[caption id="attachment_94615" align="alignright" width="650"] Fayemi[/caption] DR. JOHN OLUKAYODE FAYEMI, a former Governor of Ekiti State and a native of Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government of Ekiti State resigned as the Minister of Solid Minerals Development on 30 May 2018, to pursue his ambition of governing Ekiti again on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC). Now that the 14 July governorship election is inching closer, TheNEWS team, made up of ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, YOMI OSOBA, GBENRO ADESINA and AYODELE EFUNLA hit the roads in Ekiti with Fayemi who was busy selling himself to the electorate on his vision for the state. Apart from his direct message to the Ekitikete, Fayemi seized the opprtunity TheNEWS offered to explain what he has for the people. Excerpts: You were once governor of this state. Why do you seek a return? Yes, you are right. I have governed Ekiti state before now, but I feel a profound sense of unfinished business. Unfinished business in the sense that all that I did in office had gone pear-shaped in the name of politics. May be few infrastructures have been sustained. At least you can still see the street lights. You can still see the Government House on top of the hill and you can still see some of the physical things. But particularly, our efforts in the area of human capital development, entrepreneurship, tourism development, healthcare have actually been severely damaged. My quest to be governor again is born out of my sheer love and commitment to the well-being of my people. Each time I move round Ekiti, I see the pains on the faces of the 25,000 elderly persons who benefited from our social security scheme, 600 people who were employed into the peace corps, 10,000 volunteers who took N10,000 per month, among others but have been cut off from these safety nets by Fayose. The complaints and agonies of the beneficiaries of many abandoned physical projects and social welfare programs give me sleepless nights. I will give you a couple of examples to demonstrate what I mean by that. Hundreds of boreholes in public schools are abandoned and not functional for lack of maintenance, over 40,000 people benefiting from our various social investment scheme have been put out to hang and dry. All that we did to better the lives of our people have been eroded in a lot of places, just go to Ikogosi, you will be sorry. Which sensible and reasonable person sees such laudable programs damaged/jettisoned and relax or go to sleep? These people have no clear understanding of how to run public offices. It is not about me or my sympathizers. It is largely about the interest and common good of Ekiti people. I am not an accidental/opportunistic politician. I am a goal getter. Government is a continuum. I inherited a huge magnitude of projects from Governor Segun Oni in 2010, l never abandoned them. [caption id="attachment_94619" align="alignright" width="720"] TheNEWS cover design on Ekiti election[/caption] The most painful aspect is workers welfare. This is painful because workers welfare was one of their major premise of campaign back then. Most of our tertiary institutions now run epileptic calendar because of incessant strike. No civil servant in Ekiti state has received salary this year. Ditto, for the pensioners, none of them has received pension in 2018 and gratuity has not been paid for years. Yet the government keeps lying to the public about the financial situation of the state. Things are tight generally in the country no doubt but the problem of Ekiti state is simply misplacement of priority. Over the past four years, Ekiti has retreated from the progressive values that we espoused in office and our grand ideals of human development. We have seen the entrenchment of the disdain for elders, traditional institutions, legislature, judiciary and all forms of constituted authorities. Without a doubt, Ekiti is in critical need of rescue. I have been governor and I want to govern Ekiti state again. I’m not coming out of a sense of ambition, I’m coming out of a sense of duty, out of a profound sense of unfinished business which I believe only a progressive and ideological driven government can deliver as far as the state is concerned. I want to be Governor again to restore our dignity and bring succor to the hopeless. Ekiti people are being insulted, assaulted and mocked on a daily basis. We are known for our high level discipline, respect for elders, industry, literacy and wisdom. But what you hear now, “is this how Ekiti people are?” How can people regarded as well-read, refined and exposed make a character like the present governor rule them? That is why it is important for us to reclaim our land and restore our values. There is this general belief that you are a candidate of Mr. President. What is your response to that? I cannot deny the fact that I have the blessing of my boss, who is the overall leader of my party. I cannot also detach myself from the government in which I served. I worked for a principal, so it is not possible that I would be out campaigning the way I have been doing without haven gone to him to say “Sir, I am thinking about going back to Ekiti state and I need your blessing for me to pursue my ambition. If you don’t have any objection, I crave your indulgence to go home and repair the damage that has been done in my state.” If seeking and getting his