Reclaiming the Trust

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

3

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

TABLE OF CONTENT Preface (By Wale Adebanwi) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Reflections on My Second Year in Office 10 Federalism and the Quest for National Integration and Development in Nigeria 19 Resurgent Regionalism and Democratic Development in Western Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects 32 Strategies for Regional Integration for Rapid Growth 45 The Nigerian Polity, Politics and Politicians: Moving from Transaction to Transformation 59 Why women matter 72 The Conflict-Security-Development Nexus and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Development 79 Repositioning Nigerian Universities within a Dynamic Global University System: Challenges and Prospects 89 Character as Devotion: Towards A Transformative Ethos 111

TRIBUTES 10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

My Mother, My Mentor Meles Zenawi: A daring, dedicated leader Enahoro: A Democrat's Exit and A Mission Accomplished Gani Fawehinmi: An Icon's Departure and a Dream Deferred Celebration of a Life in Full: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, 1961-2009.

120 124 129 132 135

ENCOUNTERS 15.

16.

24 Hours With Governor Fayemi: A REPORTER'S PEEP INTO A GOVERNORS WORLD “We need a movement to escape further calamity”

140 153

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

4

Preface

By Wale Adebanwi In what seemed the endless months when Dr. Kayode Fayemi moved from one court room to another to recover his stolen mandate, one of the things that worried me most was how the long process of reclaiming the mandate would excessively escalate the expectations of the people of Ekiti State. The other concerned how the long wait would have made the task of rebuilding the state harder for him, given the vulgar despoliation that was going on at that time. Even if - while pursuing legal rectitude - he was able to bear the burden of the crude theft of his mandate with civic fortitude, how would the man remain unflappable in the face of the challenges of managing a wreckage, the type that an informed mind describes as appalling enough to lame the will and stagger the imagination?

For a significant period, the people of Ekiti State, like in most neighbouring states, in a sense, had become habituated to bad governance, or no governance at all. In a context in which officialdom had been replaced by rascaldom, one in which the domain of governance had been substituted for that of knaves, where and how do you start rebuilding?

The latter question, it must be added, was not only relevant in Ekiti State, it is a question that continues to haunt genuine patriots, progressive and truly democratic forces across Nigeria and the rest of the continent.

There are two parts to any attempt to answer this question. There is the practical, material part, and there is the non-material, symbolic part. Any society, state or nation that experiences a sustained period of electoral theft - and the associated crimes which were elevated to statecraft in the case of Ekiti and surrounding states - must ultimate confront the challenges of rebuilding both at the material and symbolic levels. In such circumstances, it is not only roads that would have remained unreconstructed or unpaved, or only hospitals that would have remained unrepaired and lacking in essential utilities, the political culture or the sensibilities of the people would also have been damaged by the preceding marauders.

Therefore, every post-despoliation era faces, on the one hand, the 1

Adebanwi is an Associate Professor at the University of California -Davis, United States.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

5

paradox of a citizenry with high expectations from government, and on the other, a citizenry whose sense of expectations would have become warped, both substantively and in terms of time frame. While the first set of expectation, even if blatant, might be healthy, the second set might be subversive of the validity and viability of long-term change. Even in the Unites States today, this paradox is evident. In such an era in the context of Nigeria, the task of truly democratic and progressive activists who elect to be invested with public power and therefore, public trust, cannot be an easy one. But if they have chosen this path, they cannot return with excuses - not minding the astounding tests that they confront.

Public trust is a very risky business. Just as there are plenty of benefits for those who are invested with public trust, there are also plenty of sanctions for the violation of such trust. Public governance is the highest form of public trust. This is why those who have had the benefit of public trust are called upon to continue to live up to the expectations of the trustees – the people. It is a duty that they owe the real trustees of the collective will.

The elements of this trust are the same as the principal elements of good governance. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encapsulates it, the six principal elements of good governance include accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, responsiveness, the rule of law and forward vision. Any public trust would be evaluated on the basis of all these elements, because they constitute the means by which what the OECD calls “better policies [and] better life” can be created and maintained.

As the Kayode Fayemi-led administration in Ekiti State marks its mid-term, that is, the second year of its four-year term, it is appropriate for the Governor himself to reflect on how well he has led the state in fulfilling the challenges of good governance. This is even more so for a man who has spent virtually all his adult life in the struggle for the creation of a better society, not only in Nigeria, but in the rest of the continent.

In the introduction to this volume, Governor Fayemi returns to the 8-Point Agenda of his administration against which readers – and the general public – are invited to evaluate the six principal elements of good governance through which he has sought to reclaim the trust of the people. In terms of accountability, following the OECD model, the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

6

governor here emphasises that he is able and willing to show the extent to which his and his administration's actions and decisions have been consistent with the 8-point agenda. In terms of transparency, as a longterm civil society activist, Fayemi invites appropriate scrutiny by the people of the state, civil society organisations, etc. of his government's actions, decisions and decision-making processes to evaluate if they meet the standards of the best practices, and if they fit into the agenda that the administration had set for itself.

In the area of efficiency and effectiveness, the mid-term is also an important juncture to examine how the government has endeavoured to produce quality public outputs, including services to the citizens. While set goals are important, unanticipated challenges can sometimes determine the mechanics of governance. Therefore, the capacity and flexibility of the Fayemi-led administration in the last two years in responding to challenges and changes are important reflections of the quality of governance that has been offered the people of Ekiti State. Crucial also is the rule of law. In the last two years, the administration can advertise how well it has enforced transparent laws and regulations toward the creation of better conditions of living for the people of Ekiti State. Lastly, and perhaps most critical, is the forward vision of the administration. For a governor who has fought a long battle for the creation of a better future, all the activities of his government in the last two years would not qualify for high praise only in the context of how they are directed toward solving the problems of the here-and-now, but also in terms of how they have helped in providing the basis of solving future problems; that is, how they provide a template for the creation of a better tomorrow for the people of Ekiti State. Here, the investments in education, healthcare programmes and facilities, and infrastructures would represent some of the finest advertisements for an administration which has pronounced Ekiti State as a “land of honour,” and one which is committed to implementing “better policies for better lives.”

Beneath and Beyond As a scholar, activist and political leader, Fayemi's vision of better policies for better lives is not restricted to Ekiti State. Indeed, any expansive vision of social transformation and egalitarian rule cannot but J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

7

be shareable across territorial boundaries and cultural divides. This is why the speeches and tributes contained in this volume speak to the local, the national and the global; in essence, the truly humanist commitments of the author.

Whether in terms of his thoughts on the best political architecture that is conducive to creating better policies for better lives in multi-cultural polities such as Nigeria (“Federalism and the Quest for National Integration and Development in Nigeria” and “Resurgent Regionalism and Democratic Development in Western Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects”) or in terms of the processes and the strategies and tactics of achieving a better society (“Strategies for Regional Integration for Rapid Growth” and “The Nigerian Polity, Politics and Politicians: Moving from Transaction to Transformation”), the author's concern for, and commitment to, the building of an egalitarian society are well articulated in this volume. Whether he is rendering an eloquent testimony to the significance of gender equity (“Why women matter”) or engaging in a fluent recognition and valuation of identities, their proneness to conflict and their potential to create security challenges (“The Conflict-SecurityDevelopment Nexus and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Development”) or offering a nuanced and prudent analysis, complete with native intelligence, on character and its implications for culture and public morality (“Character as Devotion: Towards A Transformative Ethos”), Fayemi's positions on these issues are expressive of a progressive-liberal worldview that recognises plurality while also embracing solidarity.

In “Repositioning Nigerian Universities within a Dynamic Global University System: Challenges and Prospects,” the scholar-public administrator figuratively wears his finery in speaking to his primary constituency about the distressing and depressing breakdown of standards in higher education in Nigeria and recommending concrete steps that need to be taken to remedy the situation and rebuild world-class universities. In this essay, the author demonstrates his trust in higher education as a great instrument of social transformation.

In the second part of the volume, starting with his mother, the author eulogises five people who have made a difference, not only in his world, but indeed, in our world. While the ecumenical context of his upbringing under his mother is quite significant for the author (“My J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

8

Mother, My Mentor”), what is most shareable for the readers, is not just the touchingly personal, almost inexpressible, feeling of a child watching an adoring mother depart, it is the promise a child makes to a departing mum about a life of devotion to egalitarian public causes.

As a citizen of the world, the author has met and interacted with many great people, and also shared the pursuit of valuable causes, around the world - particularly in the African universe. Therefore, it is no surprise that the author salutes Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who recently departed, as one of the most “intellectually dynamic” leaders.

Based on his interactions with Zenawi, and observation of the man as president over the years, the author recognises the contradictions in which the late Ethiopian leader was trapped. Zenawi embraced a maximalist form of power which his intellect could not but have instructed him again. Also, Fayemi honours the memory of one of the pioneers of Nigeria's freedom and the late untiring fighter for better policies for better lives, Chief Anthony Enahoro. He also reaffirms the place of the unparalleled Gani Fawehinmi, the late “senior advocate of the masses”, in the annals of the struggle for human liberty and human dignity. The author attests to how “Gani lit the candle with his numerous struggles for a decent Nigeria” and by that “taught us the true meaning of character, compassion, commitment and integrity.” While Gani Fawehinmi's turf was a Nigeria seized and dominated for decades by a myriad of disappointing rulers, the author's friend, the peri-pathetic Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, embraced the whole of Africa as his primary constituency in the struggle for racial emancipation and radical good governance. The memory of the man who never quivered in speaking truth to power is a compelling reminder in this volume that the author - despite moving from someone holding placards to one for or against whom placards are raised - still recognises that to reclaim the trust and ensure good governance, the forces for a better future must never forget what animated the remarkable life of the Oxfordtrained perpetual revolutionary, Tajudeen: “Let's organise, don't agonise.”

Perhaps, the truth of this is emphasised in different ways in the encounters that two journalists had with the author – in the third section of this volume. Even in government, Fayemi realises that the fundamental challenges of the Nigerian polity is beyond government, approached in a restrictive way – such as in the misguided opposition to a national talkJ. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

9

shop. As Fayemi articulates it, a movement for national salvation must be recreated if Nigeria would avoid further calamity.

Which returns Fayemi to the oft-stated insight of his comrade....

As one who has lived this truism for many years, now that he has had the unique opportunity to organise from a position of power, Fayemi must continue to bear in mind that the reduction or eradication of the social and economic agonies of his people is a task that must be done.

In this volume, the author tells us that he is keeping that in mind.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

10

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

1 Reflections on My Second Year in Office Trustworthiness, the capacity to commit oneself to fulfilling the legitimate expectations of others, is both the constitutive virtue of, and the key causal precondition for the existence of, any society – John Dunn, 1984.

Today, we, the Ekiti people, begin a new journey to meet our manifest destiny as the vanguard of enlightenment, not only in Nigeria, but in the rest of Africa. We went into the election believing in the sanctity of the vote, in our determination that our people's votes should count in order to ensure that we can be held accountable. Today, we enter into a sacred social contract with you, our people – Inauguration Speech, October 16, 2010.

Reclaiming the Land of Honour The decision to re-christen Ekiti State as “Ile iyi, Ile eye” (Land of Honour), was taken with lots of deliberations. Before we came into government, myself and members of my team were convinced that, in the effort to rejuvenate and cleanse the social, economic and political climate of Ekiti State, and revitalize the culture of honour that is our heritage, there was a need to provide a powerful emblem of the new era in the State.

In proclaiming Ekiti State as the Land of Honour we were also reminding ourselves and our people that power is a trust; by that, we were also re-establishing governance as a trust. In re-establishing governance as a trust, we were, in addition, convinced that government demands trust.

Trust exists in symbiotic relations; trust involves mutual obligations between the government and the people. The government depends on the people to function well; the people depend on the government for the facilitation of the processes of creating a better life for themselves and others. As an expert on the economic doctrine of trust, Diego Gambetta, states, trust “lubricates cooperation and it (is) thus in the collective J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

11

interest.” Other researchers have concluded from studies around the world that trust is one of the most important variables that make democracy work. Trust is therefore, critical for effective, responsive and representative government, as Robert D. Putnam, the world-famous Harvard Professor of Political Science and Public Policy concludes.

By the time we came into office two years ago, the experiences of the people of Ekiti state with our predecessors created a measure of cynicism in and about government - despite the monumental support with which we were heralded into office. For that reason, the challenge for us was how to recreate trust. There were two levels of the challenges of trust that we had to deal with. The first was the macro level trust in government and its agencies and machinery. The second was the micro level trust in government personnel, particularly high government officials, from the governor to his key assistants – including commissioners, heads of parastatals, and all other public servants.

Hence, we had to reclaim – or rebuild – trust in public governance as a service delivery mechanism of collective rule, while, through practical and symbolic ways, persuading our people to trust public officials as true public servants. This has not been an easy task in a political culture which has become habituated to non-performing public officials and comatose institutions ; and one in which a crippling cynicism has led to many people approaching government as an “eatery” that those in government, and anyone who comes into contact with them, must partake it. Rather, we wanted to create a sensibility in which government became a store-cumkitchen to which everyone makes his or her own contributions and from which the collective food can be stored and cooked for everyone to partake it. Government should not be a point where everyone sits to eat without thinking of where the food came from and how it is cooked.

What we have brought into governance in the last two years therefore, is the kind of trust which is based on and compels competence, openness, concern, and reliability. Trust is a public good; we cannot do great things collectively without trust. But trust has to be earned. What we have done in the last two years is to earn the trust of our people through our different programmes.

Upon assuming leadership of the 'Land of Honour', our administration launched a well articulated vision to renew Ekiti State. This J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

12

is summed up in our 8-point Agenda. We have pursued this agenda vigorously with a dedicated team of professionals with outstanding track records in various spheres of human endeavour, and a high degree of personal integrity. There is no doubt that this accounts for the renewed sense of pride and belonging that all Ekiti indigenes now express. We have restored the core Ekiti values of passion, courage, integrity, meritocracy and honour; we have restored confidence in Ekiti State among local and international development partners and investors with our peopleoriented policy thrust in all the units of governance.

Based on our model of participatory governance, we have managed to touch all the sections of the 8-point Agenda. Even though a few of the steps we have taken have been unsurprisingly controversial, Ekiti people, in their hearts of hearts, have come to the conclusion that these are necessary stages in the evolution of the state into a great place for all. Our blue-print has certainly faced challenges in practical terms, due to economic and political limitations. However, we have largely triumphed over these limitations. Free education for primary and secondary schools was declared the day I became governor. The social security scheme was also announced the day I was sworn-in as governor, but it commenced a year after because of the need for planning and enumeration, among other things. There are several other things that we have accomplished which I will elaborate briefly below. What we have done in only two years in Ekiti is better than what my two predecessors were able to achieve in all of the preceding seven years. Many of our people have expressed surprises about where we got the resources to accomplish all these. My response has been that planning, prudence and a hundred percent commitment to the agenda we have set to achieve, which is a put-people-first agenda, have made all these possible.

In two years, we have gone above 50 percent in the delivery of many of the initiatives we have put on the table. As a confirmation of the magnificent sacrifices of the members of our team and the outstanding cooperation of the people of Ekiti State, we have made great strides. A great example is the latest statistical indices which the Federal Ministry of Health released recently. Ekiti State now has the highest life span in the country and one of the lowest maternal mortality and child mortality index and attaining the lowest HIV prevalence in the country.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

13

Before I go into the key details of what we have been able to accomplish in two years, it is important to restate the monumental challenges that we faced when we took office in November 2010. We inherited a debt peonage of 42 billion and many uncompleted and abandoned road projects. The Ado-Iworoko-Ifaki-Road is a significant example of these abandoned projects. This road project had gulped 80percent of contract sum and less than 20 percent completion when we assumed office. From the less than 20 percent completion level that we met it, it has now reached 80 percent completion. Also, the State was collecting 2.8 billion naira monthly from the Federation Accounts. This has since decreased to 2.5 billion naira. Out of this, the State pays 2 billion naira as salary and wages to its workers and pensioners. By the time we pay Social Security for the elderly and the Youth Volunteer scheme, this would have translated to only a little more than 400 million naira for every other task for which we carry the burden of a heavy trust. My administration inherited a system of Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) which totalled about 109 million naira monthly. However, we increased that within one year to 600 million naira. We did this not by adding new taxes, but only by blocking existing loopholes in the tax collection and management system.

Our goal in succeeding years will be to focus on the informal sector and widen the tax base of the state.

Reclaiming the Trust It is gratifying to elaborate on how much we have been able to achieve in two years, despite all the odds. I am particularly grateful that we have not betrayed the trust that was invested in us by the people of Ekiti State and that the people of the State who were apprehensive initially have now become the champions of our approach to governance. The cordial and productive interdependent relationship that has existed between my administration and the good people of Ekiti State has made it possible for us to make giant strides in the execution of our 8-Point Agenda. The 8point Agenda include Governance; Infrastructural Development; Agriculture; Education and Human Capital Development; Healthcare Services; Industrial Development; Tourism; and Gender Equality and Empowerment.

Here, I will not go into all the details of how we have reclaimed the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

14

trust in the last two years. The administration has published this in another anniversary document . What is important here is to highlight the key areas in which we have maintained the honour of our land (Ekitiland) and kept our promises.

In the area of governance, and based on our recognition of good governance as the foundation of a developmental agenda, we have turned regular interactive sessions with Ekiti people into a tradition of governance. As the governor, and with the help of other government officials, I have exemplified our trust in the people as the best judges of our activities in government by keeping them abreast of government's activities. For instance, prior to the preparation of the 2012 budget, alongside the members of the Executive Council, we toured the 16 Local Government Areas in the State to know the needs of all the communities.

Subsequently, we integrated these into the State's budget. Another key example of the fact that we are running an effective, responsive and representative government, one that is alive to the challenges faced by the citizens of the state, is the Social Security Programme for the aged which we pioneered in Nigeria. We have paid, and will continue to pay, a monthly stipend of N5, 000 to all registered elderly people in the state who are above the age of 65. No less than 20, 000 senior citizens are benefitting from this programme.

One of the biggest challenges to socio-economic development that we found upon assumption of office was the decrepit state of infrastructures in the State. We had made a promise that we would establish optimum communities that will improve citizens' lives and attract investments by making all parts of Ekiti accessible by major roads, and making water dams function well, among others. In fulfilling these promises, we embarked on massive road construction projects across the state. There are 20 on-going projects initiated by the State Ministry of Works and Transportation. Another 25 road projects which the Ministry inherited were taken over and are at different stages of completion. As we celebrate this second anniversary, no fewer than ten of the roads are slated for commissioning and many more before the end of the year.

In the context of infrastructure, we have also paid a lot of attention to urban renewal, not only in terms of the construction of good roads, but also in terms of the beautification of Ekiti cities. The State's J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

15

capital is our first point of attention. Rural electrification and water supply and community development have also received a lot of attention. The efforts in all these areas have eased the burden of life and living for millions of the citizens of the state.

In the area of agriculture, our ambition is to revive cocoa plantations and make Ekiti, and by that token, Nigeria, the world leader again in cocoa production. Also, we want to use agriculture as a means of boosting internally-generated revenue and the creator of massive employment. Against this background, we have embarked on a comprehensive overhaul of the State's agricultural policy and put in place policies and programmes that are changing the agricultural sector in the State. For instance, the Youth-Commercial Agricultural Development Programme (YCAD), which we launched in April 2012, will generate 20, 000 jobs for the youths. Already, 150 new youth commercial farmers have benefitted from 1,500 related jobs fromthis programme. In addition to cocoa, we are also focusing on developing the full value-chain of Cassava, Rice and Oil palm. There are several other initiatives that we have embarked upon in the area of agricultural transformation which will cumulatively revolutionise not only the agricultural sector but also the overall economy of the state, particularly the attraction of Commercial Agricultural players in large scale farming and processing.

As a State that is recognised as the “State of Professors” in Nigeria, our efforts have been focused on the transformation of the educational sector and human capital development. We have fully embraced the dictum of our late leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who insists emphatically in The Strategy and Tactics of the People's Republic of Nigeria (1970) that “an educated citizenry is indispensable to the satisfactory and successful practice and working of democracy.” Our target is that by 2014 we will not only maintain the free and compulsory education for students in Ekiti schools from primary up to senior secondary school, we will also ensure that every student in our secondary schools state will have a computer of his or her desk, while also creating special initiatives for physicallychallenged students and a sports academy for gifted youths.

We have achieved a lot of in our plans for massive investment in human capital development in Ekiti State. By December 2012, we would have distributed 33,000 laptops to students and 18,000 to teachers, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

16

respectively; Equally, we have renovated virtually all our dilapidated school buildings and have distributed sporting equipment worth millions of naira to Secondary Schools in the State.

In recognition of the ancient wisdom that health is wealth, we have provided free medical services for children, pregnant women, senior citizens and the physically-challenged in Ekiti State in the last two years. We have also established health centres in all localities, while increasing the immunisation coverage in the state, strengthening the State Ambulance Service, expanding medical assistance to needy patients across the state, and bolstering the State's capacity for effective healthcare delivery.

Our efforts to jumpstart industrial development in Ekiti State has led to the creation of technology and industrial parks for small- and medium-scale enterprises, the establishment of micro-credit facilities and the development of agro-allied and solid mineral sectors of the local economy. The signal achievements of the administration in this area include the establishment of the Fountain Holdings Limited which manages the investment portfolio of the State and represents the Government in Public-Private Partnerships. The Ekiti State Enterprise Development Agency which is charged with encouraging, promoting and coordinating investment activities in the State and thus stimulating economic growth in the State. These two, the new company and the new agency, have started yielding magnificent results in the efforts toward the industrialisation of Ekiti State. Concretely, two moribund industrial infrastructures Ire Bricks Factory (dead in the last 21 years) and Odua Enterprise Centre (formerly Odua Textiles – equally comatose in the last 23 years) have come back to life. The new initiative will expand the State's resources, provide numerous job opportunities for the citizens of the State and others, encourage the acquisition of new skills by workers and ultimately enlarge the middle class in the State.

All the above are complemented by the massive investment that our administration is also making in tourism. Almost one billion people engage in tourism annually around the world in the last few years. Tourism has come to be recognised as “an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational and economic sectors.� We cannot but recognize this important area of life in a State in which we are blessed with some of the most picturesque natural J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

17

landscape, including beautiful mountains. In fact, our land and people are named after the very presence of these many mountains. Against this backcloth, and in the light of the blessings of our topography, my administration's goal is to make Ekiti State the most attractive destination for relaxation and holidays in Nigeria, if not in Africa. In the light of this, we are developing what we call a tourism corridor in the State. This includes Efon, Okemesi, Ikogosi, and Ipole-Iloro. For example, the Ikogosi cold and warm spring tourist centre is undergoing an unprecedented turn-around, including the redesigning of the whole landscape with the construction of villa chalets and an amphitheatre. The first phase of this new-look Ikogosi tourist centre which will attract both national and international tourists is being commissioned during the second anniversary.

The third of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is gender equality and women's empowerment. As a government that is conscious of the role of equity and gender equality in ensuring good governance, and one in which a woman is the Deputy Governor (Mrs. Funmi Olayinka), in the last two years, we have embraced this MDG by promoting gender equality and women empowerment - so as to maximize the contributions of women who represent half of our population. My Deputy, Mrs. Olayinka, has played a critical role in decision making in ways that brings the voices of our female population forcefully to the table.

Our administration is the first in Nigeria to sign into law the Gender-Based Violence (Prohibition) Bill. This was done in November 2011. We are also the first state to domesticate the National Gender Policy.

The Wife of the Governor has also played crucial roles in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. In the last two years, her initiative, the Ekiti Development Foundation (EDF), has assisted women and children, including educating women on reproductive health, providing financial assistance to boost the economic activities of women at the grassroots, supporting couples with multiple births, helping women in skill acquisition and leadership training. Overall, we have also been monitoring the progress of our developmental efforts to ensure that they all help in closing the gender gap and empower women by providing access to social, economic and political opportunities that would make them full citizens of the state and the country. Our efforts in this area are connected J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

18

to our overarching goal of building citizens from the grassroots up and making poverty history in our state.

In all, what we have done is to link governance with infrastructural development, and establish a connection between education and human capital development and gender equality and women empowerment and tie all these with the need for a healthy population. The modernisation of agriculture has also been connected to the massive push for industrial development. Related to all these is the creation of tourist attractions, not only to provide an economic niche for the state, but also as places of relaxation for a healthier, more enlightened citizenry, and a citizenry that has greater opportunities for better income and citizens who are able to live better lives.

I stated during my inaugural speech that, “We must be honest and admit that attaining greater heights in Ekiti State will require more than just government. There is no magic wand about it. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us. Yes, government must lead, but each of us must do our part in rebuilding this beloved state of ours.�

Indeed, what we have done in the last two years is to provide leadership and seek cooperation from the citizens of the state in rebuilding our state and reclaiming the trust. We are lighting the candle, so that our people will find the pathway. There are many tasks ahead and we still have a long way to go in Ekiti State. However, I am convinced that we have laid the foundation for the creation of democratic, prosperous and greater Ekiti State.

As I told THISDAY in a recent interview, in the years ahead, my vision for Ekiti State is that it would be the destination of choice for people who want to do business, people who want to relax, people who want to work in a professional, competent and consistent manner. For me these would help to tackle many of the other problems, particularly poverty. Our destination is ensuring that Ekiti people regain a sense of self-worth, a sense of esteem and pride.

As the Governor of Ekiti State, I am reaffirming my promise to the people that I shall not rest on my oars. My sacred social contract with the people of Ekiti State will continue to be renewed. Myself and members of my administration will not relent in our commitment to fulfilling the legitimate expectations of the people of the State.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

19

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

2 Federalism and the Quest for National Integration and Development in Nigeria Distinguished members of the learned profession, I am highly honoured to address your present gathering, and I am of the conviction that there is no better theme that affords one the opportunity to speak to some of the critical issues that have shaped and are affecting the nature of the union that we have forged in our country, Nigeria, at the moment, than the notion of Federalism and how this relates to our collective quest and determination for national integration and development. While our country is essentially a plural one, with an aggregation of over 250 ethnolinguistic groups that have been put at different figures (Kirk Green, 1964; Atta, 1987; Otite 1990; Suberu, 1993) within a single space, it is certainly one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world, and the challenge of the past five decades of our corporate co-existence within a political, social, and economic rubric defined as 'Nigeria' has been how to find and promote accommodation for these diverse groups or nationalities in a manner that is just, equitable, and enhances peace in a sustainable way.

Certainly, nowhere are the limits of the democratic project in Nigeria more apparent than in the question of appropriate institutional arrangement for the political accommodation and management of social diversities and religious difference. By its very nature, the working of democratic politics radically alters the existing social boundaries and divisions, often accentuating hitherto dormant identities and conflicts in a supposedly united entity. The consequences of the relationship between the two have not only posed a challenge to those who seek to understand these dynamics, it has also placed a question mark on the very viability of Nigeria's democratic enterprise.

As you are aware, the institutional arrangement that has been adopted by our precursors for managing the plurality and diversity of the Nigerian experience has been through the federal option, which though 2

Speech delivered at the 2012 Biennial Law Week of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ilorin Branch, June 11, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

20

has the conceptual potentials and capacity to hold the different groups and interests in the country together in a fashion that could be deemed as acceptable, its expression in Nigeria in the past couple of decades has evolved a distorted political architecture that many groups have risen in war against. Hence, several groups and actors across sections of the country no longer claim to be seeking accommodation within 'Federalism' as an arrangement, but within 'True Federalism' (Akinyemi, 2011), considered as a quintessential form. And, what this trusses up relates to how to attain the time-honoured affirmation of our political progenitor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, on the necessity of transforming Nigeria from being a “mere geographical expression” into a “cultural expression.”

The Notion of Federalism A plethora of pundits have engaged with the notion of federalism, and what binds their numerous efforts at delineating it is the recognition that federalism constitutes a framework for managing diversity and ensuring harmony within essentially plural and heterogeneous societies. It is fundamentally about acknowledging a multiplicity of differences in ethnic, sociological, economic, religious, and educational outlook and manifestation, etc, within a system, in a mode that guarantees coherence and equilibrium. As a system of government, it is predicated upon the appropriate sharing of power between a central authority and constituent political units; and as K.C Wheare observed, it signifies a situation in which, constitutionally, central and regional governments “are not subordinate to one another, but coordinate with each other.” Thus, in its classical formulation, federalism signals a separation of powers anchored on the Constitution, which negates the existence of a Master-Slave relationship, as the composition of association is anticipated to be voluntary and enabling of mutual respect among the constituent units.

Due to its fundamental purpose of facilitating the apportioning of power across diverse groups, federalism strives to accommodate and manage diversity, and is considered an 'institutional solution to the disruptive tendencies of intra-societal ethnic pluralism' (Long, 1991) that is capable of mediating potential and actual conflicts evolving from heterogeneity within a defined space (Akpata, 2000). It is regarded as enhancing unity, while preserving diversity, and allowing the constituent J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

21

units in a country to develop according to their own pace, within the purview of their material and human resources. More so, it is described as a process of seeking unity, without resorting to uniformity; hence federalism is conceived of as the antithesis of a unitary system, which would ensure the prevalence of harmony across sundry groups and interests. It is within this purview that one can also relate to formulation of a 'federal republic' by Baron de Montesquieu, who considered this as a “a society of societies�, which would guarantee collective security, coexisting with the decentralisation of power.

However, it must be noted, at this point, that political realities determine the nature of the sharing of power across the spheres of government, and this shapes the nature and character of the variant of federalism that is adopted in a particular country, making it fairly difficult to have a universal definition of federalism. And, this tendency has made a host of thinkers on the subject to consider federalism as a political ideology (Burgess, 1993a and 1993b; Chapman, 1993; Smith, 1995), and the expression of this is what leads to the materialization of a federation. As such, when federalism is considered as the articulation of a group of interests, the federation is the means by which this is accomplished.

Federalism in Nigeria Federalism can be said to have come to Nigeria through the act of the colonial Governor-General, Sir Bernard Henry Bourdillon in 1939, who created a federation of three provinces out of the former British colony of the Northern and Southern Protectorates (as formed in 1901), and put together a Constitution that was handed over to his predecessor, Sir Arthur Richards, which became the Richards Constitution of 1946.

The provinces were administered by native-born Chiefs and clerks through the policy of indirect rule, although these spheres of influence were made to depend on the colonial authorities for martial law, manpower, and the management of resources. The operation of this system was made formal with the adoption of Oliver Lyttleton's Constitution in 1954, which granted substantial autonomy to the existing territories, and upheld them as regions, through the establishment of regional civil service and judicial systems.

The three regions had separate constitutions that were attached as J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

22

a schedule to the Federal Constitution (Alapiki and Odondiri, 1992), and they were consolidated at the dawn of Independence in 1960 as a federation hinged upon the tripod of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria – the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. With the power over these regions being transferred to Nigerians and regional legislatures created, the post of the Governor-General was replaced with that of a President, and a national bicameral parliament was formed. Further to these, a MidWestern Region was created out of the Western Region in 1966, and the federal capital, Lagos, was governed as an unofficial fourth region.

The argument for a federal system as a way of managing the diversity of Nigeria and forestalling the potentials for conflict was equally advocated by prominent nationalists such as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who later became the country's first President between 1960 and 1966, when he canvassed for a 'federal commonwealth of Nigeria' in 1945, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his books Path to Nigerian Freedom (1947) and Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution (1966). Also, Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa observed that: I am pleased to see that we are all agreed that the federal system is, under the present conditions, the only sure basis on which Nigeria can remain United.

We must recognize our diversity and the peculiar conditions under which the different tribal communities live‌ therefore‌ we must do all in our power to see that this federal system is strengthened and sustained (quoted in Elaigwu, 2000: 41-42).

The factors that led to the adoption of federalism in Nigeria are generally traced to two main historical tendencies, with the first describing it as emanating from the confluence of internal political forces that clamoured for a federal system as a result of the differences and diversity of various groups, leading to the fear of the possibility of inter-group domination. This tendency that is ascribed to the nationalist leaders is described to have been conceded to by the British colonial masters in the effort to maintain harmony in heterogeneity. The other vein relates to the tendency that considers federalism as an imposition by the British in order to preserve the interests and administrative convenience of the colonial J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

23

state (Alapiki and Odondiri, 1992), as the various groups and nationalities being 'merged' were initially administered unitarily, hence the foisting of a federal system was no more than a divide-and-rule strategy that was basically disruptive and divisive (Awolowo, 1968). While another tendency regarded the British introduction of federalism as a 'strategy for decolonisation', serving as a means of whittling down internal divisiveness and reducing the cost of colonial administration in the country (Ojo, 1998), it was equally considered by others as a neo-colonial method of maintaining control of the country after Independence. However, the intervention of time has revealed this framework as evolving and deepening “structural imperfections ... (that have) bedevil(ed) inter-ethnic relations after independence' (Okhaide, 1992: 544 – 545).

