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Tag: Fayemi

  • Resist rigging, Fayemi urges electorate

    Resist rigging, Fayemi urges electorate

    The campaign train of Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi swept through 10 towns in Oye Local Government Area yesterday.

    They are Isan (the governor’s hometown), Ilafon, Oye, Ilemeso, Ayede, Imojo, Orisunmibare, Itaji, Ayegbaju and Oloje.

    His supporters gathered at the campaign venues, singing solidarity songs.

    In each town, the governor was greeted by broom waving men, women and children, wearing branded caps, vests and wrist watches.

    Fayemi was described as “Mr. Possibility” in many posters.

    On the campaign train were the deputy governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu; the governor’s wife, Bisi; All Progressives Congress (APC) Interim State Chairman Chief Olajide Awe; Secretary to the State Government Dr. Gani Owolabi and Director-General of the Fayemi Campaign Organisation Mr. Bimbo Daramola.

    At Ayede-Ekiti, some prominent members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by Mr. Maxwell Bamisile, and some Labour Party (LP) members were admitted into the APC.

    At Isan, Fayemi urged the electorate to resist attempts by the opposition to rig the June 21 poll, adding: “You should not only cast your votes for our party; you should be vigilant to ensure that nobody rigs or snatches the boxes. The people of Erinjiyan, Ikole-Ekiti and other communities are behind us, so I want you to be vigilant on the day of the election.”

    Urging the people to come out and vote for him, he said his administration has lived up to the people’s expectations.

    The governor said: “I have been a good ambassador. I have not disappointed you. I have done my best for this state in the last four years and that is why we are optimistic that we are going to get a favourable verdict from the people in the next poll.”

    He urged the people to remember the trouble that engulfed the state during the PDP’s seven-and-a-half year tenure, adding: “We should join hands to make it impossible for Ekiti to return to such dark days, when killing and maiming were the order of the day.

    “Of the 15 years of democracy in Ekiti, the PDP and APC have ruled the state for seven-and-a-half years each. During the PDP years, about seven governors were produced because of the instability in the state, so we need to be watchful and not allow them to reverse the hands of the clock.

    “We will not allow the experience to repeat itself and that is why you have to vote for the APC, a party of peace and stability. A party that honours promises and believes strongly in performance.”

    At Ayede-Ekiti, the governor said his administration renovated the town’s General Hospital, Secondary School and Customary Court and sank six boreholes in the community.

    He said many indigenes benefited from his administration’s Social Security Scheme for the Elderly, Volunteer Corps, free laptops for pupils, job opportunities and other projects.

    Awe assured the defectors of a level playing field, saying: “We were at the palace of the monarch of Ayede, where he prayed for us. Maxwell has been known to me. He is here to identify with us. Here in our party, we will do everything to accommodate all of you and make you comfortable.”

    Maxwell said: “I left the PDP when it became clear that it wanted to promote a serial non-performer. I do not want to be linked with thuggery, so I returned home. APC is home for me. I am sure they will come with war, but we will outsmart them.”

    Other defectors included Apeke Fayemi and Ayodele Olaoluwa.

  • Mega rally as Fayemi begins quest for second term

    Mega rally as Fayemi begins quest for second term

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has begun his bid for a second term in office with a mega rally in Ado-Ekiti. SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN reports that eight governors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) were among the large crowd that attended the event.

    The Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, had throbbed and quaked in the presence of thousands of supporters and admirers of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, as he flagged off his campaigns for re-election as the Ekiti State governor last week.

    The event was attended by eight All Progressives Governors (APC) state governors including Alhaji Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Senator Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), represented by his deputy, Elder Peter Kishira, Alhaji Yori Abubakar (Zamfara), Owelle Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

    Others in attendance were the former Ekiti State governor and APC Southwest National Vice Chairman, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sherif; Senators Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central); Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North); Tony Adeniyi (Ekiti South) and five House of Representatives members from the state including Hon. Robinson Ajiboye; Hon. Bimbo Daramola; Hon. Oyetunde Ojo; Hon. Ifeoluwa Arowosoge and Hon. Bamidele Faparusi.

    The lawmakers were joined by their colleagues from Ondo State including Senator Ajayi Borofice and many others. Many other political functionaries equally made it a date at an event which officially signified the commencement of campaigns by the APC Governorship candidate in the June 21 election.

    Also in attendance were the traders associations among which the market women and artisans featured prominently, student groups, and many more. The official outfit of Ankara on which the picture of the Dr. Fayemi as his party’s candidate was boldly printed, was worn by a minimum of 80 per cent of those who attended the event, including his colleagues from eight other states.

    Also on the campaign ground were a whole horde of notable figures from the nation’s entertainment industry, including high flying actors, actresses, musicians, alongside a motley line up of comedians. Fuji maestro, Adewale Ayuba and traditional music exponent, Elemure Ogunyemi dished tunes in timed turns as the event progressed.

    Some others, however, appeared in vests, donned fez caps and other wears, all branded boldly with the name Kayode Fayemi for Second Term and the logo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as every other item within the stadium including the various objects ballooned high up in the sky and visible even to those located elsewhere outside the stadium, urging people to ‘Vote Dr. Kayode Fayemi for Second Term’.

    As early as 9am, the stadium, now endowed with various colours reflective of the ordained duty it must undertake in the course of the day, had started receiving visitors as the gates were thrown open for party members and admirers who came in all manner of vehicles. It was gathered that representatives of the APC came from all the 16 council areas of the state and elsewhere. Entry into the stadium was initially not restricted, but the story changed later when it was apparent the spaces within the sprawling enclosure had been filled up.

