Tag: secretary

TODAY, you are marking your 85th birthday but before now, many had thought that your birthday fell on September 6, but you have just discovered that it was on October 1, how do you feel about this?

I want to say that it is the grace of God and sheer coincidence. Let me go back to history a bit. About October 1951, we were to go to Ilesha Grammar School to write the Senior Cambridge Certificate Examination. Ilesha Grammar School was the nearest centre to Ekiti then. Those of us who were in Form Six in Christ’s School were asked to either go and swear to an affidavit or bring birth certificate as to our age. And in those days, asking a Form Six student to go and bring a birth certificate then was like asking him for the moon. What was a birth certificate to a rural boy like myself?

So, what happened then was that I went to the Assistant District Officer (ADO)’s office to swear to an affidavit and just guessed that I must have been born on September 6, 1931 being on a Sunday and I stuck to that up to about six months ago when I was going through my father’s handwritten diary. He opened the diary in 1913 and I saw the diary, I saw the notation about all his children in order of seniority. And I saw the one about me where he wrote 1, in figure October, 1931 and in Yoruba he said “eyi je ojo ti abi bose Ladeji” (the day I was given birth to). So, I had to write to my children to apologise that I have misled them and they have to accept it in happy mood.

Particularly, as you said, the date coincided with the independence of Nigeria and the creation of Ekiti, my beloved state. How fulfilled are you as you are marking your birthday?

It is providential, work of God. The coincidence is so revealing of the handiwork of God in my life. I took up the fight for a separate identity for Ekiti gratuitously like that, headlong without minding what problems or headache that I would face. I had just retired as a permanent secretary at the old Ondo State and I moved to this building then, it was new then.

My experience both in the Western Region and Ondo State informed me that except we here got a state of our own, we would not achieve the maximum of which God has earmarked for us.

So, I got a few friends , picked them from the then 12 local governments of Ekiti sector of the old Ondo and we were holding meetings in my main sitting room bi-monthly on Wednesdays. Hence, we called ourselves the Wednesday Group. So the third meeting of that group, we changed our name to the Committee for the Creation of Ekiti State because it was our primary objective which we concealed until time was appropriate. We also went to enlist the support of the Obas led by the present Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe, and together with the Council of Obas, we struggled for six and half years before we got Ekiti State.

Now, as a person, I’m completely fulfilled because I’m contented with my lot in life. Look at me, I was born and raised in a rural area, although with strict parental discipline. I was lucky to go to some of the best schools around. I went to Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti. I went to Fourah Bay College which was founded in 1823. I went to the University College, Ibadan. I went to the University of Ife, for short courses; I went to the World Bank headquarters in Washington to do graduate studies in project management. I went to the University of Pennsylvania to do project analysis. All these were to prepare me for the life which God put me through later.

And today, I lack nothing; the basic things of life, my needs are so modest, God does not give me my wants, He gives me my needs. I thank God for the situation, so I’m fulfilled. But it is another thing for the state.

Can you share some of the places you have worked?

I arrived in the country in December 1959 after I graduated in Economics from Freetown, I started work with the UAC which was a big conglomerate with more investment than any other group in West Africa. I was the first graduate employee. Two of us, late Jide Faloye of Akure and I, were employed.

The other African managers who came before us moved along the management ladder from salesman to sales supervisor etc. We came in straight as management trainees. So, I was the first Nigerian graduate to be a manager of the UAC. So, I worked in Ibadan, Warri, Sapele as sales manager for the company. I left the place in 1962 and got appointment with then West Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) located at the Secretariat. I worked then in the industrial office. Later they transferred me to Lagos, Ikeja Industrial Estate. The Western Region then extended to Eti-Osa, from Sapele, Asaba, Benin to Lagos.

At the Ikeja Industrial Estate, we had about 12 associated companies and subsidiaries. They built an office for me and it was the best in Ikeja then. I was supervising government investments, Dunlop Industries, Nigerian Textile Mills, Guinness and gulvanised iron sheets, they were about eight of them in Ikeja then.

