I am forever concerned about governors that rode into office on the crest of popular acclaim, something akin to a revolution. I, therefore, watch them, keep tabs, and pray that they will not move from hero to zero, from Junior Jesus to Junior Judas (as J.J Rawlings was once described in Ghana, before he regained the confidence, love and support of his people). One of the governors in this number is Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. Remember how he came from nowhere politically to give the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a bloody nose in 2007? He had an intellectual and activist background, and was quite close to the media.
He was among those who ran Radio Freedom (which later became Radio Kudirat) from exile abroad, during the dark days of Sani Abacha dictatorship. My goodwill and good wishes followed Fayemi all through the tribunal battles to retrieve his mandate, which had been snaffled by the PDP in 2007, down to the rerun elections in 2009, the debacle in Ido/Osi local government, Madam Ayoka’s Christian conscience, till victory was won at the Court of Appeal on October 15, 2010. The next day, Fayemi was inaugurated as governor amidst delirious joy, with the hearts of the Ekiti man and woman suffused with rapture, bliss, and felicity.
The only other thing you could compare with it was the day Dr Olusegun Mimiko had been declared governor of Ondo State by the court in February 2009. At Fayemi’s emergence, the hearts of majority of Ekiti people had been filled with an ethereal glow, except perhaps for PDP members, who were like King Lear at his worst. They were naturally gloomy, sepulchral and disconsolate. By the end of his first year in office, however, I had my fears for Fayemi. Much did not seem to be happening in Ekiti to transform the lives of the people, and turn the state around in terms of infrastructure and good governance. In fact, Ekiti people had begun to call him Fayehun or Fayewon, meaning a man who has not kept his promises. Will this hero become zero? I was worried stiff.
This week, the Ekiti State governor celebrated two years in office, which is the mid-term of his four-year mandate. But the song in Ekiti is changing, and the dance steps are following suit. The works Fayemi has been painstakingly doing in two years are beginning to emerge, eyes are beginning to see them, and ears hear about them. I like the way Yemi Adaramodu, Chief of Staff to the governor, captured it in an interaction we had in Ado-Ekiti: “It was very hot by this time last year. I was not going out again, to avoid the people and their questions. They did not know that governance is like a woman who is pregnant. There’s a period of gestation.
She does not deliver the same day she gets pregnant. I knew the governor would live by his words, he is a performer, but the people were very impatient. Now, things have started blossoming, and the people have now seen that Mr Governor is like a bomb, he has exploded.” Yes, a good bomb has exploded, sending its reverberations across the Ekiti landscape. I saw it, so it is not a question of ‘them say.’ Fayemi’s works are emerging in the areas of good quality road network across the local governments, human capital development with youths empowered in diverse ways to acquire skills and to return to the farms, while there is massive renovation of decrepit and collapsing schools. Agriculture has taken a boost through YCAD (Youths for Commercial Agriculture Development), the psyche of the Ekiti man and woman is being reoriented through the branding of the state as Ile iyi, Ile eye, land of honour, of integrity, of hard work.
And most delightful to me is the social security scheme for the elderly, in which senior citizens without pensions, are registered and paid N5,000 monthly. It means a lot to these old people, whose latter end is being made relatively comfortable and stress-free. The project sets back the government financially to the tune of N100 million monthly, but why not? Let it be double or triple that amount. Is governance not about touching the lives of the people again? And it must be people at all strata of society. Yes, Fayemi has issues with teachers, who are vigorously resisting an attempt to recertify or brush their skills through written tests, and also with local government workers, whom he has even sued for libel when they accused him of tampering with their allocations. But by and large, “he has exploded like a bomb,” and the next two years will position him favourably in the annals of history, if he keeps up the pace.