    By the time the event officially kicked-off around noon, it was not sure again how many music bands were on hand, but it could be ascertained that they were more than one. Tunes upon tunes and beats upon beats spiced the event all through with each new magnificent entry and every new voice at the massive speakers got heralded by musical sounds in rather quick turns.

    It would be difficult to ascertain by how much the maximum number of 15,000 official capacity strength of the stadium was overshot. But, modesty assisted by objective imagination would suggest that rough estimates be fixed at double the official capacity fixture, given the fact that every available space within the stadium was filled, while hundreds of admirers and party faithful had no option than to stay outside, watching the event being beamed life on massive TV screens strategically positioned at several places outside the stadium as within it.

    Elsewhere around the stadium stood massive portraits and several posters of Governor Fayemi, commending his achievements and urging the electorate to re-elect him for the sustenance of the developmental strides which his administration had instituted in the state in three and a half years.

    Vehicular and pedestrian operations across the capital were also not free as major streets, especially those which bother the stadium, were guarded by fierce looking and heavily armed security personnel.

    Within the stadium and around were a complete line up of security and para-military personnel, including men of The Nigeria Police (NP), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), the State Security Service (SSS) and others, who were engaged all through in controlling the ever surging crowd.

    Urging the electorate to see the coming election as an opportunity to assist the state with a credible leadership which had proven sincere commitment to its development, Fayemi maintained that “no one can deny the achievements I have made in the three and a half years of this administration”.

    According to him, the coming election was not about him, but about “consolidating his achievements and ensuring that the state does not go back to the dark days of one week, one trouble, violence and looting of public funds”.

    He equally warned the electorate not to be deceived by the wrong propaganda of the opposition politicians that he would ban commercial motorcycle riders and sack teachers if re-elected.

    Said he: “They know we are the state of teachers. They are trying to poison the minds of teachers. Fayemi will not sack teachers. Fayemi will keep employing more and more teachers. Fayemi will remunerate teachers. We are the only state that pays 20 percent rural teachers allowance in Nigeria.

    “We are also the only state that pays 20 percent core subjects allowance in Nigeria. If you are a core subject teacher including English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, you are also receiving 20 per cent of your monthly basic salary on top of your normal salary. There is nothing that is independently verifiable that they can use against us with teachers and the teachers know better”.

    Debunking the claims of opposition parties that he would demolish markets if re-elected, the APC candidate said administration had in the past months been busy constructing ultra-modern markets across the communities in the state.

    Fayemi spoke further: “There are people who will come and promise heaven and earth. There are people who will tell you what they want to do. The advantage that I have as your son, as your brother, as your leader, is that I can tell you what I have done on education. I can tell you how I have made the lives of our elderly people better in Ekiti and how I have banished poverty in the lives of our elderly.

    “I can tell you what I have done in the area of infrastructure. I can tell you what I have done in the health sector. I can tell you what our women have benefitted by having a gender-sensitive leader. I can tell you what is happening in tourism in Ikogosi. I can tell you what we have done in reviving industries. I can tell you how we have made lives better by creating jobs and empowering our people.

     

    Even Governors extol Fayemi’s virtues

    Other Governors, including Wamakko, Nyako, Abubakar, Rochas, Ajimobi, Amosun, Aregbesola, spoke in turns, extolling the virtues of Governor Kayode Fayemi and urging the electorate to see in him an advantage to sustain the development process he instituted in the state three and a half years ago.

    Rochas Okorocha urged the electorate to see the governor as a man ordained by God himself to institute change in Ekiti, adding that “If Fayemi contests as governor in other states in Nigeria, he would win”. According to him, PDP means People Destroying People in English and in native slang it is ‘Papa Destroying Pikin’.

    Okorocha warned the electorate to be wary of a party whose 15-years reign has brought nothing to the country in terms of development, saying “If you want to measure their performance, remember what they did to our youths in Abuja stadium and other stadia across the country. Nigeria, under PDP, has become a country of no roads, no electricity, no jobs for the unemployed, no this, no that”.

    He said: “That is why we are bringing change with APC. Let me assure you that Fayemi’s victory in the next election has been signed sealed and delivered. Fayemi has the entire people of the state behind him. We should all support Fayemi with everything that we have. He also asked ‘How many people here will give Fayemi N100 for this election?’

    “If Fayemi contests as governor in another state, he will win. This is a young, handsome and ever articulate man. I tell the Ibos in this state to queue behind me as the Owelle Indigbo, Commander of the Masses. I am directing you as your leader to queue behind me. Speaking briefly in Hausa language, he said, all Hausa community should also queue behind our other governors here. This is where we are going and should go. Thank you”.

    Ibikunke Amosun said, Dr. Fayemi had worked for the people of Ekiti State and that all the things his predecessors in office said were not possible had been done for the people of Ekiti to see and feel. He said unlike before, Ekiti State now have good roads, social security for the elderly citizens and many other life-enhancing programmes.

    “Ekiti people should not allow deceivers to plunge them back to the dark days. Everyone agrees that Fayemi has performed. The other parties don’t have anything. All they want to do is to rig. We should all be ready to say one man, one vote,” Amosun said.

    Speaking in Yoruba anecdotes laced with admirable rhetorical questions, Ajimobi maintained that Ekiti is a land of intellectuals, who should not be allowed to be governed by those who lack that quality.

    Also speaking, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, assured the electorate of the readiness of the party to ensure a peaceful election, saying APC does not need any external forces to win the June 21 election as it has Ekiti people on its side.

