Love him or hate him Peter AyodeleFayose has come to be in
the annals of the Nigerian nation. For some he is an enigma, for others he is a
stubborn rascal, while for some still ,
he is the devil incarnate.
However, no matter how you see him, the Governor of Ekiti
State has been able to etch his name in the history books of Nigeria as a
nation.
He has defied all odds and all obstacles placed in his path
since he decided to run once again, for the office of the No 1 citizen of Ekiti
State, popularly known as the “ Fountain of knowledge”.
Perhaps, the great contradiction in Ekiti is that a largely
rural grassroots people, inhabit a state that is touted as having the largest
number of professors in Nigeria.
For the people of Ekiti, AyodeleFayose epitomizes the very
essence of Ekitiland. He does not pretend to be anything but an Ekiti man, with
their legendary stubbornness and
fanatical love for traditions.
His romance with his Ekiti people stem from his un conventional
approach to governance and his uncanny ability to understand what the average
rural dweller in Ekiti wants in their leaders. He is never aloof, rather he
enjoys mingling with the masses, the youth, the women in their own space, in an
informal and unplanned atmosphere where people are more likely to voice out
their innermost feelings spontaneously, than in a formal setting of Governor
meets the people in a town hall meeting arena, where speeches are more guided.
The beauty of it all is that, for Ayo Fayose, this approach
to governance is not just for public relations purpose nor is it limited to
elections period, it is just his way of continuously connecting with his people
the way they understand.
For anyone to fault him on this is naive and laughable,
because this has paid off twice for him. And on both occasions he successfully
dislodged incumbent governors, Niyi Adebayo and KayodeFayemi.
It is quite instructive to note that from his entry into
Ekiti politics in 2002/2003, he always knew what the needs of the people are,
very simple indeed and he went ahead to make these possible while the
government of the day was finding it hard.
In an intrinsic analogy of the enigma called Ayo Fayose,
Stephen Gadamosi of the Tribune newspaper wrote;
“When the government failed to provide the people potable
water, Fayose it was, who was supplying water freely to the people by taking
water tankers to the various communities in Ekiti.
He provided buses that would take students to their schools
and bring them back. Apart from these, Fayose gave out scholarships to indigent
but deserving students of Ekiti State. His care for the aged and the poor in
the agrarian areas was reportedly legendary.
Despite that Ekiti is reputed to be a state with an enviable
number of professors and scholar, it has been said, it remained an agrarian
state, where the people cherish their culture; they would rather have their
pounded yam than a plate of sallad. The people identified with their culture
and Fayose identified with them. He would eat with them, rather than stay aloof
and live the 'city boy' life, unlike other politicians.”
For his traducers, Fayose can never do anything right, but
fortunately they are in a very wide minority.
Again, his opponents under rated his affinity with the
people of Ekiti as the last gubernatorial elections 2014 approached. In fact I
was one of those who actually doubted his ability to dislodge KayodeFayemi,
considering some of the projects I saw while in Ekiti. But I started changing
my mind when a lot of people I met there voiced out that they were not happy
with Fayemi, who they described as being aloof and not caring about the masses.
Many cited Fayemi’s penchant for giving out even little contracts to people
from Lagos to the detriment of the Ekiti peoplebecame quite convinced that Fayose will create an
upset when he walked into a beer parlour where I was having drinks with friends
one evening with his aides. The atmosphere changed and a lot of banter and
discussions went on for about one hour that he was there.
He has not stopped this since he assumed office in 2014.
In a chat with journalists last year, he endeavoured to
explain his unconventional style of reaching out to the people on a constant
basis.
According to excerpts from the Punch-
“Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. AyodeleFayose, has said he
goes to beer parlour every Friday in order to enable him to get close to the
common man in the state.
The governor spoke with journalists in Abuja while defending the concept of what he
described as “stomach infrastructure” introduced by his government.
He said it would be wrong to assume that stomach
infrastructure means only sharing of food and money to the people.
Fayose defended his decision to go to beer parlours, saying
that it would be wrong to equate governance with church or morality.
He said, “I also go to beer parlour on Friday to stay with
the common men there. Governance is not church;
it is about diverse characters and you must relate with them as such.
“Christmas is coming. Why do people go out of their ways to
be shopping or doing other things if it is not just to make people merry?
“So, I'm grooming chicken, buying rice, yams, plantain, and
the rest of them. I am sure if I give it to families during the festive period,
they will be happy. So, stomach infrastructure is a way of life.”
Fayose said most people, who commit crime do so because they
felt that life was no longer worthy of living for them and that there was no
one to tell them that there was life for them.
He was also seen at a popular canteen in the Ajilosun area
of the state capital with his aides eating Amala.
Not to forget the day his convoy stopped along a street at a
furniture makers shop. Entering the shop of the elated young furniture maker,
he was quickly ushered into the showroom of the furniture maker.
