OPINION: What You Did Not Know About Incumbent Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi

The outcome of the Ekiti governorship election on June 21 took many by surprise after Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Ayodele Fayose defeated the incumbent governor, Kayode Fayose to become the governor of the state, a Special Assistant to Dr. Kayode Fayemi has, however, shared his opinion.

There has been mixed reactions on the outcome of the election while some blamed the Governor for failing to win the re-election others blamed the people of Ekiti state for falling for the tactics of the People Democratic party who shared money and rice prior to the election.

However a Special Assistant to Governor Dr. Kayode Fayemi has shared his experience with the governor, listed the positive changes Fayemi made in Ekiti state and how he touched lives in the state.

Read below

I am no politician and have never pretended to be but after listening to and reading statements and comments from people far and wide who have had little or no contact with this man, as I lie awake in the early hours of the morning looking up at the ceiling, I finally decided to share my experience of working and being in the presence of someone like Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

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After returning from the UK with a Masters in Law in Dec 2010 and jobhunting for 7months, someone gave Dr, Fayemi my CV and I was told he wanted to see me. He interviewed me and told me that what interested him was that I had experience working in an Embassy and he was looking to expose Ekiti to the Diplomatic Community. He wanted me to handle the official travels of top Officials in the State cutting across the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and to also help in facilitating meetings between him and diplomats who wanted to meet with him. I was interviewed on the 2nd of August and by the 5th of August, I was one of those whose names were announced as SA to the Governor on Consular Affairs! Thereby giving my mum her best birthday present ever cos I now had a job!

When I hear people say he wasn't in touch with the masses, I am cut to the bone marrow! Let me tell you why.

1. At the 1st month of every new year he toured each of the 16 local governments where he held a town hall meeting with the indigenes and asked them to table their priorities of needs that they required done in that local govt, He never gave false promises and told them what it was possible to do and what wasn't. Reports were written on his meetings with them and he kept his promises on what he said he would do.

2. On the revenue allocation list, Ekiti ranks 35th out of 36 States because it is basically a civil service state where we have little or no industry, yet every month, he gave the elderly a stipend of N5,000 a month which he would give personally when he could. This all amounts to about N120million a month. This is money that could easily have been converted into his own personal account but he chose not to.

3. I cannot count the number of people I have gotten visas for, brilliant young members of the public who could not afford to school abroad, but whom Dr. Kayode Fayemi approved sponsorship. Even for people who were ill and needed desperate medical treatment. He was constantly giving when he was convinced of the bona fides of a case. He even paid for people who won the US lottery but had no means of financing their visa process which was at the very least half a million naira.

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He had doctors come in from Lagos to do community service by going to each local government, meeting with the locals, giving them basic medical checks and administering drugs paid for by the Government to those who were unable to afford them.

4. He personally toured some of the public schools to discover why the level of education in Ekiti had fallen so low and found that even the teachers could hardly speak a correct sentence of English. How do you expect children to progress if they are not taught properly from the foundation? He then decided that teachers should be made to write basic examinations to qualify them to teach particular grades. Was that so wrong???

5. Even in agriculture, he had programs in place that would lead to the empowerment of youths and farmers to be able to produce and sell their crops

I helped facilitate meetings between him and Ambassadors and Consul Generals and sat in on their meetings and after listening to him and his plans for Ekiti, they always let me know how impressed they were and were ready to make an input in Ekiti because they knew it would be in the right hands. I was honored among them because I was associated with honor.

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What about his wife? Erelu Bisi Fayemi. A woman that refused to be just a Governor's wife. Her passion was to empower the women to rise from being unappreciated slaves to their husbands because they were totally dependent on them financially. She created training centers for the women to learn a craft that could bring an income. She went to the hinterlands, to the farms and gave them farming equipment to make farming easier for them. She is also extremely intelligent but chose to spend her time coming down to the level of the downtrodden and less privileged and trying to make a better life for them.

Everyone in the government knew Dr. Kayode Fayemi worked tirelessly each day till the early hours of the morning reading files and making recommendations. Everything was done for the betterment of Ekiti. Oh yes he may have made mistakes but he is only human and everything he did was with the best intentions. I leave a better person having been close to greatness. He gave me the opportunity to be the best person I could be. I will forever be grateful for that.

There is so much more to say like our tourism, entrepreneurs prepared to invest in Ekiti because of him, renovation of schools and hospitals etc but I know I have taken too much space already.

My last words are: We as humans are usually myopic in our thinking but I know this happened because God has much greater plans in store for both him and his wife and Ekiti is just too small to handle that greatness.

GOD BLESS YOU REAL GOOD DR. KAYODE FAYEMI!!!

Meanwhile some APC Governors, the likes of Lagos state Governor Fashola has decribed the Fayose's victory a frightening to democracy of Nigeria while Osun state governor Rauf Aregbesola said the election was fraudulent and based on irregularities.

Source: Legit.ng