From the foregoing, it can be deduced that federalism in Nigeria could only have stemmed from an intersection of the various tendencies as the frothy cauldron of difference and heterogeneity could only have made the nationalist leaders to seek recourse to the federal option in order to guarantee self rule, while conceding to shared rule within a process of conclusive amalgamation. And, the British would have been ingenuous enough to know that the more enduring administrative recipe for such a heterogeneous mix of people would be a federal system, even though their own pecuniary motivations could never be discounted at the decisive moment. As such, it can be observed that the emergence of federalism in Nigeria was consequent upon the interplay of the desires of the nationalist leaders and the British, whose interests created the basis for the shaping of the Nigerian union.

Yet, as A. Muhammad succinctly put it: “if mutual fears and suspicion of domination among groups, (the) quest for self determination, economic prosperity, desire for unity in diversity among other compelling factors, propelled a federation of Nigeria, to what extent then have these imperatives been transcended many years after adopting the system? (200 )” With the materialisation of federalism in Nigeria in the closing decades of colonial rule, the different political tendencies that coalesced around the struggle of the people for Independence (NCNC, NPC, AG) organised on the basis of a parliamentary system that operated through the three main regions – the North, the West, and the East. And, powers were J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

24

largely devolved around these regions, which functioned as loosely held centres of power and decision-making, yet with a formal entity regarded as the central government in place. The regions had control over the nature and forms of their development and how they could explore latent and evident potentials in their environment to maximise on the most effective ways to deliver the goods of governance to their people.

While these administrative units had total control over and regulated issues relating to education, agriculture, healthcare, taxation, and other significant aspects of their existence, they still subscribed to a central Nigerian authority that held the exclusive right to make decisions pertaining to defence and a few other select issues. The regions were in charge of the resources that they generated, could develop at their own pace and according to the manner that they deemed fit, while contributing a percentage of their revenue towards the keeping of the centre afloat.

However, with the collapse of the First Republic and the advent of the military into governance, these regions were dissolved into a federal structure that created States and local levels of government in the effort to make administration easy through its command approach to the system of control of the country. Subsequently, all the regional economies were displaced, giving rise to a bogus central purse, from which subventions were then granted to States and the local level of government.

While the Nigerian system under the military purportedly laid claims to being a Federal system (as in its professed description of being the Federal Republic of Nigeria), it was essentially unitary in form, with its version of federalism revealing a central system in which the assumed federating units had surrendered almost all their authority to the federal government, and lifelines were granted from the centre resulting in the constituent units abandoning their entrepreneurial acumen and economic enterprise in favour of 'free' allocations from the centre, particularly consequent upon the discovery of oil. The further creation of States – even though some have argued that it brought governance closer to people and reduced inter-group conflicts – can be observed as a significant factor that weakened the federal experience in Nigeria, and led to the larger concentration of power at the centre.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

25

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

The Rise of Centralisation and Unitarism As alluded to above, federalism was formally inaugurated in Nigeria through the Lyttleton Constitution of 1954, making the country a decentralised polity comprising three regions that were the federating units, and which operated unique regional constitutions, civil service, police and the judiciary. The regions had coats-of-arms and mottos that were distinct from that of the central government, and whilst they developed according to their own logic, resources and programmes, they equally had foreign representation and High Commissioners in the United Kingdom, etc. However, with the incursion of the military into power, the regional police forces were proscribed and twelve created out of the regions on the eve of the civil war in 1967, and the Murtala/Obasanjo military regime subsequently abrogated the coats-of-arms and mottos of States, and mandated them to take on that of the federal government.

Further to this, the regime appropriated assets of States/groups of States, including print and electronic media, etc, and strengthened the federal government at the expense of the States, thereby laying the foundation for the intense contest of power at the federal level, and its attendant crises over the next couple of decades.

The gradual erosion of the powers of the federating units of the country and the overt centralisation of power at the federal level is highly evident at the present time when one considers that between the first military intervention (1966-1979) and its second incarnation (1983-1999), Nigeria has had three constitutions, and when the 1959 Constitution is compared with the 1999 Constitution, the extent of the pruning down of the powers of the federating units in relation to the legislative list becomes glaring. As Akinyemi noted: only one item “Archives� was transferred from the 1959 exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list of 1999. No item was transferred from the 1959 exclusive list to the 1999 reserved list. Out of the twenty-eight items on the 1959 concurrent list, sixteen items which translates to roughly 57% - were lost to the 1999 exclusive list (2001:11).

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

26

More so, the States as the newer federating units lost seven items from the reserved list of the 1959 Constitution to the exclusive legislative list of the 1999 Constitution, thus revealing how much the “Nigerian federation has become massively centralized�, and the States have become mere satellites of the central government (Muhammad, 2000).

Structural Imbalances in Nigerian Federalism One of the critical issues bedevilling the Nigerian federation pertains to its architecture, which makes it assume the description of an 'asymmetrical federalism', both in terms of its unevenness in size and access to national resources. While several federal systems across the world maintain certain levels of evenness in size, population, economic resources, administrative capabilities, etc, the initial division of Nigeria into three regions, in which the Northern Region alone constituted the size of the Western and Eastern Regions put together set off a train of imbalance that has not changed much since. And, an instance of the disparities that this spawned in the past was evident with the creation of a central legislature by the Macpherson Constitution of 1951, in which of the 136 representatives that were elected, the Northern Region alone had 68 members (the total sum of the two other Regions), making it possible for the Region to dominate what should ordinarily be collective decisions or put the decisions of the parliament on hold.

In terms of territorial expanse at that point, the Northern Region was claimed to be having 77% of the total land mass, while the Western Region had 18.4%; the Eastern Region, 8.3%; and the Mid-Western Region, 4.2%. And, the figures given by the 1963/64 census stated that the Northern region had 53.5% of the total population of the country; the Western Region, 18.4%; the Eastern Region, 22.3%; and the Mid-Western Region, 4.6%. Hence, from those figures, it was impossible for the three regions in the south to control political power at the centre, leading to the fears of domination by the North due to its purported population and land mass. Issuing from the 1963/64 census figures, the North controlled the central parliament with 54% of the total number of elected representatives, which was more than the combined total number of representatives from the East, 21%; the West, 19%; and the Mid-West, 4.5%.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

27

Further down, while one of the reasons adduced for the countercoup of July 1967 was the need to dismantle the thickening unitarism of the Ironsi regime, the new military rulers subsequently went against the grains of the Aburi Agreement by breaking the country into twelve states, with the North having six of the states, and the three other regions ending up with the remaining 6 states. In addition, the Gowon administration proceeded on a head-count in 1973 and out of the over 79 million people who were enumerated in the Census, the six states of the North accounted for over 51 million people, whilst the other six southern states had some 21 million people, indicating that between the 1963/64 census figures and that of 1973, there had been a staggering rise in the population of the North from 53.6% to 63.8%. And conversely, the population of the South had dwindled from 46.4% to 36.2%. If the figure from the 1973 census, which gave the North a population of 51 million is juxtaposed with the 1990 census figure of over 47 million, then the fact of the manipulation of these figures is thrown into bolder relief, as the population of the North seems to have diminished in about 20 years!

In addition, the manipulation of the census figures can be gleaned when the statistics of contiguous territories to the North are examined. In 1973, Niger Republic that was stated as land mass of 1,266,700 sq. kilometres had a population of over 5 million people and Chad with 1,259,200 sq kilometres had over 4 million people, how could the North of Nigeria that shares boundaries with Niger and Chad, with a territorial expanse of 679,534 then have over 51 million people? Yet, we might all be familiar with the politics of territorial expanse as a determinant of the number of states and local governments that are created in the country, and hence the volume of resources that are made available to them. It is equally a known fact that out of 774 local governments listed in our constitution, the North has 419, which is 64 local governments more than the total number of 355 listed local governments in the South. The foregoing, coupled with the fact that statistics have shown that the North has had the advantage of having more of its people appointed into federal offices depict some of the structural imbalances in the Nigerian federation that still survives.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

28

Constraints to Nigerian Federalism Although laudable in intent, the operation of federalism in Nigeria over the past six decades has revealed deep weaknesses in the system, from the history of the composition of the federation, in which its different units ought to have come into a union through the voluntary submission of their sovereignty in order to attain an expanded and stronger sovereignty. This would have enhanced the bargaining powers of the federating units as they formed an alliance, and given them a sense of independence; however, the British yoked the divergent units and territories together for their own administrative convenience and hardly did anything to facilitate their integration.

Equally, the character of the leadership that Nigeria has experienced since the advent of a federal system in the country has constituted a very significant challenge that has been remarkably formulated into the notion of “Two Publics� by Peter Ekeh, which make ethnic affiliations and affirmation privileged over the national good. As such, some of Nigeria's leaders/rulers have been described as 'nationalists by day and tribalists by night', as they only advocated federalism in name, but actually worked towards the accruement of advantage to their ethnic units.

This overlaps with the question of citizenship in Nigeria, as people cannot seem to operate effectively outside their states of birth, and this primordial sense of identity in relation to a space precludes a person from being granted equal status like another who was born or locates his/her origin in that State. This problematic character of citizenship negates an essential tenet of federalism. And, as mentioned above, the overcentralisation of power at the central level leaves much to be desired, and it has been observed that even if all the state and local governments in Nigeria are pulled together, they are still much weaker than federal government.

With federalism operating in both political/structural and fiscal contexts, the most critical weakness that is evident in Nigeria's federal arrangement pertains to concerns issuing from fiscal federalism or 'resource control', which deals with the mode of expropriation and allocation of resources across diverse groups in the country. And, this has been a core trigger of conflict in Nigeria, and one of fundamental factors J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

29

for the overwhelming agitation for the renegotiation of our union in the country.

The Politics of Fiscal Federalism Within the Nigerian experience, the access to political power is vital in determining the allocation and distribution of resources, and it provides the opportunity for those who control power to expropriate a large percentage of the wealth from the resources to their own advantage, even at the expense of those who possess the resources. And, while this control and mode of distribution in Nigeria have been highly contentious, they have also been underscored by numerous revenue sharing formulas or allocation principles, which have sought to de-emphasis 'derivation' – in varying degrees – as the most significant factor in resource allocation.

Over the decades, a host of governmental commissions have grappled with the task of fashioning out a proper revenue sharing formula for Nigeria – from the Phillipson Commission of 1946, to the HicksPhillipson Commission of 1951, the Chicks Commission of 1953, Raisman Commission in 1957, the Binns Commission of 1964, and the Dina Commission of 1969. Also, there have been the Aboyade Technical Committee of 1977, the Okigbo Committee of 1980 and the Danjuma Commission in 1988.

The vicissitudes of the derivation principle of resource allocation has pointed out by Ofeimun (2005), who shows how it moved from 100% accruing to the resource hosts and producers in 1946, to its reduction to 50% between 1951 and 1960, and to 45% during the Gowon regime. It f luctuated between 20% and 25% during the Mur tala Muhammed/Obasanjo administration, and went further down to 5 percent under the Shehu Shagari administration, and reduced to 1.5 % during the Buhari regime, before rising to 3% during the time of Babangida, from where it appreciated to the present 13%. It is without doubt that access to power is the primary driver of the politics of the fiscal federalism and the nature of the derivation principle that is adopted.

Presently, one of the sorest points of Nigeria's federalism is the agitation of resource-bearing communities for the derivation principle to be increased to at least 50%.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

30

The Quest for Integration and Development As panacea to the ground-swell of agitations and recurrent outbreak of conflict in the country, there is the need for a National Conference, in which the various constituencies and groups in the country would come together to renegotiate the terms of the Nigerian union, and deal decisively with all the nagging and contentious issues that have been animating the country in a negative manner. Issuing from this is the necessity of instituting a comprehensive constitutional reform process, in which the responsibilities and preserves of the various levels and tiers of government will be fundamentally reviewed. And, questions pertaining to the Federation Account, the Federal Character Principle, State police, fiscal federalism, etc would be ultimately sorted out.

What has compounded the recent crisis and underplayed the need for dialogue has been the influence of years of military rule in Nigeria and the exclusive, personality driven projects of current civilian rulers. The militarisation of the national psyche also affects individuals in their daily lives. Nigeria witnessed, especially under the last military dictatorship, intense communal conflicts that disrupted peaceful relations in several communities. Some of the conflicts have antecedents in old animosities, but many were resource-driven, spurred by perceptions of unequal distribution of government resources. Incidents of aggression, impatience, and competition arise in domestic violence and other family disputes, over petrol queues, in the conduct of motorists, and in the behaviour of the armed forces and police in dealing with ordinary people.

The immediate causes of increased violence and crime include the high unemployment and poverty levels. At root however is the loss of a culture of compromise and accommodation. This point cannot be overemphasised: Nigerians lost their culture of dialogue in a period when militarisation and the primacy of force had become state policy. Nigeria needs a return of the culture of dialogue. This may not necessarily culminate in a sovereign national conference, although some perceive this as the only solution to the crisis of governance in the State. Any indication that government is willing to create the conditions for dialogue in the country is bound to reduce the increasing level of tension since many within deprived communities now believe the only language that government understands is violence. The need therefore for a national J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

31

conference as a means of lessening tension in the country is not only desirable but necessary.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

32

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

3 Resurgent Regionalism and Democratic Development in Western Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects Let us begin from the beginning, with first things first. It gives me great pleasure to be here today to address some of the most brilliant minds that Nigeria can boast of. And I like to say thank you to my brother and the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Tale Omole.

Between them, both men shared the burden of being hosts-in-chief to our team. I can testify that so far, they have hosted us very well.

Permit me to also express our profound appreciation to the Ekiti Development Network of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), or Great Ife) for this initiative. I understand it is the very first on this scale by the Network. By offering us this platform, the Network is lending a hand in our quest to engage purposefully with our people everywhere. In our view, the result can only be a series of exchanges that sharpen our perspectives on what we should and can do and especially how to do it. This gives all stakeholders a window on what – and how much – to expect from us.

I also feel even more privileged to stand before you because, as I see it, Great Ife has always had a bias for public service. To that extent, the event of this morning speaks of a home-coming as rare and as significant as anyone can imagine. It is a historic fact that the University of Ife, as it then was, started with robust linkages between town and gown. Not only was agriculture a main plank of the University's research agenda, practitioners were warmly welcomed. Thus S.K.T. Williams, a senior agricultural extension officer would join the faculty at Ife, become a professor, and serve as a Deputy Vice Chancellor. By the same token, Ife's Institute of Administration would serve as a 'finishing school' of sorts for newly recruited Administrative Officers in the old Western Region and elsewhere. It would also help retrain and re-tool officers-on-the-job. I am J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

33

gratified to note that the training needs of the civil service in the southwest are still being met by various units of OAU, not least by my own the Faculty of Administration.

There are personal aspects to the linkages as well. Not many are aware that I am a Great Ife myself. That I once drank from the veritable spring of learning and culture that this university has always been – and, hopefully, will always be. Fewer still, may know for a fact that Ife gave me a wife, so to speak. It was on these beautiful, inspiring grounds, exactly inside the Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library that Bisi and I began a friendship that has since blossomed into a life-partnership powered as much by mutual affection as by shared, deep-commitment to social actions in pursuit of a life more abundant for all and sundry.

Mr. Governor, Mr. Vice Chancellor, colleague-academics, ladies and gentlemen, please allow me, on behalf of my family, to express our most profound gratitude to Great Ife for the enduring gifts is has bestowed on us. I do not know now if some day in the future, Great Ife would ask for a fee or some recompense for providing the setting in which priceless gift of love and companionship came my way, but suffice it to say that I remain personally indebted to this great institution.

Nigerians emerged from recent elections more emboldened than before about the prospects of the democratic enterprise. Yet our country remains at a critical crossroads. Although election has come and gone, the first challenge that the President confronted was post-election violence in parts of the north believed to have been caused by perceived inequities much deeper than what happened during the election. Nowhere are the limits of the democratic project in Nigeria more apparent than in the question of creating appropriate institutional arrangements for the political accommodation and management of social diversities and difference. By its very nature, the working of democratic politics radically alters the existing social boundaries and divisions, often accentuating hitherto dormant identities and conflicts in a supposedly united entity. The consequences of the relationship between the two have not only posed a challenge to those who seek to understand these dynamics, it has also placed a question mark on the very viability of Nigeria's democratic enterprise.

It is in this sense that the debate on the post-election violent J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

34

phenomenon known as Boko Haram is itself a debate about the status and quality of democracy in Nigeria; a debate about the future of the country as a united, federal entity. With bombs going off occasionally in the Federal capital and the North Eastern part of the country in particular and an increasing level of panic in other parts of the country, thinking of innovative ways of accommodating social diversity in a democratic frame is a challenge that is at once intellectual and political and it is perhaps the greatest challenge to democratic transition and security in our country today.

There is a positive angle to this challenge, if only in the realisation that democratic transition in countries emerging from prolonged authoritarian past should elicit restrained, rather than exaggerated expectations after elections. Unfortunately, the euphoria that often accompanies elections relegates this position, treating elections as end in themselves and processes assumed to be irreversible. The superficiality of these claims begin to manifest itself sooner rather than later. When fragile 'democracies' receive reminders of their own precarious status, as has been the case in Nigeria in the last two months, the hope is that the realisation would encourage those of us in government and citizen-observers to think less teleologically about democratic transitions automatically producing democratic development and more pragmatically in search of institutional frameworks for deepening our democracy.

Given the experience of post-Cold War democratic transitions in Africa in the last decade, this understanding should now be commonplace.

Indeed, while democratic transitions may lead to democratic development, forged transitions have not necessarily led to consolidating democracies nor stemmed the tide of democratic reversals, especially in places where the ethos, language and character of public discourse have been completely militarised and there remains several unresolved questions of identity, nationality, ethnicity and management of social and religious diversities.

Consequently, it is my view that we must at least see what is happening in Nigeria today as an outcome of the nature of the country's democratic transition and an argument for treating Nigeria's quest for democracy as a work in progress that is not easily susceptible to instructions from above.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

35

Boko-Haram, Democracy and the Current State of the Nigerian Nation One dominant way of explaining recent controversy around Boko Haram has been to trace it to some kind of Moslem exceptionalism; an exceptionalism which allegedly makes Moslem societies incapable of democratisation because of the pre-determined nature of religion as a way of life – an implicit constitution providing a blueprint of a social order for all Moslems. The view that poses Islam in some sort of oppositional 'clash of civilisation' remains an attractive one and has influenced attitudes and coverage of the popular media in Post 9/11 world and even here in Nigeria but it is one that is contested in every Moslem society. In the Nigerian case, it obfuscates rather than explains what is responsible for the present dangers that are threatening the polity. One, the ethnic-religious construction of the problem has made it impossible for people to come out and take a clear and enlightened stand on the post election violence and Boko Haram debate. If you were from the north of Nigeria, you are expected to call for dialogue with Boko Haram because you are not expected to openly attack its adherents. If you were from the southern part of the country, you opposed it and call for maximum weight of the law against it, whilst using it as a crutch to attack the Hausa-Fulani – often accused to be at the butt of all problems in Nigeria.

In reality, the thousand odd lives that have been lost to violence since the advent of civilian rule in Nigeria have occurred as a result of a combination of factors - environmental/decentralisation problems (Odi, Niger Delta), inter-ethnic/religious animosities (Kaduna, Aba) and land/intra-ethnic disputes (Ife/Modakeke, Takum/Jukun, Urhobo/Itsekiri). This is a pointer to the fact that there is nothing unique in the violence that has followed elections in the Northern part of the country co-mingling with Boko Haram, unfortunate and unwelcome as it is.

It is also an indication of a problem much more fundamental about the nature of the Nigerian state, a problem that is cross-sectional, cross religion and cross regional. The challenge is therefore to place post election violence and ethnic crisis within the context of the people's efforts to clarify the link between citizenship and rights whilst handling difference in a supposedly liberal democracy.

Beyond all the arguments about religion, the fundamental issue J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

36

about Boko Haram and post election violence is that it now lies at the heart of identity politics in Nigeria and the centrality that identity politics has assumed has ensured that it is not being clothed in other intervening variables. Why is this so? My argument is that many of the internal contradictions of the Nigerian state have been sharpened to a point that the bare bones are now visible. The failure to resolve the national(ity) question in an inclusive manner is evident in the varied responses across country to conflicts over identity, nationality, self-determination and autonomy. These issues are, in turn, bound up with such questions as what manner of federation do Nigerians want? Unlike in the past when military governments always drove such 'sensitive' issues underground, Nigerians are now forcing these issues in the open and the hitherto authoritarian might of the federal centre is being put to test. This view, self-evident as it is does not strip bare the explanatory power of other causes - causes which reside in the political and economic realm of the Nigerian crisis today.

For example, there can be no doubt that the Boko Haram issue and the post election violence in the North are clearly reactions to perceived or real loss of power by an elite stratum that is predominantly “Northern” and also “Moslem” even if the leading figures in this agenda do not necessarily count religious piety among their greatest attributes. What is happening in my view is a contest over raw political power: who lost power, who won power, and who wants power back. The processes that threw up President Goodluck Jonathan as the candidate of this elite stratum were intimately bound up with the political crisis that has gripped the 'northern' political class.

For a political 'north', which has always been in position of power and authority, the idea of getting used to 'powerlessness' poses a huge challenge. This is a crisis for power brokers and beneficiaries of power in the north. And one of the ways in which the Boko Haram is being interpreted is the service it offers such power deprived elite stratum to play cynical politics without alienating themselves from their communities.

Linked to this of course is the contest between the conservative traditional authority and a more progressive successor generation in the North. There is clearly a breakdown in this traditional authority in the north where it used to be very strong in the country. Young, dynamic and street smart politicians are edging out the old (a common phenomenon all over the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

37

country) but they are yet to consolidate their grip on power and Islamic radicalism offers a strong incentive on that consolidation agenda. Hence, the perennial but oft-denied accusation that the erstwhile Governor of Borno State was the progenitor of Boko-Haram, as a means of protecting his party's precarious hold on power in a State perceived to run the risk of losing power to the People's Democratic Party (PDP). For the leading lights of the Boko Haram campaign therefore, religion offered a most appropriate mechanism for winning over a largely sceptical citizenry in communities where leaders were largely perceived as 'dealers' - and totally unrepresentative of the interests of their toiling masses who voted them into office.

But convincing as the 'power' argument is, it cannot explain why it has fired popular imagination amongst ordinary people in Northern Nigeria. That explanation has to come from somewhere else. The issue of democracy dividend assumes centrality here when one examines the reckless abandon of those involved in the post-election violence and the Boko Haram crisis. But perhaps there is method to this madness and a logic to the action of a people who had little at stake - especially if one locates their action within the context of communities where the youths are largely deprived. It is a fact that the foot soldiers of the post election violence are the unemployed youths still awaiting their own democracy dividends. This therefore means the problem goes beyond religion. It is about the disillusionment of those who had been hard done by; underscoring the importance of tackling the underlying problems which issues like Boko Haram feed on. As long as we have the unemployed, the hungry and the desperate, a hapless citizenry would always be exploited by the manipulators of difference, secure in the knowledge that there would be foot soldiers to take their war to the street. The same is true of the exploitation of other problems around the country.

Yet, valid as the above is, it would still be wrong to dismiss the place of religion altogether in the current debate. Indeed, the Shari'a issue can be seen as a response by so-called Islamic fundamentalism to an equally virulent form of Christian fundamentalism. The advent and proliferation of Pentecostal Christianity as a powerful social and political force in Nigeria represents a growing concern amongst Moslems and orthodox Christians alike. The sight of a President Jonathan kneeling down before J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

38

popular Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed Church sends a more definitive statement about who is perceived to be in charge in some religious circles.

It was no surprise therefore that General Buhari countered that by his choice of a southern radical Pastor as running mate. In addition, there is a sense in which it is believed that Christians have also now appropriated Jonathan's government as their own government. The problem is that this Pentecostal strain of Christianity is fundamentalist, and viscerally opposed to resurgent Islam, unlike the erstwhile mainstream churches (Catholic and Protestant) which are more liberal and embracing. This has created genuine tension in between the Christian/Moslem communities in Nigeria. Many Christians have become more confident and outspoken. It would appear that Christians have concluded that religion has played a key part in ensuring the tenacity and staying power of Moslems in government over these years, hence the signs and symbols of government have taken on a strong, Christian streak. This represents an extreme form of religiosity, which has overtaken the Nigerian landscape, threatening it to its very foundations. Whilst it may not resolve all of the problems, one solution to the on-going crisis lies in making the State a neutral arena, separate from religion, in which people of different faiths, and those of no faiths can meet on equal terms. This is not a suggestion to exclude religion from public life – an argument that will be vigorously opposed by both Moslems and Christians. Indeed, one will be underestimating the pro-Sharia and Pentecostal forces, especially the way they have seized popular imagination and clearly influenced public opinion in the domain of operation, using strategies to sway the ordinary people in communities where there is an acute failure of leadership.

Resurgent Regionalism as a Response to Nigeria's Crisis of Governance What then is the connection between regionalism and the crisis of governance that Nigeria is currently experiencing? The connection, in my humble opinion lies in the search for the most appropriate institutional mechanism for promoting consensus, mediating conflict and managing diversities in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country.

What has compounded the governance crisis and underplayed the need for dialogue 3

A recent survey on popular attitudes to democracy in Nigeria reveals, not surprisingly, that the average Nigerian in a crisis situation will first approach a religious priest/malam, and or a traditional ruler. The elected representative comes last in the list. See Afrobarometer survey, “Down to Earth: Changes in Attitudes Toward Democracy and the Markets in Nigeria� November 2001,(www.afrobarometer.org) J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

39

have been the pervasive role of oil and the influence of years of military rule in Nigeria. The militarisation of the national psyche also affects individuals in their daily lives. Nigeria witnessed, especially under military dictatorship and the civilian government under President Obasanjo, intense communal conflicts that disrupted peaceful relations in several communities. Some of the conflicts have antecedents in old animosities, but many were resource-driven, spurred by perceptions of unequal distribution of government resources. Causes of increased violence and crime include the high unemployment and poverty levels. At root however is the loss of a culture of compromise and accommodation. This point cannot be overemphasised: Nigerians lost their culture of dialogue in a period when militarisation and the primacy of force had become state policy. All will agree that we need to return to a culture of dialogue. Any indication that government is willing to create the conditions for dialogue in the country is bound to reduce the increasing level of tension since many within deprived communities now believe the only language that government understands is violence. And it is commendable that President Jonathan has significantly reduced the rampaging, authoritarian streak in government.

While Nigerians are happy about this new disposition and acknowledge that the demilitarisation of politics has widened the space within which democratic reform is taking place, many believe that this will not automatically translate into a complete overhaul of politics from its military roots, especially in a body politic that has become so atomised and unitarised, and in which the symbols, values, and ethos of the 'big-man' are now replicated in large sections of society. Yet while we must alter the landscape of Nigerian politics by removing the obstacles of region, ethnicity, religion and personality so that our people can see the issues in a clear sighted manner, this can only happen within the context of current socio-economic realities. It is now clear to all that the formal end of authoritarian rule did not lead to the acceptance of the nation state as representing a broad social consensus beyond the juridical principles enshrined in the constitution. Without a doubt, issues of nationality, identity and ethnicity still dominate the analysis of nation-state, state building and democratic transition in Nigeria, especially following the end of military rule in 1999. These concerns are attended to by the prevalence J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

40

and ferocity of internal conflicts across the country, thereby leading scholars to suggest that the State can be reconstituted purely on the basis of resolving the quandaries of nationality, identity and ethnicity.

Yet while the challenges we face maybe internal and ethnic in nature, oftentimes the interlocking nature of these challenges underscore the artificiality of state boundaries and call for a broader response driven by social consensus. If it is the case that the challenges are regional, and perhaps global, as they involve a range of different actors – national, subnational and trans-national, it stands to reason that their resolutions must also involve a range of options including regional ones. Important as it is to resolve the crisis of governance on a state basis, tying solutions to territorial boundaries in a nation in which power is located in sub-national and supra-national political, social and economic networks undermine the envisioned end-product of development, at least in the creation of social harmony and consensus amongst different communities and constituencies within the polity.

As things are, Nigeria is trapped between the extremes of a supernation and the inward looking localisation that wears the toga of ethnocentrism resulting in the increasing illegitimacy of the artificial state.

This is where the opportunity offered by a return to regionalism as a panacea to the much weakened state comes in. Indeed, it seems to me that any prospects for democratisation and development in Nigeria must build on the scaffolding of regionalism if it is to experience any chance of success. The last decade in Nigeria has witnessed the strengthening of integrative development links in the South-South(BRACED Commission), Northern Governors Forum, South East Governors' Forum and now our own modest emerging steps in Western Nigeria. Yet, regional dimension to governance and development can still be influenced by national and sub-national factors. In rethinking regionalism therefore, it is necessary to go beyond the proforma creation of mechanisms that are just mere technicalities. For regionalism to be an effective antidote to extreme nationalism and ethnocentrism, it must consciously permeate the State in a more deeply rooted manner. Otherwise, if the current challenges posed to the State by non-State actors are gauged, the future prospects for the consolidation of the processes of democratisation are slim, if not nonexistent. It is for this reason that the recognition of the necessity of a J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

41

multi-dimensional understanding of development without a reconceptualisation of state boundaries will ultimately undermine the search for a holistic developmental agenda.

What then are the prospects for deepening our fledgling democracy through regional integration? How do we ensure that our states can rise above territorial inhibitions to embrace a regional development agenda? Given the manner in which Nigeria has found herself between the forces of globalisation and the strictures of localisation, the road to development has become more tortuous, provoking in its wake increased post-election violence and insecurity in communities and constituencies that espouse democratic norms and values. Faced with the artificiality of states and the refusal to fully embrace the recalcitrant nation, it would appear that at no time has the need to turn to consensual resolutions become more urgent. This increasing importance of regionalism in Nigeria must be located within the twin trajectories of the incipient localisation of conflicts and the nationalisation of political and economic realities.

In arguing for a re-conceptualisation of the concept of regional development which de-emphasises state boundaries, the motive is not a form of territorial revisionism. Instead, our intention is the revision of the territorial state where artificial boundaries have formed the legitimating force for arrested development in several states, thereby turning them into empty constitutional entities which are totally meaningless to their internal publics. Translated into a sustainable democratic agenda, it is safe to argue in favour of a confinable regional development mechanism that is properly structured.

Development Agenda for Western Nigeria The above represents the strategic and theoretical basis for our current regional developmental programme in Western Nigeria (incorporating the eight states carved out of the old Western State). It is aimed at facilitating the process of political, legal, economic, social and cultural cooperation between juridical states for rapid growth and development. We believe that collaboration, properly conceived and structured will enable participant states to prosecute projects in areas of mutual benefits and comparative advantages in a cooperative manner as a J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

42

way of reinventing the development paradigm of the old Western region.

Integration therefore binds participant states to put on the front burner collective interest and place an obligation on them to cooperate and support one another and avoid destructive competition over resources.

For us, development is freedom and it is the essential basis of life more abundant and to this end – the provision of infrastructure, transportation, power generation, commerce, agriculture and other emerging areas like information technology is a sine qua non.

When Governors of Western Nigeria met in Ado-Ekiti on July 8th 2011, the intention was to kick start the process of building a new momentum for engaging and mobilising our people, respective states and inherent capacities. It will also enable us to build a consensus on major issues of communal concern and also facilitate a genuine process of political and economic cooperation for the much needed rapid growth and development of our dear states. It is my humble opinion with all sense of modesty that with determination and concerted efforts, we can collectively surpass the 1952 benchmark, enunciate a developmental paradigm and also provide a window of hope for our people that would herald a new dawn for the region.

Imagine where Western Nigeria would have been now had it not been for the overweening influence of a supra-national entity that subjected her to a huge pall of arrested development. Though deeply ideological and historically progressive, the region came under the control of an ultra-conservative class and the quality of governance declined abysmally. A region that used to set the standard regressed badly into mediocrity. Our quest now is to halt this slide and return the West to its path of honour and glory.

