Dr Kayode Fayemi

Dr Kayode Fayemi, former Ekiti State governor and one time Minister of  Steel and Solid Minerals Development, marked his 60th birthday on Sunday, 9 February 2025. In a tribute, President Bola Tinubu said this: “The military government routinely raided and proscribed newspapers such as the Concord, Punch, Guardian, and magazines such as Tempo/TheNews and TELL. General Abacha was running amok, arresting activists, jailing journalists, and instilling fears in anyone opposed to his oppressive regime. There was a need to have a radio station covering the activities of the pro-democracy movement at home and abroad and putting more significant pressure on the Abacha junta. Dr Fayemi and other activists actualised the birth of the pro-democracy radio, Radio Kudirat, named in honour of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, who agents of the Abacha regime murdered.” In the academia, politics, journalism, civil society or activism, he made his marks.

In this interview, Fayemi speaks about his life, politics and his current engagements. He seized the opportunity to dispel the rumour that because he attended an Abuja political function with many opposition elements, then he and others are forming a political party.

In his words: “Yes, I have also read all manner of speculations on account of a conference I attended a week ago on strengthening democracy in Nigeria. For your information, that conference was jointly organised by some civil society organisations and they invited active politicians, both in and out of government, civil society leaders, academics and other critical stakeholders.”

You’re sixty years old today. What has changed with the man John ‘Kayode Fayemi?

There’s no question that age and experience mellow every person over time. But I’d like to think my core essence and values have remained the same, shaped by fate, time and experience. As Alfred Tennyson reminds us in that timeless poem, Ulysses, it is still a case of “one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.”

I may no longer be in a position to do what I used to do in my age of innocence or in my 20s or 30s, run around continents, take unbridled risks challenging authorities and attempting to change the world around me for the better. What is important is to state that I’ve been blessed in all ways by God Almighty and have a lot to be grateful for at 60.

In what ways did your childhood and upbringing shape whatever you’ve become today?

My childhood was a normal, nuclear family type. My father was a civil servant by the time I was born but started his professional life as a teacher. My mum was a trader. They are both deceased now. I leave you to imagine how teachers behaved in those days. Although the last born in my family, my disciplinarian parents did not spare the rod.

I must say that the values instilled in me have consistently shaped my character. I also grew up as a Mass server, an altar boy in the Catholic church. It’s a position of early responsibility and discipline as well. When you combine home training with religious teachings and standard school direction, you get the picture of my upbringing.

Some people often speak about the roles their parents or either of them played in their lives. What would you say of yours?

Both my parents had an impact on my life growing up. And my siblings too. They were both very present and monitored my upbringing closely. I wrote in my exile memoirs, Out of the Shadows, that my early obsession with reading newspapers was picked from my Dad, who was an information officer with the Western region and later Western State government.

And that must have contributed to my early consciousness and interest in what goes on in my environment. So, my career trajectory as a journalist, academic, activist and politician could not be disconnected from this upbringing.

Looking back, which of your childhood memories do you still reckon with today as a relevant factor?

As I said, it was a normal childhood, not a pampered childhood. So many memories flood my mind but I’m not sure any of them is extra ordinary. It was a very routine, loving childhood.

Since you left office as governor in 2022, you’ve been up to different things including lecturing at the King’s College in London.

But there’s a baby of yours that is yet to come on stream: Amandla Institute. How is that coming on?

Yes, I went back to my alma mater, King’s College, London, after my tour of duty as governor. Although that may not be common in our climes, but it is not uncommon in other places. In fact, it’s the norm and it’s usually a revolving door between academia and public office.

I have been back at King’s for almost two years and being at King’s has helped me to conduct personal research, mentor students and operate in an environment that has enabled serious reflection. In fact, the book I’m releasing to mark my birthday, ‘If This Giant Must Rise,’ is a product of the last two years.

I have also been busy as the pioneer President of the Forum of Regions in Africa (FORAF). This is an association of sub-National governments, who are closest to citizens on the continent working just below the sovereigns to improve livelihoods and development at the subnational level.

