Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi
On October 16, 2010, Dr. Olukayode Fayemi took charge of Ekiti State. He was sworn into office, following a decision of the Court of Appeal declaring him the duly elected governor. What difference has he made in the lives of the people who look up to him for succour? He spoke with OLUKOREDE YISHAU on these and many more.
It has been two years since you were sworn in as governor. How has it been?
It has been tough, challenging but ultimately fulfilling. It is not entirely surprising the way things have gone. I guess I was not unprepared for the ups and downs. Naturally, two years is that point that political analysts, watchers will tag as mid-term. I must say that we have it together here. We have the ups and downs but for someone who is an incurable optimist, I see the challenges as opportunities. In all of the areas that we promised to make a difference, I think, by and large, we have changed the culture of governance. It is a lot more transparent and accountable.
We have changed the perspective of our people. Education is probably the area, where we have made the biggest impact based on the lackadaisical nature of things before now. I must say it has earned me opponents as well who genuinely feel I have been more unrelenting in my attack on the areas that were creating problem for Ekiti existence. Our health, sector together with our social service sector, has also been impacted on, but there is still a lot of work to be done, a lot of roads to travel. There is tourism and environmental sustainability.
We have worked on Ikogosi and using it as a hub for the tourism corridor. We are about achieving that primary objective. We have facility managers because we have always said we are not in the business of managing business. We should leave it for the private sector to run decently. We are getting in more private sector, especially in the agric sector, cassava processing plant. It is all geared towards realising the objective of making poverty history in Ekiti State. When we were campaigning in 2005, that, we promised. Of course, health and education are the intangible things we have done. But, the one most people talked about are the infrastructure, like roads, the water plants, the Legacy projects that we have. By and large, we are achieving our objective of creating optimum communities because we are not just doing these things in a vacuum. Even though we have a vision of where we want to travel, you cannot do development to our people, you must do development with our people.
From your experience, what really do the people expect from the government?
We give them the opportunity through our village square meetings to input policies and budget-making from their own perspective. What are their own issues? What are their own priorities? What do they want from government? They don’t ask for anything extra-ordinary. They ask for the basics. Give us water, give us light, help us make our young people useful in the society by giving them jobs to do. They want us to tackle ecological problems, purely basic things.
So after two years, would you say you have met these needs?
I think I can reasonably say after two years, there is nothing we promised our people in our campaigns in 2005, such as lap tops per child, social security for the elderly, land management for youths in commercial agriculture, that we have not done. Everything we promised we have managed to do. They may not be completed, but the course is steady. And we are progressing.
What would you consider the high points of your administration so far?
I think the high point is our social security benefits. It was not something I started from day one of my administration, although it was in my inaugural speech. I campaigned on that issue. We started a year later on October 4, 2011. We were almost one year in office. So, social security has been in operation here in the last one year. Everywhere I go, the way the adults, the elderly come out to thank me shows how much difference this has made in their lives. I consider it a high point. Of course, the lap top initiative, which has also resulted in Samsung partnering with us by building an engineering academy here, is another high point. Development agencies have returned to Ekiti in droves. They took off in the past when things were a bit awry. But, they are all virtually back now. World Bank is here, helping us with development. The UK DFID is here. The European Union is here.
What are the challenges facing your administration?
There are challenges. The resources are just limited. That is one of the big challenges a state like Ekiti confronts for a government that wants to do a lot. We obviously have to be a lot more creative and innovative in our management of resources. In fact, even now a lot of people still ask, ‘where do you get this from?’ This is because they know we are not an oil-rich state and we are not reeling in enormous wealth. So, how do you cope? Frankly, I think it is a bit of foresight on our part. We knew we had an agenda to deliver to our people. Of course, we knew we were going to get money from the capital market. We got money from the capital market nine months into being in office. The money we have hardly meets our operational needs, our recurrent expenditures. So, you have to look for money for development. And that has had to come from the capital market and international development partners and other agencies that are interested in development at the local level.
What do you consider the low points of the last two years?
I don’t want to say there are low points. There are moments of despair. I would not want to describe them as low points. I get worried about the quality of public examination results in Ekiti. Again, I have just seen the WAEC results and I am worried about why we have the challenges we are confronted with in public examination. I really am cracking my brain and asking myself what do we have to do to turn things around as far as public examinations are concerned? There is a thin line between success and failure, but once you miss the boat, it might destroy the life of that young person for life and it does get to me, having grown up in this system, having been produced by this structure in Ekiti. I think there is a lot we can do in that regard.
