Prof. Modupe Adelabu was the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State during the tail end of Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s first tenure as Governor of Ekiti State. She speaks about the current administration of her former boss and the state of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State.
AYO ESAN brings the excerpts.
As a former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, can you compare this present administration with the immediate past administration in the state?
Four years after we left government, I became a keen observer of events, which to me were not very palatable. Thank God for Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s second coming, things have changed for better in Ekiti State. Under two years, Ekiti State has moved from darkness into light; our values have been restored and poverty and squalor have been reduced dramatically. We can now say that indeed Ekiti State is the land of honour.
It is to the credit of this government that it did not abandon the last government’s unfinished projects even though it has its own developmental projects, which His Excellency, Dr Fayemi, is executing to the admiration of many citizens unlike what it used to be.
Therefore, the present government did not give room for wastage of resources. Another thing to note is that Ekiti is back to the era of peace, tranquility and economic development. Salaries are now paid as and when due; public servants now go to work without fear or victimisation.
Your party, the APC is embarking on another round of reconciliation after the one your group did. Why this new move?
A Yoruba adage says “as long as you have lice or fleas on your cloth, you will continue to have blood stains on your finger nails.” In saying that, if crisis persists or new ones crop up, there will always be a need for reconciliation.
In Ekiti State, the intra-party crisis started as far back as 2014 after the party lost the gubernatorial election. The party elders made several attempts to settle the crisis.
The crisis was minimised only for it to resurface during the primary election in Ekiti State (in 2018) in another guise till date. The APC National Peace and Reconciliation Committee, of which I was a member, was headed by H.E Kashim Shettima.
The committee’s principal task was to reconcile members who had grievances arising from the October and November, 2018 Governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and State Assembly Primaries across the region.
By implication, the committee’s mandate included identifying and addressing potential concerns that could threaten the party’s chances for all elective positions ahead of the 2019 general elections.
We did our best to touch every state and we invited aggrieved members.
Some of them turned up to register their complaints. It should be noted that, in the case of Ekiti State, there were a few notable party members that were aggrieved. However, there was strong evidence of aggressive reconciliatory efforts carried out by the state government and the party before our visitation.
The Governor himself had made personal efforts to reconcile with his co-gubernatorial aspirants.
Based on our observation and party member’s agitation, a lot of recommendations were made, that could have minimised the crisis across board.
Some of such recommendations were that the party should continue to dialogue with the aggrieved party members and reach an agreement with them, and that the party should encourage continued reconciliation and open communication where necessary.
We also recommended at that time that urgent presidential intervention might be needed to broker peace in the states. For the new reconciliation committee set up by APC, I suggest that they should revisit the report and recommendations of our committee and build up on them, while at the same time make their own enquiries.
It is my belief that if majority of our recommendations were accepted and considered, the crisis in APC now would have been easier to handle and minimised. We did our own part but we were not part of the follow up. I therefore recommend that the caretaker committee should take a second look at our report.
Recently, the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, advised Governor Fayemi to find a lasting solution to the crisis in Ekiti State. What is your take on this?
APC in Ekiti State, like any other state in the Federation, including the federal level, is passing through a stage of internal problems and bickering, mainly among some of the political leaders.
No state in the federation has absolute immunity from intra-political party crisis. The crisis in Ekiti State started after the 2014 gubernatorial election. Several efforts were made to nip this in the bud but little success was achieved.
Every intra-party crisis is about “who gets what, when and how”. The control of the party structure is the main reason(s) for this crisis. This is politics and it should be expected.
The advice by the national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is quite laudable.
The State governor, Dr Fayemi, is not only the governor but the political leader of the state. Consequently, he is not expected to abdicate his responsibility to any external influence or authority. I believe that Dr Fayemi is doing his best to look for solution to this crisis.
If he deems it fit to invite an external adjudicator outside the state, based on consultation with the party’s stakeholders and elders in the state, there is no problem. I am sure as a peace leader, he is making effort towards an early resolution of this crisis, which is actually diversionary.
Funding is often said to be the bane of University education in the country, but Ekiti State University seems well funded. How do you see this development?
Education has primacy of place in Ekiti State. During Fayemi’s first coming in 2010, Education and human capital development was one of his Eight-Point Agenda and even now, much attention is given to education.
Consequently, the government has also, in addition to Primary and Secondary education, focused attention on Tertiary Education, Ekiti University in particular.
This may appear deliberate because education is our major business and enterprise in Ekiti State and this has not changed. This is hinged on the belief that a good education is the foundation for a productive future.
The new government in Ekiti came with the mantra “restoring our values”. How well has this value been restored, if we look at infrastructure, Agriculture, education and the knowledge of economy that the state is targeting?
The present government is working its talk on “Restoration of Values” in Ekiti State and this cuts across all parastatals. As soon as Dr. Kayode Fayemi assumed office, he set out to turn his campaign promises to reality.
The strength of an Ekiti person is deeply reinforced in his belief that, hard work is the only sure way to success and Dr. Fayemi, being an Ekiti person himself has the ’Can-do’ spirit and does not only say this, but works to manifest it. He restructured governance to provide the enabling environment for a new lease of life and decent living for Ekiti citizens.
I believe he has once more given Ekiti State a pride of place in the nation, and once again, Ekiti State indigenes, anywhere in the world, can be proud to say they are from Ekiti, unlike what operated in the administration before him.
Thus far, governance under JKF has been restructured to give the institutions under it a new lease of life. He has initiated the policy of knowledge economy as key to meaningful development.
Ekiti State is the first state to legislate on Gender-based violence. Consequently, the state has created support and empowerment funds for verified Gender-based violence survivor.
This is the first of its type, both in Ekiti and in the Federation. He has also resuscitated vibrant partnership with the civil society. In the area of Justice, many laws have been reviewed, amended and enacted.
Workers’ welfare is of primary importance to this administration. Civil servants and teachers can now breathe.
