Former Ekiti State Governor and Minister of Mines and Steel Development Dr. Kayode Fayemi recently hosted All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains from 16 local governments at an end-of-the-year party in his hometown, Isan-Ekiti. He spoke with reporters on the Judicial Commission of Inquiry that has indicted him, speculations about his governorship ambition and the APC’s preparations for the poll. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA was there.
Speculations are rife that you have the intention to run for governor. Are you running again?
It is the stuff of politics for people to speculate, especially as elections draw close. But, there is nothing that is happening now that is new; Since I left office in Ekiti in 2014, I’ve always made it a point of duty to host party leaders and members every quarter and we use these gatherings to reflect on the state of the party and state of the nation.
We’ve held these meetings 12 consecutive times. Of course, based on feedback, we’ve also broadened representation at the meetings. So, the one you’ve witnessed today is very large because all wards, local governments, LCDAs, senatorial and state executives of the party are here led by our National Deputy Chairman, Engr Segun Oni who is from Ekiti and our State Party chairman, Chief Jide Awe. Over 7000 party chieftains came here today.
The bottom line for us is that we have to ensure that our party is well positioned and strengthened to go into elections. It has nothing to do with a personal ambition or an intention to contest. I believe that is the burden leadership has thrust upon me and I don’t want to shirk that responsibility.
The choice really for every Ekiti free-born is either to walk away and avoid Ekiti like a plague. And many have done that, particularly the elite. The alternative is to treat Ekiti as a sick child.
We all know how a concerned mother treats a sick child; when a child is sick and the child refuses to take any food and the prescribed drugs, our mothers apply tough love to that child and what is that tough love? In Ekiti, mothers have a way of force-feeding the sick child – blocking his two nostrils, pinning his hands and legs down, before putting the food and drugs in the child’s mouth. Of course, the child will wail and cry as mothers apply this tough love, but ultimately, it is for the good of the child because If you agree with me that Ekiti is a sick child, I leave you to speculate about the application of tough love on a sick child. As for contest or no contest, we will cross that bridge when we get there.
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Fayose administration has indicted you for financial recklessness. What is your reaction to this?
You know my view about our friend, the alawada-in-chief (comedian-in-chief) in the Government House; I am always unequivocal in my view about him as a misfit, an uncouth political thug and a rabble rouser who has not learned anything from his previous travails after being thrown out of office in 2006.
So, how do I respond to something I regard as illegal and unconstitutional by a Governor who i have the least regard for?
What Ayo Fayose set up was a kangaroo panel with a clear mandate to work to a predetermined answer?
Try and remember the genesis of the panel. His rubber stamp House of Assembly passed a resolution that he should probe Fayemi over an alleged stealing of N852 million from SUBEB and for giving President Buhari N1.5billion of Ekiti money because i refused to appear before them. Based on that resolution, he set up the Oyewole panel after I’d gone to court to challenge the shenanigan in the assembly.
If you had followed the Ayo Fayose story, he believes that (I am) the only one in this state who can clip his boisterous wings and he wants to do everything to embarrass me in the hope or expectation that I will come crawling to beg him. Unfortunately for him, he has chosen the wrong target this time. He started by denying me my entitlements as prescribed by law as a former Governor of this state. I didn’t even bat an eyelid, neither did i ask him to pay.
Even all my political appointees who served the state with distinction were denied their severance claims and entitlements and he tried to use the payment as a bait to lure some of them to his side.
Again, he failed. No appointee of mine left the APC to join him: So, a panel which started with the so-called N852 million that Fayemi stole from SUBEB fell flat as it could not even sustain the lie that any money was missing, especially after the bank, Access Bank, told his panel the bank took back their money because government did not fulfill the terms and conditions attached to the loan after I left office. They also informed all and sundry that it was the Fayose administration that took the N71million interest rate that accrued. By the time the joke of a panel completed its hatchet job, what Fayemi stole had shifted from N852m to 17 buses and he also mismanaged the bond and must explain N2.6 billion.
At the risk of being immodest, everyone in this country knows that I’m an advocate of transparency and accountability in public office. I’d be happy to explain anything that’s unclear after leaving over 500 page, painstakingly detailed hand-over note on my stewardship, but not to an administration that has no interest in seeking the truth.
Without prompting, I declared my assets publicly when I became Ekiti Governor and did when I left office. There is nothing that i have by way of assets that i cannot defend.
And as President Buhari’s pointsman at NEITI who also chairs the inter-agencies task force on anti-corruption, I have a duty, indeed a responsibility not to do anything to bring his name or mine into disrepute. Now, tell me: Is Fayose a serious human being? I’m told he’s now cooking up a white paper that he can shop around with a view to getting me banned from public office. Can you imagine? What a joker? Anyway, the less said, the better on the panel. We will see who would end up in jail in Nigeria between Ayo Fayose and I. You see me in Ekiti all the time, I walk around Ekiti freely. We shall see if Ayo Fayose will be able to walk freely after October 16.
Fayose has said that you have never attracted any Federal Government project to Ekiti State as a minister. This is an opportunity for you to tell the whole world how you have used the office to the benefit of your home state.
The trouble with Ayo Fayose is that every time he opens his mouth, he exhibits an unbelievable level of ignorance which underscores why our state is in the doldrums.
I have told the whole world what I have used my office to benefit Ekiti and to benefit the whole of Nigeria not once, not twice. I am Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am not Minister for Ekiti State affairs. Governors who love their people and want progress for their states know how they get things for their states.
‘Fayose set up kangaroo panel to indict me’
