Ekiti: Lessons From the Fayemi Trajectory -By Hakeem Jamiu

Hakeem Jamiu

“Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius 1831

If you describe Dr. Kayode Fayemi as a cat with nine lives, you may not be wrong. He first contested for the Ekiti gubernatorial seat on April 14, 2007 and he was reported to be leading in 12 out of the 16 local governments as at 10 p.m. on that fateful Saturday night before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under Professor Maurice Iwu came with its magic and declared his rival, Engineer Segun Oni, as the winner.

Fayemi was in court for 36 months before he reclaimed his mandate at the Court of Appeal, Ilorin, and was sworn in as governor on October 16, 2010.

Expectations of Ekiti people were very high having supported him for 36 months in reclaiming his mandate. Fayemi didn’t disappoint them as he fulfilled his promise to make poverty history in the state through his 8-point agenda. He enjoyed the support of the people and was very popular but all this changed after his second year in office when the incumbent, Governor Ayodele Fayose, in his comeback bid, launched a vicious campaign of lies against his person and government.

First, he lied that Fayemi stole Ekiti money to build a university in Ghana. We didn’t take this serious at first because we thought nobody would believe that trash. But we were wrong, as this lie gained ground and was unbelievably believed by those who we thought should know better, because there is no such university anywhere. By the end of Fayemi’s third year in office in 2013, the damage had been done.

Coupled with the lie from the opposition was internal discontentment within the APC by its members who were aggrieved by many reasons, principal among which was that Fayemi concentrated on physical infrastructure while neglecting stomach infrastructure. This simply means Fayemi ought to have spent the money he expended in constructing roads, building civic centres and palaces in Ekiti communities on party members. This was the opportunity Fayose was waiting for to complete his vicious campaign against Fayemi.

The concept of stomach infrastructure was hijacked by Fayose and he made this the kernel of his campaign. He twisted the thinking and orientation of Ekiti people into believing that Fayemi was selfish, aloof, arrogant and self-centred. By the time Ekiti people went to the polls on June 21 2014, despite his good works in all 131 towns in the State, Fayemi had lost so much goodwill such that APC members who even benefitted a lot from the regime complained bitterly of marginalisation.

The invasion of Ekiti State during the June 21, 2014 elections by Federal forces who arrested more than 600 APC leaders on the eve of that election and on election day completed the routing of Fayemi in the election. Fayemi lost the election to Fayose who was disgraced out of office in 2006.

When Fayose assumed office, his main agenda was to destroy Fayemi politically and rubbish all his achievements through propaganda using the state media to reinforce the vicious campaign he started before he assumed office. He lied that Fayemi bought a N50 million bed in the new Government House, had a University in Ghana and left Ekiti State in debts that the state will continue to pay till 2036. This was his excuse for not paying salaries and allowances of workers and pensioners. It was so bad that Fayose and his aides went on live television to call Fayemi a rogue and all unprintable names.

Due to the systematic character assassination of Fayemi by Fayose and his aides, Fayemi almost became a persona-non-grata in Ekiti State and only a tiny group of loyalists stood with him. Within the APC, many of his appointees turned against him and formed a pressure group that derided the few still left with him.

The period immediately following the loss of June 21, 2014 election and 2015 November was the darkest in my life. As a known Fayemi loyalist, gloom enveloped me and it seemed the world would come to an end. My colleagues and I remaining with Fayemi suffered persecution from the regime of Governor Fayose who forcefully seized monetised vehicles from Fayemi’s former political appointees, while he almost ejected us from our houses which we bought on mortgage but which he directed should be paid for at once, instead of the five years deadline we agreed with the Housing Corporation but the court came to our rescue.

It was God who ensured my survival during the period immediately after Fayemi lost election till late 2015 when he became Minister of the Federal Republic.

My colleague in the media, Wole Olujobi, had to leave his house to stay with me for 11 months and we dare not move out of the house till very late in the night. It was that bad! I didn’t expect we would lose with the volume of work Fayemi did in all 131 towns in Ekiti and till date, i don’t believe we lost that election so scandalously!

