The Peoples Democratic Party in the South West has described the Leadership newspaper’s Governor of the Year Award given to the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, as “celebration of nothing and a show of emptiness by a failed governor.”
The PDP, which urged media organisations in the country to always do a thorough and unbiased investigation before giving out awards to public officer holders, said: “Picking Fayemi as Governor of the Year among the 36 governors in Nigeria by any media organisation is to say the least, insulting.”
In a statement by the PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade, the party said over N100 million that went into the award jamboree could have been used to salvage the Ekiti State health sector that is in comatose now or provide portable water for communities that are being ravaged by cholera in the state.
However, the PDP said Leadership newspaper could not have genuinely picked Fayemi for the award because the newspaper’s coverage of the South West was limited, adding: “Even a five-year-old child in Ekiti knows that Fayemi cannot be chosen as Governor of the Year among his fellow Action Congress of Nigeria governors in the South West states not to talk of among the 36 governors in the country.”
It queried the criteria used to arrive at Fayemi as Governor of the Year, saying: “Media organisations stand the risk of losing credibility with a governors like Fayemi, whose state is almost grounded being celebrated because the days when the public only rely on newspapers, radio and television for information are gone.
“In Ekiti State today, cholera is killing people everywhere taps are no longer running, Local Government workers are on strike (meaning that all primary health care institutions in the state are grounded), judiciary workers are warming up to begin their own strike, having handed the government a seven day ultimatum, teachers cannot resume work, doctors are leaving the state-owned University Teaching Hospital, Ado, borrowed N30 billion is being spent to lay asphalt on already asphalted roads and build a new Government House, and Fayemi is adjudged as “Best Governor of the Year”, that is a fraud!
“And to further expose the hypocrisy of Fayemi as a rights activist and welfarist, he brought almost everybody in his government on this fraudulent trip to Abuja to receive a questionable award, spending several millions of public funds, isn’t this disgusting?
“However, we understand the game plan. We know that all the jamboree was designed to give the impression that Fayemi is popular in Ekiti because of the impending Supreme Court matter even when Fayemi has not been able to file his defence. But by God’s grace, all these plots will come to nought.
“It is therefore our advise that media organisations in the country should be mindful of the way they celebrate public office holders so that they don’t lose their credibility.”