    Said he: “Despite the threats and portents of coercion against the re-election of Dr. Fayemi, the people of Ekiti have already made up their minds to re-elect him (Fayemi). June 21 will bring to them (the opposition parties), the evidence of their losses.

    What campaign issues will Fayemi promote for his re-election

    According to the Director-General of his Campaign Organisation, Hon. Bimbo Daramola, the issues which Fayemi will bring up would centre round the familiar 8-Point Agenda which has been responsible for his (Fayemi’s) achievements so far.

    Daramola noted that there was no way any campaign would happen and the accomplishments of the state government around good governance, health, agriculture, education and human capital development, tourism and others would not be mentioned.

    Said he: “When we say issues will form the fulcrum of our campaigns, we mean accomplishments of Fayemi regarding road construction and rehabilitation, the Social Security Scheme, the massive employment and empowerment of several sections of the populace, the renovation of the Ikogosi Warm Springs and the wholesale renovation of entire 20 state general hospitals and 183 secondary schools in Ekiti.

    “Fayemi has an opportunity to continue all these great works and we are seeking the approval of the populace for that opportunity. That approval will surely come on June 21,” Daramola said.

  • Amosun, Fayemi, Keyamo mourn Ajayi

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his Ekiti State counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, have sent their condolences to the legal community on the death of Chief Godwin Olusegun Kolawole Ajayi (SAN).

    Amosun described the late Ajayi, popularly called G.O.K., as “consistent, forthright and famous”, noting that he “championed the cause of progressives” in several high profile cases.

    He said: “I remember cases such as the 12 2/3 suit of Awolowo vs Shagari over the 1979 presidential election; the Abdul Rahman Shugaba vs Minister of Internal Affairs and the legal battle of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, among others, which are still reference points till today.”

    In a statement by his media aide, Mrs. Funmi Wakama, Amosun said he joins members of the bar and the bench, as well as other Nigerians, to mourn the passing of this “last colossus of the first generation of Nigerian lawyers”, adding: “He was a progressive lawyer and that explains his closeness to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His death is a great loss to the legal community.”

    Amosun urged the family, friends and associates of the late Ajayi to take solace in the fact that the deceased led a disciplined life and etched his footprints in the sands of time.

    He prayed to God to grant the late Ajayi eternal rest and his family the fortitude to bear the loss.

    Fayemi described Ajayi’s demise as “the end of a chapter that shaped the legal profession in Nigeria”.

    In a statement by his media aide, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, he said Ajayi’s role in the evolution of democracy in Nigeria cannot be forgotten.

    Describing Ajayi as a fearless lawyer and people’s advocate, Fayemi said the deceased chose to stay on the side of the people by defending the mandate given to the late Abiola in court at the risk of his life.

    He said the late Ajayi was an inspiration to the late Abiola and other pro-democracy activists in the struggle to revalidate the result of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which is widely acknowledged as Nigeria’s freest and fairest poll.

    Fayemi described the late Ajayi as “a legend of the legal profession”, whose contributions to human rights, advocacy and jurisprudence will remain indelible in the memory of Nigerians.

    He said the deceased, through hard work, built one of the foremost law chambers in Nigeria, adding that his name was not tainted in his almost 60 years of active practice.

    Fayemi urged the deceased’s family, friends and associates to take solace in the fact that their patriarch lived a fulfilled life and positively touched his generation.

    Popular lawyer Festus Keyamo described Ajayi’s death as an “irreplaceable loss” to the legal profession.

    Keyamo said: “He was one of the last of the finest breed of first generation lawyers in Nigeria. He was remarkable in his impeccable forensic advocacy, which he often delivered with a soft but piercing voice. In terms of the skills of advocacy, he was my personal hero.

    “My sincere condolences go to his family, friends and the entire legal profession. The late Ajayi remains one of finest lawyers this country has ever produced.”

    Historian and Chairman, Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, Chief Johnson Ayomike said: “The news of Chief Ajayi’s death came to me as a shock. As a leader in Ugborodo, Escravos, Warri Southwest Local Government Area, I had close contact with him when the community employed his services in the 1970s in some of our cases in court, which had to do with accountability of community funds.

    “What attracted him to me was his humility, honesty, forthrightness and his uncanny knowledge of the law. His advocacy was unparallel. He could push through highly technical points of law in court with the simplicity of a teacher. There will be none like him.”

  • Fayemi: Four more years (3)

    Fayemi: Four more years (3)

    We will repay Fayemi with our votes come June 21, 2014, and no Jupiter will succeed in manipulating our victory

    Today, we conclude the trilogy on the above topic and from the outset, let us emphasise that the manner of former governor Ayo Fayose’s emergence as PDP’s governorship candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti has clearly demonstrated the Jonathan mindset. It is one that will rig elections, even a national one and say, so what? Here is a president who has severally been described as a snake and therefore capable of committing the most heinous democratic coup without batting an eyelid, still believing he could not be linked to it; a skilful falconer. He is doing this not knowing the reverberations can completely evaporate his 2015 ambitions. Even if the PDP could so contemptuously brush aside the interests of its remaining 12 contestants who each paid N11 Million, I think it behoves President Jonathan to have thought of the larger picture, the consequences for self and country especially for a man claiming to lead a transformational government. Had he done that, he would have realised that Ekiti has gone far past his candidate in the full knowledge that former governor Ayo Fayose has a past, writ large, in the state. It is a past so bad some people reading this will believe my days are numbered. In the instant case though, there are no fears, as Ayo is my own brother. Unfortunately, Jonathan and his party’s attraction to him is exactly that past of unmitigated mayhem. It is what they see as the only answer to Fayemi’s intimidating record as governor. For them, therefore, the other 12 contestants are what you will describe as disposables.

