Where is Fayemi leading Ekiti?
Segun Dipe raises a poser on some of the milestones of Kayode Fayemi administration in Ekiti State
“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” –Alexander the Great
If you talk to most people, you will discover that they actually mean well in their criticism of what government does. But they don’t have much of a breadth on knowledge or understanding of what the real issues are, when it comes to governance. They listen to pundits who feed them with what they are supposed to think and they keep repeating that until pretty soon they say, “Oh, well that must be true.”
While such pundits cannot be stopped from informing the people, they should also not be stopped from saying exactly what they see. That Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, is becoming the most talked-about governor in the areas of value restoration, development and social investment is beyond mere adulation or propaganda. The discerning ones within the opposition party have equally confirmed his exemplary leadership and described him as a visionary leader who knows where to head and how to get there.
Ekiti faces developmental challenges and capacity constraints as a small state. Even when its government aspires to higher standard of living for the people, it must struggle with the limited material and human resources. Its size and Gross Domestic
Product are relatively small and can easily pin the state down. Going by the 2015 ranking, Ekiti is the least favoured among the Southwestern states. Its GDP stood at $3.6 Billion with per capita of $1.133m and a labour force of 1.4m.
Lagos led the pack with a whopping GDP of $50.8 Billion, per capita of $4,182 and a workforce of 7.7m. Oyo came second with $27.3 Billion GDP, $3,596 per capita and 4.4m labour force, followed by Ogun with $18.5 billion GDP, $3,660 per capita and 2.4m workforce, then Ondo with $11bn GDP, $2,423 per capita and 2.4m workforce. Osun is also ahead of Ekiti with $10bn GDP, $2,199 per capita and 2.3m workforce.
Fayemi did not find these statistics scary, intimidating or discouraging. Whereas people are wondering how the wonderworking governor has been able to navigate the first year of his second term in office seamlessly, he, on the other hand, has been saying it’s no big deal at all. In the same state that somebody grumbled about the weight of workers and pensioners salaries, emoluments, pensions and gratuities, where school children were being taxed, where social welfare packages initially introduced by Fayemi himself in office were cancelled and laudable projects allowed to rot away, Fayemi returned and restored all these lost glories within the first one year.