‘Ekiti had 6 govs in 7 years under PDP govt’ Oladapo Karounwi, the first Deputy Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly was a former Special Adviser on Legislative Affairs to Governor Kayode Fayemi and presently, his Special Adviser on Legal and Allied Matters. In an interview with CHARLES ADEGBITE, he did a flash back at the period when Ekiti witnessed strong political turbulence and instability. Karounwi said, among other sundry issues, that never again would the people fold their hands and allow “miscreants” to govern them. Excerpts: When you look at the governor you are working with, how would you describe him? You know from my background, one thing is very clear that I have been around in the government of Ekiti State for a very long time. When I said I was the Deputy Speaker, that was in the first Assembly. So, that means I have history, facts and statistics behind me. So, whatever I am going to say is going to be based on what I experienced and not what I heard or what I read. So, I have become more or less an authority on issues that happened in the past. So, describing Dr Kayode Fayemi in isolation; who will not appreciate Dr. Fayemi, the essence, the quintessential Kayode Fayemi, if you are describing him and his achievements in isolation, without relating him to the previous leaders that Ekiti have been lucky or unlucky to have? So, from where I was coming from, I have had opportunities of working with all these governors; either as a member of their team or as a leading opposition figure to them when they were ruling us. Without being immodest, the best governor before Dr. Kayode Fayemi came was Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo who was fortunate to be the first and only governor to complete his tenure. Since the Otunba Niyi Adebayo left the government in 2003, it has always been the case of one year one governor. Since 2003, in fact, the most terrible aspect of it is that Governor Ayo Fayose came immediately after Otunba Niyi Adebayo in 2003. And he was given four years tenure but it will interest you that no other governor or no other state will ever beat the record that Fayose set. The record was that Ekiti gave him a mandate of four years but he was so generous to have shared his four years tenure with almost three other governors. I mentioned it that under his four years tenure, Fayose was generous to have allowed himself to spend some time. He handed the baton to Friday Aderemi, the then Speaker to enable him spend the rest of his four years tenure. The baton was handed down to Adetunji Olurin as an interim governor. And finally, Tope Ademiluyi helped him to complete the rest of his four year tenure. Have you ever heard such story anywhere in this country? It would never happen. He is a generous man. Fayose has always been generous with power. He was given a four year tenure by Ekiti people, but out of his generosity he succeeded in sharing it with three other governors. So four years, four governors. So, on the average during the reign of Ayodele Fayose it was one year one governor. And it will interest you, you know ordinarily, a mandate was given to Fayose for four years and his Deputy Abiodun Aluko for four years. But he could not be generous alone without asking his deputy to be generous as well. He shared the tenure of the deputy governor among three other deputy governors. Aluko had his own generosity, he shared his four year tenure with Bisi Omoyeni. Out of that magnanimity also, Abiodun Olujimi had a fair share. So, it has always been like that. So, it is a record, although it was negative record anyway that nobody can beat in this country. Having said that, subsequently after the four years of Ayodele Fayose PDP government, you have several alberations. Segun Oni came on board and we had Segun Oni 1 and Segun Oni 2 under questionable circumstance that has been confirmed by the highest court in the land. And it has been adjudged as electoral robbery. You have Acting Governor Omoyele sharing from the illegal mandate that Oni held at a time. So, for seven and half years the PDP led us in Ekiti state, we witnessed corruption, we witnessed wastage, we witnessed violence of monumental proportion. It was a period of policy discontinuity even though it was the same party that was expected to come under the same platform, under the same manifesto, under the same programme, but it was a period of total policy discontinuity and inconsistency. It was a period that we witnessed lack and loss of institutional memory. It was a period of political upheavals, political dis-orderliness and political chaos. It was a period we witnessed capital flight. A situation that one governor would just not follow due process. The government in question and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) are slogging it out in the court of law. But however, as a politician in the court of public opinion, that governor has committed crime against Ekiti people. And it is only in this clime that you will see such a character parading himself as an aspirant under whichever political party. Well, PDP is a party of anything goes. But such a character will never have a place in my party; the party that prides itself as Action Congress of Nigeria (now All Progressives Congress, APC, ), that places premium on credibility, on integrity, on the core values of Omoluabis, on accountability. Such a character can never say he wants to become a Councilor of a ward in my party. So this was the scenario before Dr. Kayode Fayemi came on board. And of course the question you asked now, “How can I assess Dr. Kayode Fayemi.” From the foundation that had been set you can now see that comparing Dr. Kayode Fayemi is like comparing light with darkness, or orange with apple. Governor Kayode Fayemi has come as a revolutionary. He has come as a redeemer. He has come as a transformer. He has come as a change agent, agent of a social reinvigoration. Kayode Fayemi inherited rots, like I have explained. He inherited fraud, he inherited a dysfunctional and disoriented bureaucracy. But today we have a man Dr. Kayode Fayemi who has restored the core values that have since taken flight. Today in the civil service, promotion is done by merit. Excellence is being placed above mediocrity. Today, you get things done now not by the people you know but by the content of your character. Ekiti people have been traumatised before the advent of Dr. Kayode Fayemi. But now Kayode came as somebody who wants to restore the core values of Ekiti. And he started with the changing of the logo of the state. You know, Ekiti State had always been in the news for wrong reasons before Kayode came. We are all living witnesses in Nigeria. But since October 2010 when Fayemi assumed the leadership of the State, Ekiti has always been in the news for good reasons. You can always pick your newspaper and read about Ekiti State and get fresh initiative, fresh idea, fresh innovation from a thinking governor. You can only pick your newspapers and read that the social security scheme that had never happened anywhere in West Africa before, Dr. Kayode Fayemi introduced it. You can only take your newspapers to read that laptop computers have been given to teachers and students. So that you can take them from zero to higher level and to digital level. You can now pick your newspapers and read about Ekiti state to see how tourism has become a major income earner for the state
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:07:11 +0000
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