Gbenro Adesina/Ado-Ekiti As Ayodele Fayose of PDP takes over power in Ekiti, people of the state present a long list of demands The destiny of Ekiti State and her people would be managed for the next four years, between Tuesday 16 October 2014 and Tuesday 16 October 2018 by the in-coming governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who defeated his immediate predecessor, an erudite scholar, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of All Progressives Congress, APC, in all the 16 local government areas of the state by polling 203,090 votes against Fayemi’s 120,433. A majority of the residents in the state attested to the fact tha during his four-year reign, Dr. Fayemi did a lot in uplifting the state. It was stated that he worked tirelessly for the state and did his best within the little resources available to him to develop the human capital and the state infrastructurally. Among the lauded projects of Fayemi, who had an 8-point agenda tied to the 8-MDGs, were the construction of standard roads across the state, upgrading of the state-owned university, Ekiti State University, EKSU; provision of street lights and execution of rural electrification, resuscitation of tourism, empowerment of youths, provision of decent jobs, renovation of schools, enhancement of the capacity of teachers through training and retraining, distribution of laptops and other learning aids to students. Others include building of a befitting Government House complex on Ayoba Hill (visible from all angles of the capital city), renovating of 18 general hospitals across the state, monthly payment to the elderly as social security in the state, improvement in healthcare delivery, and construction of an event centre known as Ekiti State Pavilion, construction of Oba Adejuyigbe Hospital Complex in Ado-Ekiti, revival and renovation of Ire Burnt Brick Factory, Ire-Ekiti, and construction of a civic centre. [caption id="attachment_12029" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Dr. Akintobe John, chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, Ekiti State[/caption] Affirming that the state witnessed a great turn-around during Fayemi’s tenure, the World Bank, in its third and latest business regulations analysis, stated that Ekiti State is among the 22 states in Nigeria that recorded significant improvement in their ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ratings between 2010 till date. According to the World Bank Country Director, Ms. Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, “Twenty-two states have improved in at least one of the four areas used: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; registering property and enforcing contracts. Most states have improved their business environment since 2010. However, five states – Cross River, Niger, Ogun, Ekiti and Rivers – stood out for introducing several high-impact reforms that narrowed the gap to best practices the most.” Because government is a continuum, the new governor, who won his first term in 2003 but was impeached in 2006, has been enjoined to continue his second term in office from where Fayemi stopped. The state’s residents also made a plea to the new governor not to destroy the legacy of his predecessor but build on it. All the strata of the state and the country expect so much from him. Shortly after the announcement of Fayose as the governor-elect of the state, President Goodluck Jonathan urged Fayose to be magnanimous in his victory, charging him to bear in mind that it was the expression of the people, hence, he should commit himself to forming an administration that would work for the advancement of the interests of all Ekiti people irrespective of their political affiliations or loyalties. He equally urged him to regard his second chance to serve as a sacred mandate from God and his people, which he must discharge with immense dedication, wisdom and vigour to achieve a much more rapid pace of socio-economic development in the state for the benefit of all. [caption id="attachment_12028" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Comrade Samuel Akosile, chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT[/caption] In an interview granted a Nigerian national daily, Mr. Femi Falana, a senior advocate, SAN, wants the governor to genuinely jettison violence in the interest of law and order in the state. Some enlightened residents of the state would like the governor to present his working document in the form of a master plan for the development of the state. The document, they believe, would serve as a yardstick to rate his performance at the end of his tenure. They also want him to appoint a high number of selfless technocrats that will handle the technical issues of his administration. Others want every state project which will be awarded as contract to be used to create jobs for the youths, advocating that about 80 per cent of contracts should be awarded to indigenes and that the workforce for the contracts should be locally sourced. Also, they do not want the governor to take the workers’ welfare for granted and likewise, take the issue of securityseriously. They want the government to invest heavily in education and if possible, tuition fees in the state-owned university and other tertiary institutions be reduced so as to encourage the indigent to aspire to tertiary education. The residents also want the governor to give agriculture priority so that food would be surplus and more affordable. [caption id="attachment_12027" align="aligncenter" width="169"] •Busayo Fasuba, EKSU B.Sc Business Administration holder[/caption] Specifically, Mr. Joseph Omodele Adewunmi, chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Ekiti Stat branch, opined that the first major task before the new administration is to restore the confidence that has been lost in the state as a result of political impunity that the state has been experiencing for the past two weeks, adding, “By the time you desecrate judiciary, people will lose confidence and resort to self help which will invariably lead to anarchy.” Adewunmi, who lamented the grounding of the judiciary in the state, said, “The people of Ekiti State have spoken loud and clear and thus made a choice on Saturday June 21 2014. Therefore, their decision or choice must be respected. It is equally a sacrosanct fact of life, however, that for every choice made, there are consequences one way or the other. But those that have the victory must manage it well. The Federal Government must be magnanimous in victory to manage the victory very well. But in an attempt