The region according to the The Nation of Sunday, 3rd April, 2011 has a remarkable history on its side. It did it in 1952–1959, and to some extent in 1979–1982 as LOOBO States. More crucially and overwhelmingly, it even did it before colonialism, with political and economic structures that were breathtaking not only in Africa but also fairly competitive in the global world. We can do it again. If only we can all subscribe to a unified regional developmental agenda.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the eight States of Edo, Ekiti, Delta, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo, about 14% of children between the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

43

ages of six and eleven are not in school, and of those in primary schools, only 50% who sat for the NECO examination made a credit pass in five subjects including English and Mathematics. It is very disheartening to note that the State with the highest percentage score credit pass in any five subjects recorded just 13.2%, while the one with the least percentage score recorded just 1.11% of the students registered for the examination. This happened in a region whose main stake in the Nigerian project used to be her excellence in education. (Oshun, 2010) I have gone through this historical excursion to underscore the critical nature of this issue and to assure our people that help is on the way.

We are aware that the expectations are huge, we are also aware that it is going to be a daunting task, but it is not an insurmountable challenge. We are thus resolved as a people to move beyond our most recent wounds because we do not suffer a dearth of ideas. It is therefore a notorious fact that having achieved electoral credibility, it is now time to achieve performance credibility through collective efforts, competence and compassion for our people.

Most of the critical issues which confront us today, including how to organise a livable society that guarantees a decent life for the greater number of our people have been articulated by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in his books The People's Republic and The Strategy and Tactics of a People's Republic. In those books, the great Awo posited: The man is the alpha and omega, the only dynamic means and the sole end, of all earthly human activities; and that any development plan is a failure which falls short of benefiting every member of the society in accordance with deeds or needs as the case may be (p.82) Ladies and gentlemen, colleague-academics, today's meeting represents a watershed in our determination to return the Old Western Region to the path of real growth and pragmatic development. It is our expectation that you would rigorously interrogate issues such as the nature and structure of collaboration, the development of a legal framework, mechanism for information sharing and evaluation, enunciate a developmental paradigm for the region, the desirability of a Peer Review J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

44

Mechanism, and development of a policy guideline on an on-going basis aimed at strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of integration and also locate the cause of the retrogression in the region, proffer solutions and contribute to the development of a regional action plan.

In concluding, we should remind ourselves that history has placed on our shoulders a very serious burden because we are “heirs to a tradition of hope and tireless expectations” – which Awo captured repeatedly as “Ba o ku, ise o tan” – can we then afford to give up? We return then in the end to the endless optimism of that eternal spirit of possibilities made manifest in the person and leadership of Obafemi Awolowo. We cannot be tired of reminding ourselves of this. In the voice-over of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) anthem, Awo's voice rings through the ages: “It is a duty we owe, to our dream motherland To our dear great motherland To enhance her, and to boost her In the eyes of the entire world…”

Mr Governor, Mr Vice-Chancellor, colleague-academics, students, I like to thank you most sincerely for this opportunity to once again reflect seriously, in the direction of our regional developmental goals and particularly to a people-centred leadership in the Land of Honour. I look forward to an insightful debate and pragmatic deliberation of the points which I have laid before you this morning

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

45

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

4 Strategies for Regional Integration for Rapid Growth It is immensely pleasurable for me to address this august and distinguished audience on a subject that is at the core of our developmental agenda in this region. One cannot thank The Nation's newspaper enough for deeming it fit to convene this conference at this auspicious moment when we are all putting heads together its commitment to the values and ethos of change and transformation in our beleaguered country. When the history of this post military democracy and the resistance to bad governance is written, The Nation's newspapers is bound to occupy a central place in that chronicle.

In the past few decades of our corporate existence as a country, the character of the Nigerian state has evolved according to the governing logic of the various systems, actors and constituencies through which its affairs were directed, with the principal institution that took over the reins of power for most of the years of the country's independence existence being the military. Hence, this institution etched its unitary imprint deeply on the nature that governance and administration have taken in the country.

Before the incursion of the military into the administration of the geographical entity later to be regarded as Nigeria, the different political tendencies that coalesced around the struggle of the people for independence from British colonial rule organised socially on the basis of a parliamentary system that operated through three main regions – the North, the West, and the East. Powers were largely devolved around these regions, which functioned as loosely held centres of power and decisionmaking, yet with a formal entity regarded as the central government in place. The regions had control over the nature and forms of their development and how they could explore latent and evident potentials in their environment to maximise on the most effective ways to deliver the goods of governance to their people.

4

Keynote Presentation at The Nation's Newspaper's Conference on Regional Integration and the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, Premier Hotel, Ibadan, 1 March 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

46

While these administrative units had total control over and regulated issues relating to education, agriculture, healthcare, taxation, and other significant aspects of their existence, they still subscribed to a central authority that held the exclusive right to make decisions pertaining to defence and a few other select issues. The regions were in charge of the resources that they generated, could develop at their own pace and according to the manner that they deemed fit, while contributing a percentage of their revenue towards the keeping of the centre afloat.

However, with the collapse of the First Republic and the advent of the military into governance, these regions were dissolved into a federal structure that created States and local levels of administration in the effort to make administration easy through its command approach to the system of control of the country. Subsequently, all the regional economies were displaced, given rise to a bogus central purse, from which subventions were then granted to States and the local level of administration.

While the Nigerian system under the military purportedly laid claims to being a Federal system (as in its professed description of being the Federal Republic of Nigeria), it was essentially unitary in form, with its version of federalism revealing a central system in which the assumed federating units had surrendered almost all their authority to the federal government, and lifelines were granted from the centre resulting in the constituent units abandoning entrepreneurial acumen and economic enterprise in favour of 'free' allocations from the centre, particularly consequent upon the discovery of oil.

With the return of democracy to the country and the assessment that the unitary nature of the federalism that was practised in the military years was essentially a burden that retarded the growth of the Southwest region despite its natural endowments, huge human capital resource and enormous potentials, there is the need to revert to and revise the initial template of regionalism for the Southwest to be able to return to its natural path of growth and development. Therefore, this present endeavour at the revival of regionalism is in the effort to restore the Southwest to its pride of place as an economic and developmental unit.

Regional integration within the context of true federalism is important for the democratic growth of the Southwest, and Nigeria. There is the need to foster integration and cooperation across the States of the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

47

previous Western Region – Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Edo and Delta – by leveraging on the unique competencies of each state in order to uplift their competitive edges and thereby promote a synergy that leads to the creation of a more efficient economy in the Southwest.

Since the coming to power of progressives in most of these States, largely through the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), there has been the drive towards regional integration as a means of securing a shared basis for growth and development. Regional integration is fundamentally a mechanism that encapsulates our common history, values, and experiences, social and political goals. This determination to bond for growth has been with our people and precursors prior to the days of colonialism when political and economic structures that were unique were set up, which were not only enviable across Africa, but were fairly competitive in the world. And, besides the unprecedented template of the Western Region's achievements between 1952 and 1959, this is also the history of the mutually beneficial cooperation that existed among the LOOBO (Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Bendel and Ogun) States between 1979 and 1982.

The case for a notion of regional development that transcends limited State boundaries is necessitated by the purpose of revising the construct of a territorial state where artificial boundaries have become the legitimating force for arrested development in several states, which are merely empty constitutional entities that have no relevance to their people.

Therefore, one could argue in favour of a confinable regional development mechanism that is properly structured as the basis of a sustainable democratic agenda.

Why Regionalism?

Regionalism seeks to enable the process of political, legal, economic, social and cultural cooperation among states as a way of rapidly boosting their growth and development. When properly conceived and operated, it would facilitate the execution of projects across participating states in areas of mutual benefit and comparative advantage in a manner that reinvents the development paradigm of the old Western region.

Regionalism is about the development of the Southwest along lines that conceive the region as an economic block that would facilitate a J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

48

cost effective approach to the development of infrastructure, industrialisation, commerce, the environment and agriculture. It is about development as freedom and the essential basis of creating life more abundant.

Moreover, the current global economic downturn and the efforts to rise out of this has made the development of a regional model of economic and social organisation more relevant as units within this system are primed to pool resources together to withstand shocks and unfortunate circumstances.

Objectives of Regional Integration · · ·

To build a new momentum for engaging and mobilising our people, respective states and inherent capacities To build a consensus on major issues of communal concern To facilitate a genuine process of political and economic cooperation for the much needed rapid growth and development of states in the Southwest

Goals of Regional Integration: · To promote the notion of good governance through which the goods and dividends of representative democracy can be accessed by the people of the Southwest; · To develop a common set of practices and development strategies that will enhance an even and equitable level of development across the states of the Southwest, which would ultimately benefit the people of the region; · To create a platform for the sharing of resources and expertise across the region for the common purpose of development; · To attain the objectives of governance, in terms of human capital development, the delivery of healthcare services, etc which are coterminous with some of the goals of the Millennium Development Goals in the Southwest; and the forging of regional alliances makes this more feasible in J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

路 路

49

terms of its achievement; To maximise the potentials for job creation and the expansion of opportunities; To harness the fairly homogenous and unique history of the region in order to create value.

Process For regional integration to be effective, the collaborating States in the West need to have a vision that includes collectively agreed goals of the transformative experience targeted; the identification of the unique selling points of each participating State; a proper economic analysis of the compliments and contradictions that each state is bringing to the agreement; a design and evaluation of the integration process; and modalities for the evolution of the process. In addition, issues of enabling infrastructure (ICT, etc) and the development of the competencies that will drive the integration, in terms of human capacity have to be agreed upon.

Strategies for Regional Development: Economic Development This is in order for the Southwest to attain the status of a developed country in terms of infrastructure, human capital development, and standard of living, which would ensure a high level of growth in its GDP, and the Human Development Index by 2020. And, this is intended to enable a paradigm shift that will move the region away from a consumption based model of economic operations relying basically on resource sharing and allocation to resource generation, growth and development, which are essential to a strategy-based model of development. This is construed as revitalising and advancing development in the manner in which it earlier evolved in the halcyon years between 1952 and 1962. And, hence this will enable the shift in the macroeconomic environment of the region from an essentially recurrent to a capital expenditure profile. As such, links would have to be forged with international funding agencies and development partners in financing infrastructure, industries, education and health, housing, etc.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

50

For the foregoing to be operational, there is the need for selfsufficiency in power generation, which would drive the processes of development in the Southwest, through traditional and alternative sources.

As such, States in the region would need to come together to invest heavily in the power sector, and independent power plants need to be developed and concentrated around zones including industrial estates, educational institutions, markets, airports, seaports, healthcare centres, etc. Equally, small hydro power generation initiatives need to be spearheaded aggressively.

Importantly, with one of the most vital and valuable natural resources of the Southwest being its holding of vast tracts of arable land and a generally conducive environment, the agriculture sector needs to be developed as a matter of priority, with the modernisation of agriculture and agriculture-related infrastructure being assured through increased budgetary allocations to these by States in the region. More so, the policy framework that should be shared by the different governments in the region is one that links agriculture with manufacturing, through aspects that include storage and processing. This will be a vital means of leveraging the agriculture value-chain and a veritable source of gainful employment for a crucial sector of the population, comprising graduates and schoolleavers.

To this end, agricultural estates, for middle and small-holder farms, industrial estates and parks, and an agriculture market information system will need to be established. Also, while agricultural research institutes and information centres, and Farmers' Development Centres would have to be established at States and Local Government levels to offer training and skills acquisition services, it is critical that land use will need to be optimised to ensure that all farmlands are cultivated in order to attain economics of scale in agricultural activities.

Human Capacity Development A core aspect of achieving regional integration consists in achieving Human Capital Development through the vehicle of providing education which would empower sustainable development. In this regard, the governments in the Southwest region have the task of creating an enabling ground for the acquisition of information and skills by the people J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

51

which would enhance industry and entrepreneurship, and return the Southwest to the days when knowledge production and generation was one of the core competencies of the people of the region. Towards this end, the unfortunate slide that has witnessed a very drastic reduction in the number of youths who are able to attain average qualifications for entry into academies through the WASCE, NECO, and JAMB examinations, needs to be arrested. Therefore, a state of emergency on education has to be declared in the Southwest, which would not only comprise the rebuilding of academic, but also vocational skills and competencies. And, in this regards, there is the necessity of re-evaluating the school curriculum and the training of teachers on a regional scale, the introduction of applied practical science to all students, the creation of a regional standard inspectorate on education, and the provision of intermediate computer skills to students.

Saliently, all the states in the region need to develop a common strategy for the provision of higher education at the post-secondary level.

There should be a common database on educational planning in all the states, a common database on Labour Market Information that is updated periodically, and the establishment of a performance management system for all levels of education across the region. The largely diminished capacity of universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions as centres of excellence in knowledge production and skills acquisition in the region require to be enhanced through the setting up of regional centres that would address the educational deficiencies of fresh graduates by offering them crash courses that would address the gaps in the skills they have acquired in their graduating institutions. And, this is highly pertinent for science and engineering graduates who would require additional skills advance manufacturing systems, etc. In addition, whilst there is need to rationalise the proliferation of unsustainable institutions across the region, all tertiary institutions would have to be empowered to provide ICT training across the educational spectra, and facilities for continuous formal, non-formal, and informal training will need to be established at the regional level.

Health It is an established fact that the wealth of a nation is anchored J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

52

upon the well-being and health of its people, and an unhealthy population is certainly a burden to a nation, both in terms of its resources and the diminished capacity of the workforce to generate more wealth and drive the objectives of development. Hence, there is the need to prioritise health and healthcare delivery as a strategy of human capital development by creating better and more affordable access to healthcare facilities, provision of social safety nets and public health enlightenment and environmental protection for the general populace across the region.

Equally, while there is the need for our governments to embark on public awareness campaigns that would inform the public on the prevention of diseases, a coordinated system of sanitary inspection has to be introduced at the local, state and regional levels.

Commerce and Industries On the level of commerce and industries, there is the necessity of engaging in a concerted effort on a regional scale to minimise, if not totally wipe out, the impediments to the free-flow of goods and materials, such as bad road and transportation networks, the inadequacy of storage facilities, etc. Also, a coordinated effort in developing regional capacity in Science and Technology will give boost to the creation of engineering infrastructure needed in advancing home-grown industrialisation through machine design and building capabilities. This will certainly inspire the proliferation of small and medium scale enterprises. And, in order for the growth of commerce and industries to be rapid and effective in the Southwest region, there should be an Advanced Technology Capacity Building and Production that will train graduates of tertiary institutions in hands-on experience in industrial, factory and workshop practices and processes. More so, there will have to be the increase in the capacity utilisation of existing cottage industries, including their manufacturing capability, in the Southwest, and the creation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centres (AMTC's) in all the local government areas in the region. Efforts will be made to utilise science and technology as the backbone of commerce and industry, with the integration of ICT as a fundamental component of the process, and human capacity will continually be enhanced to meet evolving developmental requirements.

And, importantly, when the two manufacturing behemoths – the Steel J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

53

Rolling Mill and Machine Tools Industry – located in Oshogbo, Osun State are properly assessed and returned to optimal operations, they will serve as indicators of industrialisation that will generate an economic ripple effect across the region.

Infrastructure A critical strategy for regional integration and the rapid growth and economic advancement of the Southwest involves the development of vital infrastructure, including a multi-nodal transportation system, a sufficient power generation and distribution system, an effective Information and Communications Technology architecture, urban development and adequate housing, etc. All these would enhance governance and drive economic growth.

In terms of the realisation of this strategy, road transportation across the region can be developed regionally through collaborations with the federal government, international financial institutions and the private sector, and whilst rural roads and regional road networks will need to be revamped and modernised, newer roads might have to be constructed by governments in the Southwest as parallels to the major commercial roads that link States to ports, etc. In addition, advocacies could be carried out by the Southwest governments to the Federal Government on the need to repair major trunk roads and arteries of transportation.

On the level of rail transportation, the governments in the Southwest have to make a joint commitment and decision to create an integrated rail network that connects the whole region and links up with major commercial entry and exit points, such as air and sea ports. And, this can be achieved either through negotiations with the Federal Government to construct rail lines in the region or through a pulling of resources together by our various states, private investors and international funding partners. Still, a highly viable rail loop that will serve the economic interests of the region would be the construction of a link from Benin to Lekki Lagoon, which will cater to commercial activities between the Southwest and the Eastern part of the country, via Ogun and Ondo States, thereby opening up this whole axis and making the Epe corridor a major terminal for passengers and goods.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

54

Pertaining to air transportation, our governments in the Southwest will seek to collaborate with the Federal Government and other regional concerns like the BRACED as well as with investors to generate funds to improve East-West rail and airports in order to enhance their functionality and increase their patronage. And, with regards to boosting water transportation in the region, capacities would have to be built in producing boats that meet different needs, whilst the inland waterways would have to be developed to enable the transportation of goods from demanding terrains, in situations where this is the available alternative.

Energy In order for the economic renaissance of the Southwest to take place, the region must be able to generate and distribute enough power, without recourse to the national grid, through traditional and alternative (renewable) sources, including solar and wind supply systems. And, while the major power projects in the Southwest, such as Olokola, Omotosho and Papalanto need to be revitalised and reactivated, the potentials of the huge deposits of crude oil in Ogun and Ondo States as sources of fuel for power plants have to be explored. In developing the power sector in the Southwest, the anticipated sites for small hydro power projects that have been mapped out in the region will have to be developed, and water supply schemes and water bodies will need to be infused with power generation facilities. Also, the local manufacturing of solar panels, batteries and inverters, etc will have to be considered in order to tap into the humongous possibilities that solar-driven power generation represents.

With the vast industrial and economic potentials of the Southwest region, power generation as a main driver of development and growth will certainly have to be accorded significant prioritisation, and a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model of funding sought, particularly as projects in this regard require huge capital outlays that might prove too enormous for governments in the region to embark upon single-handedly. Yet, the Southwest states will necessarily provide trigger funds for the taking-off of projects in this regard. The power plants created in this process would have to be run in a business-like fashion that ensures their profitability and sustainability, while their aggregation in environmentally friendly ways will be targeted as leading to the securing of expansion grants derived from J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

55

global carbon development and emission mechanisms. The development of this strategy will equally motivate ripple effects in the economy as the local manufacturing of energy generation turbines and other electromechanical equipment will be encouraged through industries such as the Osogbo Steel Rolling Mill, etc.

A salient enabling infrastructure for regional integration and rapid growth in the Southwest is the creation of an ICT system that propels a shared eGovernment and eGovernance agenda across states in the region, which would leverage on a Regional Geo-spatial Data Infrastructure (RGDI), a common public security network, the development of a shared identity management system, and contiguous Public Key Infrastructure, etc. This will empower a data-driven base for easier administration across the region and spawn exceptional economic growth, through the deployment of broadband internet connectivity and an internet exchange network.

Urban Development and Housing In the effort to promote land use in the region, a computerised system for the registration of lands would need to be put in place, which also guarantees the transferability of land titles, whilst governments in the region will have to make serviced land available to developments (of roads, drainage, markets, schools, etc) across variedly sized settlements in all States in the Southwest, with land grants given to housing associations and property developers. This strategy of access to lands will enable various classes of people to be able to construct houses through cooperative systems utilising its own labour and resources, and hence incorporate the use of local building materials and the enforcement of regional land/housing codes and regulations. To make this actionable, governments in the Southwest would have to pool resources towards the creation of a mortgage and urban development bank, along with the private sector, in order for the access of people and groups to funds for housing development. And, an urban renewal drive will be put in place to enable city beautification and gentrification, while rural integration and industrialisation would be promoted in the effort to make rural areas more liveable as a way of stemming the Rural-Urban drift of people.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

56

Internal Security As a strategy of integration, there is the need to develop the capacities for community/local policing and neighbourhood watch in the region, so that people from other parts do not take advantage of the liberal security outlook in the Southwest. And, self-determination groups that serve as alternative vigilante movements necessarily have to be reoriented to upgrade the quality of their membership and activities. For this purpose, structures of creating awareness about the objectives and roles of community policing and vigilante groups will have to be inscribed into the curriculum in schools, while the national legislature would be lobbied on a sustained level to pass laws for the realisation of community policing and the state police. Importantly, state governments in the region will have to keep supporting the police, as it is presently constituted, in terms of the provision of equipment for its work, so as to have more influence on the operations of the institution. More so, the task of policing around international borders would have to be enhanced, and a strategic approach to security profiling by means of an assessment of security needs in the region will be have to be embarked upon urgently. However, significantly, a reorientation of security to integrate human security, through the creation of an enabling environment for the attainment of social goods and safety nets by the people of the Southwest, will aid the reduction of the need for the implementation of physical security.

Culture and Tourism A very viable strategy for regional integration, economic growth and development in the Southwest is the promotion of culture and tourism as a platform for shared action and a vehicle for education, business and leisure. This will draw upon the largely homogenous mores and worldview of the Yoruba nation – its contiguous relationships and alliances – which are expressed through the language and arts of the people, their folk traditions and heritage, the physical and natural endowments in the environment, and the general expressive cultures that have been handed down and re-invigorated through the media of television, film, and theatre, etc. When these are repackaged and marketed on an international dimension, such as through festivals like the Osun Osogbo in Osun State and the Black Heritage Festival in Lagos which draw J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

57

in pilgrims to the enactment of their fare both locally and globally, they become tools for the advancement of tourism that serve the end of economic growth.

Hence, there is the necessity of setting up regional structures that affirm and transcend state boundaries, such as a cultural/tourism board for western Nigeria that will commission television and film projects, regional festivals of arts and culture, indigenous cultural materials in new media formats, music festivals, tourism clubs, etc. And, these activities will evolve and grow around designated cultural hubs or cities in the region, entailing the establishment of museums, art galleries, theatre/film viewing facilities, tourism parks, games reserves, monuments, film/television studios, etc. Particularly, with the historical diffusion of Yoruba culture across great swathes of the world, linkages and connections will be promoted to highlight the Southwest as an origin and veritable global cultural capital that will attract significant numbers of people – locally and internationally – on a regular basis, in a manner that supports a tourism industry.

In this instance, there will also be the need to draw up a PublicPrivate Partnership framework that will enable the funding of the arts and tourism infrastructure.

Another important strategy of integration that enhances regional well-being involves the coming together of governments in the Southwest to address issues of environmental sustainability pertaining to concerns around flooding, waste management, coastal erosion, deforestation and urbanisation, etc, which all coalesce into the broader challenge of climate change that threatens the livelihoods of our people, food and water security, and health. These dangers need to be confronted and mitigated by the State governments in the Southwest through joint programmes of reforestation and forest management, the public creation of awareness around the causes and perils of climate change, the exploration of renewable sources of energy, and the proper administration of waste disposal, etc.

For the foregoing strategies to be effective and actionable, there is the necessity of an essential reform of governance in the Southwest towards a more performance-based model that locates people at the centre of the programmes and agenda of the government. As such, governance J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

58

not only has to be inclusive and accountable, but its impacts and achievements have to be measurable in order for its legitimacy to be guaranteed. Equally, the civil service as the engine room of governments in the region has to be re-professionalised and returned to its merit-based and glorious past that obtained in the old Western Region. Therefore, for the regional agenda to thrive, there must be a credible, performance-based coordination between States and their local governments that is governed by cooperation and commitment to the public good, and joint actions by State governments in the Southwest in the areas of capacity-building, service delivery, and performance management.

As a necessary step towards accomplishing all of the above, the technical committee of the DAWN implementation would very shortly be inaugurated and the Commission that will be saddled with the responsibility of driving the administrative vehicle of the agenda would also be put in place very soon. But this must be a people's driven regional agenda, and not just a top-down government to government regional development and integration agenda.

I thank you for listening and invite you to envision and discuss objectively this broad outline for extricating ourselves from the present transactional politics to a future of transformational ethos.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

59

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

5 The Nigerian Polity, Politics and Politicians: Moving from Transaction to Transformation Let me express my deep gratitude for the privilege of addressing this special audience on the occasion of the public presentation of Mobolade Omonijo's book, The Nigerian Political Turf: Polity, Politics, Politicians. When I first saw the title of the book, it reminded me so much of a similarly titled book by the late James Ajibola Ige (aka Uncle Bola), progressive politician, intellectual par excellence and former AttorneyGeneral of post-military Nigeria. That fascinating book entitled, People, Politics and Politicians of Nigeria: 1940 – 1979, chronicles Uncle Bola's reflections on the triumphs and travails of Nigerian politics and polity during the period before independence to the resumption of democratic rule in 1979. Written almost twenty years before Mobolade's book, Uncle Bola's inimitable and often irreverent style had presaged many of the issues raised in this new book in a prescient manner leaving anyone reading Mobolade's book with a sense of déjà vu. While it is really not my task to review Bolade Omonijo's book - having been saddled with an altogether different task – that of reflecting on the polity, politics and politicians from the perspective of an “active participant” as he put it in his invitation letter, it would nevertheless be remiss of me not to comment on the timeliness and timelessness of the book at a time that many continue to worry about the Nigeria project.

As a journalist of repute, experience and exposure, Mr. Omonijo has done a brilliant job of placing the people, citizens at the centre of this retrospective assessment of his last twenty five years in journalism. He highlights important issues like democracy, constitutionalism, poverty and development as well as regional integration. In his own view, fifty years after independence and a century after amalgamation, politics and politicking have still not served the people well. The country is far from being a nation and the polity is in need of thorough restructuring. He 5

Being Lecture delivered on the occasion of the public presentation of The Nigerian Political Turf: Polity, Politics and Politicians written by Mobolade Omonijo on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at The Muson Centre, Onikan-Lagos.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

60

underscores the importance of institutions much more than personalities.

Especially, institutions that can mediate the relationship between the leaders and the led; relationship between tiers of government; and the electoral process through which leaders are recruited. He paints the polity in the frightening image of the Hobbessian state of nature – nasty, brutish and about to be cut short!

Many groan that Nigeria is at another crossroads. For such people, the country only seems to go from crisis to crisis. If truth be told, there seems to be a vibrant industry of 'Niger-pessimism'. Like most Nigerians, the author appears very cynical about the average Nigerian politician. He is however hopeful about the possibilities the country holds for the future, certain things being in place. The picture of the politician he paints is one of an unconscionable, venal, greedy, corrupt leech feeding off society and one who would seize any opportunity to fleece the people. Whether one agrees with this view of the Nigerian politician or not, very few in our country disagree that the nation is experiencing a 'leadership challenge.'

Nigerians mistrust and distrust their leaders – whether they are politicians, captains of industry, faith based clerics, media watchdogs or civil society activists. I suppose as an active participant who has been asked to reflect on current challenges in the polity, my task is not to bemoan the fate of our troubled institutions in the polity. It is to proffer, in so far as my experience can take me, what should be done about the critical problems highlighted in Mr Omonijo's book and outline how we must work expeditiously towards their resolutions.

A progressive participant-observer in my view would want to call attention to what must be done to increase the population of those who access power with a view to serving the people and launching the country on an irreversible path of development. He would want to reflect, for example, on what is the place of values in politics? How can transactional politics be replaced by transformational leadership? How should institutions of state be strengthened to ensure effective checks and balances? What should be done to promote internal democracy in political parties? How should leaders and the led - work together? What systems and processes should be put in place for genuine empowerment of the citizens towards the attainment of full rights? In short, how can excellence become the habit in our beleaguered nation?

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

61

As for the polity, the question that many continue to pose will have to be answered with all its attendant ramifications if we are to respond to Mr Omonijo's thought provoking treatise. I agree with Mr Omonijo that many of the internal contradictions of the Nigerian state have been sharpened to a point that the bare bones are now visible. The failure to address the national (ity) question in an inclusive manner is evident in the varied responses across country to conflicts over identity, nationality, selfdetermination and autonomy. These issues are, in turn, bound up with such questions as what manner of federation do Nigerians want? Unlike in the past when government has always decreed issues like religion, autonomy and resource control as constitutional “no-go areas�, Nigerians are now forcing these issues in the open and the hitherto authoritarian might of the federal centre is being put to test. What is this nation called Nigeria? What does it mean to be Nigerian? How do we manage diversity and difference in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith polity? These were some of the questions that we avoided in the events leading up to May 29 1999 in the desperation for anything but the military.

As a participant-observer equally troubled and concerned by these untoward developments in the polity, I have attempted to reflect on these questions as they affect the polity and its politicians. Of course, as someone who was on the outside looking in and now an active participant on the inside undertaking self-introspection, I know how tempting it is for those on the outside, particularly my friends in the fourth estate to assume a moral high ground. They are irrepressible in the belief that the politicians are the problem. I also know that politicians see themselves as reflections of their milieu which often compel them to act in a Jekyll and Hyde dual mode – on the one hand, charismatic, visionary, caring, fascinating and sophisticated, and on the other, repulsive, cynical, calculating, corrupt, venal and opportunistic. My own interest is really not to indulge in any deep philosophical or academic arguments about the distinctions between transactional politics and transformational leadership - many of which you are familiar with but to simply explore the necessity for citizens' engagement in a democracy. I also want to underscore the importance of accountability to the citizens by those elected to serve them. It is my own conviction that where there is no active civil society engagement, there can be no responsible and responsive political society. Such a State runs the risk J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

62

of decay and illegitimacy.

I intend to argue based on my experience that politics – properly conducted - is a form of social activism and another stage in the struggle to restore the dignity of humankind. It is an integrated continuum rather than discretely compartmentalised oppositional phenomena, often complicated and contradictory, but mostly in the quest to make a fundamental difference. This is perhaps why the issue should not be one for politicians or non-politicians, but the extent to which we are able to achieve citizen participation in our democracy. The issue of leadership – particularly how we conceptualise leadership is central to the discourse. In my view, our discussion should really focus more on the making of leaders and citizens in a good society because without direct citizen participation, the legitimacy of our political institutions will continue to decline. It is for this reason that I strongly believe that leaders – be they politicians or nonpoliticians should worry because their ability to lead effectively is being seriously undermined by the desertion of average citizens from the public space, deepening the crisis of legitimacy in the country. Yet, this lack of legitimacy cuts both ways. When we the people withdraw our trust in leaders or discountenance politicians, we make our democratic institutions less effective and risk making ourselves ungovernable.

For too long, our political culture has perpetuated the myth that strong leaders can bring about change single-handedly – rather than convert the formal authority derived from legitimate electoral mandate into a process of democratic renewal. The myth of the heroic and charismatic leader dominates the literature on leadership. After all, to lead in Greek and Latin was originally a military term meaning a “General of soldiers”. In my own view, real leadership ought to involve motivating people to solve problems within their own communities, rather than reinforcing the over-lordship of the state on citizens. It is to build as well as strengthen political institutions that can mediate between individual and group interests, between human and peoples' rights. Joseph Nye, jr, the Dean of Harvard's John Kennedy's School of Government who coined the term 'soft power', define leaders as 'those who help a group create and achieve shared goals. The authoritarian residues of politics continue to see leaders as magicians with all the answers to societal problems – hence the immeasurable disappointment when they fail to leave up to this J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

63

exaggerated expectations.

The main challenge in my view therefore is both a psychological and a contextual one and it centres on de-emphasising superficial and unearned notions of heroic leadership by reconnecting democratic choices with people's day-to-day experience and to extend democratic principles to everyday situations in citizens' communities and constituencies.

This is the reason why leadership must be mediated by the context of power and political structure. What do I mean by this? Many will recall that at the commencement of the current political dispensation in 1999, many were of the view that the path we were treading was one of transition without transformation. We argued severally that it was wrong to suggest that any opening after Nigeria's prolonged authoritarian rule was inherently irreversible and would lead to the deepening of democracy without interrogating the nature of the opening itself. We felt at the time that we needed to think more carefully about the implications of what we considered to be a staged-managed and guided democratic transition because even if Ali Baba was dead, the forty thieves were still very much around, especially in a setting where the authoritarian ethos, language, and character of command and control of public discourse remained in place.

Looking back, we may have been correct to be cautious about embracing the military transition of 1999, but I now believe we were tactically wrong for completely eschewing participation in politics. The fact that the military had not responded to a full-scale defeat by the democracy movement could hardly be discounted in understanding the nature of post-military governance. The eventual dominance of the party hierarchy by retired military generals and civilians closely connected to them certainly set the tone for party formation and also resulted in authoritarian presidential governance particularly under President Obasanjo. Essentially, the outcome of that particular phase of the transition ensured a mere reconfiguration of the political space, rather than guarantee transformative leadership.

