Why I’m seeking reelection - Fayemi Details Category: Inside politics Published on Tuesday, 29 October 2013 05:01 Written by Kayode Ekundayo, Lagos Hits: 598 Dr. Kayode Fayemi Dr. Kayode Fayemi is the governor of Ekiti state. In this interview, Fayemi explains why he is seeking for second term, his relationship with Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, state of regional integration and other issues. Excerpts: As you are approaching the last year of your first term, are there things you plan to do differently? The 2014 budget in Ekiti will be a budget of consolidation. We started with Budget of Renewal in 2011 and in 2012 we had what we called Budget of Delivery. Now in 2013 it is Budget of Empowerment that focuses on the communities primarily and the 2014 budget will just be focusing on completing a lot of the projects. You might have seen our projects around - we would like to consolidate on them and then move from stability to sustainable growth. Particularly around areas that we feel constitute the greatest headache that we have- functional jobs per population - that is a major challenge that we want to focus our attention on. Now that infrastructure is almost back to what we would ordinarily want it to be and that will help us with the enabling environment for a growing economy, we need to make sure that we put money in our peoples’ pockets - not by sharing money, because we don’t have money to share, but by creating opportunities for them to work. And if you take our Youths in Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) programme- that is one example of how to put money in our young peoples’ pockets. Those who are involved in the youth agriculture commercial scheme, are amazed at the amount of money they are making today. The Nigerian Starch Mill is in Ekiti buying up all their cassava; the Nigerian Flour Mills is in Ekiti also buying up their cassava. Ekiti cassava has the highest yield in the country today with 18 to 20 tons per hectare and almost all of these are being taken away by these starch producing factories. So that is just one way of empowering our people in a more sustainable manner. There have been quite a number of endorsements from different groups and individuals within and outside your party. The question is would you run? Yes, I will. Your critics are pointing to the issue of the bond obtained by year administration. What you have done with the bond money? I don’t think the issue is about my critics not seeing what we have done the way you are seeing it. As a matter of fact, I think they are seeing it. And it has become a political hot potato for them. Their challenge is: What are we going to use to campaign against this man? Since there is nothing to use to campaign against him, and since we are politicians, there must be something. Yes, we may not have anything to take to EFCC or ICPC about him, but we must find something against him. And the best they could find is the bond. Yes, we went to the bond market. It was public information. We took N20bn bond in December 2011 - meaning about 18 months ago and the projects that we said we were going to use the bond for are specific. They were identified. If you look at the bond book they are listed there. The 10 projects were listed. You can just google Nigerian Stock Exchange website or the Security and Exchange Commission, you can access the information there. We took N20bn, we were going to do roads, we were going to revive our moribund brick factory at in Ire; we were going to re-develop Ikogosi; we are going to build a government house; you can see it on the top as you drive around Ekiti and you will see what we are doing there. There is not a single project that we took bond for that is not being implemented. So the issue is not that we took bond, the issue is whether we have worked with the bond. Lagos State that makes N20bn from internally generated revenue every month has bond of about N250bn. These are facts that you can check. Akwa - Ibom, Rivers have N300bn bond. And why do you want to go for bond? Simple- it is better structured. It has a lower interest rate of about 14.5 percent as against straight loan where you pay as much as 22.5 per cent interest. So, bond works out better for us over a long period. Otherwise how are we going to do any development in this part? Yes, we have increased the IGR in Ekiti from about N109m to N600m but that is just a scratch. Or is it the N3bn from Abuja that is going to give us all these things that you have said we have done? So, when the election comes we would have that debate about bond and anybody who wants to come with a superior argument would also table it. And what is our track record? The last government that ever did anything in this state that you can refer to as concrete - evidence based legacy was the Adebayo government. Adebayo government took a N4bn bond in 2002; Ekiti House in Abuja that was built in 2002 for N700m; we have just done revaluation, and the Ekiti House is now worth N4.7bn. So these are trade-offs. Its even wiser to take these bond to develop, because Ekiti people are not going to say to me that because money does not come from Abuja I would not work. Are you not worried that Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele who is a member of your party is coming to challenge you in the coming election? As far as I am aware, APC does not even have members yet in Ekiti State. APC membership registration has not taken place. It is taking place in November. So, we would know if Opeyemi Bamidele is a member of APC in November. So, I don’t want you to jump to that conclusion. How close are you to Opeyemi Bamidele and is there any betrayal along the line, because he appears to be aggrieved? To the best of my knowledge, he is my brother and he is representing this organisation, but what you should know is that in politics you don’t even need excuse to have ambition. What is your take on the proposed national dialogue and how far has your party gone with proposed regional integration? Lately, we came to a point where we decided that the regional integration agenda should not just be a newspaper agenda that is why we set up a full fledged commission working from Ibadan, the political capital of the region in a whole variety of ways; language, common educational policy, common agricultural policy, common transportation and a whole range of the things are being undertaken by the commission in Ibadan. It is true we meet monthly. When we meet, it is not everything we deliberate upon that we come out to discourse with the media. We are of the view that we need to demonstrate tangible evidence of what we have been deliberating upon and that step will enhance that rather than to keep calling the press and talking about regional integration. And you could tie that to your question about the national conference. If you know my background you will know where I stand on national conference. In my previous life, I was the convener of the Citizens Forum for Constitutional Reform in this country and I spent the better part of my time from 1999 till I came into politics, working on the constitution. I was an unofficial adviser to the late Chief Bola Igbe on the constitution review committee that they set up at one time and we produced a model constitution. I was in PRONACO. I had written extensively about this. I am a federalist. For me what President Jonathan has done, coming from an earlier position that was utterly negative, is not something Kayode Fayemi can personally be negative about. I cannot! I was actually in the Yoruba Assembly. You only need to google my interviews and other things I have said so it would be opportunistic on my part to say national conference is not appropriate but – and there is a big but- I’m not going to talk about the motive-whoever sets up anything has a motive and there is no perfect time for anything. Whatever anyone does in life there cannot be 100% perfect time. That is the time you must do it. So people are saying why now, why not another time? It is not for me the essential argument. Again, whether it is called national dialogue or national conference is not really relevant, what makes a conference relevant is the input of the large population of people and that can only be arrived at by a referendum. That is the only vehicle of sovereignty. If you do not put the stamp of the people there, we cannot say. “we the people…...”
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 18:31:16 +0000
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