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
