Tai Oguntayo
Anyone accosting Governor John Olukayode Mofolorunso Fayemi of Ekiti State, chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), for the first time would take him for a very quiet and innocuous person because of his unassuming appearance and simplicity. The truth is that his gentility and simplicity are his virile weapons, which he employs as missiles of resilience and persistence to always emerge as a trailblazer in his undertakings, particularly in the murky waters of Nigerian politics.
The series of victories that Fayemi had in May alone really confirmed that he is a serial winner. Fayemi started with a unanimous judgement at the Supreme Court over eligibility litigation instituted by his close rival at the governorship primary, Mr. Segun Oni.
Barely two weeks after, Ekiti was in the news again as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Professor Olusola Eleka’s case was sat upon at the Supreme Court, where Fayemi again won in a unanimous judegment, 24 hours after emerging as the chairman of the NGF.
As Yoruba people would say, “Oruko Omo Niiro Omo,” which literarily means: a child’s name is symbolic. Therefore, it is not a surprise that Fayemi is winning many battles today, because the circumstances of his birth show that he was born into this world for a purpose, more or less to serve as a pathfinder like John the Baptist, the frontrunner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fayemi’s parents had their reason for naming him Olukayode (one who brings joy). It was because his mother already had four female children. His other name, Mofolorunso (I give this one to the Lord for protection) was because his parents lost three older children in quick succession before him. He was, therefore, specially put in God’s care.
A peep into the many battles Fayemi fought and won shows that he is definitely a serial winner. Not only was there a conspiracy against him within his political family but there was also serial blackmail against his person by the government of Mr. Ayodele Fayose.
Fayose set up a panel of enquiry just to nail Fayemi and prevent him from contesting the 2018 election. The court declared the government white paper null and void and of no effect.
Just as Fayemi was fighting Fayose/PDP’s battle on one hand, he was fighting another battle orchestrated by Oni, who felt Fayemi ought to have resigned his appointment as a minister before contesting for the governorship seat. Hence another legal battle bordering on eligibility ensued, even after the election when Fayemi had emerged victorious.
Another secret of Fayemi’s victory is that he has a forgiving spirit. He made it clear that he had committed his predecessor, Fayose, into God’s hands. After emerging the APC candidate, Fayemi appealed to his co-aspirants for cooperation. Cynics thought he was a pretender trying to curry their favour so as to win the election and later revenge.
But the first sets of beneficiaries of his government were his die-hard opponents. He appointed five of them commissioners and special advisers. John C. Maxwell, in his The 360 Degree Leader, said: “If you make it your goal to reach out to others and build relationships with them, you will derive fulfillment wherever you are.”
This, Fayemi did and he succeeded.
Fayemi is a human rights activist, a political juggernaut, numero uno among Nigerian governors. He was a child of the Pekelemesi years, “born into a city in crisis, a city already poisoned by anarchy and mayhem, which had resulted from the political killing and maiming that engulfed Ibadan as the regional capital of the then Western Region of Nigeria.” (An excerpt from his book, Out of the Shadows).
He is a dogged fighter who detests violence and bloodshed. Throughout the three and a half years of the struggle for his stolen mandate between 2007 and 2010, he was always warning his supporters against violence.
What do Fayemi’s serial victories portend for Ekiti State and Nigeria? Is God not preparing him for a greater role? Fayemi in and out of government is always hammering on national development. In defining development strategy for Nigeria, Fayemi, in a lecture titled “Strategy and Leadership – Panacea to Our National Malaise,” delivered at the 10th anniversary of the Institute of Strategic Management, Lagos, on July 11, 2013, suggested: “We must look for an overarching conceptual framework that unites development theory and praxis with civic orientation, national values, resource management, policy architectures, political consensus and performance mentoring.”
As the chairman of the NGF, all eyes are on Fayemi. Nigerians expect him to answer many of his questions in his writings about good governance and quality leadership. In the introduction to another of his books, Legacy of Honour and Service, he posited: “For Nigeria, momentous change seems inevitable and immanent. The pressing issue of the day is not whether significant change will come. The question before us concerns the type and quality of that change.”
Fayemi went further opera citato to ask some fundamental questions: “Will it be reform that propels us forward into the positive fate and future of our better dreams and aspirations? Will change be such that it will cure the disease of our body-polity so that a healthy and sound nation can finally realise the great potential of her diversity by unleashing the vast heretofore pent-up ingenuity of her many daughters and sons? Or will the change be retrogressive, pummelling us backward, seizing our best dreams and forcing us to perpetually relive the nightmares of division, bankrupt governance and galloping poverty, that we steadily become or own worst fears?”
These and many more questions were asked by Fayemi, which Nigerians will expect him to find answers to in the years ahead.
•Oguntayo is Senior Special Assistant (SSA), Media, to Fayemi