I had some companies in Ilupeju and Apapa Industrial Estates.

Later I was transferred back to Ibadan in 1963. It marked the beginning of the turmoil between Awolowo and Akintola. Unfortunately, some of us were seen to have taken sides with Awolowo and we were sent out of the public service, I topping the list because I was the most senior officer.

So, I went out and got appointment with SO Oil, which was the then biggest oil company followed by Mobil, as sales representative and later sales supervisor until after the first coup when Adekunle Fajuyi was transferred to Ibadan as military governor. He then sent out what amounted to an instruction that anybody who was sent out in the previous regime, out of the public service without any blemish other than political, should be retained and made to return to his earlier post. But what happened was that before that instruction was carried out, there was this other coup in July same year, 1966 when Fajuyi and his boss, then military head of state, Major-Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, were killed.

It however fell on to the luck of now General Adeyinka Adebayo (then Brigadier Adebayo), who succeeded Fajuyi, to carry on the instruction of his younger brother and I came in then as personnel officer, industrial officer and so on got more promotions.

Later on WNDC was changed to Industrial Investment and Credit Corporation (IICC), the predecessor of now Oodua investment. I rose from industrial officer to industrial manager.

What later happened was that there was another coup, which led to the shedding of overweight officers in the public service. The public service then consisted of the civil service proper, statutory corporations, the judiciary and the academia. Some professors, permanent secretaries and general managers were sent out and the criteria then were old age, low productivity and absence of integrity and such like. I was then Director of Investment in the IICC, and only had a boss above me. He was General Manager. Even though I was more qualified than him, he had come from the favoured place, Ogun, which had always been more favoured from those of us from Ondo province.

He didn’t send my name to be retired at first but Major Gen. David Jemibewon was the governor and he was insisting then that there must be some people in the IICC who met any of the criteria too.

So, he had to send my name among eight others. The others were just messengers, cleaners, and some of them were eighty years old, while others were above 70. I was about 49 then and the retirement age was 55. So, I didn’t qualify for the retrenchement in any shape or form but I was just the next to him in the department. But he had picked me out as his enemy because I asked too many questions. I didn’t compromise and I didn’t hobnob. If you asked me to do 10 units of work, I would do 12. I made sure that there was nothing that you could criticise me for. He was compelled to send some names, he sent nine names and my name topped the list of the people to be retired.

Unfortunately for him, the then Secretary to the Government and Head of Service, referred the letter to the governor. Later on I got the information about what transpired between the head of service and the governor. The head of service had said that this is the list from the IICC in Cocoa House. ‘This one was promoted director six months ago. His name has been listed as number one among the people to go. Your Excellency might wish to direct that I should ask the General Manager why number one should go.’ This is because he didn’t specify which of the criteria I met there.

So, when GM got that information, he wrote back that ‘I’m sorry, the others should go, this number should be retained’ but when Jemibewon saw the letter, he literarily hit the roofs and wrote back with a red biro: ‘This man is dishonest,’ he undelined dishonest.

‘He should go now.’ He underlined now. ‘Fasuan should take his place.’ That was how I became the Chief Executive of the IICC by accident. And the one hitherto above me was dismissed for lack of evidence for recommending someone who was okay to be retired.

That was the situation of things until Ondo State was created in 1976 and my corporation was changed to a limited liability company, Oodua Investment Company.

The portfolio of Oodua Investment Company today, I donated 70 percent of them all.

The first military governor of Ondo State literally begged me to come to Ondo State and perform the same duty I was doing in Ibadan. To head the IICC in Ondo State which was the hen that was laying the golden eggs then. So I came to Akure and founded the IICC branch of Ondo and within a year, I built the corporation which till today remains the best public corporation building in Akure. I ran a very profitable company, but the politicians came in 1979, and they had their eyes on my corporation. The secretary of the party, UPN, a late friend of mine from Akure, Bunmi Adegbonmire,said he wanted to be the full-time chairman of the company instead of part-time chairman of the then Ondo State Investment Corporation. And he gave it as a condition then that Fasuan must be moved as General Manager and the then governor, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, complied because he was the secretary of the party then.