    But the truth is, and I can see it a mile away, Fayose is being used in this macabre dance to test run 2015. I will explain. The way he was egregiously announced over and above the others, in a take-it-or- leave-it audacity now reportedly ratified by the party’s National Working Committee, is a perfect picture of how the president intends to use the INEC not only in the two 2014 governorship elections in Yoruba land, but also at the presidential election come 2015. They think nothing of failure and if there happens to be a crisis , especially arising from manipulating the 2015 election, the fallback position will be to encourage the South- South to secede with Jonathan, the snake, claiming he has no hands in it as he would not have, otherwise, convoked his diversionary national conference. They see it as a win-win situation. Well, I do not know what could happen at the national level, but his minders got it massively wrong in the Southwest.

    In 1966, the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC)-controlled federal government, after ravaging the Western Region, giving it a sole administrator of its own description, was about unleashing the entire Nigerian Army on it when the bubble burst. That story would repeat itself in ’83 and ‘93 with dire consequences for the country. I have no idea how old the president’s current anchormen were in 1965 -66 but the history of that carnage in the entire Western Nigeria, but especially in Lagos, is written in indelible ink for those who have ears. One other thing driving their plot is the fact that, at the instance of a Senator Omisore and his likes in the Senate, that distinguished chamber, at a time Omisore was going to contest the Osun governorship election, enacted that governorship appeals would now terminate at the Supreme Court . With that in mind, they believe that INEC only has to declare their wish and the rest will be history as the case could go on, literally, for a life time. They need be told that if any of the elections in Ekiti or Osun is rigged – please note there is a conditional precedent – then the Americans may have missed their 2015 apocalyptic date for Nigeria by several months.

    The history of the Yoruba goes back thousands of years. We were never, as a corporate whole, slaves to any group, small or big and no Kashamu, for whatever personal profits, can haul us into any modern day servitude to Jonathan even when an Obasanjo now counts for nothing with him. If six decades down the line, Awo fed us on education, nobody, especially from the Avatar’s neck of wood, will now come and haul Yoruba into any kind of modern day slavery. We will remain our own masters, deciding our own preferences, making our choices, like it or not. Fortunately for us in Yoruba land, especially in Ekiti and Osun, the ‘soldiers’ Jonathan is pressing into service have such odious history our people can never forget in a hurry, be it Omisore as deputy governor in Osun or Fayose, as governor of Ekiti – a history of blood and mayhem whose gory details I will leave to Yoruba stakeholder groups which must now rise and denounce this millennial plot against the Yoruba nation. In contra-distinction to their ‘soldiers’, those they are trying to oust through foul means in both Ekiti and Osun are exemplars in the true tradition of cultured Yoruba people, men who have worked their hands to the bare bones in the service of our people. They have both rekindled the Awo developmental paradigm and we can no longer be taken back to the 14th century. Dating back to Awo, the Yoruba has a history of development which they appreciate. Short-changed during both the military interregnum and the PDP’s seven years of the locust when every facet of life in the region degraded, the last four years of the APC has been an era of reconstruction and modernisation.

    In education, where Fayemi’s first surprise as governor was the state’s unbelievable 29 percentage pass in the preceding WASCE, pass rate last year was above 70 percent. The Youth Commercial Agriculture Programme has seen thousands of our hitherto unemployed young people become gainfully engaged, even as employers of labour themselves. Care of the elderly has been taken to a new level totally unprecedented anywhere in Nigeria. In tourism, Ikogosi, popular only as a rodents’ reservation colony in PDP days, has been completely transformed into a world class tourist centre now being patronised by a minimum 20,000 local and international visitors per month. Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, glows, day and night, just as urban renewal is on-going in other towns. Among other state agencies, the Water Corporation is doing everything possible to increase the water stock in the state so that many more areas can have treated water and given the governor’s leadership style and pedigree, the World Bank is giving substantial assistance to this just as it is doing in education and like so many other development partners currently actively engaged in the state. It is no longer the Ekiti State Ayo Fayose was governor over.

    Despite the lies being peddled about by the opposition, teachers remain happy and supportive of a

    governor that has done the most for them of any Ekiti governor.

    Most local government workers are appreciative of the fact that to continue in employment, the government had, of necessity, to plug the corroding leakages which a tiny few was using to short change the system. Okada riders, recently empowered by the government, can see the difference

    between the roads, then and now, as they ply their trade on the new Ekiti road network which must rank among the best in the entire country even if the federal government is deliberating with holding refund of roads done on its behalf with its formal authorisation.

    Ekitis are no ingrates. We will repay Fayemi with our votes come June 21, 2014, and no Jupiter will succeed in manipulating our victory. Rather, it is their serpentine ploys, unholy alliances and evil schemes that will collapse like a pack of cards.

  • I’m best for the job, says Fayemi

    I’m best for the job, says Fayemi

    The Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, was yesterday filled with supporters of Governor Kayode Fayemi as he kicked off his re-election campaign.

    The event was attended by eight All Progressives Congress (APC ) governors – Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun); Abdufatah Ahmed (Kwara), represented by his deputy, Elder Peter Kishira; Alhjai Yori Abubakar (Zamfara); Owelle Rochas Okorocha (Imo); Aliu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Muritala Nyako (Adamawa).