nod and approval makes me his candidate, then I can boldly say to you that I am a candidate of Mr. President. Truth be told though, anyone who knows President Buhari the way he functions would know that he is not the type that would interfere in a race that is clearly based on clear guidelines and principles. You have seen him demonstrating that consistently, including most recently, the issue of tenure elongation in our party. President Buhari is not the type we have seen within the PDP government, where the president says this is my man, and no one dares him. President Buhari won’t say that. Elections have been held and lost in many states by some APC governorship candidates because Mr. President is a sincere advocate of free and fair election unlike the pretending PDP who couldn’t practice what they preach. The invasion, harassment and manipulation that reigned supreme during governorship election under the watch of the PDP-led federal government are alien to civility and tenets of fair play. I have the blessing and support of my boss but I can assure you that he is not the type that will manipulate the process to favour his own. He is a strong believer and advocate of free, fair and credible electioneering process. You emerged winner of the primary election of your party. How far have you gone with reconciling with other aspirants? First of all, permit me to once again express my profound gratitude to Ekitikete for their support for my aspiration and campaign so far. I equally want to use this opportunity to thank all APC leaders and party faithful. The peace and harmony my campaign is enjoying at the moment is because of the cooperation and support of all party leaders and members, especially my fellow aspirants. APC has once again proved to bookmakers that common interest supersedes personal interest. It was easier to reconcile with other aspirants because we all have the same purpose and objective, i.e, to reclaim our honor and restore our values by dislodging the PDP government and jointly prevent the continuity of their shenanigan in Ekiti state. To the glory of God and massive synergy from fellow aspirants we are making tremendous and consistent progress. Ekiti state APC is today larger and stronger than we were before the primary election. You can see that in the way people from the other side are crossing over. A tree doesn’t make a forest. I owe the success of the process so far to the cooperation, support and guidance of APC national and state leaders and my co-aspirants. They are on the same page with me. They are all solidly behind me to restore the good governance that was cut short in Ekiti state four years ago Fayose’s style of eating at the local mama put and other pastimes are being copied by many politicians as populist. In fact his deputy, now your opponent, was shown on social media frying akara or sharing bread. What’s your take on this? They are just mocking the electorate and I cannot engage in such actions. For instance, have you ever heard of my opponent frying akara or sharing bread before now? These individual shamelessly put up this acting because of election; just to fool the people giving the impression that they are one of them and that they can feel their pulse. But some of these actions must be analyzed. How many times did people see Chief Obafemi Awolowo eating boli on the road just to demonstrate that he was a populist or grassroots man? Awolowo was an intellectual not one given to such puerile acts. However his love for his people was unrivalled. I am proud to follow in that footstep. You need more than occasional eating in mama-put, frying akara by the roadside or sharing bread to show that you genuinely love the people. Grassroot politics in my view means affecting the lives of people at the grassroots in a fundamental way and improving their lot. I will rather focus on bringing succour to the elderly people by sustaining their social welfare of N5,000 monthly allowance; creating opportunities and empowerment for the youths and helping the artisans, farmers and traders to bring out the best in them in their professions than entertaining them with unproductive road shows. Do they think our people are senseless? Workers/pensioners are hungry because of nonpayment of their salaries and pension, the ones who should pay them are shamelessly publicly eating for them to see. This act is insulting in Yoruba land. I will not fool my people with seasonal comic display in the name of election. How does the corn you eat on the street, the food you eat by the roadside, the akara you fried or the Okada you rode to campaign change the live of the people? I will consider you a populist and your actions worthy of emulation if there are verifiable evidence that those actions improve the standard of living of our people. I didn’t fry akara, eat on the street or share bread by the roadside but I made sure that all the 133 towns in Ekiti state felt the presence of government. So, it was not by accident that there were over 1,200 projects spread across various communities in Ekiti when I was leaving. I prefer to be remembered by the projects and programs I delivered to my people than by the number of times I eat in mama-put or on the street. Some of your supporters are afraid that your opponent can use the recent administrative panel report or was it a judicial commission report to orchestrate your ban... Which panel report are you talking