They gave him a commissioner in the state then but he refused and opted for the corporation.  I have been receiving persecution because of my strong beliefs and principles, and I have no regrets. So, I was moved to be General Manager of the Water Corporation. The headquarters of Ondo State Water Corporation then was in Ondo town, so I was commuting between Ondo and Akure on a daily basis and I was always the one to get to the office first before every other person.

When I got to Ondo, I met some funny things. First of all, I was regarded as an outsider. The edict setting up the Ondo Water Corporation required an engineer, not just an engineer but a civil engineer to be the chief executive and I was a common economist. So, they went to the House, moved a motion, threatening Ajasin with impeachment if he failed to remove me again. Ajasin had to remove me again the third time. In all the three times I was removed, the only one I can say I took responsibility for was the first time we were asked to leave public service because we took sides with Awolowo against Akintola as public servants.

They sent me out of the Water Corporation until later then they made up their mind and made me a permanent secretary in February 1980 and I moved to several miniseries before another coup again took place and I became a victim of that coup again. They didn’t want Ekiti boys in the public service in Akure, Ondo State capital, then. We were about 52 percent of the workforce then. An Akure man was installed military administrator, he was Bamidele Otiko. He was incidentally my junior by three years in Christ’s School. They asked Otiko to dismiss me but because he couldn’t find anything against me, he had to sent me to what we used to call “Kwara posting” then. He sent me to Ado-Ekiti which was called “Kwara posting” or punishment posting then. He sent me as General Manager, Agric. They swore that they knew Fasuan, he would resign the next day, but they were disappointed, I didn’t resign. I resigned at the age of 55 in 1986, the statutory age, as permanent secretary, General Manager.  I kept my cool, did my work and had enough time to build this house. I had very little to do and was closer to my people.

So, I began to think that my experience Western Region and Ondo State demands that God has kept my life so that I can do something. I was preaching within myself that I have overcome several cases of persecution, so as to do something for myself.

So, I founded a body called the Wednesday Group in which we collected about 24 Ekiti indigenes. Their pictures are with me. There were three structures of those of us who participated in the creation of Ekiti State. First was my committee, the second was the Council of Obas whose support we got through the Ewi as we realised our limitations to speak to the Federal Government as ordinary Nigerians. The Ewi, who was barely three months old on throne then, did us very proud as he gathered all the Obas and gave us the opportunity to speak with them and convince them on the project.

Some of my colleagues in our own committee were my late deputy, the late Jonny Ajayi; the treasurer, the late Ojo Falegan from Ado; the financial secretary, Dr. Kunle Olajide, of Efon, Director of Social; the late Victor Omodara of Oye-Ekiti; media director, Dr. Aladetoyinbo from Ado-Ekiti and many others. I must also mention this, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) also played a prominent role in our struggle for statehood. He was doing it singlehandedly in Ibadan. He had easy access to the ruling military. He used that access to enhance our capability to having a state. It was Babalola who pleaded our case formally before the Arthur Mbanefo panel for state and local government creations. It was he who delivered all our papers to them. He did this wonderfully well.

Would you say that the visions and dreams as founding fathers of Ekiti have been achieved?

I must admit that our highest objectives, views and proposals or dreams have not been realised. We came to know Nigerian character more after the state was created.

Particularly, we came to know the Ekiti character more when the state was created. There is a disease in Ekiti more than anywhere in Nigeria, it is Ilara, Itara, meaning envy. It has no referral hospital, it has no LUTH or UCH. They will say ‘Who is he? What is he now that we didn’t know about? It is everywhere but most prevalent in Ekiti. All the civil servants and commissioners of Ekiti descent that we inherited from Akure were against me and the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti. They told the foundation governor, Inua Bawa that Ewi and myself were running a parallel government.