And you’re right, The Amandla Institute, has been in gestation since I left office two years ago. But it’s being formally inaugurated on Thursday, February 6. It is a pan African “think and do tank“ which seeks to drive bold initiatives in harnessing leadership acumen and policy frameworks for the transformation of the African continent and the progress of global Africa.

What gave rise to the idea of the institute in the first place or did you conceive it as a gift to yourself on your 60th?

The Institute is a product of my experience in public office. Before I went into public office, I was involved in building an institution, which is thriving very well in the civic space. Everyone knows the work the Centre for Democracy and Development that I founded in 1997 but I’m no longer involved in the day to day running of that organisation.

The context of its founding was also different. That was a context of the post Cold War struggle for democratisation in the continent. In this instance, and having served at the subnational and national offices for almost two decades, I have seen the practical challenges leaders face in office even when they are well meaning.

Amandla Institute is my own contribution in helping to address and mitigate such challenges by providing young public sector actors with the resources and the tools to function in public office. The assumption that undergirds the work of the Institute is that leadership and policy matter each on their own, but it’s when both work together seamlessly that we can begin to change the narratives, lives and livelihoods for the better.

So, what’s the overriding vision at Amandla?

Our overriding vision is to offer a fresh approach that is anchored on the central importance of interfacing advanced leadership vision with a forward looking long term policy framework that is aligned with the aspirations of Africans for a comprehensive transformation of our world and our story.

If you don’t mind, it’s time to delve briefly into politics. After all, that’s a part of you that you can’t run away from. Your name alongside some of your friends, has been trending lately as constituting yourself into a new bloc of opposition. Do you want to be honest about that, and why?

Of course, I’m a politician and a proud one at that, in spite of the low level of trust that we enjoy these days from the public. But politics is my vocation, not my profession. I don’t live my life thinking and breathing partisan politics daily.

Yes, I have also read all manner of speculations on account of a conference I attended a week ago on strengthening democracy in Nigeria. For your information, that conference was jointly organised by some civil society organisations and they invited active politicians, both in and out of government, civil society leaders, academics and other critical stakeholders.

It was not a gathering or a coalition of people constituting themselves into an opposition bloc as you claim. But I guess it’s the silly season and tittle-tattle and fiction graduate to facts. It’s unfortunate.

But is it true that some politicians are coming together to form a new opposition to the government in power?

Politicians are always getting together. It is in the nature of politicians to get together. And when they do, they talk about the state of the nation and the state of their parties. Such conversations need not be about forming a new opposition coalition to the government in power. I’m not aware of any opposition party being formed.

Do you as a person have a problem or any concern with the current state of play?

Of course, any serious minded politician who has ears to the ground must be concerned about what’s happening around you. That’s not tantamount to having a problem. Concern? Yes. Problem? No.

You have been with the current president for a while and had done many things together. In order words, you are expected to know him well enough. Do you think he is the sort of person that can be challenged in this game, knowing now that he wields humongous power? 

Yes, I’ve known and worked with the President closely since 1994, after the annulled 1993 election. Precisely from the time he joined us in exile. And yes, we’ve done many things together and I have been a beneficiary of his support in my quest for elective office. I have found him to be incisive and daring in his approach.

I know him to be instinctively opposed to any authoritarian, dictatorial tendencies. I know him to be a democrat, who is always open to contending ideas. He’s however not the Asiwaju of that time. But none of us is what we used to be. Age is a mediating factor.

Also, the nature of power may sometimes diminish such qualities, especially when you’re overwhelmed by the Alleluia chorus that is always a clear and present danger around power. There is, however, nothing illegitimate about challenging him, as long as that is within the confines of the law and the constitution.

Almost two years in office and given the challenges that the President Bola Tinubu administration confronted on assumption of office, do you think the time is right to start seeking accountability of him?

Accountability is naturally what any leader should expect from Day one. And these days where the bulk of the citizenry is impatient, they want to hold their government and leaders’ feet to fire from get go. So, it’s not really what I think. It’s what the reality imposes on us in a democracy.

A certain rumour has it that you and some other members of the APC like Malam Nasir El-Rufai, were angry because you had wanted to be in the cabinet and the president refused to look your way. No one expects you to admit this by the way. But is there an element of truth here?

