Former Minister of Mines and Steel Development and All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Ekiti State Dr. Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on his manifesto, the controversial White Paper, why he lost the 2014 election and why he will win the July 14 poll. EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.
Following the rancour that characterised the APC primary, where you emerged as candidate, how far have you gone in your reconciliatory move with other aspirants?
APC has once again proved to bookmakers that common interest supersedes personal interest. It was easier to reconcile with my co-contestants because we all have the same purpose and objective, i.e, to reclaim our honour and restore our values by dislodging the PDP government.
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
Many people are asking why do you want to be governor again, having once served the state in that capacity?
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.
For instance instance, hundreds of boreholes in public schools are abandoned and not functional for lack of maintenance, over 40,000 people benefitting 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.
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 have received pension in 2018 and gratuity have 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.
Are you not afraid that the Fayose government may use the White Paper to get you barred from contesting the election?
The White Paper 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. Its 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.
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.
It is believed that you are planning to use federal might against the PDP, just like they did to you in 2014…
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 non belligerent 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.
Should you come back as governor, what would be your areas of priority?
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.
Despite the electoral result of 2014, you appear very much confident. What gives you the confidence?
Our confidence is in the people. Our people have gone through a lot of pains in the last three and a half years of PDP government in the state and have come to the conclusion that the PDP government is a product of fraud and it is a government that does not care about their welfare. If you asked somebody who has not earned salary in eight months, at least they will tell you that under Fayemi I was not owed. That is, if you take it at such a basic simplistic 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 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 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.
Is it true that the APC government would ban okada, sack teachers and local government workers?
There is no reason to sack local government workers or any worker for that matter. I believe downsizing is the only option available for the PDP government because they are short of ideas on how to get themselves out of the self inflicted quagmire. I have said it repeatedly to the people of the state that the welfare of the people is what is paramount to us in APC and that is what the in coming APC government will pursue.
We never had any issue with the okada riders. What we insisted they must do was to comply with safety rules. That is wear their helmet, so as to reduce the level of injury in case of an accident. Similarly we have no plan to sack any teacher or local government workers. We never sacked any worker or teacher during our four years in government and I believe we have very cordial relationship with different categories of workers in the state.
As a matter of fact, under my watch the civil service will be strengthened, re-orientated and reequipped to perform better. Where necessary, we are going to employ more hands to energise the service. All the youths empowerment and employment schemes that were cancelled by the current administration will be resuscitated to provide employment and succour to as many youths as possible. Can I be planning all these and be thinking of downsizing at the same time? The welfare of all civil servants was and is still my number one priority. The entire workforce in Ekiti state should ignore the rumour 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 comm