about? You are far too knowledgeable to know that this cannot stop me or anybody for that matter. Yes it used to be the case in this country that you can use an administrative panel report or a judicial commission report to orchestrate the ban of a political office holder, but that period has since gone because it became very clear that this was a witch-hunting tool. May I also remind you that there is a settled matter by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on this point and that is Atiku Abubakar vs Federal Government of Nigeria that you cannot use the report of a commission of inquiry or an administrative panel to ban anyone from public office. To the best of my knowledge, I have not even been asked to show up in any court over any allegation. My brother and friend, Rabiu Kwankwaso also went through the same experience. He was governor, he went to become minister and when he was about coming back as governor, the governor of the then Kano State brought a commission of inquiry report. Of course, it was rubbished and the man became governor. Though I am not the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), however, there is judicial precedence. Therefore I am sure that the so called white paper is of no effect. It’s a product of shallow minds and it is impotent. If anyone has any concrete/verifiable case against me, he/she should prove it in the court. Appraise the Fayose government. People say he built a bridge and other infrastructure. Did you just say other infrastructure? Well I will leave Ekitikete to be the judge of that. Every government has its own focus. I went into office with a clear manifesto and agenda, which guided our performance in office. The welfare and overall best interest of the people was our guiding principle. However that cannot be said of the present administration. Everything about Fayose and his government is all about smokescreen. The more you look the less you see. There was no manifesto then and there is no manifesto now. Every budget of the Fayemi era requested and adopted briefs from every community that make up Ekiti state. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a governor does not do budget until he has visited communities for their inputs and demands. Can you compare that to a government that’s built around the irrational decision of just one man? He came on board with no clear agenda and now they are talking about continuity of same. I was the only governor in the history of Ekiti state that has continued with the project of his predecessors. Every governor that came after Governor Adebayo had abandoned previous projects, some of which do not resurface again. One thing I did in office was to clear the backlog of past projects. There were roads that were 20% completed, mobilization fees that were just 10% flagged off and not paid, most of them abandoned the projects. I believe it is not fair; government projects shouldn’t be personal projects. I made sure there was no abandoned project in my era because money invested on those projects belong to Ekiti people. I had an agenda, everybody knows the agenda, it is something the people can recite and they recite it all the time. The eight point agenda, the road map to Ekiti recovery. It was like a mantra. I don’t just stand on my agenda, I also go into communities and discuss objectively with them; what are your priorities for next year? What would you like me to do? There is no community that you can get to in Ekiti state that you would not find six or more projects determined by the people, not imposed on them. It was good governance at its best. We are coming back to build on that and make it better. Bridges are meant to provide solution and prevent havoc. What solution is the bridge of that length on a dry land providing for Ekitkete? What havoc is that bridge preventing in the history of motoring in Ado Ekiti? You need to critically look at the bridge from these two angles for you to understand how irrelevant the bridge of that magnitude is to its location. There are many roads within and around Ado Ekiti township that are begging for attention. The final but shrouded cost of that bridge is enough to pay three months salary of the entire workforce of Ekiti state civil service. I will rather toe the path chosen by Governor Tambuwal recently. Just some days ago, it was all over the news that Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto state said he cannot jettison the welfare of his people for overhead bridge. What do you expect from a government that built bridge according to them, so that our people don’t have to go to Lagos or Abuja before they see overhead bridge? This implies that the bridge was built without serious consideration for its economic or social value rather it was built for show. However at what cost and whose expense? There is nothing exciting or inspiring about the present government. Talking about this government is sickening. This is a government that cannot be taken seriously because it thrives only on lies, propaganda and blackmail. Ekiti people now know the difference between oil and water. There is no comparison between them and us. Everything that we did was informed by analysis, deep thinking of the Ekiti condition and what will take us speedily to sustainable development. If we do road infrastructure in a landlocked state, rural place, it is because we are very clear in our mind that those who want