…Says Ekiti South APC Elders Forum Behind Oyebanji’s Re-Election
For about 28 years now, Ekiti State was created alongside five others. According to the constitution of Nigeria, each of the 36 states of the federation has three senatorial districts. In most of these states, they have found political understanding that some political posts especially that of the governor be rotated among the three district.
However in Ekiti State, for the last twenty eight years, one of the three districts, (Ekiti South) senatorial district has not tasted the apogee of governance in Ekiti State. This has raised concern has to what might have led to what people of the area termed, marginalization.
In this special interview, the Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ekiti South senatorial district who doubles as secretary, Ekiti South APC Elders Forum, OLUWASEUN AFUYE shares his view on what has been the agitation of Ekiti South senatorial district over the past years, the reason for the Formation of Ekiti South APC Elders Forum, why they are supporting Governor Biodun Oyebanji to run for second term and the impact of Senator Yemi Adaramodu has been having on people in the area.
QUESTION: Few months ago, APC in Ekiti South senatorial district formed an Elders forum which comprises, past and present deputy governors, past and present national assembly lawmakers and other major leaders. What necessitated the creation?
ANSWER: Thank you! we, the executive of the APC in the south discovered that people use to say that we in the district do not have one voice and always antagonizing ourselves that is why we have not been able to achieve much so we look into it and found out that the only way we can have one voice is to form such forum even though we have been trying to do such before Governor Biodun Oyebanji came on board.
So, his emergence helped us to form it as well as senator Yemi Adaramodu’s emergence. These two people have given us the platform to make the formation of the Ekiti South APC Elders Forum to be so easy and we are already seeing the result.
Question: It is now four months since the formation of the forum, what can you say it has achieved so far?
Answer: Since the inauguration of the forum, we have had four meetings. the inauguration and first meeting was hosted by the chairman, former deputy governor, Abiodun Aluko, second one by deputy governor, our mother, Monisade Afuye, third one by senator Thony Adeniyi and the last one which we did last week was hosted by Senator Yemi Adaramodu. In all these meetings, we discussed how our district can move forward, how to move our party forward and what we can do to support Governor Oyebanji to secure victory in 2026 election.
We now have one voice, all the leaders are now in unity, we have been able to settle internal rancor like the case of Emure local government and continued to play our advisory role.
Question: In 2026, we will have another governorship election during which Ekiti state will be 30 years old. It is surprising to note that the district which has not produced a governor is leading the vanguard of support for the incumbent governor to continue till 2030. Are you not further marginalizing yourself by another four years with that?
Answer; Well, it is just unfortunate for us that we have not produced a governor for twenty years but the current governor is our party man and he is doing fantastically well and everybody can see that. Actually, it might sound so funny that we are endorsing him but that’s how God want it. We are supporting BAO because of his excellent performance. Nobody in this state can say Governor Oyebanji has not performed, therefore I want to take government from him. I don’t think there is any. We deemed it necessary that he should continue with the good work and by 2030, Ekiti south can now come out boldly come out and fight for the position.
Elders in Ekiti South met and said BAO should continue. The overall development of Ekiti state is our priority, either central, north or south is the governor, what matter most is good governance that will bring needed development to the people.
Question: It is your party, APC, south senatorial district is the one endorsing BAO not the total voices of people nor all parties. What if opposition parties feed candidates from south, what would be the fate of BAO.
Answer: Continuity in government is very key. Go and check states where same party is allowed to continue in power either APC or others, you will see that they find things easy there. Any party picking candidate from the south in 2026 is never a threat to the emergence of BAO. Our leaders there are more than capable to deliver the district for APC. So no issue about that.
QUESTION ; Is there a reason why you are different from the other district/ active than the other district
ANSWER: When you have a good senator, you have to be active. We don’t have a governor but we have a good senator who has been a chief of staff before and house of rep member before. He is an accessible senator and whenever he’s coming down from Abuja he tells us to get ready for him and table pending matters before him and he also moves around the state before he leaves. So we always have interaction with him physically when he’s around. The local government chairman can go to him, I can also go to his house and this has brought us all together and made us all very active. When it comes to financial support, he gives us what we need. We don’t need to go to Abuja to see him.
Even some are saying APC executives in the south have not gone to Abuja to see our national assembly lawmakers, that maybe we don’t have rapport. We don’t need that. Senator Yemi Adaramodu is a leader indeed and we are proud of him. He’s always there to support us financially and grace us with his presence so if we are not active we should be blamed for that.
Question: Is senator yemi Adaramodu contesting in 2030
Answer : Well, Senator Adaramodu is contended with what he haa now but if God says yes to him ,so be it and if not ,so be it . All I know is that he not a desperate man. He never lobby before getting anything, he believes in grace and think he can’t be desperate for ever.
Question: what is your assessment of Governor Biodun Oyebanji under two years of governance
Answer: Thank you for that question. Let me tell you this, even if we have a southern governor, I doubt if he would have outperformed what BAO has done. He is a working governor and everyone can testify to that. Look at road networks across the state, see rural electrification in Gbonyin Local Government, Ekiti East Local Government and others. Should we talk about human capital development and the share prosperity he has brought to people?
Finally, Let me use this medium to commend the leadership quality of the chairman of our forum, former deputy governor of Ekiti State, Chief Biodun Aluko. He has led the elders well and that is evident in what we have been able to achieve within few months. All his followers are ready to work with him. So the future is very bright for our district.