Why I consider my wife as a chief adviser – Governor Fayemi

Can you, please give us a rundown of what you have done in the past eleven month? I don’t know how much you know about the history of Ekiti, but the history of Ekiti is not different from that of any struggling  state, particularly badly managed over the last years. During that period Ekiti was […]

Can you, please give us a rundown of what you have done in the past eleven month?

I don’t know how much you know about the history of Ekiti, but the history of Ekiti is not different from that of any struggling  state, particularly badly managed over the last years. During that period Ekiti was largely  under  the control of the Peoples Democratic Party and  also in a period of emergency rule. The most important thing that we’ve done is to restore the core values of Ekiti people. I mean the values of integrity, of character of hardwork, of compassion for the ordinary people, of  a sense of community rather than the individual. The previous government did not feel that they should be accountable to the People of Ekiti. And that disconnect between the people and the governors became the byword for the kind of irresponsible behavior we witnessed. Things have degenerated in Ekiti. Yes, we have professors, but most of our professors are either ageing or outside, and the ones that are in are not exactly of the quality and standard that we used to have in the past. So, when we came in we had an educational stake holders’ summit that reviewed a lot of things that had happened in the educational sector.

One of the things we did was to take a closer look at our universities.   I know what a university is, a proper university.  We decided that instead of parading the glorified secondary schools that we had as universities in Ekiti, because the last administration created three universities in one fall swoop in a state that could barely manage one university properly.  We decided that those three universities should be merged and we should pour in more resources. And we have received huge commendations both from the National Universities Commission and the Federal Executive Council for that singular step,  because it is not exactly a popular step,  as you can expect. Communities who lose out in such things are not necessarily going to be happy. But we owe it a duty to say to the people that part of the challenges of leadership is also to take tough decisions; tough decisions are not necessarily going to be popular in the short run, but over the long term they would recognize the reason why we had to do that.

Employment is very critical to us because we produce so many graduates, HND, ND NCE, University graduates. And we’ve also focused on that. We’ve brought in about five thousand young graduates in to what we call the Volunteer Corps. And they are engaged in variety of sectors.  We also feel that agriculture is central in our eight point agenda. We are an agrarian state. Yes, we are very well learned. We are a literate state. But by and large we are a rural people. We are a land-locked state in the deep hinterland in between Lagos and Abuja. It is exactly equidistant between Lagos and Abuja. And luckily we have a very good climatic condition.  So, we feel that we need to elevate the agric sector that we’ve got from subsistence, which is largely what we do, to agric as business. So, we have been doing that.

Of course, health care is critical to us  and one of the very first things we put in place was  our free health service which covers  the vulnerable set of our population, children, pregnant women, the elderly and the physically challenged. In addition we hold dear to the principle of expanding our economic base through tourism and environmental sustainability because we feel that Ekiti has something that has not been exploited, ditto in the solid minerals sector. But above all I think where we have managed to restore those values I talked about more than anything else is in re-professionalizing our public service. I could go on and on.

Did the Action Congress of Nigeria have any deal with the PDP ahead of the 2011 presidential election?