Another thing that worries me is politics of bitterness that we play in this part. There is a lot of ill-motivated, unfounded and irresponsible politics. May be, the intellectual in me, not the politician in me, finds it odd to stomach this unscrupulous business that comes from the opposition. The opposition has the right to be critical. But, in a state where we have a freedom of information law, where information is available at the tip of your fingers, just for you to request, why do you resort to irresponsible claim? This is the only state where we have domesticated the freedom of information law. I don’t read these things, but it gets to me because people will ask my CPS or the Ministry of Information. For me, the greatest joy is when I see those old people because, for them, they are not playing politics with the lives of Ekiti people. Those who want to entertain themselves, which for me is the way I see what they do, they have the platform to do that. When you are in this vocation, a lot of brickbats get thrown at you and you must have the capacity to accommodate these things.
What would you say being the governor has taken away from you?
Oh, my privacy. I am a very private person. I cherish, I don’t want to say, my lonesomeness, but I am the last child in my family and there are certain things that are associated with being the last child. You cherish your own environment. You don’t like the disturbance of a crowd. You are even selfish with your time. Politics does not allow me that luxury. I am out there, doing my village square meetings. So, I straddle both worlds, which is why when I wrote my exile memoirs, I entitled it Out of the Shadows. I enjoyed being anonymous, but it is also a duty you owe people, particularly in politics, to let the people feel you. They want to feel their leader and they want to own you.
There are supporters of mine who sit in beer parlours in town and call me just to prove to their friends that ‘I have got Mr. Governor on the line. We are here with our people o. Mr. Governor, greet Lagbaja’. That is the reality of politics. It is not my forte but I have to adapt. I am also lucky. I have a spouse who has a public persona, who does not mind that space. So, I cede that space to her. She does a lot of hand holding for me in the public space, attend all the social events and I think it is a nice balance. She is far more equipped in dealing with the public, yet she is also very intellectual. It is a unique balance that I am still struggling with.
What mistakes have you made in the last two years?
I am sure I have made a lot of mistakes in two years. I must say I have an advantage. I am surrounded by people, who are very loving and supportive. I have leaders that are fantastically supportive of me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. What do I mean by that? I have people who have occupied this position and they understand what it means to be in a public office as sensitive as this and they are supportive without being overbearing, which is a very tight rope to walk in politics.
You will not see Otunba Niyi Adebayo here all the time, but he is always at a moment’s notice, if I need to get him for anything. I can invite him on issues; I can invite him on a particular matter, to even go and represent me. He is always willing to back for me, ditto Evangelist Olumilua, who you saw here very early this morning. I am lucky in that sense. I also have a lot of Ekiti elders who are not even partisan or who do not even share my own political ideologies or belief. I had Chief Afe Babalola here this morning, talking about an issue of concern to the development of Ekiti. Sir Remi Omotoso, Prof. Oyebode, I have Chief Wole Olanipekun. They all have things they do for me and mostly advisory. It is not what they can make from me as governor. I think I am luckier than most governors who have overbearing people sitting on their necks, trying to do things out of their agenda.
Initially, there were criticisms that you were slow…
The people are fastidious. So, all the time I have to think of how they will react to things I do. So, that generally makes you to be more careful. At first, they didn’t quite understand where I was coming from. They thought we were taking too much time to plan some of the things we were doing and they were critical, responsibly so. The same people when they see me now, on the road ,inspecting one project or the other, they are funnily adulating about what they see as different, either the quality of the road, constructing or the bearing of the initiatives we are taking like the social security for the elderly. They just find these things very strange. One of the areas I think I haven’t done well and I think I refer to it early is that I need to develop my people’s skill.
Why are you and your deputy not fighting?
Why are we not fighting? One, my deputy was not imposed on me, just as I was not imposed on my party. There were many people who wanted to be deputy. Our party showed preference for us to have female deputies and we were given all the support to look for people who could fit into that position. I never met my deputy before the search for the position began. When I met her, a professional to the core who spent virtually all her life in the corporate world, in the banking sector, she understood where I was coming from and she walked into the vision completely. I think that is something that has helped us. She is not in any competition with me on the vision to transform Ekiti State. So, to that extent, she understands what is at play. Two, I think it also has to do with my wife and I will be the first to admit that my wife played a major role in ensuring I have a female deputy. We have a clear division of labour in what she does and what I do and I see it, if we will describe it in managerial terms, I am more of the CEO and she is more of a COO, Chief Operations Officer of a multinational conglomerate. What really matters is to ensure the vision is truly shared.
Last modified: October 11, 2012