to bring the proceeds of their farms to the urban centres would be able to do it in a relatively seamless and painless manner. We connected our state with a network of multiple roads. It was not an accident when people care and set up facilities in Ekiti state. When I became governor, you could only refer to one standard hotel in Ekiti, maybe two: Fountain and Pathfinder. Before I left as governor in Ekiti, not fewer than 10 standard hotels have sprung up. For me, it is always about our people, it is not about self. There are verifiable evidence everywhere you go in Ekiti state that good governance was cut short four years ago. That summed up the rating of the present government. PDP also claimed your government collected N35 billion commercial loan and N25 billion bond with nothing to show for them and that you plunged the state into debts that will end in 2036. What is your reaction? They are just being mischievous because what we did was clear to everybody. One thing you cannot take away from the current administration in Ekiti state is their notoriety for bunkum. We took only N25 billion for infrastructure development, not for salaries, not for frivolities and those projects traversed the length and breadth of the state. The bulk of that money was spent on roads. When I was governor, the entire road network in this state changed. We spent about N14 billion out of the N25 billion on roads alone. Besides, we brought back Ikogosi, we built the new Government House, we built a 12,000-seater pavilion and we built the civic centre out of this money. In fact if you calculate what we spent the loan on, we spent more than N25 billion. But, Ekiti state now has a governor, who is really notorious for being economical with the truth. The present administration is a champion at twisting and distorting facts to score cheap political goals. Otherwise there should have been no controversy over this bond at all. There are verifiable records on what the bond was used for, including the payment plan and outstanding balance as at the time we left. However Fayose and his party decided to embark on character assassination with the bond issue because of my rising political profile and the imminence of the PDP candidates rejection at the coming gubernatorial poll. They even claimed that their inability to pay workers salary is because of the bond my administration took. It is ridiculous that Fayose and his aides can still be lying and peddling inaccurate debt figures after the Debt Management Office (DMO) had published the debts taken by Fayose himself alone, in the last three years which has amounted to N56 billion, even though he swore and lied many times that he never borrowed a kobo. We admit that we borrowed N25 billion to be defrayed within three years and records are there at the DMO that Fayemi paid back N14.5 billion of the debts, leaving the balance of only N10.5 billion before we left office on Oct. 16, 2014. If the official debt figure was N10.5 billion, how then did they come about the N35.34 billion they claimed to have used to service an outstanding debt of N10.5 billion? That means that the state was servicing the debts at an average of N1.1 billion monthly for them to have arrived at N35.34 billion. They lie shamelessly about anything and everything. Unfortunately for them the truth about our borrowing and outstanding as at the time we left are in public domain for people to see and make their own judgment. Ekitikete are not fools. [caption id="attachment_94620" align="alignright" width="640"] Fayemi [/caption] Not a few believed that Fayose and Jonathan used Federal Power against you the other time. The same people are now saying it is your turn to use the same advantage. What is your response to this? The events leading to the election of 2014 in Ekiti state negate the principles of a free, fair and credible election. From the militarization of the election to the police attack on our supporters, arrest and detention of our leaders across the state and the use of huge funds to induce voters, the federal authorities skewed everything in favour of the PDP. While we believe that the various security agencies indeed have a role to play in providing the necessary security for the election, we do not see why the whole state should be locked down in a nonbelligerent situation like an election. There are many questions begging for answers: who ordered the clampdown of the opposition? Who gave the orders to stop Gov. Rotimi Amaechi from reaching Ado-Ekiti, as the Army captain who stopped and threatened to shoot him said he was acting under orders from above? Also worth mentioning is the flagrant abuse of national institutions that led to the country’s aviation authorities shutting down airports in Akure and elsewhere on the same day that our party had its last campaign rally in Ado-Ekiti. This act of impunity was targeted solely at the opposition, and it runs against global standards. Lest we forget, on the same day the helicopter ferrying Governor Adams Oshiomhole from Benin Airport to Akure en route Ekiti for that final rally was prevented from taking off. Airports are never shut without the issuance of a NOTAM Notice to Airmen. Again, who gave the orders for the closure of the airports? This is an attestation to the fact that the security operatives were in the state more for a sinister motive than just to provide security for the election. It is a known fact worldwide