Toba Suleiman
8 June 2008
Lagos — Ekiti State was not left out of the Celebration of this year's Democracy Day marked across the length and breadth of the country last Thursday.
How time flies, goes the popular saying. The whole affair looked like yesterday, but gradually 365 days have rolled by in the life of the present democratic dispensation across the country.
It is quite interesting to note that during the period under review, a lot of ding-dong political affairs had happened in the country among the political class. Since May 29 series of interesting political activities have been played out by the players in the act, just as the activities of the judiciary have not gone unnoticed.
For the first time in the political history of this country, judiciary has been able to discharge its duties as an unbiased umpire without fear or favor. In the course of discharging its duties, several election results have been upturned, while some were cancelled, some upheld, while several others were still pending at the various Election Petition Tribunals set up by the federal government across the country to look into the grievances emanating from the 2007 elections.
While some have accepted their fate in good faith and had already commenced preparations for the 2011 elections, some are still expecting and hopeful that one day, justice would be done.
But, as this continues, Ekiti State was not left out among other 36 states across the country that successfully celebrated Democracy Day, and one year in office of the present administration in a grand style.
The one week anniversary celebration kicked off Monday, May 26th, 2008 with a well attended press conference, which was addressed by the state deputy-governor, Dr Tae Sikiru Lawal.
The week was full of activities that set the state into a celebration mood. There is no doubt that the myriad of congratulatory messages relayed on the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES), as well as the Positive FM, played major role in creating awareness in the mind of the public over the anniversary celebration.
Besides, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state actively participated in the festival by organizing road show rally in all the three senatorial districts to sensitize the public..
During the two day rally, the PDP members, well-wishers and other party supporters used the forum to distribute pamphlets and hand bills that contained several achievements of the state government in the last one year.
The major event that marked the grand finale of the celebration took place on Thursday, May 29th,2008 when the people both old and young stormed the Oluyemi Kayode stadium in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital in a festive mood.
It was a moment of joy, happiness and merry making for the people of the state, especially members of the ruling party, who saw the day as not only a day of merrymaking alone, but a day for celebrating being in control of the state machinery.
Earlier in the day, before the activities at the stadium commenced, the state governor, Mr Segun Oni had addressed people of the state in a state-wide live broadcast relayed on both radio and television stations, where he took time to catalogue his numerous achievements within his first 12 months in office.
The governor, who began by calling for unity among the indigenes of the state, said with the oneness and unity of purpose, the state will get to the top and remain at the top where it rightly belong.
According to him, God that created Ekiti as the most homogenous people in Nigeria did it for a purpose and that purpose must not be defeated.
"The Almighty God created us as one, as the most homogenous people in the country, for a purpose. Let us exploit the oneness to the optimum. Let us, with the oneness and unity of purpose march together to the top and remain at the top, where we belong," he said.
While reeling out the achievements of his government, Oni said; "We are bold to say that, in the first year of this administration, we have been able to touch the life of millions of our people, positively, in several ways, through our various programmes in Education, Agriculture, Road Construction, the Micro-Credit Scheme, and Health and so on.
He added that, in Ekiti State, an average of two in every five families have benefited from the monthly health intervention programmes. The Eye Camp, and Surgical Festival, which he said began in July 2007.
"To date, more than 10,000 pair s of eye glasses has been given out free of charge to beneficiaries while hundreds who required medication to improve their sight were also provided with drugs free.
"Over 1,700 surgeries, for various ailments ranging from fibroid, appendicitis, hernia to goitre etc, have been performed free of charge for people, some of whom before the surgeries, had lost hope. Glory be to God that all the surgeries were successful without any casualty.
The Governor stressed that, work was already in progress on the 200 'Blue Centers' Special Clinics where pregnant women would have antenatal care and children up to the age of five would be attended to in furtherance of our battle against maternal and infant mortality."
Speaking on poverty alleviation, Oni said over N600 million have been disbursed to over 18,000 beneficiaries of the Micro-Credit Scheme and promised that many more people would benefit from the scheme, which is already institutionalized.
"Another monster we have confronted frontally is post-retirement poverty - a situation whereby our retirees slide into penury two years after retirement," Oni said.
According to the governor, God has used us to bring smiles to the face of our retirees and saved some of them from the brink of death through payment of all arrears of gratuities that dated back to 1994, which we inherited from previous administrations.
"We paid a total of N1.8 billion to 2,975 retirees. Today, as a policy from January 2008, anyone who retires from service in the state would be paid gratuity 60 days after retirement. In addition, pensions are now paid unfailingly on the 20th of every month," he said.
Oni, whose broadcast covers all segments of the society, also expressed appreciation to traditional rulers in the state for their fatherly role and support for his administration; just as he further commended members of the State House of Assembly for their productivity.
In his words "My appreciation goes to honorable members of the State House of Assembly. In spite of the unique 50-50 composition, the state legislature qualifies to be described as the most productive legislature in the country having been able to pass 14 bills within 12 months, more than the total number of bills passed by the two previous legislatures within the same period."
The governor however, implored the lawmakers to see themselves as holding their mandate in trust for the people, for the uplift of the standard of living of the people, saying "It is too expensive to play politics with the interest of the people who elected us into office."
While promising to deliver more democracy dividends in months to come, Oni said; "The last one year had been committed by this administration to planning and laying foundations for the actualization of our vision and mission to give a new lease of life to our people.
"We are now at the execution stage and set to move more rapidly. In other words, what the people experienced in the last 12 months is a tip of the iceberg," he maintained.
Almost immediately, after the governor ended his broadcast, all roads led to the stadium, venue of the final ceremony.
Taking advantage of the public holiday which had been declared by the federal government to mark the day, it was a good day for everyone including civil servants to fully participate in the cerebrations.
No doubt that the day appeared to be the happiest day for the governor, his deputy, other members of the cabinet, and of course the entire people of the state.
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