It is the prerogative of the president to select his cabinet members. Service for me is duty and not an ambition. But as you know, I just finished my tour of duty as governor in October 2022 and I have had the opportunity to serve as minister in the past too.

As part of my contribution to the party, I helped our candidate, now president, shape his foreign policy agenda because he requested me to help with that. Apart from helping with his foreign policy briefs during our electioneering campaign, you would have also seen me organise his engagement at Chatham House in London and his pre-inauguration meetings with many foreign leaders.

It’s his right to choose his team. I’m glad I contributed my own quota to the victory of my party and as I’m sure you know, I’m not a jobless politician. I have a primary address outside of politics and wish our president well in his endeavours.

Was that why you were said to have even begun to announce yourself as the prospective Foreign Affairs Minister before the government set forth. Did you actually have these conversations or anything close to it with anyone?

As I indicated in my previous answer, the candidate of my party who is now the president asked me to assist him with his foreign policy agenda which I did. It is not unexpected that you will have some who expected that such an unofficial responsibility ought to automatically translate to a substantive position.

But I’m not the type who counts my chickens before they are hatched. The president knew what he and I discussed but that shall remain between the two of us until, maybe, we both decide to say that in our memoirs in future. We should leave that to posterity.

In your last interview with THISDAY, you claimed to have been contributing to this government from the background. Is it that your pieces of advice have not been deployed to good use or they were also not sound to be considered for what they are worth?

I wouldn’t say so. As a politician, especially from the ruling party, there are several ways to contribute behind the scenes. It needs not be to the president directly. I can do so through the party organs.

For example, when the South-west wing of our party asked me to give a keynote address to party leaders last October on the state of the party and the state of the nation, I spoke to them with candour. I also know many leading figures in government, either at the national or state levels.

I reach them occasionally on my own and some of them also ask my opinion on pertinent issues. The president also has access to me if he needs my views on anything. So, I have not complained to anyone that my private musings with men and women of power are ignored.

What I have had cause to complain about to the party is that party structures and organs are not functioning effectively at the national level since we won elections in 2023 and this is not good for the deepening of our democracy and functioning of our government.

It is true that the party leadership has not had any meaningful meeting since Tinubu assumed office, and Malam Nasir El-Rufai alluded to this recently. To what extent do you think this is responsible for the swirling confusion alleged to be pervading the government and party?

When I joined partisan politics, one constant refrain I hear from the grassroots politicians is that meetings represent the heartbeat of politics. A party whose organs do not meet is as good as comatose, if not completely dead.

It also breeds a rumour mill in which many leaders are disgruntled and ill informed about even the good deeds of government. Regular meetings will provide regular feedback and reduce if not completely eliminate mischief.

When Chief Bisi Akande was our Chairman in ACN and APC, the Caucus and the NEC of the Party met on a monthly basis, if not more. He didn’t wait for president or candidate Buhari to be available before convening meetings. Also, we met fairly regularly, when Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was party chairman. So, I don’t accept the excuse that meetings have not held because the president is not available.

In our party constitution, these organs are supposed to meet at least quarterly, but none has met in the last two years. Our party needs to move from being an election winning machine to an organic entity, responsible for shaping what we do in government and hold our feet to fire on behalf of the general membership.

Given the current state of the nation, do you share the views of those who allege state capture, and what exactly does it even mean or portend for democracy?

I really do not know what they mean by state capture but that terminology gained currency on the continent during the era of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, when he was accused of working with the Gupta brothers, a prominent business family in the country to control all the levers of state power, in abeyance of the constitution and laws of the land.

I don’t think we have such a situation yet in Nigeria. Yes, our institutions may not be living up to expectations in upholding the rule of law, but that’s not just about the president imposing his views on such institutions, but their own lack of courage of conviction to do that which is right.

And the weakening of institutions has occurred cumulatively, not just under this administration. What we should focus on is how to build a democracy that works for all our citizens, not just the elite and applying the rule of law across the board is the bedrock of that.

The battle for the 2027 elections is fast building up. What do you see happening, knowing that the president is not one to give up easily?

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