    Also present were former Ekiti State Governor and APC Interim National Vice-Chairman, Southwest, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; former Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff; the three Senators and five House of Representatives’ members from Ekiti, joined by their colleagues from other states; APC National Woman Leader Sharon Ikeazor, Senator Ajayi Boroffice and the Iyaloja-General of lagos, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo.

    Popular actors, actresses, musicians and comedians were in attendance. Fuji maestro Adewale Ayuba, rap artiste Olamide and traditional musician Elemure Ogunyemi thrilled the people with their songs.

    Trade associations, students groups and artisans appeared in Ankara, vests and fez caps with “Kayode Fayemi for Second Term” and the APC’s logo boldly imprinted on them .

    The 15,000 capacity stadium was overstretched. Those who could not go into the stadium stood outside watching.

    Major streets in the state capital, especially those close to the stadium, were guarded by fierce-looking security agents.Policemen and officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the State Security Service (SSS) controlled the crowd at the stadium.

    Fayemi urged the people to protect their votes from being stolen by “election riggers” and “vote robbers”.

    He said no one can deny the achievements of his administration and urged the electorate to ensure that the good work is continued.

    Pledging to work harder, if re-elected, Fayemi said he has faithfully implemented his Eight-Point Agenda and fulfilled all the promises contained in his inaugural address when he assumed office on October 16, 2010.

    The governor explained that he has brought transparency and accountability to governance, adding that no official of his administration had been summoned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    He said the June 21 governorship election was not about him, but about “consolidating on the achievements of the last three-and-a-half-years and ensuring that the state does not go back to the dark days of one-week-one-trouble, violence and looting of public funds”.

    Fayemi urged the electorate not to be deceived by “the propaganda of the opposition” that he would ban commercial motorcyclists and sack teachers, if re-elected, saying: “They know Ekiti is the state of teachers and are trying to poison the minds of teachers. Fayemi will not sack teachers. Fayemi will keep employing teachers. Fayemi will remunerate teachers. Ekiti is the only state that pays 20 per cent Rural Teachers’ Allowance in Nigeria. We are also the only state that pays 20 per cent core subjects allowance in Nigeria. There is nothing that is independently verifiable that they can use against us with teachers and the teachers know better.”

    Also debunking claims by the opposition that he would demolish markets, if re-elected, he said the administration has built modern markets across state.

    Fayemi said: “There are people who will come and promise heaven and earth. There are people who will tell you what they want to do. The advantage that I have as your son, as your brother, as your leader, is that I can tell you what I have done on education. I can tell you how I have made the lives of the people better in Ekiti and how I have banished poverty in the lives of the elderly.

    “I can tell you what I have done in the area of infrastructure. I can tell you what I have done in the health sector. I can tell you what our women have benefitted by having a gender-sensitive leader. I can tell you what is happening in tourism in Ikogosi. I can tell you what we have done in reviving industries. I can tell you how we have made lives better by creating jobs and empowering our people.”

    Okorocha said Fayemi is ordained by God to institute change in Ekiti, adding: “If Fayemi contests for governor in other states, he will win.”

    Amosun said Fayemi has done all the things his predecessors said were impossible, adding that unlike before, Ekiti now has good roads, social security for the elderly and many other life-enhancing programmes.

    He said: “Do not allow the deceivers to plunge you back into the dark days. Everyone agrees that Fayemi has performed. The other parties do not have anything to offer. All they want to do is rig. You must insist on one- man-one-vote.”

    Ajimobi said Ekiti is a land of intellectuals and should not be governed by non-intellectuals.

    Sheriff described Fayemi as a “performing governor”. He said Ekiti has changed from what it used to be the last time he visited, urging voters to return Fayemi to office to continue the “good work”.

    Wamakko said Fayemi is a leader that should be celebrated, judging by his performance, “which is being acknowledged within and outside the country”.

    He said APC is about performance and transparency adding that the party will continue to ensure that Nigerians are united in their resolve to enthrone good governance.

    Nyako said local and international agencies have adjudged Fayemi as a transparent leader with honesty of purpose and described him as “one of the most focused governors in Nigeria.”

    Abubakar said the huge turn out at the rally showed that the people appreciate what Fayemi has done in the last three-and- a-half years.

    Ahmed said Kwarans are solidly behind Fayemi.

     Ekiti APC Interim Chairman Chief Jide Awe urged the electorate to be peaceful as the election draws nearer. He said the APC does not need any external force to win the polls because it has Ekiti people on its side.

    Awe said: “Despite the threats and portents of coercion against the re-election of Dr. Fayemi, the people of Ekiti have already made up their minds to re-elect him.

  • Fayemi-four more years (2)

    Fayemi-four more years (2)

    It is important that our people be made very aware of PDP/LABOUR/ACCORD satanic plans for the coming elections so that we will all be on our guard 

    We are not confused. We are very clear about where we have come from, where we are

    and where we are headed. When we started this journey, we said it is a collective rescue mission. That is the journey that has brought us this far. We are on the march again and

    we are unstoppable. We know that the journey has not reached an end because we have not finished the job. That is why we are in this race. It is to serve our people.” Gov. Kayode Fayemi.