Yet, even with all of this, we could have started the process of organising along political lines, rather than agonising about the militarised 6

Joseph S.Nye Jr, The Powers to Lead, (London: Oxford University Press, 2008), p.x.

7 For a discussion of my scepticism, see 'Kayode Fayemi, “Military Hegemony and the Transition Program”, Issue: Journal of Opinion – Special Edition on Nigeria, Vol.XXXXII, No.1, 1999., Journal of the African Studies Association, Rutgers University, USA. J. KAYODE

FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

64

nature of power and leadership. After all, we (journalists and activists alike) were the ones who risked our lives to fight for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria – only to vacate the space when power was literally lying on the streets.

So, we ended up with a democracy with pseudo-democrats and yet we are worried about the low quality of our democracy and deficits in governance. For the majority of our citizens – democracy was supposed to bring the end of military dictatorship in form and content; they hoped that it would bring greater involvement of ordinary people in politics, whether in the federal, state and local institutions or even in civil society ones. They hoped for real and immediate dividends in employment, clean water, affordable shelter, accessible health care, improved education, reliable and consistent power supply, rehabilitated roads and food on the table. While we generally enjoy a qualitative air of freedom in the last decade, there is still despair, despondency and disillusionment about material dividends of this democracy. Democracy is not an abstract concept to the ordinary people. Indeed, they do not value democracy any less than their elite compatriots. But they want democracy to be relevant to their lives in a concrete and fundamental manner. If democracy is not capable of wiping out poverty, curbing corruption, guaranteeing transparency and improving people's well being and quality of life, it is at best an empty concept, at worst a sham to many. Poverty and despair, oppression and humiliation, economic and social insecurities are breeding grounds – even if not the only reasons – for violence and conflict. As much as Nigerians want democracy, they also want to see concrete evidence of democracy making a difference in their lives and not just in an instrumentalist sense of embracing freedom.

These are, however, not challenges charismatic politicians or heroic leaders are able to resolve on their own without a careful consideration of the context of the issues. It is for this reason that those who want to re-draw the map of Nigeria's future for the better must return to more solid grounds rather than tie themselves to the apron strings of power-holders. Power wielders who neither have a track record nor demonstrate a vision that can inspire our people and offer them hope about tangible transformation. This solid ground must be within a larger movement though, one that accommodates the place of political J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

65

institutions. It should not simply be the celebration of astute individuals as the ultimate panacea to our crisis of governance. The most practical way to link individual choice to collective responsibility is to participate in the institutions that influence our lives. We must ensure that formal and informal institutions are democratised and giving more responsibilities for exercising state power. To do it well, we have to see Nigeria as a permanent enterprise that has to be fought over and restructured in order to provide cover for all Nigerians.

Understandably, if you make political discourse more negative as some do – you deliberately turn ordinary people off politics; more people grow cynical and stop paying any serious attention to politics. This experience is not unique to us in Nigeria; in fact it is the crisis that democracy is experiencing all over the world, with low turn out at the polls and scant regard for political leaders. Yet, if we as citizens choose not to play a part in this process of activism in our communities and our State, we will get the politicians we deserve, allow the hijack of the political realm by special interests, religious bigots and ethnic jingoists only keen in the promotion of their narrow agendas. So, being political is being patriotic and we all must be ready to leave our comfort zones to embrace active engagement.

The State of the Polity Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why I see the extended focus of the book on the polity quite useful. Important as politicians are, they are just the tip of the iceberg in the democratisation complex. Indeed, genuine democracy ought to rest on a much richer ecology of associational and organisational life and should be nourished and reproduced through every-day struggles of the citizens. Operating in the practical field of politics, I have come to realise how detached many citizens are from the institutions and structures that should ordinarily empower them to engage the State. To enable the citizens to engage, they must feel and actually be empowered to have oversight of their own state agencies and functions. They should be given local input and control in a genuine and open, not tokenistic and patronage-based, manner. Giving communities a role in their own development is the essential part of dismantling the command mentality which plagues our country today.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

66

This is why I am not sure that the solution to the current deficit that our polity is experiencing can be solved with this either - or approaches of politicians and non-politicians. For autonomous institutions to play a different role in mediating citizens' democratic choices, their organic development must be combined in a more nuanced manner and a more systematic way with the use of public and state power. The choice is therefore simple: one can continue to snipe on the fringe and complain that government is not listening to the yearnings of the people.

Alternatively, one can stop agonising about missed policy opportunities and organise in a manner that places citizens as drivers of change.

Especially in our quest to restore communitarian values and create a future of hope and possibilities for our people.

This is why I am in politics. It is my belief that committed social activism must help provide the road map that people can employ to help undertake various empowerment projects that will give them control over their own destinies and lives. It is the belief that public office is too serious to be entrusted in the hands of charlatans and that when serious people turn away from politics, the field is left to those who have nothing to offer than crass opportunism and damage to our people's well being. We must – politicians and journalists alike - be determined to ensure that the State empowers rather than dictate, enables rather than control, pushes power down to the people and shares the responsibility of governing with them rather than turn them to supplicants at the table of power wielders.

Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no doubt that the democracy we are enjoying today continues to be threatened by severe internal contradictions. Nowhere are the limits of the democratic project in Nigeria more apparent than in the question of creating appropriate institutional arrangements for the political accommodation and management of social diversities and difference. By its very nature, democratic politics has radically altered the existing social boundaries and divisions, accentuating hitherto dormant identities and conflicts. The consequences of the relationship between the two have not only posed a challenge to those who seek to understand these dynamics, it has also placed a question mark on the very viability of Nigeria's democratic enterprise. The lethality of many of these conflicts has been transformed in scope and intensity with the unrestricted availability of small arms and J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

67

unemployed youths. At the core of the crisis either in the Niger Delta or in the North is the failure of politics to allocate authority, legitimise it, and use it to achieve the social as well as economic ends that conduce to communal wellbeing. The ordinary people, expelled to the margins of politics and economics for so long appear now to be knocking insistently on the gate, demanding to be let in - in the renewed context of democratisation and freedom.

Sadly, successive Nigerian governments have seen these communal crises as purely a security matter. Given Nigeria's experience of prolonged authoritarian rule, a very narrow and traditional definition of security persists as the psyche of militarism remains pervasive in the system. There is therefore the need to re-conceptualise 'security' in a more responsive direction with a move away from the traditional emphasis on national/state/regime security to a focus on 'human security', with an expansion, concomitantly in the scope of the concept from its minimalist meaning (as in physical security) to include access to the means of life, the provision of essential goods, a clean and sustainable environment, as well as to human rights and democratic freedoms. It may well be that as Nigeria purges itself of its military, authoritarian past, the chance of embracing a more humane perspective of security becomes increasingly realistic. In this respect, a complement to massive security and law and order response and containment of conflict ought to be a new political and economic framework, guaranteed by a new federal constitution, that would transfer power, and with it the control of economic resources, to local people allowing them in turn to pay appropriate taxes to federal coffers. This would entail the democratisation of politics in such a way that the ordinary people would become the object and subject of development.

In a country where stupendous wealth often lies astride abject poverty, the seeds of conflict are easily sown and understandably germinate faster. Set against the inability of the State to provide basic services for its citizens, new conflicts have manifested through politicised agents who appear to be using the conditions of the poor to address the responses or non-responses of the State to the legitimate yearnings of the people. This comes into clear relief in the context of a democratic transition, in which, conflict becomes an integral, and often inevitable 8

Save in the context of the Amnesty programme adopted by the late President Yar'adua to tackle the lingering crisis of militancy in the Delta, security response has been the norm rather than the exception since President Obasanjo's invasion of Odi and the pacification of Zaki Biam.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

68

result of power shift. In fact this is because democratisation or at least democratic transition represents in the large part restoration of agency to some actors, but also loss of power by others accustomed to its unaccountable use. There can be no doubt that the transformation and utilisation of objective factors in the exacerbation of conflicts in Nigeria is not unconnected to this fact.

Given the above, the key to understanding and explaining conflict in Nigeria, it seems to us, lies primarily (though not exclusively) in specific local dynamics and responses, on the part of the communities and states, to the crisis conditions created by the existing economic and political conditions. It is also in the lack of institutional mechanisms to mediate conflict when they occur.

The above, in our view returns our search to the patterns, texture and quality of politics that emerged with political liberalisation and transitions, which in Nigeria's case reflected a reconfiguration and reassertion of pre-existing (though temporarily submerged) structures of national and local power bases, rather than a fundamental transformation.

It also involved, in other cases, the activation of alienated new strata – especially amongst the youths, reflecting the dangerous ideological transformations wrought by the combined forces of authoritarianism, economic decline and social marginalisation in Nigeria.

Yet, as argued earlier, democracy is much more than just achieving material benefits. But without economic improvement, especially the broadening of the basis of wealth creation and possession, the conditions which threaten democracy and civil peace will continue to worsen. Poverty in Nigeria has not bred radical politics, but radical religious, ethnic and opportunistic agendas. Those who in the last decade would have eked out a living in the informal economy, are beginning to turn to the criminal economy to effect direct redistribution of wealth through the rising tide of terrorism, armed robbery, assassinations and kidnappings which form the backdrop to an increasingly brutalised society. Unemployed youths, when they do not become criminals, join vigilante organisations which supplant the job of the security forces by dealing out direct justice – at which point this threatens the state's supposed monopoly on the legitimate use of force? Also, beyond this, they become thugs-for-hire, abused in their vulnerability by their scheming elders, who expend them in gang fights J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

69

over electoral wards, or dispose of them for a few hundred Naira in order to destabilise towns and cities for sectarian advantage. Nigeria's youth needs gainful employment. And so do its rural and urban poor, its old, its women, and anyone who does not happen to be lucky enough to have connections to persons of influence.

It is in this sense that the current debate on the insurgency known as Boko Haram is itself a debate about the status and quality of democracy in Nigeria; a debate about the future of the country as a united, federal entity. With bombs going off incessantly in the Northern part of the country in particular and an increasing level of panic in other parts of the country, thinking of innovative ways of accommodating social diversity in a democratic frame is a challenge that is at once intellectual and political and it is perhaps the greatest challenge to democratic transition and security in our country today. Consequently, it is my view that we must at least see what is happening in Nigeria today as an outcome of the nature of the country's democratic transition. It is an argument for treating Nigeria's democratisation project as a work in progress, not as a condition for hopelessness.

Road Map to Democratic Consolidation: Next Stage of the Collective Struggle Having spent the last seven years in partisan politics and participating in grassroots organising, my belief in the need to take politics beyond political parties is more reinforced. The immediate challenge for all of us is to concentrate on how to rescue our people from bad governance.

Unless the critical mass of our people cutting across age, gender, zones and party political affiliations adopt the same positions, with a more clearly defined collective agenda, the current approach to solving our problem will not suffice. There is an urgent need to build coalitions and permanent platform in the public sphere that is beyond party and personalities, but all embracing enough to those who subscribe to the core values of integrity, honesty and dedication to transformation in Nigeria.

This all-embracing platform could address a variety of issues, but none is more urgent today than the question of the structure of the Nigerian state. However, the task of such an all-embracing platform must not be limited to reforming the institutional framework of the State alone.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

70

It must also focus on Leadership and Conduct in Public Life; The Constitution and the Legal Framework of the Federal State; Human Rights, Militarism and Civil Violence; Public Sector Management, Transparency and Accountability as well as visible economic progress and wealth creation for the ordinary citizens. This is not an exhaustive list, but it certainly provides civil rights activists, journalists and progressive politicians with a template for democratic renewal.

Based on my own trajectory and experience from direct antiestablishment confrontation at the barricades through civic engagement with political actors and public officials to partisan political involvement, I am convinced that the ordinary people in Nigeria are committed to democracy and genuinely want to see it work. Herein lies my hope about the future. This hope is certainly not bleary eyed optimism. It is not even the optimism that the crisis of governance in our land will simply disappear or that journalists will stop being cynical; it is not the hope that political impunity would stop being the name of the game, overnight. I am talking about the hope of our founding fathers in the struggle for independence and freedom. I am talking about their unshaken belief in our inalienable right to rule ourselves. It is the hope that led us to resist military dictatorship in our land because of our belief that another Nigeria is possible – one that will be accountable to its citizens, legitimate in their eyes, transparent and respected around the world; the hope that allows us to hold our heads high, proud of our accomplishments and contributions to humankind; the hope that help is on the way.

This hope is alive. I believe we can revive the Nigerian State in a qualitative manner and make democracy more meaningful to our people, provide jobs for the jobless, improve healthcare, modernise agriculture and reclaim our young people from a future of violence, decadence and despair by linking social enterprise, civil society activism to politics and not draw artificial divisions in our promotion of values-driven leadership.

Renewing our democracy through the strengthening of institutions and public participation increases our collective capacity to tackle the major problems facing our society – with a corresponding achievement of individual contentment even as we pursue the common good. We need leaders who have a clear vision of the future, who see character as destiny, who advocate values-driven reorientation, who don't just mouth J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

71

transformation, who are compassionate about changing the decrepit plight of our people, who act with integrity and ethics, who create an entrepreneurial mindset and capabilities in followers, who see leadership as service and responsibility and who are not content with mediocrity. We must move away from transactional politics to transformative leadership.

Genuine representatives of our people, not retail traders of the Commonwealth. This is our modest agenda for a collective rescue mission in Ekiti State, and indeed Nigeria. Our effort to change the orientation of our youth and the designs to transform our local economies are already bearing fruits. We are framing a future of virtue couched in values education and embedded in everyday competencies for a generation whose challenges are in a world where they not only are competing at the national level, but puts them against the best prepared of all nations at all times. But we do not claim to have all the answers to the numerous challenges faced by the people. What we do have is an unshaken faith in our people, the determination to restore integrity to politics and the commitment to turn Ekiti into a model for the polity. This is where we are headed and we are convinced we will get there but we must do it within the larger context of transformation in Nigeria. It is the only way to consolidate this democracy and not suffer dire reversals as we perch on this dangerous precipice.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

72

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

6 Why Women Matter I am very delighted to be here this morning, speaking at the closing ceremony of this year's Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO) conference, with the theme 'Women – How relevant are we?' I have followed the activities of COWLSO over the years, and I must admit to being a big fan and admirer of the work of COWLSO. I would like to acknowledge all the great women who have played a role in developing this very important organisation and building it up to be the very significant institution it has become in Lagos State. I congratulate Dame Abimbola Fashola, the Wife of the Governor of Lagos State and her colleagues for keeping the COWLSO dream alive. You have demonstrated, through your commitment and hard work, that women can indeed work together and achieve great things. Your accomplishments at COWLSO have inspired women in other places, so you should not be surprised to hear that in my state, we now have a Forum of Spouses of Ekiti State Officials (FOSESO) which was launched in June 2011. I would also like to thank my brother, His Excellency, Babatunde Raji Fashola, for the steadfast support he has been giving to COWSLO, and for all that he has done to promote the wellbeing of women in Lagos State.

In spite of our immense wealth as a nation, Nigeria continues to suffer the consequences of poor leadership, misguided economic policies, massive debt, and unbridled corruption. This has manifested itself in the loss of livelihoods, unemployment, and a sharp rise in the number of citizens living in dire poverty. If there is a crisis in any community, women are affected in different ways from men, and in most cases, they suffer more. This affects all spheres of development – economic, political, technological or social. Therefore women in Nigeria have borne the brunt of the country's misfortunes. Women continue to lack access to resources such as land, capital, technology, water and adequate healthcare. Majority of women - most of whom are rural based, and most urban women continue to live in conditions of economic underdevelopment and social 9 Keynote address at the 11th Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO), Conference, 7 November 2011, Lagos.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

73

marginalisation. Maternal and infant mortality rates in Nigeria remain unacceptably high – one of the highest in the world.

With the continued impoverishment of the country, and the inability to prioritise human security needs, most of our cities and towns have become violent playgrounds for unemployed youth, local militia, gangs of armed robbers, and kidnappers. Millions of women and girls in Nigeria have been rendered voiceless due to the complex manipulation of culture, religion and tradition. This has also made more women and girls vulnerable to sexual exploitation and at risk of contracting HIV & AIDS. Crimes against women, young girls and children are on the rise. Genderbased violence, femicides, rapes, sexual assaults, harmful traditional and religious practices, and institutionalized gender-based discrimination, make private and public spaces in our country very unsafe for women and girls.

It is against this backdrop that we need to turn to strategies that can set us back on the right path, because the way things are going now for us as a country, we might as well be on an expressway to nowhere. We need to apply the brakes to the dangerous vehicle that is taking us to a destination that none of us desires, and call for new roadmaps, new vehicles and new drivers.

Women hold the key to fixing most of what is wrong with our country. Now, more than ever, we need a reframing of our democratic spaces and cultures. We need to bridge the huge gap between the powerful visions needed to drive the country forward and the grim realities of unfulfilled expectations and dashed dreams that shape the day-to-day lives of millions of Nigerians. Part of this demand for new visions and new directions is a call for solutions to our leadership crisis. This requires new faces, voices, experiences and insights, and it is Nigerian women, in their capacities as mothers and wives, who can help drive this forward. It has therefore become imperative, that we look to women such as yourselves, our wives and mothers, to help us figure a way out of these huge challenges our nation faces today.

This is where I turn to the question that COWLSO is asking in their theme for this year's conference – 'Women-How relevant are we?' The truth of the matter is, if we decide to answer the question in the negative and say, for example, 'Women are not relevant', then we have earned ourselves J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

74

a first class ticket to an unspeakable destination as a country.

As women who are married to men in positions of authority and prominence in this country, you are very familiar with the expectations that people have of those in leadership positions. It is assumed that if you are in a position of leadership, you have a responsibility to address all the needs of people in your various constituencies, regardless of how unrealistic some of those expectations might be. We your husbands, are therefore aware that you are usually left to deal with those things which we are unable to attend to – the people we don't have the time to meet, those who need one favour or the other, the family members who need our attention, the social functions that you attend on our behalf, the endless requests for various forms of financial assistance – the list of the things you do on our behalf is endless. You also put up with our round the clock work schedules, and encourage us to continue to do whatever we can in the interests of our call to public service. A regular feature of public life is being open to scrutiny most of the time, so in many instances, you our wives often find yourselves under attack on the basis of our alleged actions or inactions. You are also forced to listen to a lot of unsolicited and mostly unhelpful advice which is intended for your husbands but since we are usually unavailable to hear it ourselves, you are drafted in as the reluctant messengers.

All these things that you do and endure, are over and above the multiple roles you already have – many of you are solid professionals in your own right, you are mothers, and you are contributing to the community at large through your political, entrepreneurial, philanthropic, community and religious activities. Most of what you do is undervalued, unrewarded and often taken for granted. If we had to quantify what we ought to pay you for your free services to us, your husbands, as our cooks, nannies, cleaners, event planners, secretaries, counsellors, stylists, nurses, accountants, spiritual guides, we would never be able to pay what we owe.

So back to your question, 'Women- How relevant are we'? – the answer I would give to that is without you, we men would not be relevant.

I suppose the question you might want to ask instead is, 'How do we remain relevant?'

I have always maintained that we cannot achieve any of our development goals as a nation if we act as if women are not relevant. We J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

75

cannot solve the myriad problems we have as a nation without addressing the empowerment needs of up to 50% of the population. As political leaders, it is incumbent upon us to prioritise the following issues when it comes to addressing women's empowerment and gender equality: Ø

Political will and commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment Ø Women's economic empowerment and livelihoods Ø Commitment to women's participation in public life Ø Women's health, security and safety.

Nigeria is a signatory to many international and regional agreements that are meant to guarantee women's rights, but there has been minimal political will to ensure that these guarantees mean something in the lives of ordinary women. We therefore need to put effective mechanisms in place for the formulation and implementation of policy frameworks, particularly those that relate to poverty, anti-discrimination, health, human security, and the promotion and protection of women's rights. It is only when we have these things in place that we can truly say that women are equal shareholders in the democratic enterprise.

I am pleased to inform you that Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment is part of my eight point agenda in Ekiti State. As part of our commitment to these issues, in June 2011, we domesticated the National Gender Policy in Ekiti State. In addition, on November 3rd, our legislature passed the Gender Based Violence Bill into law, which can be described as ground-breaking and comprehensive legislation meant to protect women and girls in the state from all forms of violence. Underlying all these policy and legislative frameworks is serious political will, zero tolerance for all forms of discrimination against women, and a commitment to providing equal opportunities for men and women.

As your conference for this year comes to an end, I would like to leave you with the following thoughts:

Remember you are valued I believe that you can remain relevant by always remembering that even when we do not acknowledge it or actually voice it, we your husbands J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

76

are proud of you and what you accomplish every day. You are deeply valued. You do things that most of us could never dream of doing, simply because you have learnt how to do them well over the years. It is only women who can wake up and make breakfast, drop children off at school in clean uniforms, go to work, plan dinner while at work, stop at a function on the way back home, get home and cook, oversee homework, settle quarrels amongst the kids and house help, and still have time to listen to how our day went. Even for those of you who are in a position to take on support for all these tasks, we acknowledge what you put into oversight and coordination to keep the home front running.

Revisit what you teach your children Most of us have grown up learning certain attitudes and behaviours about gender roles and identities. Our mothers in particular would encourage girls to learn how to cook in the kitchen while the boys would be encouraged to go out to play. If we want to see a shift in attitudes and behaviours, then we need to teach our children to learn how to work and play as equals. Girls should be brought up to be independent, productive and creative, and boys need to learn how to value and respect girls. The deeply patriarchal societies we live in tend to render women irrelevant. If you want to be truly relevant, you and your husbands need to raise your children differently so that everyone has the same opportunities.

Take your place as leaders Women across the African continent have done an excellent job of pushing for access of women to decision making. The case they have made is that the implications of women being excluded from decision-making are serious. It means if women do not have a voice where key decisions which affect their lives are made, then their capacity for full development and equality is severely limited. Women's involvement in decision-making contributes to redefining political priorities, placing new issues on the political agenda which reflect and address women's gender-specific concerns, values and experiences, and provides new perspectives on mainstream political issues. Without the active participation of women and the inclusion of their perspectives at all levels of decision-making, the goals of good governance and inclusive, transparent democratic processes J. KAYODE FAYEMI

77

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

cannot be achieved.

Women bring different leadership skills into the public space than men. Men have learnt (and are not born) to be leaders by seizing opportunities, competing with their peers, making themselves heard and not just seen, and building hierarchies and networks to get their agendas accomplished. Women have learnt, through their socialisation (as mothers, wives, daughters) to listen, to negotiate, to build bridges and consensus, to work in flexible ways, nurture friendships and relationships and to manage time better. We all learn these skills, we are not born with them. These skills that women have are undervalued as 'soft skills' in the harsh worlds of politics and business, and are not considered as important as the 'hard skills' that men have. The truth of the matter is that the skills and experiences that women bring to the leadership table are as important as what men have to offer. Indeed, we need to learn the value of soft power – understated but effective, not loud, brash and/or brutish. We therefore need to encourage a critical mass of women in leadership, especially in governance, so that hopefully, we will start seeing some real changes in the ways in which our communities are led and managed.

Make good use of your political and social capital As wives of public servants, individually you might have some clout, but as an organisation, you can be truly formidable. You need to use the power of your numbers and your political and social capital to take a stand on some of the problems we are grappling with in our society today.

You need to lend your voices to issues such as the increased number of vulnerable and destitute women forced into commercial sex work, violence against women and girls, trafficking, the exploitation of children and so many others. I am aware that you are doing a significant amount of philanthropic work to help ameliorate some of these social problems in the state, but I am also challenging you to become visible and audible advocates for the less privileged. In addition to the great work you are doing in Lagos State, I would also encourage you to establish partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organisations in other States in the country so that you can share best practices and learn from each other.

Women – How relevant are you? You are the salt of the earth, the mothers who give birth to us and to our children, the hands that rock the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

78

cradle, the healers of our wounds, the angels who build and guard our homes, the intercessors who pray for us ceaselessly, the light of our lives.

You are as relevant as life itself.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

79

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

7 The Conflict-Security-Development Nexus and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Development Development and security are inextricably linked. A more secure world is only possible if poor countries are given a real chance to develop. Extreme poverty and infectious diseases threaten many people directly, but they also provide a fertile breeding ground for other threats, including civil conflicts‌ Kofi Annan, 2004.

It brings me great joy and honour to be invited to present a lecture on the topic 'Conflict-Security-Development Nexus and Nigeria's Quest for Sustainable Development' at this prestigious institution of learning and ideas, which continues to blaze the trail in academic excellence and development-oriented research.

My relationship with this great University dates back to my postgraduate studentship days at the then University of Ife, from where I embarked upon a visit to UI to seek the counsel of Professor J. 'BayoAdekanye of the Department of Political Science, on how to proceed with my intended doctoral studies abroad. Professor Adekanye remains till today, a mentor par excellence to me and several other scholars and practitioners around the world.

Also, about seven years ago, I was made a Fellow of this University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies(CEPACS), while serving as the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) – a think tank which attempts to bridge the gap between scholarship and policy. Such an honour, coming from a University that has produced numerous world-renowned scholars and prominent personalities who have proven their mettle in various professional fields within and beyond the shores of our country, further reinforced in me the passion to dedicate the rest of my life to public service and deploy my 10

Lecture delivered at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. June 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

80

God-given abilities to the service of the people of this great country.

Distinguished Scholars, Ladies and Gentlemen, our country is today at crossroads and is bedevilled with unprecedented security challenges and obstacles to societal advancement and development. We now live with the reality of terrorism, ethno-religious conflicts with devastating effects, corruption and a political space that is populated by individuals whose core objective is to further impoverish the Nigerian people by stealing and wasting the resources that we have been blessed with. Killings, wanton destruction and barbarism, which we only saw on television and in the pages of newspapers, reported as occurring in faraway lands, and from which we felt immune, has now become a daily occurrence in our country. These security challenges, some of which are related to the present make-up of Nigeria, leads the curious mind to seek answers to such questions as: whether sustainable development can be achieved in an environment characterized by insecurity as ours, how to steer Nigeria towards being a secure, stable and prosperous country, and whether Nigeria as is currently constituted can be a driver for development and prosperity.

Conflict-Security-Development: A Nexus?

A quick foray into on-going academic discourse on the conflictsecurity-development nexus reveals two main strands of thought. While one school of thought regards the concepts as analytical tools devised by scholars and policymakers to describe and analyse macro processes in international relations and to generate knowledge, the other school applies the concepts to give prescriptions to processes, and for determining outcomes (Stern &Ă–jendal, 2010: 7). From a development perspective, the risk of social disturbance and instability at the level of intra-state conflicts and civil wars is linked to such diverse factors as human rights violations, crime, ethnic tensions, unemployment, population displacement, while through a security perspective, insurgencies, ethnic and religious conflicts, terrorism and mass killings are a reflection of structural problems in society and strongly correlate with the failure of a state to address those challenges (IPA, 2004: 2).

For the purpose of this lecture, security refers not to the conventional, military or state-centric conception of national or global J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

81

security, but to 'human security', which has been defined as “people's safety from chronic threats and protection from sudden hurtful destructions in the patters of daily life” (Human Development Report, 1994), and which 'securitizes' issues otherwise regarded as belonging to the social space, such as the rights of people, access to education, the existence of a democratic space, access to health, the provision of infrastructure and other forms of social security. Without a doubt, there is an inextricable link between conflict, security and development. In fact, the evolution of the human security concept evolved as an attempt to highlight the interconnected between issues which were hitherto regarded as having no bearing with security, and manifestations in the public sphere.

Perhaps, one of the most obvious examples of the conflictsecurity-development nexusis the experience of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) since the late 1980s. The regional organization was founded in 1975 to promote economic and social integration among West African countries and had at inception, set such economic and social objectives as: the expansion of intra-community trade; the improvement of physical infrastructure; the enhancement of monetary and financial cooperation to create a single ECOWAS currency and; strengthening the weak production structures in the region to reduce its excessive external dependence and critical lack of productive capacity.

As noble as these objectives were, they proved impossible to attain and were altogether abandoned in the wake of the commencement of devastating civil wars in West Africa, starting from the December 1989 invasion of Liberia from Côte d'Ivoire by the Charles Taylor-led National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) forces. The Liberian civil war and other similar conflicts in the region, as occurred in Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Côte d'Ivoire, exposed the socio-political tensions that had for long existed in developing countries but remained suppressed by authoritarian regimes with the support of the superpowers while the Cold War lasted.

11

Stern M. &Öjendal J. Mapping the Security--Development Nexus: Conflict, Complexity, Cacophony, Convergence,Security Dialogue, 2010 No. 41: 5, p7.

12 The Security-Development Nexus: Conflict, Peace and Development in the 21st Century, IPA Report, West Point, New York, 3–7 May 2004, p2.

13 ECOWAS, at inception in 1975, was initially made up of 16 member states, but now comprises 15 following the departure of Mauritania, a founding Member state, from the community in 1999. The current member states are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, GuineaBissau, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

14 Asante, S.K.B (2004) 'The Travails of Integration' in Adebajo, A. and Rashid, I. (eds.) West Africa's Security Challenges: Building Peace in a Troubled Region, London: Lynne Rienner, p 54.

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

Governor Fayemi listening ardently to Pa Adetola Dada at Oye Constituency 1, during the Town Hall meeting and Tour of Local Governments for account of stewardship and feedback from the people in the grassroots.

Governor Fayemi acknowledging cheers from school children in Ilawe-Ekiti

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

Governor Fayemi streesing a point during a road inspection

Governor Fayemi supervising construction work in Odo-Owa-Oke-Ila road

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; receiving the newly introduced National Tax Identification Certificate from President Goodluck Jonathan, during the launch in Abuja.

Gov.Fayemi presenting the New Laws of Ekiti State to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar ; in her office, after the Inauguration of the award of New Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), with them are Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekiti State, Mr. Dayo Akinlaja (SAN); and Human Rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), at the Supreme Court, Abuja.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

L-R: Executive Vice President, IT Solutions Business, Samsung, Mr Seongwoo Nam and Governor Fayemi during the signing of MOU between Ekiti State Government and Samsung at the corporate headquarters of the company in Seoul, South Korea

Governor Fayemi presenting a Braille Computer to a blind student during the flag off of the e-school project in Ikere Ekiti. With him are the Deputy Governor, Mrs Funmi Olayinka (right) and Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Eniola Ajayi (left)

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

Gov Fayemi (right) with other African Leaders including President Thambo Mbeki, (2nd right) the late Meles Zenawi (3rd right), Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (middle), President Yoweri Museveni and other African leaders during the High Level Forum on Peace and Security convened by Meles in Ethiopia, April 2012

JKF and wife, Olabisi and Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji (Dr) Ganiyu Owolabi, during the Democracy Walk commemorating the 19th anniversary of the June 12 Election... in Ado-Ekiti.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

JKF at Ago Aduloju during an Inspection of water projects in Ekiti

Governor Fayemi (middle) and former Super Eagles’ Caption, Chief Segun Odegbami (right) leading other government officials during the monthly keep fit exercise in Ado-Ekiti

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

Governor Fayemi signing the visitor's register at the flag-off ceremony of School furniture (Desk and Chairs), Academic Gowns and Tree Planting, initiated by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in AdoEkiti

L-R: Ghanaian President, John Mahama; Governor Fayemi, Chancellor, Ekiti State University, Amb. Bamidele Olumilua; Pro-Chancellor, Prof. Jide Osuntokun and DirectorGeneral UNIDO, Dr Kandeh Yumkella at the Convocation Ceremony of Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

L-R: Wife of Governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi; Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, receiving the Leadership Governor of the Year 2011 Award from Alhaji Maitama Sule... in Abuja

Governor Fayemi; Project Architect, Sola Oyelade (2nd R); and Member, House of Representative, Mr. Oyetunde Ojo, during an inspection tour of on-going work at the Ikogosi Resort.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

82

The devastating effects of the civil wars in the region meant that all the laudable plans of ECOWAS had to be abandoned for a peaceful resolution of the conflicts which had engulfed the region, and for which Nigeria played a leading role. The inability of ECOWAS to attain its objectives is closely tied to its attempt to 'put the horse before the cart' – which was to pursue a 'development first' rather than a 'security first approach' to development. Following its experiences, ECOWAS has for the past decade pursued a strategy which prioritizes the attainment of peace and stability through the promotion and sustenance of good governance, human rights and the peaceful resolution of conflicts by defining its security objectives through the lens of human security, all of which will create the required atmosphere for development.