I was sad on the night of 30th July 2014. I was driving home with my son who was 6 years old at that time and we were only 2 in the car. It was on Ureje- Ajilosun-Ijigbo road. When we got to Mobil, Ajilosun around 8 p.m., the aesthetically beautiful streetlights which were erected by Fayemi were on and my son asked: “Daddy, who did this beautiful lights?” I answered: “Governor Fayemi.”

What my son asked me next left me broken and I wept though he didn’t know. My son asked: “Daddy, is Governor Fayemi a failure?” I was shocked! So I asked him: “Why did you ask that question?” and he said: “My teacher told me.”

I told him he should tell his teacher in school the following day that Dr. Fayemi is not a failure because he saw the beautiful streetlights he did apart from free education and care for the elderly who he paid N5,000 monthly. My son did so and came back to tell me.

What made me wept was the level of systematic character assassination of an innocent man who served Ekiti conscientiously but who instead of being rewarded accordingly was being destroyed systematically through propaganda such that a primary school pupil like my son had been conditioned to think that such a man is a failure!

The victory of Governor Fayemi in the recently concluded election in Ekiti State taught me many lessons about life and the long and short of this is that only God is wise. The same way his profile nosedived in 2014 when he lost his re-election bid was the same way his profile rose in 2018 when he defeated the Fayose-backed PDP candidate, Professor Olusola Eleka.

Fayemi did not just emerge from the blues to clinch the gubernatorial ticket of the APC against all odds and obstacles placed on his way by Governor Fayose and even from his own party and going ahead to win the gubernatorial election on July 14, 2018; it was a result of scientific planning and high level strategic delivery with precision which is almost error-free. Above all, there is the God factor in all of these.

The strategy team of Fayemi did a fantastic job of constant self-assessment based on many field surveys and this always gave the direction to go. While Fayose was busy making noise about a White Paper barring Fayemi from holding office for 10 years, going on air to call him a rogue, Fayemi’s team was busy strategising and consulting critical stakeholders in Ekiti on the need to reclaiming our land and restoring our values. This campaign slogan jelled with Ekiti people who were tired of Fayose’s chicanery and demagoguery.

Fayose was deconstructed as a pathological liar and stunt master who despite receiving billions of naira from the Federation’s Account in four years, bailouts, Paris Club refund, budget support facility and other intervention funds, refused to pay workers for about 10 months running.

What also worked for Fayemi was his track records. The wool with which Fayose covered the eyes of Ekiti people was removed when they were able to compare over three years of Fayose’s administration to that of Fayemi. Apart from the state capital, Ado Ekiti, where Fayose built a needless bridge, and Ikere, there is no government’s presence in the remaining 129 towns compared to Fayemi’s administration where his projects are still visible in all 131 towns in the state apart from beneficiaries of his welfare programmes in all the towns.

Even in Ikere-Ekiti, more than half of the money spent to construct the town’s road was raised through private companies’ corporate social responsibility cash, even though Fayose would not disclose this to Ekiti people.

Ekiti people, especially civil servants, teachers and pensioners became nostalgic about the Fayemi years because their salaries and allowances were regular unlike now that Fayose is owing them 10 months salary arrears.

As a result of this, Fayemi’s popularity rating soared from less than 40 percent in February 2018 to about 75 per cent by May. The tag of Fayose’s lapdog given to the candidate of the PDP, Prof. Eleka, became his major undoing as Fayose took over the campaign and it was difficult to know who was contesting between Fayose and Eleka, more so, when Eleka has no manifesto of his own other than his continuity slogan, meaning that he has adopted Fayose’s programmes that have impoverished Ekiti people in the last four years. It was so bad that Fayose lost his Irepodun Ifelodun Local Government, while the PDP only won in four local governments against APC’s 12.

The lesson in Fayemi’s second coming and Fayose’s fall is that only God is wise and the moment any mortal plays God like Fayose did, the fall of such mortal is imminent. Ekiti people shall be rewarded with good governance as promised by the governor-elect because he is a man of his words and has learnt useful lessons both as a former governor and minister.

Hakeem Jamiu, director of research, planning and sStatistics, Fayemi Campaign Organisation, writes from Ado-Ekiti.