    Fifty years ago, back at the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, the young journalist who covered the unveiling of   ‘Domestic And Foreign Dimensions Of Nigeria’s Politics’, another from Prof. Jide Osuntokun’s  stupendous brain and wordsmithery, would promptly have got me Into ‘imposition’  or even  the far stiffer ‘Detention’ for having the audacity to write that I was the Professor’s ‘friend and classmate’ at The School’. O yes, for a less ‘humongous’ sacrilege as that, or even for no offence at all, you could very well be wacked into any of those two purgatories and should any reason be needed at all, it could be ascribed to something as nebulous as ‘urinating all over the compound’. Boy, that journalist should be careful next time as his ascription should have gone to  Seniors Bode Fadase and Sanmi Ajaja who had come to celebrate one of their own: the  distinguished Prof of History and Diplomat, who belonged with them in the witheringly brilliant class of ‘60’. Sir, I hereby apologise on behalf of the journalist.

    It is just as well that we are continuing our celebration of another distinguished alumnus of The School, and  the Executive Governor of Ekiti, Dr Kayode Fayemi, who,  this past week, picked his nomination form as an APC aspirant in Abuja and later arrived Ado- Ekiti to the waiting hands of a tumultuous APC members and, a knowing and appreciative Ekiti citizenry, who would love nothing better than to see Fayemi continue his wizardry of impressive multi-sectoral development of the state. What a huge democrat Hon Opeyemi Bamidele would have been called today if he had waited to be denied the same opportunity of picking that same form before porting to the Labour Party, a mere PDP under party, claiming he was snuffed off  when he never at any time as much as officially informed his ward of his intention to contest on the APC platform.

    Without a scintilla of doubt, no single edition of any newspaper in the country today can exhaustively do justice to the multi-sectoral development the Collective Rescue Mission,  spearheaded by Dr Kayode Fayemi, through the  grace of the Almighty God, has accomplished  in the state underpinned, as it were, by his ramifying  8-Point Agenda. I therefore do not have to start repeating his achievements on this half page.  Rather, as was the practice of the column in the pre-rerun election days of 2009, this piece will be dedicated to enlightening the electorate in both Osun and Ekiti states but more specifically Ekiti, where the first of the two governorship elections will come up.  Happily, these are two states which emerged from the old Western Region where the Avatar, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, made the difference more than five decades ago by his strategic investment in education which he provided free of charge to the entire children of the region. The result  is that  today, no governor in any  South-western state  can ask newspaper editors  to publish just about  anything, however  odious  about him and his administration, because  five percent of  his people  can  neither  read nor write. Awo’s trail-blazing  revolution  further ensured  that, today, there is no family  where you would not find at least  one or even more  graduates,  just as it ensured that my small town, Are-Ekiti,  with a population of  about  30, 000,   has produced 10  University professors, three of them from one single family.

    I state all these because of the totally pedestrian logic of the PDP and its client parties which informs them that to get votes in the coming elections in either Ekiti or Osun state, all their Abuja suzerain has to do is make kerosene available to our people. The cheek of it is that this is a product  through which they steal daily in billions of naira in the name of  kerosene subsidy  whereas the  Nigerian poor  and their  children  daily line up at filling stations where  kerosene  is bought  at over a N100.00 per litre when available, at all.  PDP will have to go locate its Somalia elsewhere, far, far from Ekiti or Osun.

    The electorate in these two states, thanks to education and an innate intelligence, can very easily make a distinction between Ekiti and Osun states of a mere four years ago and today. They remember the days of the locust just as they can see the developments all around them. I think at this point, we should allow Mr Femi Awoniyi, a Germany- based Ekiti Diasporan, give his testimony. Answered Femi to the question:  What changes have you noticed in Ekiti? In an interview published in The Nation of Sunday, March 16, 2014: ‘Many. First, the peace that reigns in the state today is a marked departure from the insecurity that ruled before Fayemi’s coming to power when political violence and urban banditry were pervasive.  For me, a revolutionary feat of the Fayemi administration is the introduction of social security scheme for the elderly. It has greatly helped to alleviate abject poverty in the rural communities. Look at Ikogosi. The place has been completely transformed and it is drawing tourists from all over the country. That is a boost to the state economy. Programmes such as the Youth Commercial Agricultural Development and Youth Volunteer Corps Employment Scheme have taken thousands of our youths away from the streets into productive economic activities.’ He went on and on.

    It is therefore the height of the illogic for the PDP to think that as long as they can inundate our streets with soldiers and men of the PDP police, they can scare off educated and intelligent individuals who know, like the palm of their hands, the difference between the PDP seven years of the locust and today when all the Southwest states under the banner of the APC are aggressively pursuing an integrated economic development paradigm for the entire region.

    It is important that our people be made very aware of PDP/LABOUR/ACCORD satanic plans for the coming elections so that we will all be on our guard because we will never go back to those harrowing days in ‘Egypt’. One of them is for the president to financially starve the Southwest states even up to a point governors in Ekiti and Osun may not be able to pay salaries. To this end, federal allocations to states had plummeted by about 40 percent in the first quarter of the year whilst states friendly to the president are more than fed from grants from such funds as the ecological fund. Naturally, those of their clients who get away with murder through oil subsidy, pension scam, kerosene subsidy scam etc will all be requested to make huge donations to their war chest. But this is where they will remember we have a saying here, dating back to the First Republic: BO ROWO MI, O RINU MI meaning, ‘yes, you see my hands taking your bribe, but you can’t know my mind.’ Our people must take these monies when offered, indeed, ask for more because they were stolen from all of us in the first place.

  • Don’t be deceived by desperate politicians, Fayemi tells Nigerians

    Don’t be deceived by desperate politicians, Fayemi tells Nigerians

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi obtained yesterday the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) nomination form for the June 21 governorship election.

    The governor, who obtained the form with a N5.5 million Zenith Bank cheque at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, said he is seeking reelection to consolidate on the achievements of his administration.

