Fayemi at 60: Looking back at his legacy of service, by Sunday Aikuirawo
When he was born on February 9, 1965 to the illustrious family of Falade Fayemi, the information officer extraordinaire, the family did not think twice to decide his name. He was christened Olukayode Folorunso. The two names signified the mood of the family. He was the one who has brought a redemptive joy, especially to a boy-seeking mother after a row of beautiful girls before him.
He grew up in wisdom, and more sagely than his peers. Right from his adolescence, he had the comportment of an elder and the intellect of a scholar. Rather than mingle with boys to have a taste of boyhood, young John Kayode Fayemi dedicated himself to the Catholic altar where he diligently assisted the priests in their ecclesiastical Eucharist and other pastoral duties. At Christ School, Ado-Ekiti, he was the mobile encyclopedia of current affairs. He was indeed nicknamed “Current Affairs” because of his indomitable capacity to precisely recall current affairs issues of profound political significance, globally.
Even as a teenager, his words were seasoned with insights and his conducts draped with maturity. He was never frivolous but was ever serious with everything he chose to do. These traits are still indubitably present in him today. As he grew older, he began to pick his way to where his passion was greater: the desire for social justice and egalitarian society. He was already becoming radical in his conviction that oppression of any kind ought to be vehemently resisted by those who want to live in a just society.
Dr. Fayemi was well persuaded from an ideological stand point to pursue social justice in every ramification he finds himself. Even though he has a gentle mien that betrays his radical disposition on social issues, he is one man who is single-mindedly and irrevocably focused on his passion for public service. This virtue was already getting on a high steam by the time he left the iconic Christ School, Ado-Ekiti.
At the University of Lagos, he found an even more arable ground to cultivate his passion. He joined a group of radical student-journalists to publish The Watch magazine which was dreaded by the university management because of its critical and acerbic position against the management, especially as it concerned the students’ interest. Of course, he and his colleagues regularly got threatened with rustication and expulsion. But, he remained unwavering and somehow, miraculously and against the fear that he might lose his studentship, pulled it off.
At the University of Lagos, he was deeply involved in the students’ union activism. JKF was not only one of the radically ideological students, he was the secretary of Eni Njoku Hall and member of the Senate of the Students’ Union where he was a major integer in the political calculus of the students’ union politics. He was also involved in the liberation movement to get the South African people free from apartheid and colonialism.
Dr. Kayode Fayemi was wrought in the furnace of struggles for social good and human development. By the time he left the university, his leftist political tendency was no longer in doubt. Some years later, during the Babangida junta, the interminable transition to democracy got underway but at the climax of the serpentine electoral journey, the process became jinxed as the military administration of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida did the unthinkable by annulling the results already announced at the state level, awaiting only national collation and declaration.
The whole nation was jolted and flames of anger burnt on the streets in the spontaneous protests that greeted the odious decision. It is said that people do not make history, history makes people and circumstances define them. This moment brought out the character of many. It raised a new set of heroes and villains in same measure. One of the young men that the moment threw up was Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, who though had very little to personally gain in the revalidation of the presidential election, threw everything to the fight for the actualisation of the June 12 election. This moment was a defining moment in the life of John Kayode Fayemi. He was there with MKO Abiola in London organizing media events, networking with other like-minds and went every itch to see that he got his mandate back.
Young as he was then, he was one of the people on the wanted list of the Abacha junta. He earned this unenviable enlistment in the black book of the devilish regime because of his activities as one of the major diaspora exiles who were absolutely committed to the end of military rule in Nigeria. Working with the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka of the NALICON fame, Kayode Fayemi traversed different countries of the world to mobilize the diplomatic world against the military terror gang the Abacha junta was. It is to his credit that the first ever experiment at a citizen radio station to mobilise the citizenry against the murderous government, was established.