Fayose checked the bed, commented on the quality of work
done by the young man and ordered for four more of the bed which the furniture
maker said will be available for collection the following few days.
He was also cited buying plantain by the roadside and
recently, he had to stop his convoy to pick up a three year old buy at the
Ikere- Ekiti market just to exchange banters with the market women not minding
that his clothes were dirtied by the boy.
These gestures continue to endear the governor to the people
of Ekiti state, who have shown unprecedented support for a leader the way they
did for Fayose during the period of his impeachment saga with the All
Progressive Congress state legislators.
That the people were ready to defend the mandate they gave
the peoples’ governor is a lesson lots of Nigerian leaders should learn. They
must endeavour to continuously connect with the people even when they have
gotten the mandate.
His relation with his people has not rubbed him of the efforts
to make sure they enjoy the benefits of democracy so far.
Even with the lean purse of the state and in the face of the
massive debt he inherited from the past administration, he has been able to
weather the storm. Ekiti is one of the few states not owing workers salaries
He said it was because of this that he set up a department
for stomach infrastructure and also appointed a special assistant and a
personal assistant on it.
“So, my style without apology is that stomach infrastructure
is a way of life for me, I will relate well with my people to alleviate poverty
and hunger,” he added.
To further butress his “stomach infrastructure” concept
Fayose was to later award contracts worth N1Billion to the Ekiti State
association of furniture makers so that jobs can go round the operators in that
sector. The jobs involve a lot of carpentry work in relations to schools in the
state, including roofing, desks, chairs etc for all levels of educational
institutions in the state. When one calculates the volume of capital flight the
state would have experienced if such contracts has been awarded to people
outside Ekiti State, then you would understand how enormous the impact of this
policy will be on the state.
In the past few months the peoples’ governor has been sighted
severally in situations where he has been directly interacting with the
grassroots people.despite dwindling allocations from the commonwealth.
Though he was seriously distracted for the first seven
months of his return as governor for the second time, due to the running battle
he had with the APC law makers in the state, he has made efforts to make an
impact.
So far he has been able to get about 50 people of Ekiti
stock appointments on the federal level, especially in MDAs.
Fayose has also rehabilitated and constructed some important
link roads within the state capital.
Important roads like the Adehun road linking Housing Estate
in Okela; the Mathew to Odo Ado road as well as the University road linking the
State Secretariat have all been rehabilitated and constructed to make traffic
flow around the capital less cumbersome.
Governor Fayose has also constructed lock up shops for the
market women at Bisi market at very affordable rates.
As Nigeria’s most outstanding grassroots governor of the year, Ayo Fayose
continues to be a source of admiration and inspiration to many within and
outside of Ekiti state. Comments by a number of his admirers go a long way to
show the affection many in Ekiti have for him. A respondent we spoke to had
this to say;
“..but with each day and new stunts, you can't help but
admire him, if not
On the day he finally disposed of the irritating Ekiti State
House of Assembly members, who were hell bent on removing him from office, thus
disturbing him from facing governance for 7 months, Fayose celebrated with the
masses who stood by him, by riding on the back of a motorcycle popularly called
‘Okada”, through the streets of the state capital Ado Ekiti, to the joy of
majority of his people.
The convoy of “okadas” took him to the state house of
assembly for the swearing in of the state legislators.
ove him. Fayose is really the man of the people, he knows
how to play to his strength, can't help but love him.”
Yet another on Facebook commented
“But to carry that dirty kid requires love straight from his
heart. You know how dirty most markets are this rainy season”
“The leader of South West politicians, professor of
Politics, King of Boys, Friend of Masses, Okanlomo of the whole S/W, My ROLE
MODEL” wrote another admirer online who signed on as temitemi1.
In responce to a comment by a Fayose critic another of his
admirers replied
“Is he not better than those who pretend but milk the people
dry? Fayose is a man of the people. He feels the pulse. He is the one that
opened up Ekiti State. I have confidence that he will perform.”
Whether you like him or not, both Fayose’s critic and
admirers alike agree on one fact about him; he is Nigeria’s Grassroots governor
of the year- Peoples’ Governor.
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Astute legal luminary and former member of the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Commission , Benson Enikuomehin has been considerably involved in the growth and development of the grassroots entrepreneurs. Using his position in the commission thousands of women, youth and men benefited immensely from his developmental programs. Even outside government he continues to be a source of motivation for so many in the rural areas of Ondo state particularly and Nigeria generally. His magnificent law chambers continues to be a source of immense legal research due to its profoundly rich repertoire of law volumes HE IS A PAMA 2015 RECIPIENT FOR HIS IMPECCABLE SUPPORT OF GRASSROOTS ENTREPRENUAL EFFORTS..
