I will start by saying congratulations as you turned 49 a few days ago. What are your reflections at 49?

I have travelled some distance but it’s still a long walk ahead. It’s been 49 years of excitement, hard work, commitment and compassion. I didn’t start out to be a partisan politician, but the road I have travelled has led me in this direction. I come from a background of active Christianity. As a kid, I was a mass server in the Catholic Church. Moving to high school, I was very passionate about current affairs. I also got involved in activism, both as a human rights and student activist.

After that, I went on to become a democracy activist in the Babangida/Abacha years. It seemed like a natural trajectory. Being an academic gave me an opportunity to deepen my activism beyond the barricade, and that intersection is probably what has led me into direct political engagement. I do think that my politics is an extension of my activism. My commitment to social justice and my interest in my environment and community has gone beyond the level of theory to direct practical engagement. It’s been 49 years of service, grace to God and blessings. There really is a lot to thank God for.

Did you at any point imagine that you would one day govern Ekiti State?

I didn’t start out to be governor. I know politicians always say this but in my case, it is actually true. I was asked to run. There was concerted effort by the leadership of the party at the time to request that I run for office. Not having run for any political office before then, I was quite uncertain about it. I discussed it with my wife and also touched base with a few people whose opinion I have high regards for and I decided to throw my hat into the ring and believe me, it was a tough journey.

I won the election in 2007 but didn’t become governor till 2010. I would say that my long involvement in activism helped me here and so, I was ready for the long haul.

What would you say prepared you for governance? 

First, I have academic training in matters of governance, public policy, public administration and constitutionalism. In addition to that, I have passion for social justice. So, in everything I have done, it’s about how to make fundamental difference in my community. At all times, that underlying factor has always been important. But it is not enough to have a passion, you also have to have technical skills; you need to be able to relate with people; you have to be able to set goals and plan.

And that’s the training I received as a war and civil-military relations scholar. When you are involved with the military, one of the first things you notice is that the military organisation is one of the best around the world because it is precise and does not leave room for errors. The training is very meticulous, and it is driven by a whole wealth of information that also builds into it, the word ‘if What if you don’t succeed? What’s the plan B and even C. And that has really helped me. I came into this job with a plan.

Asides the late President Yar’Adua, you were the first governor to openly declare your assets. What inspired that move and did it in anyway change the public perception of you?

The public perception of me is not for me to judge. I don’t know what it is but I would like to think that I am one of those in public service that people are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. Partly because of that and also I don’t think I have conducted myself in any manner that portrays the contrary. I lead a relatively simple life. I don’t engage in things that would demean the office. I am very sensitive to any damage being done to my name. I don’t wear my faith on my face but I am a Catholic and Catholics are very sensitive about their integrity and I think that is partly what drives me.

I did not do that to curry public favour but because I was very active in the campaign for the freedom of information act.

As a civil society activist, what we do is ask others to be scrutinised. We campaign for accountability and transparency, and I thought it would seem churlish on my part to now occupy public office and not do what I have always asked others to do. That’s why I felt it was important to send a signal by openly declaring my assets. It wasn’t an attempt in any way to appear better than my colleagues who declared theirs privately.

I just feel very strongly that private declaration of assets is a contradiction in terms. Declaration means to open. So if that’s what we are supposed to do, why should I then keep it private?

On assumption of office, you proposed an eight-point agenda. How much success have you recorded in each of these areas?

You know what they say about a tiger not bearing its tigritude.1 think I have done relatively well although that’s a matter for the people of Ekiti to decide. I would also add that in terms of meeting the basic action points in the road map to Ekiti recovery known as the eight-point agenda, I believe I must have covered at least 70 per cent of my goals.

Tell us about the Ikogosi project?

Ikogosi is the hub of our tourism sector. It has been moribund for close to two decades. Governor Adebayo, who was governor from 1999 to 2003, did some work to revive it, but as soon as he left office, the whole place went down again. When I became governor, it was one of the promises I made, to revive the tourism sector in Ekiti. I had the aim of Ekiti becoming the destination of choice for tourists in Nigeria and that was the point of renovating and bringing Ikogosi warm springs back to life. Last December, over 20,000 people were there.

It seems there is a clear focus on education in the state, is this basically because of your background?

Of course, yes. I am an academic; I can’t run away from that and it influences a lot of what I do. Besides, this is also an education state. A lot of what we do is driven by knowledge. Even the average person on the farm is very desirous of a solid education for his child. So, it’s no surprise that we have the highest enrolment rate in Nigeria.

Although you talk about 10.5million kids being out of school in Nigeria, you won’t even find 1% of that in Ekiti. Virtually all our kids of school age are in school because we make our education not only free but also compulsory. We have a child rights acts that prohibits our children from being on the streets hawking.