Along with other patriots including his wife, the beatific Erelu Bisi Fayemi, Kayode Fayemi was in the barricades in the streets of London to protest against the tyrannical regime. They formed the New Nigeria Forum and published the Nigeria Now newsletter among other efforts. The couple were relentless, sacrificial and single-minded in the struggle for democratic enthronement in Nigeria. They did this selflessly, I am doubly sure that the least thing in their imagination would be a JKF becoming a governor, this is because their trajectory after the end of military rule showed that they were absolutely least concerned about the political benefits to their struggles.
In 2005, when the search for a competent, well behaved, well resumed, well exposed and highly urbane personality was made, to be the candidate of the Action Congress, Kayode Fayemi became the ideal candidate. He won the primary of the party and clearly won the governorship election that followed but then he was rigged out and he had to fight up to the final court of jurisdiction on governorship election before he eventually became the governor in October 2010.
As governor of Ekiti between October 2010-2014, in the first term and after the interregnum, when he returned in 2018, Dr. Kayode Fayemi demonstrated commitment to ideological fidelity in the direction of state policies. He made social justice the focus of his government’s enunciation and policy implementation. Fayemi started the first social welfare package for the elderly, provided the vulnerable with food, and declared education free to ensure the poor had access to education.
As Governor, he built a locally inspired old people’s resort center for the elderly where the senior citizen could rendezvous to enjoy their retirement with their contemporaries. He provided every senior secondary student with a laptop, gave them books and bags, paid their WAEC fees and renovated all public secondary schools in the state under Operation Renovate All Schools. He gave scholarship to Ekiti indigenes in tertiary institutions and sponsored many abroad for post-graduate education. Currently,
Fayemi made health care for age 1-5 free, and provided basic health care for those above 65 years. He transformed some general hospitals to specialist hospitals, got the college of medicine established, before he left in 2014, but unfortunately the students could not graduate because of lack of accreditation which the regime after him neglected. It was in 2019 after his return that he got the courses accredited and the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital graduated its first set of doctors. It is no wonder that during his tenure, Ekiti always had highest life expectancy in Nigeria and low poverty index far below the national average.
Fayemi acknowledged that infrastructure was critical to the development of the state, so, he embarked on unprecedented capital projects that totally modernized the capital city of the state and saw the rural areas transformed. He aggressively pursued investment and rejuvenation of the economic property of the state. To reposition the tourism potential of the State, he revamped the popular Ikogosi Warm Springs, but this went into a disuse after he lost election in 2014.
Upon his return, his government decided to concessionaire the facility to a reputable indigenous investor, Glocient Hospitality which has completely turned the resort to the best resort in Nigeria. It is to his eternal credit that Ekiti has the biggest state owned Civic Centre (Obafemi Awolowo Civic Center) in the South West, today. The Center has sprawling shopping malls, cinema, libraries, art gallery, museum, conference rooms among others as part of efforts to make Ado-Ekiti a modern city.
During his second term in office, his administration, in spite of the excruciating and spiral economic effect of COVID-19 and the attendant recession that followed, constructed major roads that included Agbado-Ode-Isinbode-Omuo Road, Oye-Isan-Iye-Ikun-Igogo-Otun Road, Aramoko-Erijiyan-Ikogosi Road, New Iyin-Ado Ekiti Road. His administration carried out the total overhauling of Ero, Ureje and Egbe dams and the reticulation of pipes across 9 local governments to make potable water available to the people. Just as urban and rural sanitation and environmental reclamation of the erosion devastated areas were undertaken through the NEWMAP programme.
Fayemi’s administration also pushed aggressively in private investment drive to position the State for the future possibilities. Accordingly, the State secured an infrastructure development facility from the African Development Bank for the development of the Agro-Processing Zone, Ekiti Smart City called: Ekiti Knowledge Zone and the Ekiti Agro-Cargo Airport. Some of the facilities were accessed and work began before he left in 2022.
Thankfully, his successor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has ensured that the projects continue, and has, in deed, completed some of them while works still continue on some others. A typical example is the completion of the Ekiti Agro-Cargo International Airport that recently got the approval of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to start nonscheduled flight at the airport.