that dictators and criminals are the worst cowards. They are usually exposed at their weakest point when they are deprived of their weapon of intimidation, harassment and oppression. The current whining of PDP this time didn’t surprise many of us. However that is where we are different from them. We are not cowards like them and we cannot play their dirty games. Therefore, on our part, there will be no intimidation, harassment or oppression of opposition and every law abiding individual. We are set to win in a free, fair and credible process. [caption id="attachment_94615" align="alignright" width="650"] Fayemi[/caption] We want you to seize this opportunity to tell Ekiti people your plans for them. Will the glory of the latter house be better than the former? The glory of the latter days will surely be better than the former. We are bringing on board this time a message of consolation, hope and restoration. Consolation for the tolerance and perseverance of the last four years and hope for speedy restoration of abandoned programs, infrastructures, industries, values, projects and all the good things we lost due to some actions or inactions of the incumbent administration. The business of electing rests with the people of Ekiti State and I believe they are intelligent people who can compare what the situation was when we left office and the way it is now and what the future holds for our children and people. When they look at what we did in office side by side with what is on ground now, they know the difference. This coming election is not about me or the APC but about what is good for Ekitikete; about the future of our teeming unemployed youths, about the abandoned elderly whose social security was cut off, about civil servants that have not received a single salary for the year 2018, about every project that was built with our commonwealth but abandoned to rot away, about pensioners and retirees whose entitlements have not been paid for years, about the 10,000 volunteers that were laid off, about traditional rulers and other constituted authorities that have been cowed and suppressed, about every thoroughbred Ekiti sons and daughters yearning for the restoration of our values and honor, and about the future of Ekiti. This coming election is therefore a referendum for Ekitikete to either support me to reactivate the good governance that was cut short four years ago or to approve the continuity of the abysmal performance of the current administration. People remember what we did for every single community in Ekiti State. What we did for teachers, civil servants, the universities and all of the various aspects of our 8-point agenda. People know what we did for infrastructure development, for education in the state, for health care, for agriculture in the state, people have fond memories of what we did within the space of four years we were in office. Our people have encountered what we would call water and oil, they clearly know the difference, they’ve seen the difference, between the time when salaries were paid on the 25th of every month without fail and a time when they don’t even know when salary would come. They’ve seen a difference between a government that prioritized the welfare of the elderly and gave them a stipend every month and a government that does not care a hoot whether they lived or died. They’ve seen the difference between a government that said this is Ekiti; regarded as fountain of knowledge. No more miracle centres here, we would be a product of our own hard work; placed a laptop on the desk of each and every student; made the school atmosphere much more conducive than it has ever been in the state; recruited teachers, doctors, lecturers, fixed virtually all the roads in the state; started a youth and commercial agriculture program. Everywhere you go in Ekiti state, people could point to specific things we did for their towns and communities while in office. Don’t be surprised if you are shown different things like Kabiyesi’s palace, health centre, motorized boreholes, schools that had never been touched since the days of Awolowo or the five kilometre roads in every local government that have never seen asphalt. These might not be tangible to people outside those communities but these are what these people asked for. The facts are out there to help Ekiti people make the right choice. The credibility and integrity of the government at the center is a plus for us and the future of Ekiti state is brighter with us being on the same page with the federal government. I urge my people to flash back and remember all we did in infrastructure, tourism, agriculture, education, health care, empowerment and social welfare. I am running now on a record of my previous performance and the prospects of our partnership, cooperation and collaboration with the federal government. I want to reassure Ekitikete that I’m not on any vengeance mission, rather I am on a rescue mission. We are coming back on board with fresh ideas, programs and agenda to move Ekiti state forward. Lets join hands to make Ekiti great again. Together we can do it. Yes, we can. Nigerians are amazed about your confidence that you will win the coming election. What gives you the confidence given the result of the last election? Because people have seen the regression. If you asked somebody who has not earned salary in eight months, at least he will tell you that under Fayemi he or she