I want to state categorically, without any fear of contradiction, because I was involved as one of the party’s negotiators with the CPC, so I know more than the general run-of-the-mill information on what transpired in these matters. I know that at no time did the Action Congress of Nigeria enter into any deal, direct, indirect, subtle, under the table, over the table or above the table deal with the PDP. We will never, as a party, enter in to that deal, and we never did. What gave that impression largely were the difficulties that were encountered in our negotiation with the CPC, which became public because we were desirous as a party to ensure that the opposition came together before that election to achieve a better result than we did. And that is what partly led others to accuse us of jettisoning our candidate because they knew that we were determined to forge a successful alliance with other opposition elements. And we were not going to be deterred even if that meant releasing our presidential slot to somebody who was not our candidate, provided the person was going to run under the platform our party. And the only thing that led to the breakdown was that the figure we are talking about. Somebody I have great deal of respect for, because I worked with him at close point and I knew that he would  really have  been of huge service to our country,  said that he was even not ready to run on our platform. And we felt we could not, by any stretch of imagination, release the presidency in terms of the candidature and also release the party platform in a party which at the time had four governors, several senators, several House of Representative members,  to a party that was at best, at least, at that time, a shape of things .Let me put it that way because there was nothing on the table that the CPC had. So, when people say we entered into a deal, we never did, because there was no reason to have entered in to a deal. At the same time,  one thing we (politicians) have to always run away from is playing God. We cannot play God. We cannot determine by fiat the way voters will behave. And I can tell you freely because I was involved. I lost to PDP in the presidential election in my state.  I mean my party lost to PDP. Yes, it was close in Ekiti. But, a loss is a loss. They had 52-48% or there about, it was still a loss. But I knew the amount of the work we did in order to ensure that we win that election, but I also saw the reaction in the field. We have a huge Igbo community in Ekiti. And they told me before the election that Your Excellency,  we will vote for your party, but  for presidential, no. We won’t.  And we must not underestimate the sophistication of an average Nigerian voter. People have gotten round to defining their interests in a variety of ways. What they used to call skirt and blouse voting in Ghana is basically what we experienced. Some people chose for a variety of reasons, ethnic, religious, etc. The Pentecostals, for example, who saw Mr President kneeling before Pastor Adeboye saw  a powerful image. You and I may sit here because we are not Pentecostal and not agree with that.  But I know many Pentecostals who are very strong supporters of  my party, who, for that single reason, decided to do that. And that was also why General Buhari  decided, and I believe, in response to the yearnings of some of the people in his constituency, to go for a pastor as his vice-presidential running mate and to go visiting  the same Pastor  Adeboye prior to that election. So, there are dynamics and nuances that we haven’t interpreted well that I believe we ought to. And to just simplistically conclude that ACN did a deal, no one has come to really give me any evidence of that. And I should know because I was involved.

Is the ACN intimidated by the fact that the Code of Conduct Bureau has decided to put Senator Bola Tinubu on trial?

What is happening at the Code of Conduct Bureau today amounts to nothing else but judicial lynching.  That is what it is. I am not going to dress it up or use diplomatic language or try to dodge or hedge, no. My own reading of it is that it is judicial lynching. And our party has already described what is going on as part of an elaborate scheme to remove somebody that the PDP really nurses nightmare against and believe that unless we take him out , we will run into serious problems.  I don’t see why three months down the line what we choose to distract ourselves with is either seven-year tenure, on the one hand or taking Tinubu to court, on the other. And this is dangerous. I am not an ethnic jingoist by any stretch of imagination. If the government of Nigeria is not involved in what is going on at the CCB, I even see a much more dangerous trend. I see the dangerous trend of a fifth-columnist trying to undermine this government and trying to create a major enmity between the government and the people of South-western Nigeria.  I will even prefer that the presidency is fully in the picture and that they are the ones that they are manipulating this from behind than to imagine that what we are seeing is not the presidency.  And don’t forget, we have a history here of our leaders in the South-West, whether you take Awolowo and the whole event surrounding the Koka Commission then  the treasonable felony trial second, and we know how that ended in this country. Or you take Abiola or you even take Bola Ige. Tinubu may not be a saint, but if there is one person who has stood like a rock of Gibraltar against dictatorship either of the civilian type or of the unelected type in this country, it is Bola Tinubu. And I will hate a situation where the perception becomes rife that this is an orchestrated, organized, arranged lynch mob.  And that is what it is beginning to look like. We shall see how it is all going to end.

Why does the ACN take more than a passive interest in the Salami issue?

The ACN naturally takes more than a passive interest in every matter that smacks of suppression of cheating, of a denigration of right and the rule of law in this country. I don’t think any party in this country can produce a record of resistance to all forms of oppression and all forms of attack against the rule of law than ACN.  It is not because we are associated with Salami or we are associated with Katsina Alu. It is simply that at  the Action Congress of Nigeria we believe that many of us fought hard for  this democracy. So, we do everything possible to protect this democracy. And protecting the judiciary which is the last bastion, if you take the judiciary and you take the press, every other institution has always been bastardised.  And ACN as a party cannot pretend not see the shenanigans that have been going on. We see the way our cases are tactically being knocked out, in Akwa-Ibom and, of course, lately in Benue. I am not a lawyer, but I spent three and a half years in court. So, I am almost one now, honorary. The difference between substantive justice and technical justice has dominated our jurisprudence and our statue books in the last few years. Significantly, most cases that have been knocked out on technical grounds in lower courts were eventually at the Supreme Court level returned for hearing. So, I have no doubt in my mind that by the time what happened in Akwa-Ibom and Benue go to the Supreme Court, we may hear a different thing. And now let me stress that this is not about those who are occupying those offices, not at all. Gabriel Suswam is my in-law and my friend. I like him. I respect him. But this is about justice. If at the end of the day he is proven to have won on ground of substantive treatment of the case, not a technical knock-out at the pre-trial stage, it will be a different matter.

