"Successes, Regrets and Lessons as Governor of Ekiti"

Former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, handed over to his successor, Biodun Oyebanji, last Sunday after completing his second term.

In this interview with selected journalists at Ado Ekiti, he spoke about his achievements and his regrets during his tenure. MUYIWA ADEYEMI was there.

What has changed in Ekiti State between 2018 and 2022? Well, if you recall, my campaign goal in 2018 was to restore values ​​and reclaim the land for the people and there was a context to that.

We were wronged and received bad press for atrocities that our people did not commit, simply because of the way the governor at the time presented himself and portrayed us as the state of the stomach infrastructure, starving people who were desperate for anything they could grab and they had no value, no character, no integrity; it was pretty much the crumbs that could fall from the master's table. It was perception. I believe it was a bad image of the Ekiti people.

I saw my role as that of a brand ambassador dedicated to rebranding Ekiti and putting its image into perspective. So, coming on board in 2018, there was first the general disillusionment of civil servants with the backlog of unpaid salaries, as well as abandoned projects both from the time of Segun Oni that we have not couldn't finish in my first term and even Governor Ayo Fayose's unfinished projects. second term. If you compare these projects from yesterday to today, you will see what we have done, you will see a significant difference.

However, while bricks and mortar are important, we would miss the point if we only looked at what changed in terms of bricks and mortar. I'm not saying we haven't done that - we've completed, for example, the Obafemi Awolowo Civic Center, the central market that Governor Fayose started opposite the king's palace here in Ado Ekiti, we've completed that and modern ultra-markets in the 16 town halls. We have built several hundred kilometers of road, built schools and hospitals. We relaunched the Ikun dairy farm in partnership with Promasidor. We launched the Special Agricultural Processing Zone.

Governor Fayose made a lot of noise about the airport and was keen to do so, but it was clear there were competing demands on limited resources. We started it from scratch and it had its first test flight a few days ago. Ironically, I was very skeptical of the airport project during my first term, but was convinced by superior arguments when I set up a committee led by Aare Afe Babalola to examine the viability of an airport and they concluded with facts that the state could use it to trigger accelerated economic development.

You can add to this the Ado-Iyin four-lane road, the Agbado Ode Isinbode Omuo road leading to the Kogi border, which was completely impassable before we fixed it, the same as the one to Otun from Oye, which we did either Ilupeju Ire Igbemo-Ijan or the new Aramoko-Erininyan-Ikogosi road. So we put all of this together, the 5MW Independent Power Project, the Knowledge Zone project, which aims to catapult us to the forefront of the digital economy, a lot of things have happened.

In addition, all hospitals have been redone with new equipment, including the University Hospital. The same has happened to schools in Ekiti, including eight new model colleges we have launched to replace schools that have returned to their original owners – the missionaries. We have built model colleges named after some of our prominent citizens: Deji Fasuan, Ayo Fasanmi, Banji Akintoye, David Oke and other distinguished citizens of the state. We have rebuilt all state water dams and water pipelines, and have also expanded opportunities in rural communities with the rural roads we have just started under the RAAMP initiative.

Essentially all of these things happened and had a significant impact on our people, but I think what did a lot more for us - getting back to the question of restoring values ​​- is restoring character known to Ekiti. While we're still in the news, we're not in the news for the wrong reasons. One could almost say that it has been four years without scandal. No one could report anything unethical or untoward that a member of the administration got involved in.

Furthermore, the fact that I also had the rare opportunity to preside over Governors' business as Chair of the Governors Forum has also had a positive effect on the state.

No problem, we always spoke with one voice, there were no disagreements, no faction 16/19, everything went well during this period and we were able to do a lot for the sub-nationals, despite the fact that 18 months out of the four years I have been, has been completely overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic and...