US embassy cable - 03LAGOS2349

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 002349 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2008 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, KWMN, SOCI, NI 
SUBJECT: OUT IN AFRICA: A VISIT TO EKITI STATE 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL ROBYN HINSON-JONES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AN 
 
 
D (D). 
 
 
1. (U) Summary.  PolOffs made a one day familiarization visit 
to the tiny land-locked State of Ekiti.  In April 2003, 
Ekiti, like its neighboring states in the southwest except 
Lagos, got rid of its Alliance for Democracy governor and 
elected a representative of the ruling Peoples Democratic 
Party. But the new governor is fighting off challenges to his 
election and may yet lose his seat.  Though Ekiti is small 
and poor, it is better off in some ways than other southern 
states. End summary. 
 
 
Ekiti - small state, big plans, no money 
 
 
2. (U) Ekiti State was carved out of the northern end of Ondo 
State in 1996. With its population of nearly two million, the 
majority of whom are ethnic Ekitis (a sub-group of the Yoruba 
tribe), it is the newest, smallest (in population), and, by 
some reports, the poorest of Nigeria's thirty-six states. 
Most of the topography of Ekiti is softly rounded, 
rain-eroded hill country.  In fact, the word "ekiti" means 
"hill" in the local dialect and a number of the towns in the 
State have hyphenated names that end in "ekiti."   For 
decades, the economy was based mainly on the production of 
cocoa and palm oil.  However, with the development of the oil 
industry in the mid-seventies, Ekiti (then still part of Ondo 
State), like the rest of Nigeria, abandoned most of its 
traditional sources of income and waited for its share of the 
oil wealth.  According o most Ekiti residents, they decided 
to raise their visibility by forming their own State because 
whatever oil moneys the State of Ondo was allocated never 
seemed to trickle down to them. 
 
 
3. (U) Politically, Ekiti had been a minor player in the 
Yoruba-controlled, southwest bloc of states that had been 
firmly with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Party.  Its 
relationship with the AD was severed in the 2003 elections 
when the majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the 
governorship, the National Assembly seats and carried the 
state for President Olusegun Obasanjo. 
 
 
Getting there 
 
 
4. (U) There are two reasons to go to Ekiti by car.  First, 
there is a sign outside the capital of Ado-Ekiti announcing 
an airport nearby, but no flights are listed for this airport 
and no one we talked to knew if it is still used at all. 
Second, compared to all the roads in the southeast and most 
of the roads in the southwest, the roads to and in Ekiti are 
surprisingly good.  The median strips and soft shoulders on 
the highways have, obviously, not seen a road crew in decades 
and are so overgrown in some places that the road appears to 
be one long, green tunnel.  However, we encountered no 
vehicle-devouring potholes, and, although there were the 
usual checkpoints every mile or so, our armored US vehicle 
with diplomatic plates breezed past them at sixty miles an 
hour. 
 
 
5. (U) The city of Ado-Ekiti is clean, compared to Lagos, and 
its buildings and roads appeared to be maintained.  Heavy 
morning rush hour traffic was moving at a reasonable speed 
unencumbered by that bane of Lagos residents, the okada 
(dare-devil drivers of motorcycle transportation for hire.) 
The okadas are replaced on Ado-Ekiti streets by brightly 
painted, and sedately driven, red and yellow taxis. We saw no 
beggars.  The main market was crowded and busy and appeared 
to be well stocked with food, household goods and clothes. 
In the morning and afternoon, groups of uniformed school 
children walked to or from the many schools that were open, 
operating and seemed well attended. The PDP and AD had 
offices on the main thoroughfare, as did the Justice Party, 
the National Conscience Party (NCP), the Justice Center for 
the Less Privileged, the Poverty Eradication Program, the 
Hare Krishna Society, and the Church of Latter Day Saints. 
 
