Leadership by Example

Ijigbo fire incident, what I saw

By Bola Agboola

It started for some of us as a colourful Sunday, it was the first lady's birthday. I attended the church service, a thanksgiving was held in celebration of Mama 1. The celebrant, Ekiti first lady, Mrs. Feyisetan Fayose was interviewed, so was her husband, the ever fluent governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.

As we were about rounding up the interview, a long time friend of mine, Akin who came visiting from Ibadan arrived Ado and had started calling, I picked and promised to pick him up. I had already done part one of my job at the thanksgiving service, I thought I could do the rest before the end of the day, so I packed my gadgets and went to pick my friend.

We went to a joint, we ate and some bottles of Goldberg and 33 followed as we discussed this and that. Before the end of the second bottle, a call came from the office that there is an assignment, the governor was already in a meeting with some people at Osuntokun. We left the joint for the governor’s office, I told my friend I will join him ASAP, he was to wait for me in the office.

Before leaving the office, Deji, a colleague in office called me that there is a fire incident at Strive Energy filling station, Ijigbo, I said maybe that was where fire service was heading because I heard their siren few minutes back, he said Ooh, they had arrived the scene. As I was heading towards the government house, Deji called me again that the fire was beyond the fire service's capacity, "it has extended to neighbouring houses and something serious has to be done", he said.

So I called my boss, Lere Olayinka to brief him, he said he had directed that the incident be announced on radio so people could vacate the area to allow firemen free access, I added that other houses had been affected and it's now beyond the fire fighters. He said, "let me call Oga then". At that point, I knew we would soon be heading to the scene as the governor won't hear that and remain in the GH.

Still on my way to the GH, I met the press crew bus, it was heading to the fire scene, I hopped in and we moved out swiftly. There was a thick smoke in the cloud, as we approached, there was pandemonium, people running helter-skelter, I heard people saying "they were warned", "when Fayose locked petrol stations, they said it was politics, now it has happened".

The EKTV crew had started rolling, recording the scenario, I moved closer to Strive Energy, in the thick smoke, I saw a thanker in flames, I zoomed the camera lens and took some shots. As people ran from the thick of the action, I told myself, "leave this place, what if the tanker explodes and its content split and we are all in flames nko"?

As I turned back to hearken what I thought was the voice of wisdom, I saw the governor’s convoy approaching the station from the Atikankan axis. I said, "Correct! Alaye himself is hear, how you go do now"? At that point there was no fireman on ground, their tankers and fire fighting equipment were no where to be found. The governor spoke with some people and I guess he was told the firemen had gone back to refill their tanks after exhausting what they had.

As the filling station was dancing in flames, so also were about 3 other buildings(all of them business shops), the diesel in the tanker that caught fire at Strive Energy had found its way to those buildings. With no panapana in sight, the governor moved so close to one of the buildings, I was far from him so I couldn't hear him but I knew he was passing instructions, he picked water containers and started "attacking" the ravaging inferno.

As he was doing that, the firemen arrived with their tanker, they headed straight to the filling station, I felt the fire won't go with the governor’s "primitive approach", so I told the convoy commander, "Commander, firemen are back, tell someone to tell Mr. Governor to tell them to come here and put out this fire", I was talking to a confused man. As the governor was pouring water, everybody closeby started throwing all sort of things at the fire, to my utmost surprise, the ravaging fire stopped! It was prevented from extending to the next building, it was like a magic!

As the governor and others were putting out the fire in that building, shop owners in the other buildings made spirited efforts at moving out their goods, suits, shoes, designer clothes were flying from upstairs, some looters thought their day had come, they were caught, some were given the beating of their lives, I saw one who was nearly lynched for daring to steal. The governor ordered some of his aides to take strategic positions so as to halt looting, it worked.

After conquering the fire challenge at the governor’s chosen building out of the 4 that were on fire, the governor shifted attention to another at the other side of the road, manual efforts continued till they were joined by men of the fire service who had been kept busy at the filling station where the fire originated. They joined the governor and others in putting out the fire. They won!

I tried to put together this eyewitness account so as to make sane the minds of many arm-chair critics out there who will never see anything good in whatever Fayose do. I hope they now know why the governor was pouring water on the fire by himself, motivation was the key. Seeing a governor who came in white do that will make one do anything to help. I saw determination and selflessness in people, inspiration propelled by the governor's action, I saw leadership!

At a point, all that mattered was how to prevent my camera from impending damage, not what happens to my cloth or shoe, the governor is physically at work, who are you not to be, who are you to complain about being drenched. What if the governor was not around, one would ask. Yes, the fire would have been quenched but with many more buildings destroyed. No wonder the governor left the scene a hero, as he made to leave after the fire on all buildings had been put out, a thunderous applause came from nearly everyone around, praising him for his gallantry, boldness and selflessness. Many said behind him that they have never seen his type.

Citing myself as an example, would I have moved close to a scene of a filling station fire accident? No! Many others would have behaved like me, wait for panapana and allow tens of buildings go up in flames. To those who will rather sit at home and criticize a brave Fayose, that can't be the right way to go, our hatred for him cannot override the decision of the thousands who saw a Hero in him on 8th January, 2017.

God bless Ekiti State.