Prevailing and Emerging Threats to Peace and Stability in Nigeria The reality for Nigeria under its present condition is that given the occurrence of low-intensity conflicts and the general atmosphere of insecurity, there is a limit to the level of success that can be achieved in terms of development. The threats to peace and stability in Nigeria can be categorized into two broad groups: the structural and the proximate.

The structural causes relate mainly to the very architecture of Nigeria as presently constituted; our dependence upon one sector of the economy for revenue generation; corruption and; the leadership crisis which has for a long time persisted in Nigeria. In terms of Nigeria's makeup, our model of Federalism is one in which the central government remains too strong and overburdened with tasks that it would be unable to accomplish given the sheer size and complexity of the Nigerian state.

Indeed, while federalism scholars generally agree that there is no archetypical federal model anywhere in the world, the Nigerian model remains 'unique' and hardly ticks the boxes when one considers such prerequisites of a federal entity, such as the voluntariness of the constituent units to join up with others to found a federation, a not-too powerful or overburdened centre that is responsible for the common policy on defence, foreign affairs and currency issues. Over the years, there have been agitations for a sovereign national conference in Nigeria to afford all the nationalities in the Nigeria state the opportunity of coming J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

83

together to agree upon how the Nigerian state should be constituted. This call has been ignored repeatedly and if this continues, given our present realities, there may never be another opportunity to discuss the way forward for the country.

Regarding our continued dependence upon one sector of the economy – the oil sector, which is volatile and is subject to external factors that we often have no control over, such as crises on the international scene, we have repeatedly ignored the calls to invest in other real sectors of the economy such as agriculture, human resources and manufacturing and remained in what has been referred to by Collier (2007) as the “natural resource trap”. Perhaps, it would interest you to know that the only oil-rich country in the world which has a high income status – Norway, only uses the proceeds from its oil revenue as seed money to develop other sectors of its economy. Other oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are at best middle income countries.

On corruption, we seem to have regressed greatly in the fight to eradicate this menace. We are all aware of the current drama being played out in our National Assembly over the allegations surrounding the handing out and receipt of bribe money by a prominent businessman and a federal legislator. Compared to what obtained about ten years ago, Nigeria, according to the 2011 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, ranks 143 out of a total of 183 countries. Any developmental strategy for Nigeria must have the eradication of corruption at the public and private sectors as a core component given the enormous waste being recorded through this menace.

On the proximate threats to peace and stability, in 2011 alone, over 800 people were reported to have been killed and more than 65, 000 people displaced in three Northern states. The Jos crisis, characteristic of widespread indigene-settler conflicts across Nigeria, has led to the killing of thousands of people and the destruction of property. The emergence of terrorism, manifesting through the attacks orchestrated by the terrorist group 'Jama'atuAhlisSunnaLidda'awatiWal-Jihad', widely known as Boko Haram, has led to the targeting and killing of hundreds of Christians and 15

Indeed, Liberia, where the first immediate post-cold War conflict erupted in Africa, was the staunchest ally of the USA and was very useful in pursuing America's Cold War agenda in Africa. For more on this, see Adebajo. A (2002) Building Peace in West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, Lynne Rienner, Boulder Colorado, USA; Huband. M (1998) The Liberian Civil War, Frank Cass Publishers, London.

16 Collier P. (2007) The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It, Oxford University Press, pp 38-52.

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

84

Moslems, Clergy, senior government officials, security personnel and expatriates. Particularly devastating were the bombings which occurred at the Police headquarters in Abuja on the 16th of June 2011, killing at least three people; the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja on the 28th of August 2011, leading to the death of 24 people and the injuring of at least 80 people; the 2011 Christmas day bombing of a Catholic church in Madallah, Niger state, leading to the death of 44 people with over 50 people injured, and with Boko Haram claiming responsibility for all the bombings. In this year also, there have been several attacks on places of worship and reprisal attacks which have also led to killings and widespread destruction of lives and property. Can sustainable development be achieved in this atmosphere of pervasive insecurity? Is the current strategy being devised by the Nigerian government sufficient to put an end to terrorism in Nigeria? Should the Nigerian government encourage Boko Haram to the negotiation table or refrain from “negotiating with terrorists�? These are questions that must be answered sooner or later to move forward.

The Way Forward: Restructuring Nigeria, Ensuring Good Governance and Adopting a Human Security Approach to Development For Nigeria to legitimately lay claim to being a leading country on the African continent, it must first deal with its internal difficulties and embark upon implementing a robust development strategy. While Nigeria has rightfully taken up the responsibility to lead peace processes in the West African region, charity must begin at home. For this to happen, concerted efforts must be made towards resolving the prevailing security challenges with a human security-centred strategy which seeks to tackle the root causes of current difficulties, rather than adopting a reactive, firebrigade approach to security issue while making efforts to tackle operational causes of conflict. Such structural conflict prevention mechanisms must focus on the following critical areas: The Rule of Law: In opposition to his teacher and mentor, Plato, who espoused the idea of a 'philosopher King' as being above the rest of society, Aristotle pioneered the thoughts on the concept of rule of law when he stated that “it is more proper that law should govern than any one J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

85

of the citizens; upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the law�. The principle rests on certain basic assumptions, as enunciated by the World Justice Project, namely: accountability of the government and its officials; clear, publicized, stable, and fair laws to protect fundamental human rights, including the security of lives and property; accessible, fair and efficient processes for the enactment, enforcement and administration of laws; and provision of access to justice for all, by competent, independent, and ethical adjudicators, as well as sufficient number of judicial officers, adequately resourced, and representative of different stakeholders in the community.

But one of the paradoxes of our nascent democracy is that these basic principles of the rule of law have been lacking in Nigeria's democracy. If anything, they have been violated and disparaged with impunity while the Constitution has been consistently violated. Through series of action (or inactions), the institutional infrastructure of democracy has been badly destroyed. These destructions manifest in a number of ways. First, leaders who do not enjoy the legitimacy of the people have been imposed through flawed electoral processes; these leaders have in turn weakened our public institutions in order to sustain their hold on power; those who have dared to resist the wave of violence on our democratic institutions have been compromised, vilified, and/or unconstitutionally removed from their positions; secondly,the integrity, respect and public trust in these institutions have diminished, thus leading to attempts at 'self-help'. Institutions of the Nigerian state are known to have perpetrated acts of impunity and other forms of atrocities. These manifest as violence and impunity, which have since been developed almost to a level of culture and religion, and which have compounded our developmental challenges as a people. Many armed groups in the country today traced the history of their radicalization to the acts of unjustified violence meted to them by security forces and other state agents. Indeed, the experiences of some of us who endured protracted struggles to actualize our legitimate rights and that of the people, illustrates the travails of democracy and the rule of law. As we all know, the cornerstone of the rule of law is the credibility and legitimacy of election results, a lack of which has widened the gap between the leadership and the people.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

86

Successive leaders who have consistently violated the rule of law thought they were doing violence to the people, little did they know that the spiral of activities unleashed by their actions would, if not corrected, lead to the collapse of our democracy.

In order to avert this collapse, it is important for us as Nigerians to continue to put pressure on our leaders to ensure that practical measures are taken to restore the rule of law in Nigeria. Part of these measures should include clear-cut reforms to improve administration of justice and enhance the independent of the judiciary. It should also include the total independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by ensuring that the Executive arm of government has no input into the appointment of its Chairman and Commissioners. Clear cut rules should also be included in the Electoral Act to discourage malpractices while mechanisms should be put in place for the speedy trial of perpetrators and beneficiaries of electoral malpractices. Finally, governments at all level should not shy away from revisiting the past and undertaking difficult but necessary reforms if need be. This should be done through open, credible and constructive mechanisms, in order to correct some of the incidents of impunity which heralded the present social, political, economic and security challenges facing our country.

Good Governance: The paradox of the Nigerian state is that whereas it is one of the most endowed states in the world, it is one of the poorest, largely because of bad governance or leadership deficit. In appreciating what is meant by bad governance, it is important to enunciate the basic principles of good governance. These are: political participation, consensus, the rule of law, efficiency and effectiveness, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, inclusiveness and equity. Good governance is aimed at unleashing the human, social and economic resources of a people to the achievement of sustainable development. The practical application of these above-mentioned principles rests squarely on three critical factors. First is the nature and character of politics and particularly the restraints which moderate the excesses of powerful stakeholders in the political process. This also relates to the will of the political class not only to set positive example in terms of accountability in leadership but to ensure the permeation of such values among leaders at all levels. Second is the existence of robust and institutionalized processes of decisionJ. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

87

making, particularly in the management of social and economic resources.

The third factor is the capacity of government to articulate, formulate policies, and when the occasion demands, make difficult decisions and undertake difficult development-oriented reforms.

It can be said without wavering that the failure of Nigeria is rooted in bad governance. Indeed, the governance principles mentioned earlier have been breached more than observed over the years. Almost all the major economic policies implemented by the Federal government since the advent of our democracy in 1999 were formulated without the active participation of critical stakeholders. The civilian leaders who succeeded the military have not been able to wean themselves off the disregard for the constitution and the rule of law in the resolution of conflicts. They are either unaware or have forgotten that democracy by its very nature is about the inescapability of conflict and its resolution through peaceful means. I will not bore you with the details of the lack of proper conflict management strategies in resolving the disturbances that occurred in Odi, Zaki Biam, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Maiduguri and Jos, all of which have further radicalised Nigerians and complicated the security crisis facing the nation.

There is no sector of the Nigerian economy where lack of transparency and accountability has wreaked more destruction to the livelihoods of the people than in the oil and gas sector. Corruption in this sector has led to relative deprivation, frustration and aggression on the part of the youth who took up arms against the Federal Government, before an Amnesty Programme was put in place to douse rising tensions. Today, environmental degradation, lack of basic amenities, poverty, ignorance and squalor are still the defining features of the Niger Delta Region while oil has remained a curse than a blessing to most Nigerians, no thanks to lack of regard for good governance in the management of our resources.

Due to a lack of political commitment, institutions of restraint, created to enhance accountability and transparency have been punching below their weights. These include among others, the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

So how do we do to reclaim our country from the malaise of bad governance? Let me reiterate that the most fundamental way to go about J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

88

this is to ensure the conduct of credible, acceptable, free and fair elections.

Through this process, leaders with genuine intention and programmes will emerge, based on their popularity, programmes with and acceptability to the people. It is also essential to continue professionalising and guarantee the independence of oversight bodies aimed at preventing and fighting the scourge of corruption and inefficiency in public life. It is also important for us as a people to take active part in governance through our participation in associational life, either through our communal, religious, community-based, occupational, and other such bodies, in order to pressure the government into exhibiting the values of good governance and/or to hold it accountable for infractions.

Dialogue is the only sustainable way of settling disputes in any society, a fact which has been proved over and over again. I have listened to a number of suggested solutions to the current Boko Haram crisis in the country. Some have suggested the use of force but I will like to remind us that no major conflict is fully resolved without dialogue. Even the US Government has now engaged the Taliban of Afghanistan in dialogue, in a bid to find peaceful means of settling their differences.

The youth question remains a major cause of insecurity in our country today. Unlike what obtains in more advanced societies, the Nigerian youth is neither encouraged nor empowered to attain his/her full potential. The Nigerian youth remains a tool in the hands of terrorists and religious fundamentalists, politicians and criminals. We must collectively seek to invest in the youth by creating jobs, improving access to education and encouraging creativity if we must be assured of a brighter tomorrow for Nigeria. There is no other alternative for the advancement of our dear country.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

89

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

8 Repositioning Nigerian Universities within a Dynamic Global University System: Challenges and Prospects It is always a matter of utmost pleasure for me to be on a University campus to interact with scholars, students and administrators, and indeed, the world; that is, the world that normally comes to a University and for which a University is created. Because the university is a veritable universe in a city, even if based in a small town, the universe of a university transforms its locale into a city. A true university is a place that encompasses the world: it welcomes the world and opens out to the world. As the summit of higher education, the university is the veritable instrument and institution of social transformation.

Given that the university constitutes a world, or perhaps represents a mini-world, a typical university campus, even when it is not on a single expansive land, is usually a big place; it is usually big in its virtual and/or physical space; big in its many disciplines, including colleges, schools, faculties and departments; and, big in terms of its labyrinth of rules and regulations. It is therefore easy to lose your way in a university. You can lose your way in terms of finding the specific place, classroom, or office that you are looking for; you can lose your way in terms of familiarity with the rules and regulation governing your conduct or action in the university; you can also lose your way in terms of finding the appropriate means and methods of achieving your goals within the university.

In terms of the physical or spatial dimensions of finding or losing your way in a university, many universities around the world often have maps; they, therefore, place maps and directions and names of places at strategic places and points on the university campus. The story is told of a new student in a university who was attending an orientation programme on the campus. To make it easy for the new students to find their way around the campus, specific orientation arrows were placed around the 17

Second Convocation Lecture by the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, at the Osun State University, Osogbo, Osun State on Monday, July 23, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

90

campus. Just by the side of the hall where the orientation would take place, there was a big arrow on the map with the words, “You are here.” One of the new students, exhausted from moving round the campus to find the hall, created a graffiti by the side of the arrow with the words “But, why?”

This graffiti, though the work of a neophyte on a university campus, if we consider it deeply, is actually the product of a very sophisticated mind that was yet unaware of his own potential philosophical depth. This question, “But, why?” is both a personal and a collective question. A society can ask itself, “Why a University?” or “Why should we have a University?” And the student, current or graduating, can ask himself/herself, respectively, “Why am I here?” or “Why did I attend a University?” The last version of that question is one that those who are graduating from this university might be asking themselves now, after a few years of burning the proverbial midnight oil.

Distinguished guests, indeed, the students, “Jambites,” (as we called fresh students in my time) and “stalites” (those in their second up to their last year), and also graduating students, need to ask themselves this question. However, the answers they provide cannot have meaning if the society at large is not able to satisfactorily answer the bigger question, which is “Why a University?” The individual student's answer to the question about why there is a need to have university education can only find meaning in the universe of the answers provided by the society at large. But the larger society cannot answer that question, unless and until, the University itself has answered the question adequately. If the sign in the university says “You are here”, the university needs to answer the question, “Why are we here?” In other words: what are universities for?

I have been asked to speak to the issue of “repositioning the Nigerian Universities within a Dynamic Global University System.”

However, we cannot begin to examine how to reposition the university system without returning to the fundamental question that I raised. This is particularly so in a country in which, in the last three decades, owing to a myriad of reasons, the university idea, as well as the university ideal, have been lost. Almost three decades ago, precisely in 1986, the Nobel laureate and Nigeria's primus public intellectual, Professor Wole Soyinka, asked that all the universities in Nigeria be shut down for one year, while we return to the table to rethink the university idea and restart the process of rebuilding the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

91

world-class university system that we once had. Twenty four years after Soyinka's wisdom was ignored, we are still confronted with the question that he raised by that position. How do we recover what we have lost? How do we reconstitute the University Idea?

When, in 1862, one of the three oldest universities in India, University of Bombay - which was started only five years earlier - awarded its first degrees, the Chancellor of the University, in his inaugural Convocation address, urged the students to “...recollect that you are no longer pupils of any single school, but graduates of a University.”

Therefore, he added, “Your standards must henceforth be... [that] of the whole educated world.” In reminding students of that University - now called University of Mumbai - of that wisdom during their convocation earlier this year, the President of Harvard University, Professor Drew Faust, affirmed that “Universities are stewards of an unbroken and endless chain of inquiry.” Between the statement of the 19th century first Chancellor of the University of Mumbai and that of the current President of the most prestigious University in the world, Harvard University, is a fundamental declaration of the universality of the university and its central and original role in modern life.

Every university identifies its core mission as teaching, research and community engagement. But as they say in the wisdom of our ancients in Yorubaland, O'un to' wa leyin efa, o j'oje lo (What lies beyond six, is more than seven). What lies beyond these three critical roles of the university, is certainly far more complicated than the three words and phrase that encompass that mission. Which is why, when the new student in the story I told earlier saw the sign, “You are here,” he asked the important question, “But, why?” We can ask too: why is the mission and vision of the university more complicated than its three core roles of teaching, research and community engagement suggest?

This university for instance, Osun State University, does not simply repeat the three universal core purposes of the university. There is a very good effort by the university founders to complicate these core purposes in the university's vision and mission. The vision of UNIOSUN is “To be a centre of excellence providing high quality teaching and learning experiences which will engender the production of entrepreneurial graduates capable of impacting positively on their J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

92

environment while being globally competitive.” From this vision, it is clear that the founders of this university not only recognised the core purposes of a university, they also acknowledge the potential universality of the university. Also, in its mission, the Osun State University, hopes “To create a unique institution committed to the pursuit of academic innovation, skill-based training and a tradition of excellence in teaching, research and community service.”

By this vision and missions, UNIOSUN declares to itself and its students, particularly its graduating students, that their “standards must henceforth be... [that] of the whole educated world.” What then is the standard of the “whole educated world”? How can we relate that to the questions: “Why are we here?” and “What are Universities for?” I will endeavour in this lecture to link these questions to the quest to reposition the Nigerian Universities within a dynamic global university system

The University Idea and the University Ideal Again, why are we here? I mean why are the scholars, students and the administrators here? Why is the university here?

Let us go back in time. But we will not go back as far as the founding of the medieval European model when the word university was derived from the Latin, universitas magistrorum et scholarium - which roughly translates to “community of teachers and scholars,” as it was originally coined by the Italian University of Bologna founded in 1088 - the first university in human history. As you might know, University of Bologna was followed by the University of Paris, France, in 1050, Oxford University, England, in 1167, Cambridge University, England, in 1209, University of Salamanca, Spain, in 1218 and so on.

However, let us go back only as far back at the 19th century by which time the idea of a university had been fully consolidated in much of the modern world. In the 19th century, John Henry Newman, an evangelical Oxford University academic attempted to answer the question, “Why a University”, by elaborating what he called “The Idea of a University.” A university, stated Newman: “is the place to which a thousand schools make contributions; in which the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its equal in some antagonist activity, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

93

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

and its judge in the tribunal of truth. It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge. It is the place where the professor becomes eloquent, and is a missionary and a preacher, displaying his science in its most complete and most winning form, pouring it forth with the zeal of enthusiasm, and lighting up his own love of it in the breasts of his hearers. It is the place where the catechist makes good his ground as he goes, treading in the truth day by day into the ready memory, and wedging and tightening it into the expanding reason. It is a place which wins the admiration of the young by its celebrity, kindles the affections of the middle-aged by its beauty, and rivets the fidelity of the old by its associations. It is a seat of wisdom, a light of the world, a minister of the faith, an Alma Mater of the rising generation. It is this and a great deal more, and demands a somewhat better head and hand than mine to describe it well.”

It is no surprise that Newman, who was an Anglican, and later – a most prominent Catholic priest, intellectual, and founder of University College, Dublin, imposes an evangelical mission on the University. Indeed, as a European invention, the medieval university was founded on the Christian cathedral or monastic schools. For instance, the coat of arms of Oxford University shows an open book with a Latin inscription that translates to “The Lord is my light.” In the case of Cambridge University, the motto, translated from Latin into English, is “From here, light and sacred draughts.” If we pursue the alternative history of medieval university in the Islamic tradition as symbolized by the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which was founded in 972 as a Madrasa (school, in Arabic) and the University of Timbuktu - located in present-day Mail (ignoring for the moment the mindless destruction that the University is currently experiencing in the hands of the Touareg rebels) - which was founded in the 11th century, we will find a similar evangelical mission. The University J. KAYODE FAYEMI

94

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

of Timbuktu existed around the Madrasa in the three mosques in Sankoré, Djinguereber and Sisi Yahya. Against this backdrop, in many ways, the modern university can be described as one with a secular evangelical mission; that is, as the (secular) light of the world. This is so because the transformation of the world, making the world into a more perfect one shedding greater light on the world through human knowledge, all constitute the overriding purpose of the University as a global phenomenon.

When the modern university started in Africa with the coming of Europeans and the imposition of colonialism, there were considerable debates about why higher education was needed in colonial Africa and what the role of higher education should be in Africa's colonial present and postcolonial future. I will dwell briefly on the kernel of these debates to set a backdrop to my reflections on the challenges and prospects of repositioning the Nigerian University in a global context.

The Originating Purposes of the African University The colonial roots of the modern University in Africa have been elaborated and analysed by scholars. In the Nigerian context, the works of the likes of Drs. K. Mellanby and J.T Saunders, two of the principals of the University College, Ibadan, as the University of Ibadan was then known, and Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi, Professor Takena Tamuno, Dr. O Ikejiani, Professor N. Okafor and Professor Babs Fafunwa, have already explored this. However, it is important to recall that, as Professor Ade Ajayi reminds us, “The roots of higher education in Nigeria go back to the colonial period when Nigerian leaders demanded a University as a means to their own emancipation.”

This is critical because, while the emergence of the University in Europe was central to the European project of Enlightenment or civilisation, the emergence of the modern University in Africa, in general, and in Nigeria, in particular, was a specific understanding, contextualisation and leveraging of that Enlightenment project as, first and foremost, one of that was anchored on emancipation. The fact that the Nigerian anti-colonial activists insisted that the new University in Nigeria should be comparable in every way with Universities in Britain is a reminder of the fact that, despite the specific local anchoring of the reason J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

95

or justification of the need and existence of a University in Nigeria, the leaders were committed to ensuring that global standards were maintained.

We are also reminded of the emancipatory potential of the University when we recall that the colonialists were very cautious in acceding to the request for the establishment of a university in colonial Nigeria. Their preference was for vocational schools run by different government departments, such as Survey School, Marine School, Railways Workshop, School of Agriculture, Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Engineering and Education. Eventually, they established a Higher College at Yaba.

But given their knowledge of the role of a University in a modern society, one struggling for a new nationhood, independence, and the benefits of modernity, the limited aims of the Yaba College became the rallying point of the nationalists. Therefore, the opening of the College in 1934 became, as Ade Ajayi stated, “a landmark in the history of independence movement in Nigeria.” As the pressure mounted on imperial Britain to grant Nigeria what she truly desired in higher education, even that most eloquent defender of Pax Britannica, Margery Perham, had to concede in 1946 that “it is not for us to invent a specifically adapted form or standard of intellectual life... in the University sphere we have to offer everything. We must give what we ourselves value most highly and keep nothing back.” This was what the Nigerian nationalists wanted and this was what they got in the founding of the first University in Nigeria, the University College, Ibadan, in 1948. The University's motto – Recte Sapere Fons, was and remains, in English translation, “To think straight is the fount (of knowledge).”

With self-government and full independence in the horizon, the specific form of Nigerian nationalism and regional rivalry and competition fuelled the new drive for the establishment of more universities. While the Federal Government planned to have a second University in the nation's capital, Lagos, the three regions were eager to also have their own Universities. The Ashby's Commission's report had concurred with the unrestrained desire to establish universities in the regions. This was not merely for prestige and the assertion of regional autonomy, but more important, to harness the opportunities provided by a university as instruments of regional development and even transformation. As Samuel O. Atteh attests, in the 1960s, the university was an “agent of J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

96

modernization, social mobilisation, and economic growth.” Consequently, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, was established by the Eastern Region in 1960, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, by the Northern Region in 1962, and the University of Ife, Ile –Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in the Western Region in the same year. What is most important to remember about this struggle among the regions to establish their own universities is that, as Professor Ade Ajayi stated in his 1975 article, “The new Universities did not abandon the tradition of high standards and international nature of Universities, but they stressed respect for an identity with the local cultures.” As the University of Ife stated unequivocally in its motto, it's time for “learning with culture.”

We can restate the two originating purposes of the University in late colonial and postcolonial Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular, as these: One, political, socio-economic and intellectual emancipation of the country and people; two, political, socio-economic and intellectual development of the country and the people. These fundamental purposes became the bedrock on which the elaboration and expansion of the Universities were built. As Ade Ajayi noted, even by mid-1970s, “[This] tradition to maintain high standards [had] not inhibited or been inhibited by the need for expansion and adaptation.” Indeed, the Universities established in the 1960s had their golden era in the 1970s and the 1980s. To give an example of the renamed University of Ife, as the University itself proudly advertises on its website even today, “In the 1970's and the early 1980's, the University attained a foremost position among universities in Africa, with a vibrant academic and social atmosphere and a high international reputation.”

The question that this poses is this: What has happened to the African, indeed, the Nigerian, University system since the late 1980s and early 1990s?

Mr. Governor, the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and Distinguished Guests, I am not here today to lament the fate of the Nigerian University.

Rather, in making my own modest contributions regarding what needs to be done to reclaim, and even transcend, the excellence and global acclaim of the Nigerian University between the 1960s and mid 1980s, I intend to explore the possibilities of a glorious future for the Nigerian University system and, by that token, our country. What the graduating class of 2012 J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

97

and those who will follow them, the young people of these age, ask from us, as leaders, is not to merely bemoan the fate of our existing and surviving institutions, but to state clearly what should be done about the critical problems they face and how we intend to work expeditiously towards providing critical solutions. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his address to the Young Democratic Club in Baltimore, Maryland, in April 1936, “The temper of our youth has become more restless, more critical, more challenging. Flaming youth has become a flaming question.

And youth comes to us wanting to know what we propose to do about a society that hurts so many of them. There is much to justify the inquiring attitude of youth. You have a right to ask these questions—practical questions. No man who seeks to evade or to avoid deserves your confidence.” So, I do not intend to 'duck and dive', my brothers and sisters, but to confront these questions frontally.

The inquiring attitude of the youth that President Roosevelt spoke about almost eighty years ago has become even more intense in the global age. The Universities, being what Professor Drew Faust called “stewards of an unbroken and endless chain of inquiry,” are at the centre of our collective quest to rise up to meet the challenges of the present age. As Professor Tade Akin Aina, Director of Higher Education at the Carnegie Corporation in New York stated recently, “the University in Africa and higher education in general remain a significant part of the overall social, economic, and cultural constitution of societies and nations.” This is so because; higher education “contributes to the formation and deployment of human capital, the cultural and social construction of values and meaning, and the capacity for individual and collective emancipation from ignorance and domination.” Higher education “further contributes to how the energies and products of science, technology, and the improvement of material conditions are mobilised for the well-being of individuals and groups.... It provides the platform for the advanced study, dissemination, and utilisation of knowledge and its products for the benefit of society and its constituents.”

Repositioning the Nigerian Universities: Challenges and Prospects As I stated earlier, I intend to confront the question of what has J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

98

happened to the African, and specifically, the Nigerian, University system, or the University idea, since the late 1980s and early 1990s, in a roundabout way, by offering suggestions on how to reposition the Nigerian Universities in the global age. I do this not merely as one who is also a Visitor to a University where, like here in UniOsun, we are committed to building a truly competitive University within the global context, but more as a member of the University community myself.

Let me reiterate the fundamentality of the knowledge industry as over-represented by the University and higher education in the search for human progress and human civilisation, particularly in the global age. This is even doubly critical for those us who are at the margins of this global world. As Professor Aina correctly observed, “African universities operate at the fourth and fifth tiers of global knowledge production.� As old and current experiences have shown, even when a country has huge natural resources, without the development of human resources, a country with natural resources will continue to be subservient to countries with the developed human capability and capacity to extract, refine and use those natural resources. The story of Africa - a continent that is perhaps the most blessed among other continents in terms of natural resources, but one that has refused to fully develop its human resources and place these human resources at the centre of her development agenda - is a sad one. Top on the list of the fundamental crisis of the continent is the crisis of higher education. As Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, the Secretary General Association of African Universities, stated earlier this year (and this deserves a long quotation): “The emerging global landscape being drawn by recent developments has shown very clearly that knowledge capability and capacity, rather than natural resources, is the greatest determinant of a country's entry into, and effective participation in, global competitiveness. It goes without saying, therefore, that higher education contributes significantly to the political, scientific, technological, economic, social and human development of any country. This is even more so for the developing countries of Africa, a continent of about one billion people characterized by the poorest countries in the world, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

99

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

with the world's highest illiteracy rates, lowest participation rates in higher education, huge capacity development needs, over 20 million seeking employment annually with the youth constituting 60% of the unemployed, and a massive demand for tertiary education.�

Against this backdrop, let me start with what I consider to be the first step that we must take in the mission to reposition Nigerian Universities in a global age. Let me say with all the emphasis that I can muster that in Nigeria, as in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, we must reinvent the University Idea and rebuild the foundations of our contemporary universities to make them truly competitive in the global university system. The recent global ranking of universities in the world, despite its few problems, reflects the state of affairs in Africa, in general, and in Nigeria, in particular. Ibadan, Ife, Zaria, Nsukka, and Lagos used to rank among some of the best universities in the Commonwealth and in the world. In the last two decades, we have lost much ground. Therefore, in looking to the future, we must also look to the past. What were the best practices that made our earliest Universities globally competitive? How can we harness the tradition of scholarship and nation-building that made those universities superb citadels of learning and relate them to the emergent dynamics of world-class higher education in the present age?

In answering these questions, we must have in mind the fundamental responsibilities of the university in the 21st century. As the US National Centre for Public Policy and Higher Education states in its Special Report, given recent global changes “higher education has two fundamental responsibilities to help ensure the continued well-being of the nation today: [i] to provide graduates and the nation at large with the skills needed to be effective in a global, increasingly competitive economy, in which corporations reach across nations and geographical divides in search of new markets, more efficient production, and less costly labour; and, [ii] to close the achievement gap between those students in this country who are advantaged -educationally, culturally, and economicallyand those who are not.�

There are several steps that must be taken to meet these two fundamental responsibilities. As some experts have stated, these will J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

100

include the implementation of the 2006 Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Education for Africa, a document which has been adopted by the African Union. This Plan of Action “spells out the ingredients for effective, relevant, efficient and revitalised higher education for Africa in a bid to make it globally competitive.” They include: · Encouraging greater mobility of academics, researchers, staff and students; and the recognition of qualifications from and by the different regions of Africa through the harmonization of degree structures. · Establishing an African Higher Education and Research Space that will pay serious attention to institutional and national Quality Assurance systems and promote high level relevant research and postgraduate training tailored towards solving the daily problems which plague African communities. [In this context, I will suggest that we rethink this function, which is now placed under the National Universities Commission. It is one of the most important functions of the NUC. There might be innovative ways of ensuring that this function is performed in the best possible way, so as to raise the current low standards]; · Adopting and adapting Open and Distance Learning as instructional delivery mechanisms in Sub-Saharan Africa as has been done in other continents of the world if Africa is to significantly raise its tertiary education enrolment ratio from the current 6% (achieved through the face-to-face mode) to at least 50% within the next 5 years; · Using Information and Communication Technologies effectively for instructional delivery, professional communication, to develop, produce, acquire and distribute knowledge, skills and competencies across the continent as fast as they are available; · Building human resource base that will seek newer and effective ways to combat diseases, reduce energy costs and address climate change; · Creating centres of excellence within each region of the continent to develop robust postgraduate studies and develop strong research base with global competitive advantage. [We should also try to create centres of excellence in Nigeria, but given the poor J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

101

results of the earlier effort, we also need to rethink this process because it has not produced much excellence; (Indeed, my brother, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has already broached the subject of a regional centre of excellence by pooling resources within our universities; and, · Seeking opportunities for collaboration and partnership on equal and mutually beneficial platforms with the international world including universities in other continents, development partners, organisation and agencies genuinely interested in higher education in Africa.

Distinguished guests, the ingredients of this continental Plan of Action still need further elaboration in the local contexts. All the steps that I have discussed, and much more, largely depend on adequate financing of the University. From the second half of the 1980s when oil prices fell in the international market, it has become clear to us in Nigeria that government alone can no longer bear the absolute costs of higher education. Even state-owned universities cannot hope to depend absolutely on the government. There are many reasons for this. First, the explosion in our population since the 1980s has meant that government alone cannot provide sufficient number of universities to cater to the needs of an increasingly youthful population. Two, the dwindling resources of a mono-product economy, such as Nigeria's, translate to greater competition for funds among many facets of governmental priorities.

