THE PROMISE KEPT Valedictory Address by His Excellency Dr. Kayode FAYEMI Governor, Ekiti State, Nigeria On the conclusion of his term of office as Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria Wednesday, October 15, 2014 My dear people of Ekiti State, by the grace of God, in the next 24 hours we would come to the end of a glorious tenure of an administration I have had the privilege to lead as Governor of the land of honour, Ekiti State, Nigeria. The Scriptures instruct us that “there is a time for everything and a season for every purpose under heaven”. If wise, we draw from this a keen sense that all earthly things are temporary and finite. All things born or made of man are transient and without permanence. The wind blows east in the morning then west at night. A person is young then old. Nothing lasts forever. Whatsoever has a beginning also must have an end. A public servant enters office and then he leaves it. An individual and his life come and go but life itself continues, children follow their parents, generation follows generation. With the limited time to which we are all appointed, our sacred obligation becomes visible. We must leave the path clearer than we found it. We must leave the world, our nation and our state better than we found it. The promises spoken in this regard are the promises one should keep. As I step away from office, I can say the promises we gave are the promises we kept. We have made Ekiti a much better place than we found it. Governance is a continuum. Administrations come and go. Our electoral laws do not allow holding office in perpetuity, in order to accommodate a dynamic of constant renewal of creativity and democratic participation. Both those who govern and the governed require the opportunity to take stock, to reflect, to reassess their path, refine their vision and to evolve. Implicit in this dynamic is the understanding that no leader, however gifted or endowed, is indispensable or infallible. Government belongs to the people; thus, no one person may claim any office as his/her exclusive right. The promise of democracy is the promise of justice and peaceful change through the rule of law. Reclaiming the Trust Upon coming to office, we discovered that a profound distrust of leadership had grown where cooperation and understanding should have been sown. This distrust was understandable. Serially deceived and maltreated by those entrusted to lead them, our people had grown weary and cynical about politicians who made promises to get into office only to renege on them in order to remain in office by improperly amassing wealth and power in obscene proportion. People had ceased to believe what their political leaders said and came to believe that politicians simply entered office to enrich themselves. It was immediately clear that our first task in Ekiti was to practically and symbolically rebuild trust in governance. Without resurrecting that platform of trust, we would be barred from delivering the service we sought to give the people. Thus, we resolved to talk less and do more, to let our deeds speak for us as we led by example. This meant performing at a level of devotion and commitment to an ideal of public service worthy of the people’s trust. This has not been easy in a climate where people had become accustomed to boisterous leaders, official non-performance and dysfunctional institutions. However, we made considerable progress. We eschewed the vulgar arrogance associated with power and opted instead for simplicity and sensitivity to the demands and needs of the people of Ekiti. We restored the work ethic by separating the sport of politics from the reality of governance and public service. We held forth the objective of transforming governance into an honorable vocation in the eyes of the next generation who must soon take the baton from us and who must progress far beyond where we have left off. By seriously instilling the ethos of integrity, competence, reliability and openness, we made considerable progress towards regaining the trust of our people. Trust is the bedrock of governance. Without public confidence in a leader’s intentions and ability to realize them, there is little that can be accomplished. A leader’s performance is determined as much by the trust people deposit in him as by his/her own exertions. That we came as far as we have is a testament to your faith in us; more than that, it is a testament to your faith in yourselves. After the many years of the locust, after so much breakage, violence and waste, we needed to start believing in ourselves again. We had to persuade ourselves that the sun could rise again over the land of honour and that we deserved a better way. We regained the conviction that we have the power within us to solve our collective problems by ushering in a period of economic development and democratic good governance that would assure a better life for all who wanted and were willing to contribute their good efforts to it. This has been the mainstay of the past four years: rebuilding the trust between the people and those elected to serve them, and more importantly rekindling self-belief, confidence and the can-do spirit for which our people are legendary. What we have been able to achieve are not my achievements; they are yours. In these past four years, what we have seen are the first fruits of what can happen when we join hands and work together toward our greater civic purpose. By the grace of God, I pray nothing and no one will keep Ekiti from continuing our ascent towards greatness. A time comes in the life of a society when it must look beyond personalities and begin to identify and honour those principles by which we will mould the future. A wise and progressive society must always move beyond the temporary burst of campaign drama to weigh-in on the clash of competing values that lies at the heart of the political contest. Modeling Good Governance Our time in office was defined by the belief that Ekiti could be the test case for what we call an empathetic society – a society defined by a social contract between government and the governed, the state and civil society and between fellow citizens. We believe in a society in which we are all partners in progress; a society in which the state is committed to empowering all citizens – not just a few – to live to the fullest of their potential. We believe that our call to leadership was a call to fulfill a noble if not sacred duty unto the people and unto God in whom we trust. We were mindful that the present reflects both the past and the future. As such, our assumption of governance was a covenant between us and our forebears whose sacrifices ensured the creation of Ekiti State and also between us and future generations for whom we hold the state in trust. We embarked on a progressive agenda intended to spread just and broadly shared development across the land so that all of our citizens could drink from the wellspring of progress no matter what part of the state they live. All would benefit but each according to his/her need. In making our policies, we constantly asked ourselves what sort of society we want to construct for ourselves and our children. We confronted the stark choice between a society in which only a few can survive and more and more people wind up worse off than their parents; and one in which everyone has a fair chance of success and a better life is our collective inheritance. Long after the trumpets of transition have fallen silent and carnival-like campaigns for power have dispersed, we will still have to face a choice between a society that tells you that you are on your own and one in which my prosperity is your prosperity because we share the burden of development and the joy of achievement together. I believe that this conflict goes beyond Ekiti State and is the significant political struggle of our generation. Indeed it is a battle for the soul of our nation. From the outset, the welfarist orientation of our administration was informed by the principles of service, synergy, solidarity and communality. We pioneered a Social Security Programme for the elderly. No less than 25,000 senior citizens now benefit from this programme. This plan represented an appreciation of the years of service our senior citizens dedicated to this land as well as reflected our commitment to assuring that the aged may live their golden days in dignity and grace. Few experiences in my public career have been as rewarding as encountering the appreciative beneficiaries of this programme. It is humbling that one can make a positive difference in human lives. There is no greater reward for a policy maker. It is noteworthy that since the commencement of this initiative, at least 4 other states in the federation have adopted the model. This development affirms that we have done something right such that we have contributed in our little way to the betterment of Nigerian lives even beyond the boundaries of Ekiti State. Our own party’s manifesto now highlights this as part of our Social Safety Net initiatives. Our compassion for the elderly was joined by our commitment to providing a living wage and equitable working conditions for our workers and decent retirement conditions for our pensioners. Crucially, we met these obligations to our people not by adding new taxes but by enhancing the efficiency in the tax collection and management system. Making Poverty History In Ekiti State, as in the rest of the country, an important component in our socio-economic engine is the informal sector. This is where many entrepreneurial men and women work to make an honest living and by providing needed goods and services for the community. Notwithstanding the lack of formal business support mechanisms, many of these people flourish and all of them enrich our society in their important way. From the women who send their children to school and manage their homes from the proceeds of pe
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 06:50:28 +0000
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