When Dr. John Kayode Fayemi began his quest to govern Ekiti State the second time in 2018, the vision was clear, as his campaign mantra was, ‘reclaiming the land, restoring the values. No phrase would have captured the pertinent but urgent need of the state, reputed to be a fountain of knowledge and a land of honour and dignity, at the time than a reclamation from the brink of executive notoriety, systematic pauperization and moral devaluation. Perhaps Ekiti was in the mind of that cerebral writer, Anezi Okoro, when he titled one of his books, One Week, One Trouble, as the state was in the kleiglight of the media for all the wrong reasons. From pseudo populism and belittling or even desecration of the high of office of the Governor to virulent decay in values and growing destitution of the people, Ekiti was no doubt in need of salvation, reclamation and restoration. That was what Kayode Fayemi, who had once set the state on the path of sustainable development through his many well thought out institutional and economic initiatives between 2010 and 2014, promised in this second attempt at governing the state. It was therefore no wonder that the well-tortured and parlous people of Ekiti bought into his offering and elected him again on July 14, 2018. As the saying goes in our culture, Ekiti people have lived with two husbands and are now wiser which one is better for them.
So, from October 16, 2018 when he took the oath of office once again as the Governor of Ekiti State, Fayemi has been on the second leg of his campaign promise, that is, restoring the values having reclaimed the land at the polls. Fayemi has his job cut out for him, though he had to start from beneath ground zero and not having the benefit of inheriting any tangible assets from the rejected erstwhile regime but debts mounting to hundreds of billions of naira, rundown infrastructure and investment of economic values he had nurtured in his first term in office, a dejected, forlorn and almost destitute civil service, a despondent public and wasting away youth population. The job was daunting but he had already signed up. Its no retreat, no surrender.
However, thankfully Fayemi, fondly called JKF by his cult-like following didn’t have to reinvent the will. He got in the saddle at once and then things began to change. First was the human resource which to him is a sine qua non to meaningful and sustainable development, he began to pay workers salary as and when due, obliterating the lies of the departed regime that government could not pay salaries. He also started paying the backlog of salaries of workers owed by government, ranging from four to seven or eight months, depending on what tier and agency of government you work for. Even retired personnel got their groove back as pension and gratuities got a lift from paltry N10million grudgingly released by a government that deluded the people as ‘ ore mekunnu’ (friend of the masses) to N100million naira monthly to fast track the payment of the
almost one year backlog. Meanwhile the state rundown economic investments got a lifeline and in less the six months many of them were back on track. The popular Gossy Water came back and is already adorning tables at events and quenching thirst across the country. Fountain Hotel and Adetiloye event hall which almost brought tears into the eyes of Dr. Fayemi when he came for inspection on resuming office are back to their glorious days. Business concerns that were harassed out of the state as a result of executive recklessness and intolerance are already back.
Most gratifying are development partners, international donor agencies and big time private investors who have in the last one year turned Ekiti into Mecca of a sort. Many of them ran out of the state when the former government was in its wild, notorious element. They couldn’t deal! Their return is already becoming evident in the state in just one year with the World Bank/Ekiti State Government water project back on track. The World Bank Rural Access and Agriculture Marketing Programme, RAAMP, is starting the construction of 1,000 roads across the state to open it up for unfettered agriculture revolution, one of the pillars of administration of Dr. Fayemi in this second term. The African Development Bank is already keying into four ambitious legacy projects that will transform the face and fortunes of Ekiti in a short while.
The first executive order signed by Dr. Fayemi in 2018 was the abrogation of tax, yes tax! and levies imposed by the ‘populist regime’ and paid by school pupils. Education became free and compulsory for school age children. School feeding project
a Federal government initiative, held back four years by a recalcitrant and disagreeable government in Ekiti State took off in May 2019. Schools are now collecting running grants and subventions, school infrastructure and teaching aids are being supplied while teachers are now going on refresher courses and workshops to make them 21st century compliant. The list is endless.
To drive home his quest and to make good his promise of restoring Ekiti values, the government of Dr. Fayemi has restructured the ministry of information to become Information, Tourism and Values Orientation. A rejigging of the school curriculum is in the offing to inculcate values in children right from school. A more extensive programme is also in the works to debrief the larger populace and refocus it from the debasement of the past.
Community development is back on track with grants distributed to communities for their self help projects. One of such has seen a 57-year old community center, yes you read right, completed and commissioned this year.
With all these and many more going on in Ekiti in just about a year from the days of ‘one week, one trouble’ choreographed by a supposed no1 citizen of the state himself, one cannot but ask what happened and what has changed the fortunes of the people so quickly? Leadership! Yes leadership, its integrity, credibility, sincerity, decency, decorum and sense of purpose. As Fayemi himself once put it, ‘substance as opposed to symbols’. Fraudulent symbols at that!
Governance is serious business and not an appeal to base instincts. Leadership is to lift the people from their parlous state to a higher pedestal of fulfilling dreams, not descending from the high office only to perpetuate squalor and hoist it as an art of governance. Leadership is sacrifice with spartan moderations and not an avenue for hedonistic predilection. Perhaps these are what Ekiti people saw in Fayemi but definitely what Dr. John Kayode has been demonstrating in the last one year. Ekiti is singing a new song. There are positive vibes emanating from its mountainous heights and flowing streams. The toga of one week, one trouble is dispensed with and now its one day, double blessing. But it’s just one year of a four-year term! Aint no stopping us now, Ekiti is on the move…we’ve got the groove. Prosperity beckons!