    Fayemi, accompanied by his Deputy, Prof. Modupe Adelabu; lawmakers representing the state at the National Assembly; the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Bimbo Daramola; House of Assembly Speaker Adewale Omirin and a crowd of supporters, arrived at the APC Secretariat at about 11am.

    He was received by the party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Tijani Tumsah, and the National Organising Secretary, Osita Izulaso.

    Fayemi urged Nigerians to reject the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the general elections, adding that the “mishandling” of the National Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment, in which scores of applicants died, is enough reason to send the ruling party at the centre packing.

    The governor, who called for a minute’s silence for the dead applicants, said the PDP-led Federal Government has failed Nigerians, especially the younger generation.

    He said: “My excitement today is tempered by the horrific news that we received a few days ago of the death of scores of young people who sought employment but were given death by the Federal Government.

    “The inhumane treatment meted out to our young people nationwide in the course of the NIS recruitment is a sad commentary on the degree of incompetence that pervades our Federal Government under the PDP. I strongly condemn this ugly incident, which is a shame to this country.”

    The governor urged Ekiti people to be vigilant in the “coming days” and not be deceived by desperate aspirants.

    He assured the people that the APC would continue to deliver good governance and expressed confidence that the party would win the governorship poll.

    Fayemi said the performance of APC governors has shown that the party is committed to the people, adding: “It must be noted that today is a landmark in our journey towards the consolidation of our work in rebuilding our state. We are also excited by the strength and stability that our party has been acquiring since we witnessed the historic merger of political parties in the country into a united front. It is clear to the blind and resounding to the ears of the deaf that this is the party that is the government in-waiting in Abuja.”

    He said he would run an issue-based campaign devoid of violence, adding that governance would not suffer during the electioneering period.

    Tumsah said Fayemi and his team have served Ekiti people well in their three-and-a-half years in office.

    He said the national body of the party has done its “reviews, investigation and evaluation” and sees Fayemi as “a true representative of the APC ideology”.

    Tumsah said Fayemi’s “reelection” would prove that the APC has been accepted as the change agent party in Nigeria.

    The party’s primary will hold on April 12. Ward congresses are slated for March 29. Local government congresses will hold on April 1 and the state congress on April 5.

    Izunaso described the APC as the fastest growing political party in the black world, with 16 governors and many lawmakers in less than one year of its emergence.

    ‘My re-election is ordained by God’ 

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has said his “reelection” is ordained.
    He spoke at the All Progressives Congress (APC) State Secretariat in Ado-Ekiti shortly after arriving from Abuja, where he obtained the party’s governorship nomination form.
    Fayemi said he is not in the race for material gains, adding: “We are not confused. We are very clear about where we have come from, where we are and where we are headed. When we started this journey, we said it is a collective rescue mission. That is the journey that has brought us this far. We are on the march again and we are unstoppable. We know that the journey has not reached an end because we have not finished the job. That is why we are in this race. It is to serve our people.”
    He thanked those “who have been with him on the journey”, adding that the task of repositioning Ekiti for the benefit of the masses has not ended.
    Fayemi said he was humbled by the love shown to him by party members and the people as his convoy journeyed from the Akure Airport to Ado-Ekiti.
    He said though the campaign has not officially kicked off and he would never do anything to violate the Electoral Act, it would be difficult to censor people’s love, adding that it was strictly a party affair, devoid of canvassing for votes.
    APC State Chairman Chief Jide Awe said the governor has shown that he his committed to the state’s growth and the best the party could do is to support his reelection bid.
    Awe said: “If we know where we are coming from and what we have gone through, we will appreciate the great things God has done for us. We are going to another critical level and with what we have seen at all levels, we are going to triumph on June 21.”

  • Ezekwesili, Fayemi’s wife for women conference

    Women’s role at nation-building will be in focus at this year’s Daughters of Destiny (DOD) Interdenominational Fellowship’s women conference.

    Tagged: The Woman as a Change Agent, the conference is a capacity building programme to charge and empower women from all walks of life as positive political, social, economic and spiritual change agents within their sphere of influence.

    According to the organisers, it is targeted at women of all age-groups and social status because women are the gatekeepers of the home and the nation. “There is a God given ability in every woman to travail and bring forth…. Women have wombs naturally and carry visions and birth destinies,” according to them.

    It will feature renowned women speakers such as wife of the Ekiti State governor and the Founder of the Ekiti State Development Fund, , Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi; Dr Oby Ezekwesili of Africa Economic Initiative Open Society Foundation and Pastor Nkoyo Rapu of Women of Change – This Present House.

    Others include Founder/President of Daughters of Destiny Fellowship, Pastor Busola Jegede; Prophetess Arthurine Wilkinson from Christ Worship Centre – Illinois USA and Dr Lucy Nganga Mbugua, Women of Grace – Kenya.

    The event, the second in the series, holds on Friday and Saturday at the Orchid Hotels, Lekki, Lagos. The event will also feature an unveiling of Succour For Women Care Foundation (SWCF), which is a new initiative at Daughters of Destiny geared towards providing medical outreaches and economic empowerment to the underprivileged women in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general.

    “We invite to this conference, women who have purpose and desire to add value to their own lives and the nation. DOD is charged with the vision to raise women both single and married, as intercessors for the family and nations. At DOD women are inspired, encouraged and taught how to maximise their potential by achieving purpose and backing up their vision with active and gainful ventures. Indeed, we have only one choice to be change agents otherwise we will be like salt that has lost its flavour according to Matthew 5:13. Certainly we do not want to lose our relevance and significance. God is waiting on us to fix the anomalies we see on our path everyday,” the organisers said.

