-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) –By Austen AKHAGBEME:

This is surely not the best of times for the Governor of Ekiti State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi. Yet, he seems to be riding in the storm, purportedly orchestrated by his new traducers and party rivals.

Party rivalry and political animosity, generated from a perceived Presidential or Vice Presidential ambition come 2023, had undoubtedly threw up some murky waters for Fayemi to swin in.

In the days preceding the stormy exit of the Adam’s Oshiomhole’s led NWC of the crisis ridden APC, Fayemi’s name kept appearing for the wrong reasons. He was perceived to be the arrow head of the calculable subterfuge that was pushing for the exit of the Oshiomhole led NWC as he campaigned vigorously for the president’s recognition of Giade as the new helm of affairs.

Ever since then, Fayemi has fallen into the bad books of his Godfather, the APC National leader, Bola Tinubu and till today, neither Fayemi nor Bourdillon has found rest politically, against themselves.

Those who knows says the bottom line is 2023. The clash of interest and the innate desire to clitch the expected mandate of the West, has probably piqued Fayemi against his benefactor. And the old man of Bourdillon is unrelenting as he finds it very disconcerting.

Because every Politics is local, the war was taken to Ekiti grounds, spearheaded by the erstwhile fiery journalist, Babafemi Ojudu, against Fayemi. They seems to be winning as Kayode Fayemi was controversially sidelined and suspended from the party until the National leadership came to his rescue.

Against the run of play, Kayode Fayemi seems to be gaining more ground as he is rumoured to have his hands on every ‘bad pie’. His rumoured fellowship with the opposition PDP and his open identification with her chieftains, leaves no one in doubt as to his readiness to quit the party, when push comes to a shove.

Afterall, Nigerian political parties are fundamentally inorganic by nature and are devoid of ideological lineages good enough, to prick anybody’s political conscience. Because they’re borderless and fluid, personal interest and strong desires becomes the driving force and the very essence of partisanship itself.

This fact, Fayemi understood fully; the reason why he chooses to be the stormy petrel, a new thorn in the flesh of the powers that be, in APC. Whether or not this will favour him in the long run, no one can tell.

Kayode Fayemi, no doubt, is highly cerebral, young, energic, politically savvy and daring. He may even have a longer political lifespan among his contemporaries in his geopolitical zone, too.

But his often and generally talked about anti-party activities does not speak well of a self acclaimed political pugilist and Democrat, whose eyes are on topmost political job in the land. He must learn to

• Austen AKHAGBEME is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online