Consequently, despite the best efforts, the percentage of funds devoted to education, in general, and to higher education, in particular, has become insufficient to meet the expanding needs of that area of public expenditure. This is where the private universities constitute a critical partnership with public universities. No doubt a lot of private – both individual and organisational - resources have been invested in recent years into the creation and sustenance of private universities. This ordinarily is a welcome development. However, it is important to remind those involved in this task that “investment” in private higher education is not an investment in the classical neo-liberal sense. As the global poet, and I am proud to add, a distinguished son of Ekiti and citizen of the world, Professor Niyi Osundare, said in his valedictory speech at the University of J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

102

Ibadan in 2005, it's “time we realised that a University can never be run as a 'cost-effective' corporation. There are simply certain forms of knowledge that cannot be judged on their 'market value'”. Therefore, any individual or organisation that aims to make a profit from establishing a university is a danger to the very idea and ideal of a university. A University, whether established by a state, an organisation or an individual cannot be “owned” by any of these bodies or persons, in the normal sense; this is because a University is a public trust. Therefore, the overall value of a university is beyond the market, it is beyond economics and beyond politics. The true value of a University represents the totality of our common humanity and the possibilities of our collective progress as a community.

Still on the issue of funding, I regret to note that, in this country, we have not developed the desirable culture of endowment in the area of education - the best form of philanthropy. This is something to which governments and private individuals need to pay attention. To build worldclass universities and reposition our existing universities, the largest chunk of their resource base has to come from endowments. I therefore call on wealthy Nigerians and corporate citizens, and even the not-so-wealthy, to show full commitment to the creation of a better, more egalitarian, and more civilised society through regular grants and endowments to universities. There are many Osun State indigenes, for instance, both at home and abroad, who can afford to give this university a personal donation of between 1 to 20 million naira every year for the rest of their lives. Imagine if 100 citizens of this state - or even others who not necessarily citizens of the state, but who, for one reason or the other have decided to be beneficent towards the University - gives N5 million naira to UNIOSUN every year for the next 10 years. That would mean that apart from government subvention, the university would get N500 million every year. If such endowments are properly invested, this University would within a decade have the resources, to build world-class laboratories, fill the library with books and journals, and increase the opportunities for its researchers to get research grants. We produced world-class scientists in Nigeria, in the past. We can no longer do so if we lack the enabling environment for good scientific research, experiments and exposure to the state of the art in other climes. Imagine if that number were multiplied by another 500 people giving the university N1 million every year for another J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

103

20 years. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not too much for many Nigerian to give. N1 million a year is, for some people, not even up to what they spend for a first class ticket on British Airways to London. I know that some of our friends in this audience travel to London in the first class cabin even more than twice a month!

Another important way to reposition our universities in a dynamic global system is linked to resources. This is in the area of scholarly resources, particularly books and journals, both soft and hard copies. The state of the libraries in the Nigerian University system leaves a lot to be desired. This is one of the biggest impediments to the flowering of ideas and the development of world-class scholarship and the training of worldclass students, both undergraduate and post-graduate. While I recognise the valiant efforts by many of our university administrators working with international organisations to reinvent the libraries, much more still needs to be done. One critical suggestion is for these institutions to find foreign partners that can help in facilitating access to online publications, particularly journals for our scholars and students. There are also many innovative ways of ensuring that foreign publishers, as a mark of their public, international commitments, are able to send certain number of copies of their latest publications to our libraries here free of charge. If this happens, it is obvious that they will not be able to send to every university. In that case, we also need to establish a very efficient and effective means of interlibrary loans in the Nigerian University system.

There is no reason why an environmental science student or scholar in Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, who wants to compare and contrast the problem of desertification in Sokoto State with the challenges of erosion in the Imo State, should not be able to get a critical study of erosion lying in the library of Imo State University, Owerri, through interlibrary loan.

Still related to this is the challenge of new technologies. To be able to accomplish the above easily and seamlessly, we need to create a new technologically friendly environment in our Universities by investing heavily in new technologies. Going through the website of UNIOSUN, I was impressed to see that ICT is taken very seriously by the University – but a lot more is required. The full networking of our universities is a task that must be accomplished, if we are to compete in a global age. No J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

104

university campus should be without wireless internet in this age. We must work towards investing in this. There are several benefits of this, a few of which I can mention here. All and every of our higher institution ought to be so well linked through the Information and Communication Technologies such that all our scholars, administrators and students will be able to collaborate and exchange ideas and learn best practices without stress. Also, through heavy investment in new technologies, students of UNIOSUN who are interested in a special branch of medical sociology, which may be offered by a world-class expert in Harvard University, may be able to log on through Skype every week to the professor's lecture in Harvard by special arrangement. This is already happening in many parts of the world. Students in China are taking classes through Skype in American universities. Also, American students who want to learn certain aspects of Ifa from a Professor of Yoruba religion, will have the opportunity through Skype to sit down in their classroom in Atlanta and watch the lecture of the Nigerian professor as it is going on in Osogbo.

This will also advertise to the world that, in spite of the brain drain, we still have excellent and world-class scholars who are toiling in Nigeria, despite all the odds. In fact, through such a system as suggested here, students may have the benefit of having Chief Yemi Elebuibon's guest-lecture from Osogbo beamed by Skype to students in any corner of the Americas, Europe or Asia. Also, through investments in new technologies, we can save many of the trees that we cut regularly to make papers - which leads to deforestation. Students can submit their papers to their lecturers without having to print them out. And the lecturers can read the papers online and save the trees.

We must also evolve a means by which we can use the talent and expertise of Nigerian academics in the Diaspora to enhance our University system in every way - from teaching to postgraduate research supervision, and to even university administration, all in very innovative ways. The task is for those of us in government to work with the administrators of both public and private universities to evolve innovative ways of doing this. Our government in Ekiti already works with EKSU management on this particular goal. As Professor Adigun Agbaje, former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) of the University of Ibadan told the Chronicle of Higher Education a couple of years ago, “Our Diaspora is part of our J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

105

resources. And in a resource-strapped environment, we must draw on all our resources.” Another distinguished African scholar in the diaspora, Professor Paul Tiyembe Zeleza argued: “Africa, perhaps the least educated and most underdeveloped continent in the world, has the most educated population in the World's most developed country – America.” This gaping mismatch is undoubtedly a tragedy, but it is one that can be turned in Africa's favour if effective strategies are developed to turn the brain drain into brain gain or turn it into what some have called “brain mobility”.

There is therefore no reason why many of our scholars based in Europe and America, and even elsewhere in Africa, cannot be made to teach in summer schools or teach specific summer classes in most of our universities when they come home every year - or when they are on sabbatical leave. We have some of the most accomplished academics and professionals from the biological sciences to engineering, from literature to sociology, who will be willing, if a programme is put in place, to come home regularly to teach our students. Some of them might even be willing to do this free. As a regular participant in the annual African Studies Association conference before taking up my current assignment, I can confirm the interest of several of our scholars in the diaspora in assisting and exchanging knowledge and experience. Indeed, I have as my guests at this convocation lecture two of my friends from the academy in America who have been helping out in Ekiti and Osun States. We can, therefore, turn brain drain into brain gain. Through this, we can expose our students, and even their colleagues, to the latest thinking on every field of human endeavour in the world and encourage international forms of mentoring for our students and young scholars.

If we accomplish some of the above, I have no doubt that this would lead to other benefits, one of which would be curriculum review in our universities. There is the need for constant change and diversification of areas and focal points of teaching. There are many of our universities who still have the courses taught between the 1960s and 1980s on their curriculum. Even some of our professors have been teaching the same thing for about three decades now. For instance, how many of our communications department now offer courses in the latest cutting-edge ICTs and their relationship with modern society? Up till recent years, some Political Science Departments still had “Politics of Communist State in J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

106

Eastern Europe� in their syllabus! What new technologies and new discoveries drive the curriculum in our Agricultural Science Faculties? We had the experience of this Stone Age attitude when we introduced our 'computer on every desk' policy in our secondary schools in Ekiti. Not a few commentators, including university academics articulated the view that it was an unnecessary, expensive and irrelevant scheme. Just a few months after, JAMB announced that its examinations would now be computer based. Pray, how would a student who is not familiar with ICT perform in such an examination? Your guess is of course as good as mine.

What I'm saying in summary is that we cannot afford to close our minds to technological innovations in the University setting.

Related to above is the need for our universities to recognise and fully embrace the fact that the global university today is one of interdisciplinarity. The old practices of protecting disciplinary turfs have become so obsolete that they can no longer fit into current practices in a truly modern University.

It is important to also underscore a perverse practice in our university system in the last two decades. Scholarship is a global endeavour.

We delude ourselves and short-change our future if we set different and lower standards for ourselves. Academic publishing in the Nigerian University in recent years has become, sadly for many academics, a Dugbe market endeavour. People rush to publish just about anything in just about any journal, many of them absolutely devoid of even the most basic standards. Everyone starts a journal at his or her convenience and prints the journal only to serve the purpose of ensuring that people get largely underserved promotion. The idea of a refereed journal has been bastardized by some Nigerian academics to the point that even traders now have more original things to say about our society than some scholars.

Many of these Dugbe-market journals have proliferated on our campuses. We are now producing a generation of scholars who no longer have a good idea of what it means for a journal to be truly international, in a profession that is nothing but international. I don't want to be misunderstood. The fact that a scholarly journal is published in Osogbo, Ife, Sokoto, Kaduna, Owerri, or Wilberforce Island, does not mean it cannot be international.

After all, only about three to four decades ago, scholars around the world struggled to publish in journals that were based in Nigerian Universities.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

107

For instance, Odu: A Journal of West African Studies, published in Ife was, for many years, a highly respected international refereed journal. Why are current generations of scholars eager to cut corners by publishing, and publishing in, third-rate journals while avoiding the high standards of world-class journals? Why are scholars so eager these days to become professors even before they learn how to profess? Why are we so enamoured of producing VCs without CVs? Where is the Ibadan History School of old? Where is the Zaria School of Architecture? Ife School of Administration? Lagos School of Engineering? How can we reinvent such famous vanguards of scholars who make important interventions in global scholarship?

In repositioning the Nigerian University, we also need to rethink the linkage between town and gown. We need to reinvent a University system that constantly relates research to local and global needs. Our Universities, in the best tradition of research, should identify social problems and work toward providing solutions. Our industries and governments must also be ready to partner with the Universities to do this.

We need to address such questions as how to ensure that our engineering departments are able to pull resources to end our power generation, distribution and supply problem. Our scholars in the engineering departments, both at home and abroad, have the capacity for this.

Therefore, how can we empower them to become social problem-solvers rather than mere repeaters of theories in the classrooms? If the governments and the society at large empower our scientists, they will be able to lead the needed technological and scientific revolution in our country. Let us challenge the sciences and engineering faculties of our universities to start by even generating their own power – solar, wind, coal, etc. - their own water, and recycling their own garbage. Let the universities provide the lead. We can ensure the necessary legal environment for this.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan generates its own power; it is an institution that is sufficient for itself. Why shouldn't all of our universities do the same?

In linking town and gown though, the University must also challenge the tyranny of value-neutral knowledge. While it is attractive to pursue academic objectivity in the intellectual tradition, one must caution that such objectivity is always for some purpose and we often cannot J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

108

separate our interests from our interpretations of society around us.

University scholars must be ready to wage a war of ”positions” as the Italian sociologist, Anthonio Gramsci, urged upon us. Scholars must not shy away from the development process. Indeed, committed scholarship must help provide the road map for people's empowerment. Academics, in my humble opinion, must not be content with sterile scholarship in the ivory tower. A major duty of transformative scholarship in the global context is to help provide the intellectual ammunition for the formulation, articulation and implementation of public policies. Again, as Zeleza argued, “the contexts and constraints that shape academic production are subject to changes emanating as much from the academy itself as from the wider society.” On a personal note, this is why I am dusting my own books to share some thoughts and reflections on a regular basis in my own local university in Ado Ekiti – EKSU where we are finalising plans with the cooperation of the Vice Chancellor and subject to the approval of the University Senate to establish an Institute of Peace and Security Studies to produce graduate students and researchers in a field that is most necessary at a time that our country is daily ravaged by challenges of insecurity. We must reverse the tendency that often results in our academics abandoning scholarship and teaching completely once they move on to politics, business or administration. If we must reposition the university within a global context, the university must not be a closed mind in its intellectual tradition. Indeed, it must consciously provide space for practitioners to share their experiences in public life.

Conclusion Your Excellency, the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor and Distinguished Guests, Andrew Carnegie, the late Scottish-American industrialist, remains one of the most important philanthropists in the last two centuries. After amassing a lot of wealth, he turned to philanthropy with a close attention to education. He established a few foundations that still give grants for educational causes around the world, almost a century after he died. In 1887, Carnegie stated that “Upon no foundation but that of popular education can a man erect the structure of an enduring civilisation.” He lived this maxim and his immortality rests on that maxim one to which he gave his wealth.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

109

Carnegie's life of devotion to education exemplified by this maxim is a challenge to us today. To erect an enduring civilization, we must make heavy investment in popular education. The University is the pinnacle of this investment. In this audience today are people acting within or outside the University system who have made important sacrifices for building and sustaining an excellent tradition of public education. I wish to acknowledge the sacrifices and commitment of these people, despite the great challenges faced by the University system in Nigeria. I wish to commend my brother and friend for his pioneering effort in the establishment and running of this University. However, as it is evident from my lecture today, we can only call upon him and others like him to make further sacrifices. Ba'oku, Ise o tan. Interesting enough, we are in a state (Osun) where the state anthem is a regular reminder that we have work to do (“Ise wa fun'le wa....”). If this state, and indeed Nigeria, must take its rightful place in a global world, if we must erect an enduring civilisation, it cannot be done without a strong foundation in popular education, the highest of which is the University.

To the graduating students, I wish you well. I also wish to remind you of the words of the Chancellor of the Bombay University: “you are no longer pupils of any single school, but graduates of a University. Your standards must henceforth be... [that] of the whole educated world.”

I thank you for your attention.

References Sawyerr, Akilagpa. (2004). Challenges Facing African Universities: Selected Issues. African Studies Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp.1-59.

Faust, Drew. (2012). “Challenges of Higher Education” January 20.

U n i v e r s i t y o f M u m b a i . http://www.harvard.edu/president/challenges-higher-education Jegede, Olugbemiro. (2012). “The Status of Higher Education in Africa.”

Being an invited contribution to the Panel Discussion in the Launch of ” Weaving Success: Voices of Change in African Higher Education - A project of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA),” held at the Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, USA, February 1.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1936). “Address to the Young Democratic Club,” J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

110

Baltimore, Md. April 13.

National Center for Public Policy And Higher Education. (2008).

“Engaging Higher Education in Societal Challenges of the 21st C e n t u r y . ” A S p e c i a l R e p o r t . http://www.highereducation.org/reports/wegner/wegner.pdf Osundare, Niyi. (2005). The universe in the university: A scholar-poet's look from inside out. (ValedictoryLecture). Hope Publications Ltd., 2007.

Atteh, Samuel O. (1996). “The Crisis in Higher Education in Africa.” Issue: A Journal of Opinion, Vol. 24, No. 1, Winter-Spring, pp. 36-42.

Aina, Tade Akin. (2010). “Beyond Reforms: The Politics of Higher Education transformation in Africa.” African Studies Review, Vol. 53, No. 1, April, pp. 21-40.

Ade-Ajayi, J. F. (1975). “Higher Education in Nigeria.” African Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 297, October, pp. 420-426.

Lindon, Megan. (2009). “Academics in African Diaspora Reach Back to Help Universities Rebuild.” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 13.

Zeleza, Paul Tiyembe, (2005). “The Academic Diaspora and Knowledge Production in and on Africa: What Role for CODESRIA? “, in Thandika Mkandawire (ed), African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Language, Gender and Development, Zed Books & Codesria, 2005.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

111

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

9 Character as Devotion: Towards A Transformative Ethos Every society has its own fundamental conception of social organisation, social composition and the world. Such conception is the bedrock of how every society functions - or is expected to function – in relation to itself and the world. Also, that conception not only determines the framework and the totality of social, political and economic life, it establishes and governs the relationship between the structures of society and human agency. That conception, first described by the famous German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, as Weltanschauung, is called worldview, in English.

Worldview is a “fundamental cognitive orientation” which includes the totality of knowledge in any society, covering natural philosophy, existential postulates, ethics and values. It is “a global outlook on life and the world”. Wilhelm Dilthey identifies it as "a general view of the universe and the place of human beings in it, especially as this view affects conduct". Worldview forms the foundation of the way in which a person, cultural group or society comprehends and interprets the world. th Leo Apostel, a 20 century Belgian philosopher, argued that a worldview is a system of ideas about existence or a descriptive model of the world. In his understanding, as one of the exponents of his ideas states, a worldview "is a shared, rationalised, approximately coherent, open and plural, aggregate of knowledge systems, valuative ethical systems, and concomitant action guiding systems."

Apostel and his collaborator elaborate that any worldview must consist of six questions: 1. What is? This question is directed at constructing a model of reality as a whole.

2. Where does it all come from? This is concerned with a model of the past.

18

Being a Speech Delivered at the Public Presentation of a book, Omoluabi 2.0: A Code of Transformation in 21st Century Nigeria, Authored by Adewale th Ajadi, 24 August, 2012 in Lagos.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

3.

4.

5.

6.

112

Where are we going? This addresses a model of the future.

What is good and what is evil? This leads to a theory of values and ethics.

How should we act? This question is about a theory of actions.

What is true and what is false? This question addresses a theory of knowledge.

In many ways, the book which we are here to publicly present today, Omoluabi 2.0: A Code of Transformation in 21st Century Nigeria, is an attempt to answer the questions posed by any worldview.

In a sense, we can say that any worldview, given its grounding in a particular moral and rational understanding of the relationship between the individual, a group or a society and the rest of the world, is an ethics of the world. Every religion, every culture, every system, be it social, economic, or political, is predicated on a particular worldview. Against this backdrop, we can argue that every system is based on, and reflects, its own ethics of the world. What I have called ethics of the world would necessarily involve a system of values and virtues.

In the African world, specifically in the Yoruba context, our traditional religious precepts form the foundation of our worldview.

Indeed, even though modernity has reconstructed and repositioned our worldview and continues to do so, there is no doubt that the fundamental character of that worldview is based on our religious culture and historical experience. To give a concrete example, the Yoruba worldview is most evident, and expressive, in the 256 volumes of Ifa - called Odu Ifa. Even though many people have the wrong impression that Ifa is exclusively a religious system, the truth is that Ifa is not merely the foundation of a religious culture. It is much more than that. Ifa is a science of ideas; it is literature; it is sublime and practical poetry; Ifa is a system of thought; it is a conception of the universe and the relationship of human beings with the elements and the structures and dynamics of society. Ifรก deals with all subjects including history, geography, sociology, religion, music, philosophy, etc. Indeed, it is a worldview.

Distinguished guests: At the centre of this worldview is what is called Iwa. In the Yoruba worldview, iwa, which translates in English to J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

113

character, is at the centre of human life and social relations. Its centrality is such that, among the Yoruba - just like among the English and the Englishspeaking people - iwa (character) is used essentially positively. The Yoruba regard iwapele (gentle or good character) “as the most important of all moral values, and the greatest attribute of any man” or woman. As Professor Wande Abimbola states, “The essence of religious worship for the Yoruba consists therefore in striving to cultivate iwapele.” This is why for the Yoruba, God is also Olu-Iwa (Lord of Character). This is so despite the fact that character is also distinguished in specific context by its positive and negative manifestations. Thus, there is a distinction between iwa rere (good character) and iwa buburu (bad character). This binary between good and bad is understandable, because, as the primus scholar and practitioner of Yoruba religion, Professor Wande Abimbola, reminds us, Ifa is based on “two binary orders as in the binominal theory of mathematics.” The first is the binary order of opposition, while the other is the binary of order of complimentarity. And as the Awise Agbaye of Ile-Ife and scholar and babalawo points out, this is similar to the binary order from which the computer originates. Against this backdrop, it is possible to think of the modernity of Ifa. Indeed, the wisdom of the ancient are still very relevant in contemporary times.

Iwa is at the centre of the Yoruba universe. It is so central that, in the aesthetics of life, the Yoruba not only conceive of character as beauty when they say iwa l'ewa (character is beauty), more profoundly, they link it directly with, and in fact, pronounce it as, devotion or worship by saying that iwa l'esin (character is devotion, piety or worship). By this, we can understand that the Yoruba, like many other cultural groups around the world, perceive character as something that is at the centre of the structure and agency of life and living. A Nigerian philosopher argues that: “As the most important pursuit, embedded in the concept of Iwa is the idea of a good moral standing in the society.

This is reflected not only in interpersonal relations but also in public and communal life. The concept of Iwa is a standard or aspiration in-built into the framework of societal institutions. In other words, Iwa must be reflected in the laws of the society, the collective aspirations of the societal norms and regulations. It appears very strong a J. KAYODE FAYEMI

114

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

view that in Yoruba land, the basic standard for which every attempt at and enterprise of communal and collective [life] is to be evaluated and judged consist in the approximation and reflection of the concept of Iwa. This is true in marriage, dressing, in communal service, kingship matters and legislation, religious worship and family affairs.”

As something that denotes a high system of values and virtues, character has some important suffixes in Yoruba, such as Iwapele (gentle character) and Iwatutu (cool character). All these are different expressions of the qualities of a good character and the ethical necessities of a good life.

What is the relationship of character and our search for a transformative ethics and ethos in Nigeria?

As a social thinker reflecting on the role of character in contemporary society, Oluwo Phillip Neimark argues that the Yoruba conception and practices of iwa is a reflection of our culture's thoughtful intelligence, rather than blind obedience to rules. It is based on logic. It is “about working within the logical matrix of the Universe to improve our lives without damaging those around us or the Universe we must live in.”

This is why good character invites the best in us and invests the best in society, and therefore leads to common or collective good. Consequently, character is superior to laws and formal rules. In one sense, it is what makes laws or formal rules of conduct unnecessary, and in another sense, it is what makes laws and formal rules easy to obey.

Who then best reflects iwa (good character)? Or rather, what is the best human reflection of iwa? In the Yoruba world, the best human reflection of iwa is anyone who is qualified to be called an Omoluwabi. The English gendered approximation of that would be a gentleman or a lady.

But it is better expressed as one who is sired by the God of character, one who is well-born, or well-bred. An omoluwabi is the very epitome of iwa; in him or her is reflected all the fundamentals of the ethics of the world that produced and nourishes him or her, and which he or she best represents.

An omoluwabi is an excellent agent of the worldview that is prevalent in his or her culture. Therefore, in many ways, an omoluwabi constantly reflects J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

115

upon, and engages with, the ethical issues of contemporary society on the basis of the lessons of the past, the duties of the present and the challenges of the future.

To return to the philosopher, Apostel, and in the context of the challenges of transformation, as reflected in Adewale Ajadi's brilliant book, Omoluabi 2.0, an omoluwabi is concerned with explaining the world, posing critical questions about the implications of the social process by asking “Where are we heading?”; an omoluwabi is immersed in the struggles about social values and social goals by constantly asking “What should we do?”; and he or she presses further into action by seeking answers to the question, “How should we attain our goals?” An omoluwabi also goes beyond that to seek and establish what is true and distinguish that from what is false – and thereby avoiding the false. Above all, an omoluwabi is concerned with causation or origination and therefore constantly focuses on the processes that lead to particular social results or social phenomenon, whether of good or of evil. Against this backdrop, an omoluwabi then establishes links with other omoluwabis in the social totality to expand and accelerate the good in society and limit and, if possible, obliterate evil.

In a sense therefore, an omoluwabi as an embodiment of iwa and a reflection of the Yoruba aesthetics or the philosophy of the beautiful (ewa). Also in this way, an omoluwabi constitutes the personification of a critical reflection on art, life, beauty, values, culture, and nature. Wale Ajadi's seven core principles of exploring life and times in the context of Omoluwabi underscores the very essence of the book that character is devotion and destiny.

Distinguished guests: The book which is being publicly presented today is not only one that critically reflects on art, life, beauty, values, culture and nature of life around the world within the worldview grounded in that which is represented by the omoluwabi concept and practices, it is also one that is authored by an omoluwabi. Adewale Ajadi is a well-bred Yoruba man and Nigerian, who has the sophistication, the expansive experience, the cosmopolitan intellect, as well as the native intelligence to reflect on the critical issues of transformation in 21st century Nigeria. He is a citizen of the world as well as a product of a specific dynamic and proud culture.

As I note in the Foreword to this book, the author runs “through J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

116

the lessons from this continent's greatest tragedies through [his] many reflective journeys, into nature's lessons about complexity through the eyes of ancestral wisdom and finally into the waiting guides of a re-emergent omoluwabi gospel.” This book, I must re-emphasise, is a genuine expression of the promise and possibilities of Nigeria. I also note in the Foreword that this book “offers an original and fresh spectrum of ideas and ideals that will organise our better angels into the transformation we seek and for generations to come.”

Let me conclude by saying with a measure of pride that, in Ekiti State, we have embraced the spirit and letter of the concept and practices of omoluwabi in our effort at a comprehensive and cohesive transformation of the lives of our people. This is why we proclaim our State as: Ile iyi, ile eye (This land, is a land of honour).

We have, and we will continue to, construct a future of values and virtues based on the best ideals of public education and public service. We are committed to ensuring the creation of a new generation of young people with the foundational skills that will prepare them for competition not only nationally, but globally. We are conscious in Ekiti State that the foundations of our worldview is embedded in one of the most robust and most dynamic cultures in human history; one that is predicated on the understanding that character is devotion, worship, or piety (iwa l'ewa).

Indeed, as a mark of our commitment to this intellectual tour de force, Ekiti State will commission Mr Ajadi to reduce this volume into readable text for use in our public primary and secondary schools on the teachings of character as the foundational principle of transformative ethos in Ekiti State specifically, and the South West in general.

It is a duty that we owe to the present and future generations to continue to recognise that, in the modern world, all the virtues of good character such as excellence, devotion to duty, service to humankind, humane and egalitarian governance, respect for the rights of others, democracy, freedom, justice and equity, must continue to be as much the legacy of our government and as well as our individual legacies as leaders of our people.

Let me end by chanting, though in English translations, some of the minor verses from Ifa literary corpus which speak to the centrality of iwa (character). Orunmila, the father of Ifa, had a beautiful wife, called iwa, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

117

which he had sent away. But not long after she left his house, Orunmila could no longer live without her. He not only missed her, he had also lost the respect of his neighbours and clients because of his action. He therefore went in search of iwa. In every home he visited, he would sing a song. Some verses of this song from Odu Ifa go thus: ... Where did you see Iwa, tell me.

Iwa, iwa is the one I am looking for.

If you have money, But if you do not have good character, The money belongs to someone else.

Iwa, iwa is the one we are searching for....

If one has a house, But if one lacks good character, The house belongs to someone else.

Iwa, iwa is what we are searching for....

All the good things of life which a man has, If he lacks good character, They belong to someone else.

Iwa, iwa is what we are searching for.

After a long search, Orunmila eventually found his wife in the house of Olojo whom he threw several miles away with a charm. Orunmila then took his wife away in peace.

I urge you all to go in search of your own character and bring her home.

I commend this book to you all. And I thank you for your attention.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

118

References Albert M. Wolters (1983). “On The Idea of Worldview and Its Relation to Philosophy.” In P. Marshall et. al. (ed.) Stained Glass. University Press of America, pp. 14-25.

C. Vidal, C. (2008) Wat is een wereldbeeld? (What is a worldview?), in Van Belle, H. & Van der Veken, J., Editors, Nieuwheid denken. De wetenschappen en het creatieve aspect van de werkelijkheid. Acco, Leuven.

Gary B. Palmer (1996). Towards a Theory of Cultural Linguistics. University of Texas Press.

Jan Broekaert. (1999). "World views: Elements of the Apostelian and General Approach." Foundations of Science, 3: 235–258.

Oluwo Philip Neimark (n.d.) “The real meaning of Iwa Pele.” Ifa Foundation International. http://www.ifafoundation.org/the-realmeaning-of-iwa-pele/ Ron Eglash. (1997). 'Bamana Sand Divination: Recursion in Ethnomathematics', American Anthropologist 99(1): 112–22.

Wande Abimbola (1996) “Wapele: The Concept of Good Character in Ifa Literary Corpus.” In Molefi Asante and Abu S. Abarry, African Intellectual Heritage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 98-106.

William Idowu (2005). “Law, Morality and the African Cultural Heritage: The Jurisprudential Significance of the Ogboni Institution.” Nordic Journal of African Studies 14(2): 175-192.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

119

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

TRIBUTES: One Great Woman and Four Great Men

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

120

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

10 My Mother, My Mentor As the last child in the Fayemi household, my arrival was heralded with song and dance. Although my birth elicited genuine excitement on the part of my siblings, it was for my mother a cautious welcome. My mother's caution was understandable having lost a boy and two girls in quick succession before my arrival.

While I was generally called Olukayode (the one who has brought joy), mum privately called me Folorunso (we give this one to God to protect) because, as she once told me, it wasn't until I turned five that she became more confident that I wasn't going to disappear like my siblings did.

Given the above context, I grew up knowing my mother as a strong, proud, beautiful, elegant, industrious, hardworking and a consistently optimistic woman – the unseen backbone of our family.

Unlike my father who was deliberate, self-effacing, almost withdrawn in his detached mien, Mum was spontaneous – her effervescence and generosity of spirit was bewitchingly infectious.

Yet the myth then was that being a special child and the last born, my mother would spare the rod and pamper me silly. I cannot recall enjoying any such status. Instead, she was equally generous and spontaneous with her punishments. Mother reached for the closest instrument she could hit you with from her pounded yam pestle to her giant soup spoon, not minding the injury sustained at that point even if she would be back to nurse the wounds.

Even at that, my sisters said she had mellowed by the time I came.

She always told me that she missed out on school because she was pampered by her grandmother (with whom she stayed) – who removed her from school to escape the harsh treatment of the teachers – and promised herself that no child of hers would have the same experience. So, you dared not inform my Mum that you were flogged in school as this almost always certainly elicited a repeat treatment.

19

Published in Vanguard, 18 May, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

121

An unconscious feminist who refused to be dependent on anyone, not even her husband, Mum trained me in exactly the same fashion she trained my sisters. She trained me to be independent in all ways. With the exit of my four sisters from home by the time I entered secondary school, I became the cook, the driver, her shop steward and the general journeyman.

Mum worked hard and she expected all around her to work hard. I could not recall any time my Mum did not have to go out and work. Anytime I was on school break, it was all work – and my escape route was often my sisters' various homes.

Although I also left home early and lived away from her for a considerable length of time, Mum had already taught me a lot about life.

While she often taught the same lessons as Dad about character, compassion, hard-work, community service, perseverance, her style was remarkably different, uncodified and refreshing. She was direct, precise, demanding and often in your face. Mum was extremely protective of her family, loyal to her friends and her milk of compassion to outsiders was legendary as she was always ready to share the little she had with the needy from far and near.

She complemented her husband who was reserved, self-effacing and inscrutable fittingly and this helped his public image which would have suffered greatly. My mum was the best wife any man could pray for and I certainly can confirm that my late Dad was very lucky. She was fun to be with and could easily laugh at herself in a self-deprecating manner. I guess I must have subconsciously searched for a woman like my Mum for wife and must have taken her teachings to heart with my marriage to a very conscious feminist, family protector and public relations agent, and I often marvelled at the remarkable similarities between my Mum and my wife.

My return to Nigeria after the exit of the military brought much relief to my Mum. My eventual decision to become politically active in Ekiti even brought greater relief because it meant my constant presence in Ekiti, something my Mum had missed since I left Christ's School, Ado Ekiti. Mum had craved for my presence for a long time – even if she was not that enamoured of partisan politics per se. For her, anything to bring me closer home was more than welcome.

We grew much closer during this period that tested the mettle of many friends and family members. My Mum bore the brunt of the period J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

122

with extra-ordinary grace and equanimity. She witnessed several betrayals in the course of my political work. She endured many indignities from known and unknown quarters. But the period also showed clearly my Mum's strength of character. Even when many had become disillusioned by the 'do-or-die' politics of our state and urged withdrawal privately, Mum was consistently optimistic.

Her single-minded determination and steely resolve often surprised me because I'd mistakenly thought age would have mellowed her.

She never at any point urged me to throw in the towel. She told me she always knew the journey would be tough and rough but also consistently reassured me of the light she could see at the end of the dark tunnel. She urged me to be bold, courageous and not betray Ekiti people. She hated my dismissive, sceptical mien and impatience with religiosity.

A devout catholic who carried her rosary everywhere, she could suffer fools gladly and still entertained various hare-brained schemes by the emergency evangelists and fake medicine men that saw her as a conduit to her recalcitrant son – even if she didn't believe them. One even had the temerity to tell her she was the source of her son's problems and she must go back to where she got her son from and beg for forgiveness, whatever that meant. That was just one of the several indignities she had to endure.

