oni, who was the governor, appointed him chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). 

Fayose, whose supporters are in the majority in the state executive committee of the party, hails from Afao-Ekiti, Central District.  Arise and  Borisade are from the North.