If you do and you are caught, your parents would have to answer for it. Part of the problem we have as a country is that we are driven by a resource economy and not a knowledge economy. The oil is going to dry up one day but one thing that will be there for us to sell is the knowledge that our people have gathered. Functional education is what would give them that advantage above others and that’s why the knowledge zone is a very critical project of this administration.

What so far has been your greatest challenge in governance?

My greatest challenge is the fact that we do not have enough jobs to go round those who are in desperate need of employment. I see that as the one thing that would give me the greatest joy if I could conquer it. Of course, Ekiti is not in isolation when it comes to this problem. It is a national issue. The youth bulge is a big challenge in Africa and it’s something we have to figure out, a comprehensive strategy to address.

What we are doing in Ekiti is empowering our young people to develop a sense of self-worth that can enable them to develop employment opportunities themselves rather than to depend on government or the standard jobs in our environment, which are few and far between, really. Our focus is ensuring that our youngsters are not just educated but properly skilled to make something out for themselves.

You recently indicated your intent to run for second term. How did the people of Ekiti receive this news and what was their response?

That indication was not unconnected to the request of the people of Ekiti actually. I didn’t do it in isolation. I was responding to the widely spread endorsement and request that I should run for a second term. And I had to concede with the greatest respect to our people and also because the job isn’t finished and it isn’t something that I would walk away from.

I am not a quitter. I clearly am committed to making this place better than I found it. It’s got a lot better; it’s a lot more peaceful. It’s no longer the state of one week, one trouble. It is a state that is on the rise in very many sectors. Education is coming back very forcefully and impressively.

Our health care is one of the best in Nigeria. We have the highest life expectancy and the lowest HIV prevalence in Nigeria. We also have the lowest maternal mortality here. You just mentioned Ikogosi. In agriculture, we are also making giant strides. There are lots of things to show for the last three and a half years in office but there’s also a lot to be done because my central vision, which is to make poverty history here, is not completely addressed yet.

Without indulging in any self-adulation, do you think you have done well enough to deserve a second term?

That’s a matter for the people of Ekiti to decide. It’s not up to me. Even if I did think that I have done well enough to be given a second term, I don’t want to take the place of the voting population here in answering that question. I leave it to them; it’s their best judgment.

How positive are you about the outcome of the election?

Extremely very positive! Ekiti has never known it this good. Anyone who knew this state when I became governor can see that the difference is clear. It’s been a move from a village capital to a reasonable urban center. I would not say it’s Lagos yet. We really don’t even want to be Lagos. We want to remain our countryside; we want to keep enjoying our fresh air. We want you to be able to get anything you have in Lagos and even better. So when we are laying fibre optic cables around the state, it’s precisely because we want broadband access to every home in Ekiti, which we think we can achieve. Our vision of making Ekiti the destination choice is real and it’s happening.

The atmosphere in Ekiti has been a bit intense as the election date draws closer. As governor and candidate in the election, what are your concerns?

We have had three and a half years of what I would refer to as a largely peaceful environment. Ekiti has been very tranquil under my watch and I wouldn’t want anything to dent that climate of peace. I do worry about political differences and tension resulting in violence and I would do everything within my power as a governor to prevent that from happening.

I have also encouraged other participants to pledge themselves to a code of ethics that privileges peace and non-violence. You have every right to contest against the governor. Table your agenda to Ekiti people, tell them what you can do better than Fayemi and let them be the judge of it.

In view of recent developments, especially the filibustering directive handed by your party, it appears the APC is beginning to lose face before the public. Don’t you think?

I think there’s a lot of media perception about the APC. People would tell you they are no different, they are all politicians, and some of them have come from PDP to APC. But people leave the Democrats for the Republicans. Many people forget Ronald Reagan was a democrat but he became a Republican president. There are people they call Reagan democrats and Clintonian republicans because they share the agenda of the candidates they wanted to support.

I think it’s a little bit premature for us to even start dwelling too much on ideology. Most things that Nigerians want are basic. They are not ideological in presentation. The way we deliver them may be ideological but every Nigerian wants stable electricity, constant running water, decent education for our kids, jobs for the people, homes for the homeless, health care for the infants.

These are basic. What you then choose is whether it is free medical care for pregnant women or everybody for himself, God for us all. We in APC have always been clear that we are social democratic in our agenda. We have a focus on the weak and vulnerable because we believe that a society cannot thrive on a survival of the fittest agenda. Those who are lucky in the society must be prepared to pay the price of the privileges by helping to lift up those who are not as fortunate as they are.

So, when we do the things that we do in our policies, it’s precisely because the weak and the vulnerable in the society always deserve a seat at the table. That’s not the agenda of the conservative PDP that we have. For them, it’s the end justifies the means politics; it is the survival of the fittest politics. If I can grab it, I take everything away; I don’t care what happens to my neighbour.