They ensured that there was a gulf between Ewi and myself on one side and military administrator Bawa on the other side, until Bawa knew they were deceiving him and he made rectification. He begged me to go and be a non-executive director representing Ekiti State’s interest at the Oodua Investment company. After that, I was nominated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as federal commissioner for Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission in Abuja. I didn’t know Obasanjo from Adam then. That was 1999.

Within a space of 20 years, Ekiti has had 11 executives, some phoney ones, other running for just 24 hours. There was a particular day that there were three contending governors in Ekiti: The man they had illegally dismissed, the deputy who said she was acting in that capacity and the Speaker who by constitution, should succeed the affected governor.

We have not had the best in Ekiti man as governor. That is the honest truth. Each of them has tried his best in the light that they see it but they do not epitomise our vision. All of them are just to me ADOs (Assistant District Officers) or Ajeles in Yoruba of the colonial times. They were born in Ekiti but bred elsewhere. They don’t share the fundamentals; they don’t know where the shoe pinches. They are also expatriates of Ekiti. They don’t appreciate the fundamental requirements of this place; they don’t know how Ekiti came about.

During our struggles, we travelled to Abuja 13 times, saw the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Ilorin, Emir of Zaria, the late Dr. Olusola Saraki, father of the incumbent Senate President, Bukola Saraki, among others, to persuade General Sani Abacha who was the Head of State then. We met Abacha three times. Abacha of all people, I stood before him, reading papers to him as chairman of the committee. We prepared 24 papers, which we carried to Abuja to discuss with Abacha and the members of the then Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) or so.

We travelled day and night and sometimes, we ran out of fuel and had to sleep where the car stopped in the bush. But no regrets for all that, the only regret is that now that all the beneficiaries from A to Z, did not participate in that struggle, did not visualise or think that a thing like a state could happen here.

You admitted that your visions, dreams have not been achieved…

But despite all the litany of woes that I have recounted, one thing remains, for as long as Nigeria exists, there will continue to be an Ekiti State, that is just my consolation.

What words do you have for Ekiti at 20 and Nigeria at independence celebration?

Ekiti people should embrace the essentials of life rather than the imponderables. We are too childish in our views. We are too pedestrian; we should be looking at noble things. We should gravitate to higher climes in our thoughts, tastes, not childish. For Nigerians, they should be patient enough. The ills of the past 17 years cannot be cured in 15 months. The cumulative effect of misrule, bad rule, manipulations, looting and the interface and interplay of the effect of a mono-product economy… We were selling 2.2m per barrels per day at $140; now we are selling I.6 million barrels per day at $40, who is the magician that would make things work? We ought to have had recession about a year ago. So, we should be patient enough.

As we say in economics, there should be backward integration. The primary products which we exported into products in the past into Europe and America should now be processed home. And we should intensify our agricultural productivity. What values do you want our generation to share to have a better life? The noble ideas of inviolate integrity, total commitment to what you are doing and hope in the future.

What is your philosophy of life?

The happiest man is the contented man.

What are your happiest and most memorable moments in life?

I won’t really pinpoint, I’ve had many sad, happy and memorable moments. I would say the day Ekiti was created. Almost all the people in Ado poured into my house then. We contested with about six others to get the state. The Oduduwa State team, being led by the late Ooni of Ife; the Ijebu State team, Coastal State, Oke Ogun State and Ekiti State and we were the least financially endowed of all these. The whole money I collected for that six and half years we fought for the creation of Ekiti was N2.3 million and we accounted for the money to the last kobo.

Were there any moment in life you thought you were near death?

There have been many moments, but at 85, you live day by day. Let’s leave it like that.

What regrets?

There was a particular action I took which I later regretted. I offended one of my daughters. It was a higher ideal. She was admitted at the University of Ado-Ekiti to read Economics, she has a first class brain, but I changed it to Banking and Finance. It was the days mushroom banks were sprouting up like mushrooms, so I thought she would rise as a banker. When she was employed, she was made an accountant instead of an administrative officer. She has been in England since then. I have apologised to her and she has forgiven me.