Among other investment drive, he facilitated the coming of the Dangote Group and Stallion Group to establish rice mills in Ekiti. It is hope this dream will soon become a reality. He already got Promasidor to take over the moribund Ikun Dairy Farm. As at now, the diary giant is back on its steam and running profitability. His government also saw to the coming of Agbeyewa Farms, the biggest cassava plantation in Nigeria. His government was able to draw development partners’ supported initiatives such AGILE, IDEAS, NEWMAP, SURWASH, RAAMP and many other initiatives to Ekiti State, which have not only helped to accelerate development, but brought about financial relief on the finances of the State.
Apart from leading several initiatives, chairing committees and panels at party levels, Fayemi was one of the eggheads that formed the intellectual nucleus of the ruling APC at its formation. Going to the 2015 that brought President Muhammudu Buhari to power, he played a significant role as director of policy and strategy development. He was also the one who chaired the convention planning committee that conducted the primary that produced President Muhammudu Buhari as the flag-bearer of the APC.
He was later appointed to head a Ministry which many considered ‘none juicy’ and obscured, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. But when JKF took over the strategic ministry, he turned things around with innovative ideas and progressive policy that soon made the Ministry one of the commonly spoken about during his ministerial duties.
When he merged the Chairman of the ever controversial Nigeria’s Governors Forum (NGF) in 2019, it was a big surprise to many as forces were amassed to stop him by those who saw him as a potential political threat in the future. Instead of a hot contest as envisaged, he emerged as a consensus candidate; and he went on to reposition the forum to an enviable one that led policy initiatives, established peer-review mechanism system and served as a rallying point for national solidarity. During his chairmanship, the acrimonious relationship between the ruling party and the minority parties in the Forum became a thing of the past. His wife also rallied the Wives of the Governors to pursue policies and legislation that sought to end gender violence and promote the child’s right.
There is no doubt some people are born to serve and that Dr. John Kayode Fayemi is a special breed among this specie of human beings. He is blessed with a tireless energy and a restless mind that is always at work. For JKF, work is a merriment that gives him a unique fulfillment. As a leader of men, he makes himself an ideal example of excellent work ethic. He is always on the move, and while in the office, he would not leave his table until 3am most times or until when the last file has been cleared.
Dr. Kayode Fayemi CON is a workaholic extraordinaire, who has an inexplicable energy to work round the clock without getting tired. As a public intellectual and scholar-practitioner of international repute, Dr. Fayemi represents a very unique species of political leaders who have gone beyond the rhythmic poetry of theory to the prosaic hardware of governance. As his former Private Secretary, I have the unique opportunity to study him at a close contact and I can bear witness to his depth, intellect, discipline, rigor, vigour, wide network, goodwill, reach and commitment to public good.
He represents one of the best of the political brands that have come out of Nigeria in recent history. I believe he still has a date with destiny in the political order of Nigeria. At home, JKF is a family man of a great example. Married to his delectable wife, Yeye Oba Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, which she affectionately calls ‘Iyawo’, Fayemi is one of the luckiest of men in the choice of his amiable, brilliant and classy spouse. She is a respected voice in the global feminist movement and one of the most influential policy experts on women and leadership development issues in Africa. The two, on their individual merits, have combined to become one of the notable power-couple of tremendous influence within the Nigeria’s political space and beyond.
As JKF cerebrates this significant milestone of his Diamond Jubilee, our wishes are that he continues to enjoy good health, abundant blessings and new vigour to break new grounds. Happy birthday dearest boss and mentor!
-HRM Oba Dr. Sunday Aikuirawo Aniyi, Amoyinmade Atayese I, The Obaleo of Erinmope-Ekiti, was the Principal Private Secretary to Dr. Kayode Fayemi, CON, until he was appointed the traditional ruler of his native Erinmope-Ekiti.