Since I was hardly at home during this period, many of my supporters looking for me in the village ended at her doorsteps and her house was the refuge for many political exiles and supporters from neighbouring communities. She never got tired of taking care of people. I am convinced I got my selfless service genes from her as much as from my Dad. The egregious rigging of the 2009 gubernatorial re-run election, coming in quick succession after the loss of her husband and companion of sixty years took its toll and I believe she never really recovered from the shock of her husband's loss and the stress she experienced from my political struggle. It however did not dim her optimism. When victory finally came in October 2010, she was extremely proud of me but I never stopped being her little boy. Her house became a Mecca of sorts for politicians and all those in search of favours. Her own pile of CVs was more than what I had in my own office.

Consistently, she would pull my ear and said I must give somebody J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

123

a job because he contributed hugely to the struggle through prayers and fasting. And at every opportunity, particularly when she felt I was not paying adequate attention to her numerous and unrelenting requests for jobs for the political jobbers always in her house, she would reprimand me openly that I should not come to her house to 'do Governor because she is the Governor in her husband's house.' When I got fed up with the way she was bombarded by opportunists of various hue, I moved her to Government House, she protested loudly. She said I had no right to remove her from her house.

For her, the greatest security was the people who pestered her with all manner of requests, not the 'prison' where I'd placed her in Government House without the freedom to welcome her unsolicited guests. Two weeks to her demise, her paternal community in Omu-Ekiti honoured me as the son of their princess. It was the first time of knowing that my Mum had any drop of blue blood in her. But then she acted it all through her life.

She was regal in her steps, highly fashionable and always liked to dress up. Beyond the fad and fashion though, she had a more compelling urge to always look after people around her, the way a service oriented royalty behaved – always ready to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, clothe the needy, provide shelter for the homeless and share the little she had with all.

When death finally came, I was sadly not at her bedside – but Bisi and my siblings were. Mine was largely an unspoken, impenetrable bond with Mum. I thank God for my Mum's life of service to all who had the opportunity to come across her. My mother, my mentor, thank you for showering me with love without expecting anything in return and for the joy of bringing me to this world. I know that what you would really like most is for me to continue to live a life of service to our people in Ekiti and humanity at large. I promise not to disappoint you. Sun re o! Omo Oriyemusola…

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

124

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

11 Meles Zenawi: A daring, dedicated leader With the demise of Meles Zenawi last week, Africa has lost one of its most intellectually dynamic leaders. For many of us involved in post cold war struggles against military dictatorship and authoritarian governments in Africa, 'Comrade' Meles counted strongly amongst a new generation of African leaders in the early and mid – 1990s – daring, dynamic, inspirational, anti-colonial, pan-Africanist and developmental alongside Museveni, Mbeki, Zenawi, Aferwerki, and Kagame. Although many saw them as dubious democrats, what set them apart was the courage of their conviction and their abilities to mobilise their population against bad governance in their successful efforts toward re-establishing capable states.

Through sheer force of intellect and deep passion for his people's liberation, Comrade Meles Zenawi rose to become the primus-inter-pares in the collective leadership that was then the hallmark of the MarxistLeninist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF).

At the time, Meles was known for his uncanny ability to push an ideological argument in the most pragmatic sense without losing the essence of his goal. It mattered of course that his ethnic group – Tigray – was also the dominant tendency in the ranks of the EPDRF, but what counted most was his ability to develop and articulate an institutional theory for managing diversity and difference, linking Marxist-Leninism to the right to self determination and the necessity of using guerrilla warfare to remove the Derg dictatorship.

I first met Meles Zenawi in 1997 at the OAU summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I was introduced to him by my comrade brother, the late pan-Africanist exemplar, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem who was at the time Secretary-General of the Pan African Movement in Kampala, Uganda and Abdul Mohammed, an Ethiopian colleague, both of whom knew Meles Zenawi in his days as a guerrilla. After listening to my jeremiad about the Abacha dictatorship and why progressive leaders like 20

Published in The Guardian, Friday, 31 August, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

125

him should support our effort to restore democracy, Meles was unsparing in his dismissal of the Nigerian opposition as armchair critics. He felt if we really wanted to remove Abacha, the corridors of OAU summits was not the place to argue our case since Africa owed us nothing more than we owed ourselves. Although I found his approach brusque, his brutal candour was helpful. For the first time, I contemplated the possibility of an alternative route to fighting the dictatorship in Nigeria. Ironically, the next day – General Sani Abacha died and Nigeria, yet again pulled back from the brink.

Between this first meeting in Ouagadougou and my last meeting with Meles Zenawi in Bahir Dir, Ethiopia in April 2012 when I joined several of his guests at the Tana Forum, I had numerous encounters with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi as a regular civil society activist at successive African Union summits in the last decade. The Tana Forum was the maiden edition of the High Level Summit on Peace and Stability in Africa that he convened to discuss state fragility and the management of diversity in the promotion of peace and security in Africa. Although already rumoured to be suffering from a terminal ailment, the intellectual rigour that became his trademark in all his years as Premier remained at its sharpest edge as he sat through the two days of intense discussion that had in attendance five former and current presidents – Obasanjo, Mbeki, Museveni, Hassan Gouled of Djibouti and Mohammed of Somalia.

He articulated a vision of diversity management as a pre-requisite for peace in Africa. It was of course music to my ears as a federalist when Zenawi spoke about the bold experiment in post-conflict Ethiopia, which saw the right to self-determination, including right to secession, as a fundamental constitutional right, and a federative arrangement conferring robust rights of cultural and political self-government as constitutionally entrenched. Indeed, this became the crux of my heated but humorous exchange with President Obasanjo who chaired the Tana Forum on why recognition of the importance of diversity and difference should not be equated with promotion of disintegration in Nigeria.

In between the encounters in Ouagadougou and Tana Forum, my respect for Meles Zenawi grew tremendously even as I remained uncomfortable with the sad turn his democratic developmental state agenda took with his egregious clampdown on opposition and the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

126

independent media in Ethiopia's last election. But that was not the only low moment. There were others – particularly the war with Eritrea between 1998 – 2000, which nearly splintered the EPDRF cohesion and the famine that ravaged some parts of northern Ethiopia in his early years in office.

There were certainly more highs than lows in the two decades of the Zenawi premiership. Although he walked a tight rope between the demands of democracy and the overwhelming need for development and leaned heavily in the direction of the Asian model – Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore being his models, his was clearly a people-driven government and his central goal was how to make poverty history in his country. Even his most virulent detractors would admit that he succeeded in significantly reducing the number of Ethiopians below poverty line even if the country is still confronted by the challenges of underdevelopment.

As a regular visitor to Ethiopia in the last decade, the texture and content of governance is indicative of an upward swing both in infrastructural and institutional development. Meles was not perceived in any sense as a venal and corrupt African leader. Indeed, he encouraged the decentralisation of economic power to the regions and promoted the value of hard work among the general citizenry even as he remained highly suspicious of opening up the Ethiopian economy to foreign investment.

He believed that neo-liberal economics would snuff out life in the productive sectors of the economy if he were to allow untrammelled access in sectors like banking, telecommunication and power generation.

Equally, he stood up to the Washington consensus, particularly the IMF until they were ready to deal with him on his own terms. All of this contributed to the double-digit growth rate the country witnessed in the last decade. Although a pragmatic ideologue, he earned the respect of all who encountered him because of his robust diplomatic credentials.

There are of course other lessons to draw from the Zenawi leadership, which might appear to be a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, Zenawi appeared to believe strongly in the myth perpetuated by the African political culture that only strong leaders can bring about change single-handedly. Yet on the other hand, the intellectual in him was too irreverent not to know that real leadership ought to involve motivating people to solve problems within their own communities – rather than reinforcing the over-lordship of state on them and he did that with gusto, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

127

especially towards the end of his life. So, he was both a promoter of realpolitik and an intellectual advocate of soft power. In my assessment as a student of civil-military relations, his success in reducing the huge postwar Ethiopian military and the ability to still achieve robust democratic control of the military remains a good model in post-conflict reconstruction on the continent. He went ahead to influence the incorporation of several unique clauses in the Ethiopian constitution, which mandates a civilian to always be the Defence Minister and prohibits the suspension of the Ethiopian constitution through unconstitutional means like coup d'etat, insurgency and the likes. Symbolic as these might appear, they contributed to the demystification process necessary for democratisation process to gain traction in the country.

On the African scene, he was a quietly towering figure. Aside from President Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, very few African leaders elicited the respect that Meles Zenawi got from the African as well as the international community. The huge respect he enjoyed derived from his readiness to engage intellectually – especially on questions of African development, climate change, terrorism and the crisis in Sudan and Somalia. His was also a quiet resistance to Gaddafi's rough and gruff attempt at material domination of the continental body and he worked closely with Presidents Obasanjo and Mbeki to resist this attempt to replace Addis with Sirte as the base of the continental body.

I recall significantly his exchange with Tajudeen Abdulraheem again at the UN-ECA convened African Governance Forum in Addis Ababa in 2005 when Tajudeen accused him of pandering to Western interests by refusing Africans who have business in Ethiopia visas at the port of entry whilst Europeans and Americans easily enjoyed this. Meles took the criticism in his stride and responded by declaring Ethiopia visafree to Africans who have business with the African Union. This was the measure of the intellectual Meles. He never refrained from a good debate, whether with his benefactors or his beneficiaries. This was also his conviction about that singular blight on his otherwise sterling leadership performance in office – his democratic deficit and human rights abuse. He was always convinced that his record of economic regeneration and institutional development would stand him in good stead. On this, the jury is certainly still out, but no African who knew Meles Zenawi at a close J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

128

range would want to deprive him of his seat in the hallowed chambers of politicians who saw leadership as sacrifice and service.

By the time we were in Bahir Dir in April 2012, his deputy (now Acting Prime Minister) looked very much like the heir apparent and Meles had apparently indicated his readiness to step down at the next election in 2015. Perhaps he also knew that the end was near. That he left Ethiopia on a much stronger footing is certainly not in doubt, but lingering doubts persist about the state's capacity to deepen democratisation.

Yet having achieved a level of developmental and institutional stability, the only way the emergent leadership can make a fundamental difference is to build on his legacy of service and sacrifice and deepen the foundations of the 'democratic developmental state', reinsert freedom of association whilst promoting active citizens' engagement with the state as a means of avoiding democratic reversal. If it insists on continuing business as usual, no one could predict the direction the country is headed. For now, Comrade Meles deserves credit for restoring pride to a naturally proud people through the courage of his conviction and the intellectual rigour that were his trademarks. Africa will miss him. Adieu Comrade Meles. Rest in peace.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

129

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

12 Enahoro: A Democrat's Exit and A Mission Accomplished It was not altogether unexpected, ripe in age and failing in health, yet we still hoped for a miracle. Even after the first death scare, we thought he would overcome the challenges. Alas, death eventually terminated a life that had come to personify a dream deferred and a future hoped for by many in our land. I could not lay claim to knowing Chief Anthony Enahoro with any degree of closeness until he arrived in exile in 1995 but I knew him long before I met him. You could not be a good student of Nigeria's history and politics and not know about the man who moved the motion for self-rule in 1953; one of the youngest editors in the annals of print journalism in Nigeria; the King's College' Lagos stormy petrel and the face of Nigeria's unity and progress, as General Gowon's Information Minister during the civil war years and later Mr FESTAC. By the time I met him at a close range, he was already a legend in Nigeria's democratic struggle, indeed a phenomenon. Nigeria too was already in deep trouble and for consistently speaking truth to power then and suffering the consequences of challenging a most brutal dictatorship; there was very little choice for him than to escape into exile. I remember joining a team of NADECO leaders to welcome him to London and holding a press conference upon his arrival in Heathrow Airport. Papa had heard of our own little efforts in the struggle and he acknowledged it profusely. Papa's power of reasoning and his forensic debating skills quickly endeared him to us immediately. We were enthralled by his effortless but inimitable de-mystification of power and his irreverence for the powerful in spite of all that suffering he had endured as a 'fugitive offender' and a bulwark against the military.

I became his unofficial Personal Assistant alongside my friend, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka in the course of his numerous stay in the United Kingdom. I was privileged to know him and got the chance to see his human side at a close range. Apart from working closely with him at a 21

A tribute by the Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to the late elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, 1st February 2011.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

130

personal level, I was also the Secretary of the Media Empowerment for Africa [MEFA] – the Foundation that was responsible for the management and funding of Radio Kudirat Nigeria – whilst Papa was Chair. I also worked closely with Papa on the World Congress of Free Nigerians [WCFN] and its attendant outcome – the Parliament-in-Exile. While I do not want to commit the mistake of fawningly idealising or enlarging Chief Enahoro in death beyond what he was in life, I think all can reach a consensus including his fiercest critics, and what greater gift could that he was a colossus in our struggle for freedom and justice and in our quest for a truly Federal Nigeria.

The clarity of his vision for Nigeria was infectious and he never wavered in his belief that regional autonomy was the solution to the perennial crisis of instability in Nigeria. His Movement for National Reform [MNR] advocated a federal structure based on ethnic contiguity as the mechanism for national reform and reconciliation. He was also a consistent advocate of the benefits of a parliamentary democracy over the expensive and nerve wracking presidential system of democracy. In the twilight of his years, his central struggle was about a People's constitution and he used the PRONACO platform to fashion an alternative people's constitution for Nigeria, driven largely by his core beliefs of selfdetermination, fiscal federalism and parliamentary democracy. Before then, I must also recall here his tenacity of purpose and single-minded concern about the way some of the democracy activists embraced the military in the aftermath of General Abacha's demise. He cautioned against the clamour for the individual rights devoid of group claims.

Speaking with a heavy heart, he predicted that this could constitute some threat to the viability of the democracy movement. "I fear that many of our colleagues would like to participate in the Abdul-Salami transition programme and even contest elections. We have no right to condemn them…but some of us don't think this is a practical aspiration. I personally don't believe we can use the masters' tools to destroy the masters' house".

For him, he believed that the focus of the struggle should first be formation of a National Unity Government, making of a new constitution, rebuilding of the civil society movement and working towards a sovereign national conference. As a democrat though and in spite of his conviction that the 1999 transition was going to entrench J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

131

military hegemony, he relented to the middle course of allowing individuals to participate while the democracy groups stayed out of the transition" Even if he did not succeed in restraining his colleagues from participating in elections, he consistently proved that important as they are, the institutions of direct state power and electoralism are just the tip of the iceberg in the democratisation complex. Indeed, for Chief Enahoro, genuine democracy ought to rest on a much richer ecology of associational and organisational life and should be nourished and reproduced through the every-day struggles of the citizens in the farms, on the creeks, in faith based campaigns and in other important spaces outside public office.

Many may argue that we are still far from Chief Enahoro's dream of a new Nigeria and that will be true in some respects, it is my own belief though that the argument has been largely won and his task on erath here accomplished. His death leaves us with a legacy far into the future. A legacy of speaking truth to power, a legacy of promoting fundamental human rights, a legacy of promoting a restructured, truly Federal Nigeria based on a people driven constitutional order and an electoral frame that places premium on the citizens, not the imposed opinions of a few who have hijacked the country's political economy in their determination to keep us in the doldrums.

Chief Anthony Enahoro lit the candle with his numerous struggles for a decent Nigeria; taught us the true meaning of character, commitment and integrity and he did it in his own inimitable way. In our last encounter last year, when I visited him in the company of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at his Ikeja, GRA hideout, he expressed admiration for our determination to keep fighting the evil of dictatorship stalking the land in the name of democracy and admonished us not to ever contemplate giving the struggle up no matter how tortuous and long the journey might appear. In my view, the challenge now is not really to reproduce another Enahoro – the last of the titans in the vanishing tribe of freedom fighters – with Beko, Gani, Bola Ige, Yusuf Bala Usman, Alfred Rewane, Adekunle Ajasin and Abraham Adesanya now departed; our greatest challenge is for the rest of us to continue to light more candles for a genuinely democratic, free and just Nigeria and carry the light forward into all the dark recesses in our land so that this leader of our struggle and this icon of the dispossessed can rest in perfect peace. We must keep the fire burning. Adieu Pa Enahoro.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

132

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

13 Gani Fawehinmi: An Icon's Departure and a Dream Deferred I thought I knew him long before I met him. As a young students' union activist at the University of Lagos – we were made to believe that we could commit any offence in defence of freedom and justice and if this got us rusticated or suspended – Gani Fawehinmi and the late Alao AkaBashorun were there to rescue us pro-bono. He was on campus to speak frequently and we lapped him up as a genuine hero of the masses and a defender of the people's inalienable rights.

By the time I met him at a close range, he was already a legend in Nigeria's democratic struggle, a phenomenon. Nigeria too was already in deep trouble and for consistently speaking truth to power then and suffering the consequences of challenging brutal dictatorships, he was being honoured with one of the most coveted human rights awards – the Bruno Kreisky Price for Human Rights in Vienna, Austria. He stopped over in London and met with our group – the New Nigeria Forum. He had heard of our own little efforts in the struggle too and wanted to identify with our baby steps by encouraging us to keep the flag flying. We were enthralled by his effortless but inimitable de-mystification of power and his irreverence for the powerful in spite of all that suffering he had endured.

Barely two years after this memorable encounter, I had a very public disagreement with Gani on a matter concerning a leading figure in the struggle – the late Pa Adekunle Ajasin. Gani had publicly criticised Pa Ajasin and NADECO leaders for accepting a Greek gift of a government medical trip sponsorship for Pa Ajasin who had taken ill. As much as I could see Gani's point, I felt it was important to keep a united front in the democracy movement and also that Pa Ajasin was known for his steely resolve and uncompromising principles – virtues which ought to have earned him a benefit of the doubt from Gani. Unfortunately, I committed 22

Tribute read at the lying-in-state at the Police College, Ikeja-Lagos, on the death of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, Nigeria's legal luminary and foremost social critic.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

133

the same faux-pas by publicly accusing him of being a “One man army�, shooting every other leader down in order to present himself as the only genuine defender of the people against the machinations of the dictatorship. The torrent of negative responses to my article from distinguished Nigerians like Professors Akin Oyebode and Itse Sagay, not to mention the vitriol from Comrade Femi Aborishade quickly made me realise the mistake I had made. For three weeks, it was a free-for- all in Tempo newspaper.

Significantly, Chief Fawehinmi did not respond to my article, at least not until we met three and a half years later. He had come out of jail and was on his way to the United Kingdom for medical treatment and we were on the same British Airways flight. As we checked in at the BA counter, I introduced myself again and as frail as he was at the time, he nearly lifted me up and was full of praise for what we did with Radio Kudirat in particular and in exile in general. He regaled me with stories of how he used to listen to Radio Kudirat in far away Gashua while in detention. To my amazement, he then broached the subject of our earlier public disagreement and explained his position in a manner that made me look really small. Significantly, he accepted that he ought not to have publicly criticised the old man. I was full of apology for my own irreverence too and he just waved it off. He however did not stop there.

He insisted I must come and visit him upon arrival in London. The afternoon spent at his Croydon apartment remains one of the most unforgettable encounters of my life learning so many things at the feet of the master.

It was a beautiful journey into his past and our struggle in my two hours with him; his youth and a privileged background, loss of his father and the impact that had on him, his deep attachment with the British way of life, his struggles and encounters in detention, his numerous empowerment schemes for the young, indigent and the underprivileged, not to mention his health concerns (that particular trip had to do with an eye surgery appointment at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London), and even his flaws. I got the chance to see his human side at a close range that memorable afternoon and that enlarged rather than diminish this extraordinary force of nature. While I do not want to commit the mistake of fawningly idealising or enlarging Gani in death beyond what he was in life, I J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

134

think all can reach a consensus including Gani's fiercest critics, and what greater gift could that be – with the Obasanjos and the Babangidas of Nigeria also joining in that consensus – that Gani was a single tree that made the forest in our struggle for freedom and justice in the quest for our nation-building agenda.

Yes, many may argue that we are still far from Gani's dream of a new Nigeria and that will be true in some respects, it is my own belief though that the dream has been merely deferred, not completely denied.

His death cuts a cord into that unfortunate past, whilst leaving us with a legacy far into the future. A legacy of speaking truth to power, a legacy of promoting fundamental human rights, a legacy of championing a detribalised, de-religionised, de-regionalised struggle for a people driven constitutional order and an electoral frame that places premium on the generality of our people, not the imposed opinions of a few who have hijacked the country's political economy in their determination to keep us in the doldrums.

Gani lit the candle with his numerous struggles for a decent Nigeria; taught us the true meaning of character, compassion, commitment and integrity and he did it in his own inimitable way. In my view, the challenge now is not really to produce another replica of Gani in the vanishing tribe of freedom fighters; our greatest challenge is for the rest of us to continue to light more candles for freedom and justice and carry the light forward into all the dark recesses in our land so that this leader of our struggle and this icon of the dispossessed can rest in perfect peace. We must keep the fire burning. Adieu Gani.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

135

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

14 Celebration of a Life in Full: Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem – 1961-2009 Over the last forty days, I have read many eulogies and tributes on our brother, comrade and friend, Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem since his rather untimely departure on May 25, 2009. Several times, I have put pen to paper to share my own thoughts on Taju with the legion of friends and well wishers but on each occasion words failed me. I suppose since that morning when 'Bisi and I received the call from Nairobi, I have been in deliberate denial. Even after joining friends and family to receive the body in Lagos, travelling to Abuja and, subsequently Funtua, I still refused to confront the reality of this painful loss. My mind kept going back to our last conversation when he was with our mutual friend and brother, Napoleon Abdulai in Monrovia just ten days before the loss. And I kept asking myself, did he have a premonition this was about to happen? Was he sending a message when he kept imploring me to watch my security more tightly because the goons who had taken over the political landscape in Nigeria were capable of resorting to any means of retaining what had been stolen? Why, I kept ruminating - do bad things happen to good people?

Why must we always lose our brightest and best to the pervasive evil machinations stalking Africa? Why, why, why?

But as the eulogies poured in on the especially created Pambazuka Webpage and several other on-line outlets, the palpable sense of despair and sadness turned into a celebration of a life in full. The tributes have come from far and near, remarking Taju's Pan-African internationalism, his obsession with the unity of the African peoples, his quest for institution building, his insistence on speaking truth to power and his refusal to be a cloistered academic and suffer fools gladly. And many of the tributes from Presidents to plebeians made this abundantly clear – Taju was a force of nature.

Taju deserved no less. An accomplished scholar, exceptional teacher, pan-Africanist ideologue, democracy activist and military scourge, J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

136

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was supremely unstuffy and approachable, irreverent and impatient of protocol, gregarious and boisterous all at once.

Taju was infectiously witty, and at the same time deeply caring about people. Not for him the lazy intellectualism of cloistered academics. He was very much at home writing in The New Vision, Daily Trust as he was speaking flawless Hausa on the pro-democracy radio – Radio Kudirat or espousing political theory in the Review of African Political Economy, African World Review and African Marxist. His intellect remained public property to the very last, exemplified by his refusal to suffer Africa's real and putative dictators and their multi-national collaborators gladly.

Born in Funtua, Katsina State on January 6, 1961, Tajudeen attended Government Secondary School in Funtua and Bayero University, Kano where he distinguished himself with a First Class honours degree in Political Science. He later broke new grounds by becoming the first Rhodes Scholar from the North of Nigeria at Oxford University where he earned his doctorate in Politics. Instead of pursuing the traditional route of academy followed by many of his friends and colleagues, he sought to bridge academy with activism. Not for him the pursuit of single issue agenda. He was always in search of solutions in a variety of ways. Taju was very much involved in the eighties debates on the Left, State, Class, Market and Imperialism and in the eighties/nineties debates on Democratization and Development. He remained ever so critical of the tyranny of borrowed paradigms in social science research. Instead, he chose a life more dedicated to transformation of the African continent.

As an institution builder, Taju was instrumental to the establishment of several research bodies, activist institutions and associations in Africa. He was the Founder and First Coordinator of the Africa Research Information Bureau, Founding Chairperson of the Centre for Democracy & Development; General Secretary, Pan-African Movement Secretariat, Co-Director, Justice Africa, Director, PADEAP, Founder and Proprietor, Hauwa Community College and a major driving force behind the transformation of the OAU into AU. In between this, the doting father and loving husband that he was, he also served as a member of the Board of Governors' of his daughters' school in Haringey Borough, London.

Even as his ideas evolved with maturity, he never abandoned the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

137

goals of a socialist and United Africa even when conventional wisdom swung heavily against these ideals. The visionary leader that Taju was, his enduring legacy remained his courage of conviction and the clarity of his ideas, through which he brilliantly and lucidly laid out the necessity of a United and Socialist Africa. In several of his academic and newspaper writings, particularly Pan-Africanism: Politics, Economy and Social Change in the 21st Century (Zed Press, 1996) arguably his magnum opus and his Postcard articles, Taju exposed and attacked the imperialism of western social science as a pernicious and yet subtle form of domination masquerading as the promotion of African development. Taju was a force of nature at social and intellectual gatherings, always ready to denounce so called scientific objectivity of the social sciences as a screen for the pursuit of imperialistic interests. But even as he remained consistently critical of reactionary social science, his scholarship bore no malice as he always engaged the same scholars, activists and institutions on their own turf. That probably explained his last, and to many, somewhat inexplicable relationship with the United Nations Millennium Campaign.

Always skeptical of functioning within mainstream institutions, Taju was never cynical in his pursuit of change and transformation. As much as he recognized the flaws of the average African politician especially in his troubled homeland, he never used their flaws as an excuse for justifying military intervention as several other colleagues of ours did unashamedly. Indeed, at a time many of his colleagues from his Bayero days were the ones haunting us in the UK and across the world either as military officers or security apparatchiks for perpetuating military domination, Taju stood respectably clear of such machinations, remained a scourge of military dictators and a huge source of hope and inspiration to younger academics and activists.

For Taju, the personal was always political. As someone close to him for two decades, he was infectious with his love and care. He doted over family and friends. He taught many of us what true friendship is.

Although eclectic in his choice of friends, he would always ask after his friends and even casual acquaintances. As he traversed the length and breadth of the continent, Taju was always in touch with friends in every city. That booming voice on the phone was unmistakable even if you had not seen for years. Many of us are familiar with the hard-line Taju who was J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

138

the uncompromising and dogged defender of the people, but my own abiding memory of the soft Taju was at his wedding in Tunis. I knew Mounira was special the day Taju said to me, 'Man, looks like this thing is serious'. Yet it was more than a leap of faith to give your daughter's hand in marriage to our peri-pathetic brother. It was three days of revelry and fun in the Chaieb family home in Tunis.

Of course, Taju was not without foibles. He was human, after all.

Many who knew him remarked his less than organized lifestyle characterized by a penchant for missing his flights and driving rough. (I even held myself responsible as the one who taught Taju how to drive).

But these foibles paled into insignificance placed side by side with Taju's extraordinary qualities. In all my years of knowing Taju, he always ruminated about how to make a fundamental difference in the lives of ordinary people. He was for the most part the conscience of ordinary people and a scourge of powerful people. Many who know him can regale us with Taju's irreverent treatment of so called powerful people. I had encountered him having repartee with Obasanjo, Mbeki, Museveni, Kagame, Soyinka and Meles Zenawi and he was one African who never wavered in speaking truth to power, and often in the most undiplomatic manner.

The greatest tribute we can pay this African exemplar is to continue in his ways by building institutions and structures that will serve the purpose of our time and beyond. It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who once said, “Not to participate in the major events of one's time is not to have lived�. Taju not only participated in the major events of his time, he charted and shaped the course of many events through his scholarship and activism. Africa has lost a gem; indeed one of the brightest in our firmament. The democratic struggle in Nigeria has been shortchanged by the loss of this consistent advocate of empowerment of the ordinary people. But the struggle must continue. And as he would have told all of us here: LET'S ORGANISE, DON'T AGONISE!!!

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

139

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

ENCOUNTERS

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

140

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

15 24 Hours with Governor Fayemi: A Reporter's Peep Into a Governor's World

By Yinka Fabowale “Punctuality is the soul of business, nay, of Journalism”. This is one of the basic ethics editor drills into a cub reporter on his first day in the news room.

Having learnt bitter lesson from personal experience and that of others I'd always taken care not to be caught on the wrong side of this golden rule. However, a wave of panic and apprehension such as the unfortunate photojournalists felt assailed me as I walked into office of the Governor of Ekiti State on Monday, May 7, 2012 and was informed that the 'Tiger' has already settled in the lair. Tiger is the code name their security minders use to refer to governors in state houses. In this instance it alluded to Dr. John Kayode Fayemi currently in the second year of his four- year tenure, secured after three years of grueling legal duel and a judicially ordered poll rerun of the controversial governorship election in the state, of which he complained he was cheated.

“He is already in his office. He arrived some minutes ago. Yinka Oyebode, the governor's Chief Press Secretary announced, and went on to worsen my condition as he remarked: “I think he noticed you were not at the Lodge (Government House) because I just received his text asking about you. We'll go and see him, so you can at least say hello, but I understand the Speaker (of the State Assembly) the SSG (Secretary to the State Government) and the Head of Service (HOS) are with him right now.

Let me just mark the papers in the interim and then we can go up”. With that the governor's spokesman sank back into his seat and busied himself with scanning the dailies for reports on the state government to be brought to the attention of his principal.

I consulted my wristwatch and involuntarily grimaced on noting it was fifteen minutes past nine in the morning.

This article was first published in Sunday Sun on May 20, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

141

I was in the state on an assignment to study a typical day in the life of the governor. My brief covers observing him both from home and at work. So, save for invading the privacy of his official residence, I was supposed to have started the day's activities with him the moment he stepped out of his inner chamber. I'd been advised that the governor's day normally started about eight when he had breakfast and prepared to leave for office. Usually he arrived the office between 8.30 and 9.00 am, because he may spend some time attending to early visitors, including political associates on matters best settled outside office hours. But, here I was at 9.15am yet to even set eyes on the object of my mission. How do I fill the missing gap in my report? I brooded, feeling the mission doomed from start.

But my feeling of embarrassment was only slightly alleviated by the absence of any sense of guilt or culpability for the circumstance at hand. I had arrived Ado-Ekiti the state capital, the night before and checked into a hotel not far from the Governor's lodge.

The understanding was for me to expect a chaperon to fetch me early in the morning as I was sure to be denied access without a familiar officer to conduct me through the strict security protocols of the Government House. Because of the crucial nature of the assignment, I did not enjoy a sound sleep, as I intermittently woke up severally through the night in order to be up early. By six, I had showered, ordered breakfast and settled to reading while waiting for the one to pick me. I became worried after over an hour of wait by which I'd even dressed up and set with my notebook and tape recorder nobody showed up. Agitated, I tried severally but unsuccessful to put a call to the governor's media aide, Oyebode. When finally we linked up about 8.30 am, he had a car drive me straight to the governor's office, with an explanation that it was late to catch the governor at home as he would already be leaving for work at about that time. Despite the furious racing, Governor Fayemi's convoy was a few minutes ahead of us. Later I was to learn to my chagrin that I missed a weekly ritual in which the governor reviewed a colourful parade and guard of honour mounted by police officers in ceremonial dresses on alighting from his official vehicle at the entrance of the magnificent Governor's office. He did that only on Mondays and the ceremony barely lasted two minutes, my source informed me. Thereafter, he stepped into the expansive foyer of the J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

142

complex and climbed briskly to the first floor of the edifice where he has his office amidst a rampart of armed police security details.

'Never A Dull Moment Here' Soon Oyebode was done with his task. He then led the way to the governor's room on the upper floor after getting me a special visitor's tag that allowed my admittance through various swathes of protective cordon for the chief occupant of the building. The location of the governor's own room in relation to those of his staff in the structural layout confesses to an architectural genius that primes his personal safety in the event of any risk or trouble. To get to his ante-room, the visitor has to pass through a labyrinth of offices and corridors where he is repeatedly stopped, quizzed and/or frisked at every turn by State Security Services (SSS) operatives and uniformed policemen.

When you finally emerge from this maze you enter the waiting room, where another set of plain-clothe security men and the governor's orderly kept the guests company. The governor's secretary's office separates this room from the governor's. As you settle into one of the exquisite sofa, you surmised the architect must be a skilful chess game player who knows just how well to position and shield his queen on the chessboard against attack.