was not owed. That is, if you take it at such a basic level. But I do not want us to even take it at that level because that, for me as I said, is not a measure of good governance. It is just a measure of duty that I have to the people if I pay salaries. Take it from what I have said to you, when I was governor, Ekiti excelled in all the rankings. The World Bank Ease of Doing Business study ranked Ekiti when I was governor as the number five place where you can do business easily in Nigeria, we moved from number 34 to number 5. I just told you that the kids that entered secondary school when I was governor were the ones who took WASSCE and NECO exams and excelled. So, you do not get that by one year of being in government, so there is no way even though the Fayose administration is trying to claim credit for that. But it is the cumulative effect of work that we did that resulted in what those kids achieved. If you move from that to the Department for International Development (DFID) assessment of governance, Ekiti was ranked as the state with the most transparent budget when I was governor. Why was this possible? Because I focused on ensuring that budget is responsive to the yearnings of the people. So we did not do budget in Ekiti to people, we did it with the people, we ensured that their input was what formed the content of our budget estimate, and we then implemented that accordingly. If you move to tourism, it is the same approach, People who visited Ikogosi when I was governor can attest to what we did and those are the kind of things that would draw people to our state. Ekiti became a kidnappers den when I left office, so security in the state was compromised, accountability was compromised, government was also compromised because what we had was a one-man show, it was not government of the people by the people for the people. And that compromises democracy. These are the areas that I think would make a difference. APC is a social democratic party. For us, we believe that the only way you can make a difference in governance is to lift up the weak and vulnerable people. Characters who are governing Ekiti now are not interested in that and that is why the state has sufferred so much regression over the last three and half years and that is why we need a corrective measure to grow the economy, improve the development of the state and then bring life to the people more abundant. [caption id="attachment_94623" align="alignright" width="640"] Fayemi[/caption] Many workers in Ekiti are owed salary arrears: LG workers, eight months and two years leave bonus; state workers, six months and one year leave bonus. What will you do about this? I can tell you categorically that there is no justification for all these. Agreed, things are tight generally in the country. But with the amount of intervention and bailout funds accrued to Ekiti state under President Buhari there is no reason for the government to owe this much. Simply put, Ekiti state owes workers these much because of mismanagement and misplacement of priority. In their foolery, the current administration resorted to blackmail to cover up their inadequacy. They lied against the federal government that salary cannot be paid because the FG intentionally withheld Paris Club refund due for the state. I cannot imagine where Ekiti would have been today if President Buhari is not as generous as he has been to provide the kind of support he has provided to Ekiti State and to provide it to a man, who daily insults him. When I was governor, I would like to think that I had a very respectful relationship with President Jonathan. But, you know what; President Jonathan had a selective approach to distributing federal funds. Those of us in the opposition never benefitted from various intervention funds and these were our entitlements. They would share ecological funds without the ACN (now APC) and ANPP being part of it. They would do road refund but they would not give us our own, but that is not what obtains in today’s government. President Buhari treats all states equally, not minding your political affiliation. Even with all the support Ekiti state has received, from refunds on roads that we did, the first bailout, second bailout, budget support, ecological funds, micro credit funds, Paris club one and two, it is disheartening that Ekiti state government can still justify these crude, heartless and shameless backlog of unpaid salaries, allowances, pensions and gratuity. You would imagine that somebody who has taken about 40,000 jobs or support schemes, out of the budget of the state will be in a position and much stronger footing to pay salary regularly in a known civil service state but civil servants are being owed six months at the minimum, teachers are being owed eight months, local government workers are owed eight months, traditional rulers, who used to take 5% of local government funds that come to the state when I was governor has not only been reduced to 2.5% , they don’t even get it now. Five, six months they have never earned any pay. It’s that bad and I repeat, there is no justification for that. Any plans to make use of local artisans? The other time, that was one of the campaign criticisms from your opponents. That is far from the truth. It is not even worth responding to because everyone knows the local content policy of our administration. It was just another propaganda and blackmail created by the