That is PDP and when the time comes, when we are ripe for that contrast in perspective to be drawn, we would draw it and give Nigerians the choice. Forget about all these putative dismissals of who we are and who we are not. The best way to judge who we are is to look at what we do in the states that we govern and look at even what those who have joined us do.

It is not an accident that Kano, Kwara and Rivers have very social democratic orientation. Though they were with the PDP, the reality is that in some states, PDP was the only game in town before APC came. Even if you had a progressive inclination; that was the only place you could exert it. Now that they have the opportunity to link up with people who do not only have progressive inclination but are ready to back them to achieve the objective of progressivism in them, why do you then say we are the same? I am not the same as any PDP politician.

Do you think APC stands a chance in ruling the nation come 2015?

Absolutely! Just do the numbers – Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano. It’s not an accident that the most populous parts of this country today are being governed by APC.

Let’s talk about your wife Bisi? How did you meet her and what attracted you to her?

Laughs… I met her in the library. If you know my wife, you would know what attracted me to her. To start with, she is very intelligent and also very pretty. She is also very passionate about social justice issues. She has shared all of the ideals that had propelled me in life. She was very active in all my engagements. In her own right, she was a feminist activist. She remains one. She is a democracy activist. She is even more of a politician than I am. There are those who would argue that she would make a better politician than me. It’s two for the price of one.

How long have you been married and how many kids are you blessed with?

I have been married for 25 years and I have a son.

What is it like being married to an older woman, bearing in mind that respect plays a huge role in the Yoruba culture?

Laughs… In a boy meets girl situation, the first question usually isn’t how old are you? Age is just a chronological number. Don’t forget we were classmates in graduate school, that’s how we met. True, in the Yoruba culture, age is a big deal, more than even in other cultures in Nigeria but I think understanding is much more important and sharing a similar worldview plays a much more critical part. Besides, when you have grown together and struggled together and you know everything about each other, it’s no big deal. She has known this guy for 28 years. We courted for three years before marriage so I think age is an exaggerated sense of importance. I am not from that school.

How do you manage to share your time evenly between family and the people of Ekiti State?

Not very well! If you ask my wife, I am not sure she is going to give you a very positive comment on that. But then, this is a duty not a favour. I knew it was going to be like this. I applied for the job and I should be ready to deal with the consequences. Frankly, what is key is that the time I spend with family is very dear to me.

Although I am a public person, I am a very private person too. I am an introvert, so for me, being home is actually bliss. Regardless of this, I know that I have a duty to serve Ekiti people and my wife would hate to see me fail in that assignment. Thankfully, she is a very busy person, so that helps.

What do you miss the most about life before you became a governor?

I miss the fact that I could walk on the street without anyone bothering me or without a retinue of people shouting. If you take the position too seriously, you are obviously going to suffer serious withdrawal symptoms when you no longer have the job and I don’t come from that kind of background. There is so much superficiality around these political positions and it’s all make-believe. I would rather lead a simple life like I always have.

You seem very much in touch with your intellectual constituency, when do you find time to catch up with your reading and writing?

I am an academic. That’s my job. When I leave this job, that’s where I would return. For me, my intellectual side is my make-up without it, you don’t have a Kayode Fayemi. It offers me perspective and gives me a sense of how others who have come before me have addressed issues. I feel strongly that we need an injection of cerebral minds in politics and I don’t mean people who have PhDs.

You don’t need to have a PhD to be cerebral or to be in touch with your intellectual side. It is very important because it gives you rigour, depth and commitment in your application of knowledge and that, for me, is the advantage that I saw myself having when I got into politics.

And so intellect itself is not what’s important.

Application of your intellect to everyday circumstances is what makes a difference in a successful public intellectual-turned politician.

So do you plan to go back to lecturing after governance?

I never stopped lecturing. As a matter of fact, I produce every year, a collection of my lectures. Since I became governor, I have done three: Reclaiming the trust; Regaining the Legacy and In search of the truth. Those are books that I have done about my time in office, reflecting on my core values and beliefs, and how I apply them in my governing strategy.

Last year, I was at the Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies to lecture, the Institute of Security Studies in Abuja, the University of Harvard and the Oxford University to mention a few. I do not want to lose my academic background simply because I am a governor. I want to continue to maintain that, so that it would be seamless for me whenever I decide I am done with the political job and decide to go back.

So when you do eventually leave office, how would you like the people of Ekiti to remember you?

That I served them with every fibre in my being and that I managed to restore pride, hope and honour to a land of people dedicated to cherishing their integrity.

Any last word for the Ekiti people?

Keep faith.

– THISDAY Style