FROM WOLE BALOGUN, ADO EKITI
Just as Nigerians are still dazed with President Mohammadu Buhari’s shocking appointment of his kitchen cabinet yesterday, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State yesterday gave his own shocker, as he appointed a 72-year old carpenter and illiterate, Mr. Olatunde Afolayan, as the caretaker chairman of Moba Local Government Area.
Fayose, who also sworn in members of the State Independent Electoral Commission, headed by a retired Chief Judge of the State, Justice
Kayode Bamisile , called on President
Muhammadu Buhari to remove Mrs. Amina Zakari as the Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. He also urged him to be equitable in appointing the National Electoral Commissioners.
Afolayan, who was sworn-in as caretaker chairman of Moba Local Government , was inaugurated alongside Mrs Omolara Bayode Ayeni and Mr. Owolabi Ajewole, who were to superintend over Ikole and Ijero Councils
respectively, following resignation of those that were earlier appointed by the governor.
Fayose said many of the champions of democracy in Nigeria depend on illiterate to survive during electioneering campaigns , lamenting that many political leaders however abandon such illiterate benefactors on assuming office.
Afolayan, who commended the governor for the kind gesture said, what he expected was for the governor to make him a ward chairman,
promising to surpass the records left behind by his predecessors to justify Fayose’s stand that local people are intelligent and visionary
Excited Afolayan said: “I had never gone to school for a day, but that does not diminish my
intelligence. I may not be educated or certificated, but I have brain and experience to pilot the affairs of the council.”