You were an activist; now in politics. Isn’t there a conflict of interest here?

I do not see a conflict between my role now as governor and my previous life as activist. I actually see it as an extension. What were the things that took me in to student union activism or pro-democracy activism? They were the same issues we’ve been talking about: respect for the rights, inalienable rights of  all individuals, respect for community, accountable governance, democratic space. Those were the things we fought for in the anti-military pro-democracy struggle. Those were the things I ran Radio Kudirat for. It wasn’t just as a fad. It wasn’t as a fashion. It was because I genuinely believed it was the right thing to do when we did it.

What role does your wife play in government?

My wife’s role?  Well, I can tell you that she has no official role because there is a strange arrangement, but I think ultimately democratic arrangement refuses to give unelected officials role in government. To that extent,  she doesn’t have any role.  But my wife comes from the civil society. She has been active in her own right. She has a track record of feminist activism. And,  to that extent, it is difficult for her to just sit back and keep quiet. She is my chief adviser on many things, unofficially of course. But we also know that it is in my interest to also listen to some of those advices. But much more seriously she has been really involved both with our women folk and with the men in the party to re-orientate us on the need to have more women in public life. For the first time, with her assistance, I am not denying that  and many of our party leaders will not deny that, we managed to get four women into our House of Assembly because she insisted that we really must do that. She also encouraged me to have a female deputy. So, we have a female as deputy governor in our state. In addition to that she helped put together a range of policy framework. She has also supported them. She used to run an African Women Fund. She supported women in Ekiti.  We don’t have a first lady in Ekiti. We have a wife of the governor. To that extent she has been very supportive.

The rise of ACN is seen as the triumph of ethnic politics in the South-West. How would you react to this statement?

You know that is not true. I have also heard something like that. But let’s check the records. ACN has seats in Plateau, in Kogi. We have seats in Benue. We have seats in Adamawa. We have even one in Kaduna. That means that this is a party that has striven very hard to maintain a national outlook. Yes, it is unarguable that the South-West was the launch-pad for that national project. The ACN pure and simple, and you should look at our constitution and our manifesto, please, is a social democratic party that is dedicated to strengthening the fabric of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There are no two ways about it. A lot of people, regardless of party affiliation or ethnic affiliation, have come to respect Governors Fashola and Oshiomohle, for their transparency. And, for me, that is greatest thing that can sell us as a party. It is not that we are strong in the South-West or weak in any other place. It is what Nigerians really want to see: performance in office an accountable and transparent government. But let me also say it as a political scientist that there is actually nothing to be apologetic for, even if we were to be an ethnic construct, so to speak.

Civil servants in Ekiti State are on strike because you said you would pay the minimum wage to only levels one to seven. Why is it so?

Yes, you are right. Our workers are on strike because they claimed I said I am only going to pay levels one to seven, and I am not going to pay minimum wage to eight to seventeen. Well, I am glad the negotiator is here. She can talk to you about it. The Commissioner for Labour is here.  We have not said that. What we have said is that the minimum wage really and truly will pass to the lowest rung of the ladder. And anywhere the minimum wage has been applied around the world it is not an across-the-board principle. It either deals with workers that don’t have security of tenure, hourly-paid workers, daily-paid workers are the ones that minimum wage applies to in many, many countries. Not workers that are already paid much more than the minimum wage and have a range of other benefits. And what we said was that we will bring everybody who is now below N18,000 to the level of the minimum wage  and those above in a prioritised format. But we cannot have the same percentage. If your wage bill is two billion naira, and you want to increase that across the board, hundred percent for every worker, up to the highest paid worker, you can literarily just go and shut down the government. It will not be possible for you. And that is why we said we cannot apply the principle that brought most lowly paid workers to up to the minimum wage level to the other official. Once we have agreed either as the ACN or  as the Governors’ Forum  that we will pay, it is a law. And we will comply with the law. We will not break the law. Minimum wage properly defined, applies  to those who are not at the level.  In our own case, we also feel that our workers have not been fair to us because we have very, very productive relationship with them. I came in;  I restored all the benefits they lost in the previous administration. I restored car loan. I restored housing loan, study loan. I restored all that.  It is not the case of won’t pay. It is a case of can’t pay.