I was allowed in with only my notebook, my phone having been temporarily confiscated at one of the security points, where visitors including some commissioners and government officials were made to submit all electronic devices. The measure, I was informed was to forestall espionage or distraction. But, I noticed the CPS was allowed to keep his own phones and asked why. He explained to me that he was one of the few aides to the governor privileged by virtue of their duties to hold on to the gadgets. “You know, I could be with Oga and he asks me to call some people for him depending on the matter at hand”, he explained.

I was anxious to save my mission from becoming a flop and so requested for the governor's itinerary for the day, while hoping his meeting with his “war council” would end soon. It was not ready yet, one of the officers, who went to consult with the secretary, returned to inform us.

After a little longer wait, a man I recognized as Dr. Ganiyu Owolabi, Secretary to the Government stepped out alongside three other persons J. KAYODE FAYEMI

143

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

who Oyebode identified to me to be the Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin; Mr. Bunmi Famosaya, Head of Service and Hon. Dapo Karounwi, Special Adviser on Legislative Matters stepped out and departed.

We sat watching the giant screen LCD on the office wall as the traffic of people we met grew light as they took turns to go in and see the governor. Among them were Works Commissioner, Sola Adebayo, the Minority Leader and Minority Whip in the state Assembly.

As the latter duo were ushered out of the office after a prolonged discussion two ladies and a young man identified to be children of former deputy governor of old Ondo State who died recently and was buried the previous Friday, the late Chief Akin Omoboriowo walked in and were immediately allowed in. I was told they came to thank the governor for the support and role the state government played in their late father's funeral at the weekend. The deceased politician hailed from Ekiti which was later carved out of the defunct Ondo State.

I was eventually ushered into the presence of the governor at about 11.38am. This Tiger's lair is the size of one huge hall with Governor Fayemi seated on a table positioned at the middle. Facing the door on the far left a conference table and gilded chairs. Two flex prints with life-size photographs of Fayemi and birthday messages congratulating him stood at the corners of the airy ambience.

We waited at the door for the governor to dismiss a rotund darkcomplexioned middle aged woman with an oasis of grey on her head and a man later introduced to me as the Special Adviser, Governor's Office, Chief Biodun Akin- Fasae, who were with him.

'Toyosi Omope: Five Governors And Still Counting' The woman was the first to leave. As she made towards us, she gave a warm smile and turning to the CPS she chided in mock indignation. “Won't you introduce us? (pointing to me). After all, we are to work together today�. I smiled back at Mrs. Toyosi Omope and told her how much pleased I was to formally meet her.

Mrs Toyosi Omope is perhaps the only secretary who has served five governors. She was secretary to Governors Adebayo, Fayose, Olurin, Oni, and now Fayemi. Oyebode who I had grown fond of calling sake (we bear the same first name) had earlier pointed out the governor's powerful J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

144

secretary to me on one of the few occasions he peeked into the waiting room and had obviously hinted her about my presence and mission too. We broke off after saying further pleasantries and noticing the governor has finished with Fasae.

Dr. Fayemi rose to welcome me, flashing his trademark genial, gaptoothed grin as I tried to cover the long gap between the door and his table.

It was the third time I was meeting the governor at such a close up level.

The first was when he hosted me along with a few journalists to a dinner at his Idi-Ishin private residence in Ibadan, Oyo State on the eve of the launching of a book promoted by the Afenifere Renewal Group and Yoruba Academy of which he was one of the spearheads about two years ago. The occasion had facilitated a reunion between me and two former colleagues now based in United States- Wale Adebanwi, a Professor of African Studies at the University of California, Davies, USA and Remi Oyeyemi, ex-editor of The News Magazine who was forced to exile in Uncle Sam's country by the heat of Abacha's dictatorship in the middle 90s. I have also had an interview with Fayemi while he was in the trenches battling to reclaim his stolen mandate and had on one or two occasions been part of a teleconference he had with reporters at the other end during the struggle.

I noticed a flash of recognition registered on the governor. As we pumped hands, he threw Oyebode an “I-told-you-so�, look which was meant to confirm his suspicion that I must be an old acquaintance when I was earlier discussed. But the governor's aide corrected his boss that he has confirmed from me that I was not the same person he had thought I was.

As it were, the governor had in mind another person with the same name who read philosophy from the University of Lagos and who incidentally was my own old childhood friend and neighbour in Ebute Metta, Lagos, back in the 80s.

But the governor was sure he knew me too. I confirmed he was right in his guess, filling him in on our past meetings and saluting his power of recall in spite of the ensuing communication gap and the number of people he must have met since then.

I expressed regrets at my not being at the Governor's lodge that morning and explained the warranting circumstance. He showed understanding but said I could still have things to report especially if I J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

145

stayed till the next day when he is scheduled to inspect some projects in town.

“How about today, sir? “ I asked.

The governor's response plunged me into the pit of disappointment and despair. “Ah, I'll be busy indoor. I have all these files that I must treat. There is quite a pile of them”, he said, leaving me wondering what I would be doing with the idle hours before me and how to explain the extension of my brief to suit the original purpose in my report.

I took leave of the governor after it has been agreed that we would meet by six pm, when he would have become less busy to grant an interview and resumed my watch at the outer office I spent the time watching live broadcast of the House of Representatives probe of the near collapse of the capital market even as a firm instruction was passed to the security men that the governor would not receive any visitor. Some commissioners and officials who came were firmly, but politely turned back by Mrs. Omope.

At about 3.00pm, however, Fayemi's deputy, Mrs. Funmilayo Olayinka, breezed in. She spent about 40 minutes consulting with her boss and then left.

By four in the afternoon, I felt a riot in my stomach and weighed the risk of leaving my post to find a late lunch. But, most providentially, Mrs. Omope came in the nick of time and asked her assistant to serve me tea and biscuits. However, rather than quell the hunger, the fare seemed only to incite the placard-carrying greedy worms into a fiercer revolt. No longer able to bear it after about 30 minutes, I was forced to take an excuse from the governor's secretary and hastened to one of the local bukaterias adjoining the governor's office to quaff a plate of Eba and Egusi soup. I'd asked Mrs. Omope if the governor has had his own lunch. “No”, the secretary said, “He only eats corn, when it is in season. He eats once but usually later in the day”.

Returning from lunch, I was turned back by the governor's security officers who insisted I must again be accompanied by the Chief Press Secretary to be let in. I found that curious and overzealous on their part, considering that we'd been together all day and were informed of why I had to go out.

I went to his office downstairs, to wait for the CPS, who, I was told, was attending some meetings chaired by the deputy governor. He returned J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

146

about 7 p.m and together we went to see the governor. This time, we met a crowd of officials at the outer room, also seeking an audience with him.

They included: Women Affairs Commissioner, Mrs Fola Richie-Adewumi, her counterpart in the ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Dr (Mrs) Eniola Ajayi, Mr. Babajide Arowosafe, (Agriculture); Mr. Paul Omotosho, (Environment) as well as the Director General of the State Job Creation Agency, Mr. Folorunso Aluko.

There was also a three- man team of professors from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, who were on appointment to discuss the blueprint of a programme in Strategic Studies which Dr. Fayemi developed and wanted included as part of the university's curriculum.

Instinctively, I knew it would be late before I could see the governor. But I never reckoned it would be such a long wait of six hours as it turned out. One after the other, the rest left -the Women Affairs Commissioner at ten past eight o'clock, the Education Commissioner at fifteen minutes to ten pm. The hands of the clock kept crawling 10 pm, 11pm. By midnight only the Agriculture Commissioner, the three professors, myself, Oyebode and the governor's security details remained.

At last, at exactly twenty minutes to 1.00am, the governor called for us, after the others had left. We met him still poring over some files. As we entered, he again stood up, threw up his arms, with an apologetic smile on his face. I noticed he did not have his Awolowo cap on. The head dress lay on his massive desk, suggesting he must have been working hard. He suggested we postponed the interview till breakfast the next morning, not because he was fatigued but to allow him clear his desk. I gladly accepted as I confessed I was already dog-tired merely keeping vigil on him. As Oyebode drove me back to my hotel, I could not help wondering where the governor derived the incredible energy to stay up so late and still report for duty 8.30 the next morning!

'This Governor Not The Partying Type' But that is a routine those working with him are accustomed. “We don't have a definite closing time”, a security aide with Michelin built had told me in a chat. “Sometimes we are here till between 1.00am and 2.00 am.

There was a day, we left the office only for him to go and attend a meeting at the Deputy Governor's Office. Our people call us late hours and are J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

147

surprised we are still in the office at such odd hours. But that doesn't mean he won't wake up by 5.30. It's not that you'll knock his door and he hasn't dressed up, with his eyeglasses in place” the body guard said.

And how did he know that? I pressed. “I know because if you send him text by 5.30 when we might have retired, he will reply you almost immediately. For instance, when we have emergencies, such as fire incidents, robberies, assassinations or communal conflicts, we have to brief him on the security situation and whether he needs to come or not.

For example, there was a night fire gutted the School of Nursing, we called him about 5.00 am and we were not surprised to find him up. The day Ewi's (of Ado-Ekiti) palace had a fire incident, we had just closed in the office at about 1.30 am, he wanted to go and visit the place immediately, but we told him not to bother, that everything was under control because the fire has abated. So, because everything revolves round him as the chief executive and chief security officer of the state, he monitors everything.”

Governor Fayemi, his aides also told me hardly attended parties or social occasions, on weekends, except on rare occasions such as chieftaincy installations, where his official presence was required. Even so, he often left the ceremonies only to drive straight to the office to do some work, the security aide disclosed, stressing that this was also the pattern on public holidays.

But the governor's schedule could sometimes be daunting and hectic especially if he has engagements outside the state, straining the capability of his security team. Said another security man: “Sometimes we have to divide ourselves into three units-some will be in Abuja, Lagos and Ekiti. Like last Saturday, when he did inspection of projects in the state, he moved to Ibadan and then to Lagos. The next morning to Benin (to commiserate with Governor Adams Oshiomole on the death of his slain aide) and from there to Ibadan and Osogbo before we finally returned home. As he came in, the HOS are waiting for him at a meeting.

“When he has meetings to attend at Abuja and the meeting is concluded early enough, say by 2.00pm, he will quickly return while his brother governors stay back. From Abuja he arrives Akure by 3pm. When we go to pick him, we prepare in two ways. He is going either to the office or home to continue work or attend to visitors –commissioners or politicians already waiting to see him…. No room for contractors”.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

148

Sometimes the pressure from a daily throng of members of the public, party men, youths and associates seeking one favour or the other from the governor is so much that a plan was devised to have aides such as his Chief of Staff, CPS or the security agents deal with, at their level, said an aide: “Much as he is a people's governor and likes to meet their needs, not everybody can see him. Here, we see a lot of visitors- expected and unexpected, those who need school fees, jobs and several with other problems or seeking financial assistance for a musical CD or book they want to publish. We ask them to reduce their requests in writing and they will all get to him. Some he refers to the relevant commissioners or the Chief of Staff, who then handle them. Still, he has to read and minute on intelligence reports we send him from time to time, because we don't just manage his immediate physical environment, but what's going on in the entire state”.

I was also told that whenever he travelled the governor always had “Ghana must Go” bags packed full of files, mails and other documents in the boot of his vehicle, while he treated some others occupying the back seat with him!

Why does Fayemi want to break his back for the state so? A top source says he does not blame the governor for being so finicky. “You know some civil servants. They like to stack up the files so much, so that he probably won't have the time, or be able to go through the submissions and ask questions. But, he is a very careful and meticulous person”, the source said.

The governor, Oyebode disclosed extends similar attitude to speeches written for him: “You can't write a speech for him, without his adding or altering some things. You won't believe it, but he typesets his speeches on his laptop, which is always by his bedside if it is urgent. So, you must not only be physically strong, you must be intellectually sound and have technological expertise to work with him. You must know how to use laptop or black berry, because he is constantly sending you texts and mails on what he wants done” said Oyebode.

The governor, I understand, also does not appear to have a daily exercise regimen. So, how does he manage to keep looking athletic and fit as he does? Oyebode explains that he participates in a once a month keep fir exercise that he also makes compulsory for all state functionaries, who J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

149

all gather at the stadium on the said day to do work-outs.

I asked His Excellency later at our breakfast interview, how he got the strength to cope with the punishing schedule. He attributes it to his nature as “a not-so-social person”. His words: “There are people who would in fact, regard me as anti-social. I attend social functions because of the nature of the work I do. You must be people's person to be in public office, but I'm sure because I grew up as the youngest in the family and I was the one that remained when my siblings had got married, there was a part of me that was very comfortable in my own company. So I have no issues dealing with being alone. That also forced certain life style on me –reading, writing, reflection. Things that do not naturally sit well with somebody that is a public personnel. For example, when I first came into politics, many people do not know who I was, in spite of the fact that I was very active in political movement right from my younger days. I was not the typical activist who had the prominence that the media associate with activism. So, I would say it's more to do with understanding who I am and being able to deploy my God- given talent in a productive way.”

'My Wife, My Sparring Partner' Fayemi's new life as governor has been helped by the understanding his wife, Erelu Olabisi Fayemi, who, I understood, equally keeps a similar regimen as Chairman of the State Committee on Culture and Tourism and sometimes closed as late as 10.00pm too.

Oyebode, who once served as media aide to the First Lady before being redeployed to the governor's office as CPS says: “Other workers used to ask me to talk her into closing. Her reply usually was: “If you want to go, you can go. So, you too want to join the civil servants and I tried to tell her that it's not about me, it's about you taking a break to rest. If ever she was persuaded, she'd say, okay, we'll go, when I finish what I am doing and when she leaves, she'd still take her laptop along to continue the work when she gets home”.

Has this not killed romance and close family life? “Naturally”, the state's helmsman agreed: “If you spend 16 to 18 hours in a day at work, you clearly don't have as much time as you would normally have with your spouse in terms of doing what you used to do as a young couple. I've been married now for 23 years and it's clearly not that hot and heavy romance as J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

150

the earlier years. And we are both middle aged confronted with the challenge of public office. Don't also let's forget that I have a wife who is also married to public service herself. So there is nothing that I do now that is strange to my wife. Even as an activist. At times we used to exchange domestic notes at airports. But, the most important thing is to devote some of the quality time to family when you are in this type of situation, although you are always told you're public property” Fayemi pays tribute to his wife for her support and role in the success of his government. He described her as his intellectual sparring partner and “the much more passionate activist” between both of them.

Said he: “Our house is a philosophy seminar class, Political Science, Gender Studies Class. Most of time I will give her greater credit of being a better politician and given a chance, she will be a great president or governor. She is committed to what she does and also to project my political career with great effect. I hardly attend social functions, I'm happy that she's there, I can always deploy her to do that for me and she is very effective. And as a governor's wife, she's been very active. First ladies as they are called are supposed to be seen with beautiful headgear, lace materials and all that. They are not supposed to be intelligent, they are not supposed to have an opinion, they are not supposed to be heard and she has refused to abide by all that strictures that you put on those who occupy that position because for her, she doesn't believe that her view should be silenced, simply because she is the wife of the governor. And I agree, as I often said to our people here, actually you are getting two for the price of one because what she brings to the table, very few wives of governors bring that much passion to the job, because this it something she has done for the past two decades, working with women, projecting women working in public life, insisting on women's right and looking for ways to empower women in the various spheres. She's done quite a number of things in this regard and she's responsible for my having a woman as my deputy. She is responsible for the number of women we have in Ekiti State House of Assembly, we have four women now. She is responsible for the number of women we have in the cabinet and she's my greatest critic. She would tell me things people are saying outside that some of my own aides will not have the courage to tell me. She basically will call the drivers, the cooks and ask them what are people saying about me, including people on the streets J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

151

and they've come to know that she will do that. I cherish that support”.

Yet, one question begs for answer from this work bug, an academic in government, does he still have time to read? If he does, what manner of literature? His response surprises me: “I read because it's important to me to learn from the lessons of those who have come before me. Most time I travel, my car is full of either my official files or books on important peoples. There was actually a time I was reading four or five books differently. People around me see that as strange but I'm reading them for different reasons. I'm reading a book now by Frank Chikane, he is a South African political activist who served as the closest minister to President Thambo Mbeki. He was the Minister of State. So, he gives his own insight about how president Mbeki was taken out of office in South Africa. He entitled the book: Chikane (Eight Days in September: The Removal of Thanbo Mbeki (Picador, 2012). At the same time, I'm reading a book by Dimgba Igwe and Mike Awoyinfa on one of the most fascinating figures in journalism in Nigeria and then moved to political office, Aremo Olusegun Osoba (Osoba: The Newspaper Years). At the same time, I'm reading another book by President (Barrack) Obama's sister, Auma, on how her brother got involved in politics, the role she played, how they first met and how she introduced him to the family back in Kenya. You could notice that there is a trend in all these books. They are either political biography or journalism, or history, both contemporary and ancient history. I take time to read a lot of work on public policy as well, because one of the things I'm doing right now is preparing for a programme that we're establishing at the state university on Peace and Strategic Studies, that is my area of scholarship and naturally, I want to keep abreast of what is going on in that area, even as I still focus on substantive issues of government”.

An early morning downpour that continued till noon aborted the governor's planned outing. But, I did not feel that I have missed anything as I departed the governor's office on Tuesday. There was hardly anything to add, with what I had heard, seen and experienced in the last 24 hours, except, perhaps the echo of Oyebode's remark as he saw me to the door.

“Superficial people only see the frills and glamour about the office of governor. They envy governors as they go on the streets in a convoy. They don't know the immense challenges and pains the people suffer”, the governor's image maker said. Although I knew that statement was intended J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

152

as a PR payoff point for my benefit, I could not help, but agree with the observation. Except that any generalization could be false. Certainly, there are governors who imagine that holding a sceptre in his hands, without exercising the obligations attached to the office alone makes one a king. I know of a former governor of a state in the South West who while in power filled the working hours with hedonistic indulgences. Once I had an opportunity of interviewing him as late as 10.00pm, the avuncular politician, notorious for flamboyant dressing and lifestyle kept taking swigs from a bottle of liquor tucked out of view behind his table. It was obvious he had been on the drinking binge since he resumed work early in the morning, with his bleary eyes, slurred replies to my questions and occasional belch reeking of foul alcohol.

I don't envy Governor Fayemi and his hardworking wife. But I certainly do envy the people of Ekiti State for having a couple with kindred spirits of love, sacrifice, zeal and commitment to the task they have assigned them.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

153

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

16 “We Need a Movement To Escape Further Calamity�

By Muyiwa Adeyemi How would you assess 13 years of democracy, against the background of general disillusionment from Nigerians and the growing concern that 2015 could spell doom for the country?

WE can use many prefixes for the state of our democracy; fragile democracy, ailing democracy, unsettled democracy; the important point is that democracy is a process, democracy is not an event and when you have a process, clearly, there will be progress, there will be reversal, but the fact and figures that you must always look for is that the residues of authoritarianism, 13 years after ought to have disappeared. And the shoot of democracy ought to have germinated, if not into strong oak, but at least into a strong enduring tree forms that are irreversible. I am not sure many of us can say the process we are experiencing now is irreversible. And that is a concern to people who strongly feel that the residue of authoritarianism and residue of militarism should have given way to a much more deepening process of democratisation and development.

But I think we must also ask ourselves beyond the disappointments, whether there could have been any difference from what we have now, even the process that led to our so called democratisation, because I don't want to call what we have now as democratic or democracy; that process is a democratisation process in which we have come from almost a post conflict environment into a democratising polity.

But there are steps we ought to have taken, but which we didn't take, such as, looking at the structure of this entity called Nigeria itself. I think we were so angry with the military that the transformation that we thought we fought for was just replaced with reconfiguration of a space.

Yes, Alli Baba is dead, but the 40 thieves are very much thriving in the 24

Interview conducted by Muyiwa Adeyemi, Head, South West Bureau, Ado Ekiti of The Guardian (Lagos, Nigeria) and published in The Guardian on Sunday, 27 May, 2012.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

154

environment. I am surprised that 13 years into our democratisation experience, there are still hue and cry for a revisit of the polity of the Nigerian entity, coming from even unexpected quarters, I don't think it is a game of who wants power; it is more to do with the disillusionment in the entire society that as this state is presently constituted, whether it can bring any transformational development to Nigeria.

What is the way out?

I am a known unapologetic federalist and I have had cause to argue consistently that this feeding bottle federalism that conflicts with the constituent parts is unlikely to produce the kind of natural growth that we expect in any federal setting, because the constituent parts have not taken ownership of the entity. When we argue this way here, there are those who in their simplistic approach would think you are pursuing a secessionist agenda. No, the point we are making, which has been proven by the repeated failure of the Nigerian state, in terms of delivering the goods to the people and I don't want to talk just in terms of the food on the table, that is essential, but I come from a background that sees democracy not in an instrumentalist sense, I also think that freedom, as intangible as it might be is a significant positive development that should emerge. But that itself is being threatened by the authoritarian trait that is returning in a manner in which the centre treats the constituent parts as subjects.

One should think that 13 years down the line, we would have survived some of this centrifugal and centripetal tension with some of uncertainties that surround our democratisation process. But I am an incurable optimist about the Nigerian project, I still feel very strongly that the only antidote to a deteriorating democracy is more democracy and that is why it is important for us to organise a movement, a movement that transcends ethnicity, that transcends party affiliations, regionalism and religion, but recognises that the Nigeria centre as it is, is a threat to its security and we must all be ready to rescue the centre in order to save this country.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

155

What do you expect politicians to do to get the country out of the doldrums?

The problem with Nigeria cannot be solved by politicians alone; it goes beyond party affiliations because, the Nigerian crisis cannot be solved by those who want an opportunistic response to it. Politicians by their nature should provide leadership but they do not have answers to these problems. I, as a politician would see myself providing a level of leadership my people should look up to and I can do that within the little space called Ekiti, but the values that make democracy strong are values that the politicians do not have monopoly over; integrity in the public space and passion for our people, commitment to transparency and accountability, these are important fundamental tools of engagement with the people that have lost faith in political leadership. The people who have this credibility may not even be in partisan political space right now, and that is why I am talking about a movement.

Some people will see it as a failure on my part as a politician to argue in that way, but my primary interest is that we want this nation to work because people talk about Boko Haram for example, and in simplistic thinking of some Nigerians, they see it as religious; they explain it away as ethnicity, that some troublesome Hausas are disturbing the peace of the country. Then somebody will say to you, we arrested a Yoruba Boko Haram; what does it matter whether the man is Yoruba or Hausa, he is a criminal, you arrested a criminal, why must you define him from where he comes from, unless you want to pander to certain stereotype. For me, the ethnic Boko Haram and/or religious Boko Haram are by themselves extension of much more virulent economic and political Boko Haram, the tool of explanation for something that is much more deeper in the way to hit at the fabric of the society.

We are talking about a people that had been hardened by the society, people who have reached a point of thinking that they have nothing to lose in a society that cherish life, the reason why people say 'Nigerians love life so much, that they will never think of committing suicide.' Is this not what we are saying less than a decade ago? How come now that Nigeria has reached a point where its citizens can blow themselves up without thinking of the overall implication of what they are doing? You need a sociological explanation for that instead of the simplistic J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

156

explanation that we get.

I think we have reached a point we have to ask ourselves how we embarked on a journey without a map. Let us figure out where the atlas is and that will be the beginning of nation building in Nigeria.

Don't you think the government at the Federal and State level seem incapacitated in tackling the monumental spate of corruption, which has put a serious question mark on the democratic process?

The corruption angle to the Nigerian crisis is deep, let us go back to ask what is this Nigeria, what does it mean to the people that inhabit this space; because we need to have an elite consensus on what this country means to us. I am not sure there is an elite consensus to what Nigeria means; that is why it is largely becoming a criminal enterprise, if I get the chance I take my own and leave. There is no sense of a Nigeria that belongs to all and that must serve the interest of all those who inhabit this space.

And people at the top behave as if it is our turn to chop. There is a book written by a journalist of Financial Times about a Kenyan anti-corruption Czar, It Is Our Turn To Eat, so Nigeria in a criminal mode has become a turn by turn enterprise.

What does this pointless debate mean to you, we have a President in office that has just spent a year in office and the unnecessary debate has been entered into about 2015? You must ask yourself, are Nigerians happy about the state of things? This is governance era; we have had an election. I am in the opposition, Goodluck Jonathan is my President, that is my own attitude, and I continue to imagine why people around President Jonathan would not allow him to focus on governance or not be dissuaded from even distracting him with complications around 2015. He too should let them know that he has a job to do. Politicians would always bring this kind of distraction because they see it as an opportunity to chop. I see it around me here, people come around me to say, 'what are you going to do about this, somebody wanted to run against you in 2014.' I always laugh and ignore them. It is a pointless discussion at this stage; the nation is being distracted by this. We need to ask ourselves if anybody is really taking us serious in the comity of nations.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

157

I am talking about corruption within the context of whether the anti-graft agencies are living up to their responsibilities?

Anti-graft agencies are products of their own environment.

Unless you have an isolated case of individual performance, the rot in Nigeria is systemic. I don't want to blaspheme; there are those who have argued that if you put God Almighty in this system, he would be stained.

That does not say that we do not have some personalities with the strength of character, but institutions are important.

There are many people in the Federal Government that I have tremendous respect for because they are committed to making a difference, but they operate within a system. I operate within a system; I know that I am not moving at the pace I would have loved to move even in this small space I manage, because there are systemic challenges that I am dealing with.

How would you react to President Jonathan's comment that he is not the originator of Nigeria's numerous problems?

It is true that President Jonathan did not originate the problems that we are confronting, as I said it is systemic, but I am a little surprised. I think it was President Truman of the United States that once had cause to say that the “buck stops at my desk�. The truth of the matter is that no politician, no governor, as far as the people of Nigeria is concerned, when we are the ones currently occupying the office, should tell the people that we are not responsible for the rot. We knew there was rot, we ought to have familiarised ourselves with the challenges that we are going to face. All Nigerians were fully aware that President Jonathan came to meet a mess, and part of the reasons why they elected him was the hope that he would clear the mess.

Would you say he has started clearing the mess?

It would be unfair to judge him on that, because they would say what do you expect him to say, he is an opposition governor; that we wanted to get rid of him and take his position. As I said, this is a period to have a movement for transformation because Nigeria needs it at this particular point in time. If we are not careful, none of us will become an J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

158

innocent bystander, because, either you earn your wealth legitimately or by illicit means, the mode of poverty and bitterness in the society would soon consume all of us, unless we act now.

Some Nigerians have suggested the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), as panacea to Nigeria's problems; some talk of true federalism while some are now agitating for regionalism, what is your take on this?

People are just worried and they feel time is going; that in the comity of nations, Nigeria has become a huge joke and that is how we are being treated outside. People want some quick fix. And there are no quick fixes; it was the quick fix that got us to the 1999 democracy. We did not realise at that point that the process is as important as the product. We went with the school of the end justifies the means. Let the military go, it does not matter who comes, yes the military left but we got militarism in return.

Now, we are at a point where there will be increasing privatisation of violence and the level of insecurity is calling serious attention to the capacity or incapacity of the state to wield the necessary monopoly over instrument of violence and over the management of security, which of course is the responsibility of the state.

And any nation that is unable to provide a safe and secured environment for its citizens is bound to have its legitimacy called into question. And that is why some of us have consistently insisted that we bring government closer to the people.

In Ekiti State, 99 per cent of my people do not bother where Abuja is, Abuja has no meaning, no affinity, no emotional connection to them, as far they are concerned Fayemi is the governor. Anytime when people say that road that has not been fixed is a federal road, they do not understand that, they want a road that is motorable, we are the ones who pass through this road. President Jonathan at best will come here once or twice, but the reality is that we are the ones using these roads. I have to reduce the argument to this level for you to know why we have to do things differently.

So when we talk about fiscal federalism, it is about local accountability because they elected you and you are closer to them at the local level or at the state level, they have no connection with Abuja.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

159

Many believe that politicians have penetrated the judiciary, the reason that arm of government seems to be in perpetual crisis; what do you say to this?

I think that is one of the by-products of the inadequacies of our democratisation process. Everyone is concerned about what is happening to our judiciary, because that arm of government ought to be an independent arbiter when all odds fail. When we, the politicians have gone for the jugular and we are out to destroy ourselves, we know that we need an independent arbiter out there that would protect the integrity of the state and also protect the rights of the individual. You will agree with me that those who have the courage of their conviction and the strength of character to do that are the ones who have become a victim of the current intimidating attack on the judiciary. No doubt, some officers of the judiciary might have compromised themselves but when you look at the pattern of what has transpired in the last one year, and see the way the judiciary has been dragged into the mud, I think it is not good for this democracy because every independent thinking judge, every bold and courageous judge that can speak truth to power are being victimised and being hounded out of the system.

And what is the implication for the polity?

The implication is clear, very dire. If I am existing in an environment where cartels have taken over the space because justice is not available through the normal means again, it would certainly lead to extra legal means of settling disputes, because people will not have faith in the legal processes again. Once people believe that justice belongs to the highest bidder and the highest bidder is government; that puts a very serious risk to our democracy which is still very fragile, to our commitment to constitutionalism.

Even the idea of asking President Jonathan to accept or reject the decisions of National Judicial Council (NJC) on Justice Ayo Salami, who was already a judge, in which case people are not asking for a confirmation of his appointment is misplaced. I believe once the NJC has decided that he was not culpable of what he was accused of, the NJC ought to have summarily announced his return as the President of the Court of Appeal.

But it has been turned to football game, left to the whims and caprices of J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

160

the President.

Ordinarily, that should not be a problem since the President is expected to be above it all, our number one figure; but clearly, partisan interest has crept into this matter and it is unfortunate because it has done a lot of damage to the fabric of this Nigerian project and we all have a responsibility to protect this country, because if this country fails, all of us will face a doomsday scenario.

There are more demands than what resources can cater for, which has made many Nigerians to begin to lose hope; how are you keeping hope alive in Ekiti in the face of scarce resources?

It is true that more demands are competing for the resources available. In Ekiti, we try to be honest, we are not exactly a buoyant state, we are number 35 on the revenue ladder, but we have giant ambition to make a fundamental difference in the lives of our people.

We believe that the social services is key to increasing the social capital and the fabric of our state; that is why we provide free education at the lower end of the scale, primary and secondary schools, free health services to the vulnerable section of our population, social security scheme where we give our indigent senior citizens N5, 000 per month, and 20,000 elders now benefit from the scheme, job opportunities for the school leavers by focusing on agriculture and infrastructural development. We have not shirked in our responsibilities to the wide range of the population that we have in the state. We pay minimum wage, we are one of the twelve states that I am aware of, that are paying it despite our lean resources. We are improving on our infrastructures.

We have also come to the conclusion in Ekiti that no matter what we achieved, we must be committed to regionalism because it is a response to the failure of the Nigerian entity, rather than the simplistic belief that it is a secessionist bid. None of us that are involved in the regional integration enterprise wants this country to break. Look at us in the Southwest, and I know that my colleagues in the South-south and also in the Southeast are active; we have realised that it is futile to allow the artificial boundary of a failed polity arrest our joint development because we all have our area of comparative advantage that we can leverage on and take advantages of our colleagues that have certain advantages that we have not got, to have a J. KAYODE FAYEMI

RECLAIMING THE TRUST

161

stronger entity that will spill over to the larger entity called Nigeria.

Currently, Nigeria is not working. If you want a larger entity that works, there must be a regional economy mechanism, which will make Nigeria to work. I am an unapologetic Nigerian that believes in Nigerian project.

What is the next stage in the Southwest economic reintegration process after it was launched?

Things are happening. We already have in place what we call the development agenda for Western Nigeria, which looks at the comparative advantage in each of our states that we can leverage on.

We are already looking at the feasibility of a Western rail of transportation; we are looking at linkages in the agriculture sector. We are looking at the opportunity of the great market that Lagos provides. The meetings that we held had resulted in a Technical Commission, empowered to transform these ideas into tangible products.

Ultimately, the vision is clear, and we are not reinventing the wheels, it was something that had been done before in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. What is different now is that we have seen the imminent danger to remain in our cocoon, when we know that when reality beacons, I need to be supported by my brothers from Osun, Ondo and all over.

We can do better when we come together, none of us is small, Ekiti is the smallest of the six states in the Western region, but it is larger in population than 13 African countries, Gambia, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius etc.; there is nothing that says this regional framework cannot produce a GDP that triples the current GDP of Nigeria.

J. KAYODE FAYEMI