opponents to score cheap political goals. We pursued the local content policy with passion. However, we also made sure that quality was not compromised. The roads and drainages we built were of best standard, yet most of them were constructed by Ekiti indigenes. The street lights and buildings were done by Ekiti indigenes; the evidence is there for all to see. People can go and see the roads I constructed then and compare them to what we have now. We have had governor in this state who constructed roads that barely lasted six months in the past because they just did shoddy job. On my part, I believe that every kobo that belongs to Ekiti should be utilized well for the people. Therefore I would rather my roads are constructed by contractors with track records of quality and who I can get sound warranty from. Despite this quality assurance caution, most of our contractors were Ekiti indigenes. We have limited resources in Ekiti, so whatever we are spending money on, must be worth our while and it must be quality products that would be used rather than just the typical “shagbeloju yoyo” work. We patronized local artisans very well. But we also made sure that a bricklaying job was not given to a carpenter and vice versa, in the name of political patronage. I refused to give job to somebody who would not deliver and then feels like ‘what is wrong with that, that’s my own share of the cake’. I am sorry, there is no share of any cake in Ekiti state. This is the commonwealth of the Ekiti people, and every kobo we spend must be accounted for. We couldn’t have abandoned our own artisans, especially where they have the competence and wherewithal to deliver on the expected mandate of the job. Though we are confident that we patronized and made use of local artisans then, we are not unconscious of the fact that many people couldn’t partake because there were many contractors chasing fewer jobs. We shall do things differently this time by working more with the union or association of each profession. This will enable us to cover some of the shortfalls we identified in the past. Things will surely get better. There is this fear that an APC government may downsize. What is your reaction to that? The greatest disservice the current administration is doing to the people of Ekiti state is misinformation. It baffles me that in this time and age, someone can still hold the obnoxious belief that the best way to retain the loyalty and followership of the people is by deceiving or misleading them. Their inability to manage and prioritize the resources of the state well led them to the present situation where salaries couldn’t be paid. We went through similar situation when we were in the saddle, despite the fact that the then federal government denied us some of our entitlements like refunds on roads, ecological funds and other intervention funds given to the states controlled by the PDP, we made sure that salaries were paid as at when due. Now that the current federal government treats all states equally and with all the intervention funds received so far by Ekiti state, there is no reason whatsoever for Ekiti workers to suffer this much. To answer your question therefore, there is no reason to downsize. Downsizing accusation is the only option available for them because they are short of ideas on how to get themselves out of the self inflicted quagmire. As a matter of fact, under my watch the civil service will be strengthened, reorientated and reequipped to perform better. Where necessary, we are going to employ more hands to energize the service. All the youths empowerment and employment schemes that were cancelled by the current administration will be resuscitated to provide employment and succor to as many youths as possible. Can I be planning all these and be thinking of downsizing at the same time? Downsizing is for the weaklings! The welfare of all civil servants was and is still my number one priority. The entire workforce in Ekiti state should ignore the rumor that the incoming APC government is going to downsize. As a matter of fact, I am actually coming back because of civil servants. I have been demonized, blackmailed and lied against, all in the name of teachers and civil servants. They lied against me that I hate teachers and that my government will sack workers. If by the grace of God and support of Ekitikete, I become Governor for the second time, no dedicated and committed teacher or civil servant will lose his / her job in Ekiti state. The number one priority of my administration was the payment of salary as at when due. This is going to be our focus again. The good governance that was cut short four years ago will be a child’s play compared to what we are bringing on board now. As I said, I am coming to prove my critics wrong that rather than sacking any civil servant, we shall strengthen and equip the civil service to perform better. [caption id="attachment_94620" align="alignright" width="640"] Fayemi [/caption] As a civil service state, the multiplier effects of whatever happens to the income of the civil servant trickles down to every sector of the society. Things are static economically in Ekiti at the moment because the current administration ignores the welfare of the civil servants. There is urgent need for us to change the trend and take the welfare of the workers as a top priority. The survival of both formal and informal sectors of our economy is closely