 
His Excellency 
 
 
6. (U) Since we visited Ekiti during Ramadan, Governor Ayo 
Fayose, who is Muslim, may have been fasting and for that 
reason unable to meet with us.  His aide said he was engaged 
in urgent meetings.  However, another reason may have been 
that controversy has surrounded Fayose since before he was 
chosen by the PDP to run for governor this year, and he may 
have been avoiding another probing of his problems.  His 
detractors say that he has lied about his academic 
credentials and that he was a less than honorable businessman 
(he owns a car dealership).  Femi Falana, NCP candidate for 
Governor of Ekiti, attorney and one of the founders of the 
embattled Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) 
(septel), has demanded that Fayose account for 4.5 billion 
naira.  Fayose allegedly received the money from the GON for 
Ekiti State since the gubernatorial elections.  Falana claims 
the governor has not spent any of the billions of naira to 
help citizens of Ekiti, and he ought not to claim the state 
is poor just because it receives the smallest federal 
allocation.  Last, but certainly not least, Fayose's election 
as governor is still being challenged in the Election 
Tribunals, and he recently lost an appeal of a lower court 
decision in the case, which means he faces more weeks, if not 
months, of uncertainty as to whether or not he will continue 
to be governor. 
 
 
Her Excellency 
 
 
7. (U) PolOffs were invited to have lunch at the governor's 
residence with the wives of the Governor and Deputy Governor. 
 Feyisetan Fayose, or "Her Excellency Mrs. Fayose" as she 
prefers to be called, had laid on a Nigerian-style official 
reception complete with prepared remarks, videocameras, and 
fifteen or twenty members of her staff in attendance to 
applaud at appropriate points in her speech.  Although her 
husband has been in office for only a few months, she has 
already set up the "Fayose Foundation" which, she says, will 
work on the problems of HIV/AIDS in Ekiti including provision 
of medical care, drug and condom distribution, educational 
and nutritional programs, and hospice care.  She went on at 
length to describe plans for her Foundation to provide 
mobility aids for the handicapped, aid and training for 
handicapped persons who want to work, micro-loans to empower 
women who want to start their own businesses, family planning 
advice, senior citizens' services, poverty eradication and 
improved healthcare state-wide.  Her challenges in getting 
started are money and equipment, and she was not hesitant in 
asking what the USG could do to help. We advised her that the 
USG has many programs that might be able to help, but her 
group would have to prepare proposals that we could consider. 
 
 
8. (U) At lunch, the wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Esther 
Alulco, was more talkative and seemed more politically savvy 
than the Governor's wife.  She said that AD is finished as a 
power in Ekiti but will survive as a "relic".  On the other 
hand, Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group that is one 
of founders of AD will continue to be a force in the state 
because, she said, "we are of the Yoruba culture."  Though 
apparently good-intentioned, neither woman has any prior 
training or experience in any of the areas in which they 
proposed to make their marks -- social work, community health 
services, education.   An example: as we stepped outside the 
door to leave the governor's residence, we were met by a 
full-grown ostrich.  The governor's wife said that there had 
been two ostriches when they took over the residence, but one 
had died.  When asked if the survivor was male or female, she 
said she didn't know.  We suggested that if the bird laid 
eggs, it might be female.  She said it did lay eggs, but she 
seemed reluctant to accept that this established the bird as 
female. 
 
 
9. (C) Comment.  Four years until the next governors' 
election is a long time.  While it may appear now that the AD 
is "finished" in Ekiti, the new PDP governor is not yet sure 
of keeping his office.  In addition, though he has only been 
in office for less than six months, he has yet to make any 
significant moves to better the lives of his constituents, 
and without an infusion of funds from somewhere, he may never 
be able to get any beneficial programs started.  Fayose is 
reported to have a "back to the soil" program in the works 
that will give funds and training to any unemployed Ekiti who 
wants to get back into traditional farming, preferably the 
production of cocoa.  Former Minister of Science and 
Technology, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, 
and Senator for Ekiti South district, Dr. Bode Olowoporoku, 
has introduced federal legislation that would direct funds to 
projects like this.  If the Governor and the Senator can get 
the funding, which is always the problem in Nigeria, this may 
be the way forward for Ekiti.  If they can, the tiny state 
may be one half step ahead of other states that continue to 
clamor for a return to local or regional control of their 
resources. 
HINSON-JONES