  • Civil service crucial to good governance, says Fayemi

    Civil service crucial to good governance, says Fayemi

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has emphasised the need to rediscover the civil service as the creative hub of policy-making and implementation.

    He said the country would not work, if the civil service did not work.

    The governor spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti at the opening of the Fifth Summit of Heads of Service in Southwest states.

    He said the country needs dedicated bureaucrats to achieve policy objectives and keep governance focused on development.

    Stating that the civil service must be de-politicised and run as a meritocracy, Fayemi said people should not see the public service as “an irrelevant organisation filled with the slothful errand boys and girls of politicians” because it is the engine of governance and the fulcrum of policy implementation.

    He said: “It is imperative for us to recover the meaning of the civil service as the matrix of policy design and execution. It is the custodian of institutional memory and the engine of governance. By design, it is the technocratic hub of the state. This notion of the public service has been lost for decades and needs to be restored. Public servants, regardless of how high or low their station, are the preservers of good.”

    Fayemi said the effectiveness of politicians and public servants could only be measured by the increase in access to public goods, which he described as a barometer by which the health of the community is ascertained.

    On the benefits of regional integration, the governor said a remote central authority could not provide public goods to the people, not only because it lacks the capacity to do so, but also because most of the national developmental objectives fall within the purview of states and not the Federal Government.

    He said the “hybrid unitary-federalism” had condemned the grassroots to permanently anticipate the “charitable largesse of a distant central government”, hence the inability of most Nigerians to feel the impact of democracy since its return 15 years ago.

    Fayemi said it was easy for citizens to hold their government responsible where they feel its work was not commensurate with their investments.

    He recalled the benefits reaped by citizens under the regional government of the Western Region, led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    Blaming the country’s woes on the military’s dismantling of the First Republic’s federal structure and the oil boom, the governor said history showed that Nigeria was better off in under the First Republic’s federal model than the “unitarism of the military regimes and their civilian successors.”

    He justified his stance with the country’s per capita income of about $1,000 in 1966 and about $1,400 in 1973, which is presently about $1,200; “meaning that an average Nigerian earns less than half of the income in 1966 and has less access to a functional educational system.”

    Ekiti State Head of Service Bunmi Famosaya said the summit was a platform to implement the integration agenda of the Southwest and engage a peer review mechanism to facilitate a cross fertilisation of ideas among the heads of Service to identify the strength of each state.

    Famosaya said the civil service emerged the most crucial institution of government for the delivery of public values, adding that the government relies on it for the implementation of its programmes.

    He hailed the Fayemi administration for the premium it places on the workforce, noting that the governor has “reinvigorated” the service through the Civil Service Transformation Strategy and repositioned it to perform.

    Ogun State Head of Service Mrs. Modupe Adekunle said Ekiti State had changed positively from what it was when she visited in 1997.

    She hailed Fayemi for boosting the morale of workers.

    Also at the opening ceremony were Ekiti State Deputy Governor Prof. Modupe Adelabu; commissioners; World Bank consultant Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun; Southwest Coordinator of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) Sina Fagbenro-Byron; retired heads of service and serving permanent secretaries, among others.

  • Fayemi seeks constitutional amendment

    Fayemi seeks constitutional amendment

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has decried the flaws in the 1999 Constitution, saying it was foisted on the people by the military.

    He said constitutional reviews since 1999 had been “unduly politicised” and failed to produce an authentic national document.

    The governor spoke at a meeting between the states delegates to the national conference and stakeholders.

    The pre-national conference consultative summit was held at the Bishop Abiodun Adetiloye Hall in Ado-Ekiti.

    It was attended by rulers, religious leaders and representatives of communities, groups as well as associations.

    Activist lawyer Mr. Femi Falana was also present.

    Fayemi said the conference should evolve a people-oriented constitution that embodies the common aspirations of Nigerians. Stressing the need to review items on the concurrent, exclusive and residual lists, he said: “Nigeria has long been beset by a myriad of challenges. At present, the trend and tenor of our problems are alarming. The failure of the institutional machinery to steer this nation has left Nigerians disillusioned.

    “The problems facing us as we struggle to create a sustainable democracy and an equitable future tend to generate fear and anxiety; and often threaten the union of the federating states.”

    On resource control and fiscal federalism, Fayemi advocated the entrenchment of equity and justice, as well as stimulation of productivity with a functional resource control regime.

    He said the responsibilities of federating states places strong financial burdens on them as against the imbalance in favour of the central government.

    The governor said the sharing formula for the allocation of resources and revenue was lopsided, adding that oil producing states see non-oil producing states as parasites while the latter see the extra revenue accruable to the oil producing states based on derivation as an unnecessary indulgence.

    He said the over-reliance of states on the Federal Government inhibits the development of states, explaining that the practice of a semi-unitary system under the guise of federalism was harmful to the nation’s progress.

    Fayemi said: “Issues of national security, insurgency and terrorism should be handled by all tiers of government. This brings to mind the establishment of multi-level policing. Since national security is not an issue of peculiar interest and concern to the Federal Government, there should be room for policing to encompass a comprehensive security network for the wellbeing of the citizenry. I also hope that attention would be given to these issues during your deliberations.”

    One of the delegates, Dr. Kunle Olajide, said the Yoruba do not intend to request secession, but it is expedient to discuss secession and tackle it in the interest of national unity.

    Olajide, who also advocated a parliamentary system, called for the decentralisation of the country into regions.