tied to the income and patronage of civil servants. It’s unfortunate that those who are using downsizing as a political propaganda now may not actually know the consequences and economic reality of what they are talking about. You don’t need rocket science to know that Ekiti state economy needs urgent boosting now and downsizing the workforce is definitely not an option. What are your plans for youth empowerment and employment? Will you restore some of the empowerment programs you initiated then: Peace Corps etc? Oh, sure! We are going to restore, reorganize and repackage all the abandoned life changing youth empowerment programs to be more effective and efficient for a much larger number of the youths. Peace Corps, Dagrin, YCAD, Youth Volunteers and others will be resuscitated. My vision is simply to make poverty history in Ekiti state. In order to do that, I believe we need a combination of approaches. Therefore apart from the aforementioned programs of our government I feel very strongly that one critical sector that we can make poverty history is agribusiness. We are going to maximize our potentials in agriculture and mining as well, and get our youth empowered through various government interventions in these sectors. Job creation and empowerment for the youths have always been a major concern for me and was a cardinal program of my administration. This is an area where we excelled back then. Ekiti youths are innovative and eager to earn legitimate living if rightly guided and motivated. Government is a continuum in an ideal clime but unfortunately that is not the case in Ekiti state with the present administration. Just like they did with physical projects, all the life changing programs for the youths were also jettisoned. The greatest disservice to the youths was the cancellation of the youth in agriculture, YCAD scheme. When we were in office we initiated many youth empowerment schemes. One of which was the youth volunteer scheme in which I was paying every young graduate who is out of work the sum of N10,000 monthly to move into specific areas of our work: health, education, environment and all that. We deployed them in variety of places. It is very similar to what we now call Npower that our government at the federal level is doing and paying N30,000. I believe we need to really improve on that and deal with the demography in a manner that the skill that is required is also what we push in our universities and other higher institutions in the state, particularly our technical colleges. We were turning our technical colleges into what we call life academies in Ekiti then. But again that was cut short. Those are the kind of things we believe we can instill in our youths. A sense of value which has been largely lost in Ekiti because the government in Ekiti now only believes in using our youths as agents of all forms of nefarious activities rather than promoting values of decency, accountability, hard work and dedication to duty. That for me is the area we need to strengthen and I believe the opportunities are legion, In agriculture for example, in vocational activities, in small scale enterprises, there are legion of opportunities that we can leverage in order to ensure that our youths become fulfilled in their aspirational outlook. Cocoa used to be major revenue earner in the state. The trees are old, young people do not want to farm. Do you have any revolutionary approach to bringing back the glory of the past in agric sector and use it to improve the IGR? Our agric revolution isn’t just going to be on cocoa but on arable crops, cash crops and livestock farming. Ekiti state has no business with poverty and lack which have become its lot following the large scale unemployment among its youths. Unfortunately, we are back to square one because the current administration abandoned all the farming (agriculture) enhancement scheme we put in place. The efforts of my administration to use agriculture to turn around the fortunes of Ekiti state could have placed the state in better pedestal economically if the present administration had built on what we did. One major source of internally generated revenue for Ekiti state is agriculture, especially cocoa. However over reliance on federal allocation has eroded the zeal of successive administration to drive IGR through agriculture. Ekiti, like many other states, got its share from the era of oil boom which turned attention of people away from the farms and the attendant reliance on white collar jobs leaving the lands to lie fallow with the state losing billions of naira yearly. We are going to make deliberate and conscious efforts to reverse the trend by mobilizing a mass of the people to embrace the new thinking which supports agribusiness as a veritable means of creating wealth. Cocoa remains the number one cash crop of Ekiti state and there is urgent need for us to revolutionize its production. We shall do everything humanly possible to surpass the past glory of our agricultural sector. This is in consonance with the thinking of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which has been taking deliberate steps through his policies to discourage importation of foods and goods which the country can produce. This has encouraged the local production of food and saving of resources. • Originally entitled “My Plans For the People”, this interview was first published in the TheNEWS hard copy, July edition