to manage the victory, the judiciary has been desecrated. Hoodlums were led to the court, the judges, the entire judiciary was sacked. We thought that the first attack on the judiciary will be the last but see what is happening now, as at the time we are discussing, the security operatives have barricaded the court premises and we don’t know when the court will be reopened. The police and soldiers have taken over the court premises. With that development, to me, it seems that we have finished with political impunity; we are now in the era of security impunity. We have started the era of security impunity. But the new government should know that government cannot do without the judiciary, otherwise, there will be anarchy in the system. I want him to be a governor and a statesman. He should put politics apart once he has been sworn-in and be committed only to good governance. He should not knock out the judiciary out of existence.” [caption id="attachment_12030" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Medinatu Abdulkareem[/caption] For the doctors, Dr. Akinbote John, a consultant psychiatrist at Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Ido-Ekiti and chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Ekiti State, who lauded the immediate past administration in the state for ensuing that the state of health facility in the state is envied by other states in the country, listed the expectations to include the new government continuing from where its immediate predecessor stopped and performing even better than the past administration, payment of salary as and when due, be concerned about tropical health issues, especially, breast cancer that kills women unnecessarily, improve and increase salary package of all workers as situations demand and make available various loan schemes. For the teachers, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Comrade Samuel Kayode Akosile, who scored the government of Fayemi high in the area of infrastructure, renovation and construction of good schools, described the state of NUT to be that of apathy, despondency, total disenchantment, relegation of teachers to the background in terms of welfare, and policy. He said that they were forced to go on indefinite strike pending the time the state government would pay two months’ salary it owes the teachers. “We should be adequately considered in respect of what are due to us: regular promotion, regular payment of salary and allowances, housing and car loans, proper recognition of the graduate teachers in primary schools and allowing them to rise to level 17 instead of level 14 they can’t rise above, provision of adequate instructional materials and better and lasting infrastructure in our schools, enhancement and enlargement of the position of tutor-general with all the peripheral of office, treating Association of Secondary School Teachers as an association not as a union, and provision of regular grant and imprest to schools. We want the government to consult us in the appointment of political officers into areas that affect teachers like teaching service commission, SUBEB, even commissioner for education. We want e-payment system to be totally overhauled so that those that are paying our salary will not be able to shortchange us again, equip the school laboratories and classroom in terms of infrastructure, proper monitoring of contracts awarded in schools and ensuring that allocations to the schools are released as stated in the documents,” he said. The expectations of the local government workers, according to the President, Nigeria Union of Local Government, NULGE, Ekiti State, Comrade Olubunmi Ajimoko, include eradication of the disparity in the remuneration of health workers, implementation of CONMESS for their doctors, resolution of all pending issues relating to workers, being worker-friendly, ensuring that basic things are done for the workers, and ensuring that the local government staff are not treated inferior to the state workers. [caption id="attachment_12026" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Baba Alaje of Ado-Ekiti, Chief Odunayo Ale[/caption] Also, Comrade Aluko Ayodeji Ayorinde, chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ekiti State, who scored Fayemi’s administration very high on labour matters, demanded that the new administration meet the welfare of workers, ensure that whatever lapses of the past administration do not recur, ensure that there is good industrial relationship between the government and the workers, ensure that at the end of the tenure Ekiti State is left better than the way it was met, ensure that Fayose era becomes very good history to be read for workers of Ekiti State in times to come, and also that the new administration should correct some of the lapses of the past. The expectation of students include the reduction of tuition fees, prompt payment of bursary, and automatic employment to the best graduating students in the state tertiary institutions. This was disclosed by a final year student of Banking and Finance, Ekiti State University, EKSU, Mr. Abulefon Femi Michael. Various operators at the Erekesan Market, Ado-Ekiti, including Baba Alaje of Ado-Ekiti, Chief Odunayo Ale, Mrs. Alice Buraimo and her daughter Adefunke, who sell vegetable and raw foodstuff respectively, Medinatu Abdulkareem, Lola Ajayi who sells crayfish, Bosede Peter who sells cooked locust beans, and Damilola Owoeye who sells fish, demanded that the new government rebuild the market and make it ultra-modern with all facilities, empower the traders in whatever form including the provision of soft loan, and provide security in the market and the entire state. Commercial motorcyclists popularly called Olokada, many of who are graduates of higher institutions, demanded that the new government should create dignifying jobs. Mr. Ajayi Michael, 57, from Iyin Ekiti, called on the government to create farm settlements across the state and allocate it to anyone that would want to practise farming. “Okada is not a good and dignified job. One cannot pass it to his children. If government can assist, I will leave okada business and go to farm,” he said. In the same direction, Kayode Ajisafe, an HND graduate of Environmental Health from College of Health Science Technology, Ijero-Ekiti, Oladapo Opeyemi, a graduate of Accounting from College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, and an Ijan Ekiti born Busayo Fasuba holding B. Business Administration graduate of EKSU, sought for proper employment through agriculture, adding: “Okada business is our last option.”