Trust the Ekiti man, when he’s not happy, he tells you to your face. And in the first year, while he was planning and growing his ideas, the people told the governor point blank that they were not happy with him. Fayemi told me he was not overtly bothered, as he knew that time would ultimately vindicate him. But his wife, Erelu Bisi? She said: “It was a tense period, because when you get negative feedback, it gets to you. I’m glad it was a phase that passed, people can now look back, and see that Rome was not built in a day. There was a lot of cynicism in the first year, some people felt we had not done enough, but they didn’t seem to realise that we started from Ground Zero. All kinds of things were said, but those working closely with him knew my husband was laying the foundation for future years of delivery. I was low and reflective, but now, my enthusiasm is revived and sustained as people can see results.” Gov Fayemi has not talked of a second term in office yet. But the wife is looking ahead.
“Yes, if he wants it, he has my support. But the people will decide,” she said during our interaction. The woman is sharp, and can hold her own any day. Rightly so too. With a B.A and M.A in History from the then University of Ife, and a master’s in Gender and Society from Middlesex University, United Kingdom, and many years of activism on women and development issues, you don’t expect any less. But then, she must be under a lot of pressure due to the demands of her office as first lady? “Definitely,” she confesses.
“I get a lot of mails, a lot of invitations, I’m under a lot of pressure. But people tend to forget that we don’t have a lot of resources. People need to make a distinction between the office of the first lady and the person.” But would she want the role of the governor’s wife recognized by the constitution, so that the office can get some official funding? “Not necessarily,” the Erelu of Ishan Kingdom in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti, stated. “The role needs to be recognised, even though it may not be written into the constitution. In the U.S, the role has evolved over a long time, and Americans can’t envisage a president without a first lady. I’m hoping that our democracy will grow to that level.”
Two activists as husband and wife, how do they then run the home? She confesses it is tough, a fact attested to by the governor when he disclosed that there are times his wife “wants her husband to herself, without sharing him with the public.” Talking of sharing, how many women does Erelu Fayemi have to share her man with? A quizzical look, showing she needed to get the question right, so I re-phrased it. “Men tend to play away games.
Are there women who share your husband with you?” Silence. You can see that the almost unflappable woman has been rattled, and was looking for the right words. What kind of question is this, she must have asked herself quietly. Journalists are truly nosey parkers. Then she recovered her composure, and declared: “My husband is still my husband any day.” Meaning that even if some women share him, they can’t take him away. He remains my husband. True? So I confronted the governor with the same question the next day.
How does it feel sharing yourself between your wife and the public? He first thought I meant the loss of privacy that goes with a position like his own. And he said: “I don’t know any politician of this standing you meet, who will not admit to loss of privacy. I can’t spend time with the family, as I would want to. But having been married for 24 years, romance is not as hot and heavy as in the early days. But we are very close. We have gone through thick and thin together, both in exile and at home. We have a certain understanding that is difficult for outsiders to penetrate. That’s what keeps us going. The pressure is always there, but she’s actively involved in my work. I always say Ekiti people have two for the price of one. It’s tough but we can weather the storm. Marriage is not permanently a bed of roses, it is not a permanent high- o
ctane event, there are always times of highs and lows. The issue is to push for more highs than low. “I’m a very private person, which is really a contradiction in terms for a politician. I don’t like social events. I’m not like my brother, Ayo Fayose, who is good at connecting with the people. I’m still learning the ropes there, but my wife is good at it, and she rescues me in that area. I thank her for it.” You tell the governor he has not really answered your question. So, you re-phrase it. “I’m asking of those who share you with your wife, particularly women, in terms of extra-curricular activities.” The guffaw from Fayemi almost brought the roof of Government House down. It was about 2.a.m on that fateful day, and the laughter roused the first lady from her sleep, and she joined us in the study, where the interview was taking place.
The governor embraced her, and said: “You didn’t tell me that Femi had asked you about extra-curricular activities yesterday.” They both went into prolonged laughter, and the governor said some things that are very, very private. You want to know them? Well, I keep them close to my chest, as demanded by the number one citizen of Ekiti State. Lest anyone accuses me of being ‘kiss-and-tell.’
TheSun
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