Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State in this interview with journalists laments the death of 10 members of the National Youth Service Corps and X-rays the just-concluded elections. FEMI MAKINDE was there. Excerpt:<\/span><\/p>\n Your party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, was alleged to have induced voters in Ekiti State with money to record landslide victory. How do you react to this?<\/span><\/p>\n Well, it is unfortunate, because many of those who lost have already conceded defeat. They have congratulated those who won the elections.<\/span><\/p>\n I think it is gracious on their part to have conceded defeat in an election in which they lost without any doubt. The truth of the matter is that we are at an advantage. We have the progressive minded people.<\/span><\/p>\n Just look at the pattern of the elections in the Western region. You will see clearly why the election went the way it did in Ekiti. I am sure Arise (Senator Ayo Arise) knew quite well that he was not going to win the election. Not after he had annihilated the bulk of the senatorial zone he is representing, including the community where his wife came from where he didn\u2019t win a single unit. How much money could we have spent that would give us leverage in Ikole beyond the fact that they had a candidate in that election who they, the people, thought is their enemy. In Oye Local Government where Arise hails from and where I also come from, there are 57,000 people on the voter register. Like I always say, let us even concede the 12,000 votes in Oye town to Arise, he still would have lost the way he did because we have 12 wards in the local government. We won in all the wards except two in his home town. So, I don\u2019t want to dignify such insinuation with an answer. But if you ask me if we mobilised people to go out and vote? Obviously yes. Did we use money to do it? Money is a player in any election but we couldn\u2019t compete with Arise when it comes to money, because he has all the constituency allowance and the committee money that he brought from Abuja.<\/span><\/p>\n Why didn\u2019t money work for him?<\/span><\/p>\n That makes it clear to you that money couldn\u2019t have been a factor. The people decided on their own that this is the direction we want to head. The policies that this government is implementing are populist policies, they are policies that the people want to associate with. They do not want the risk of losing these policies.<\/span><\/p>\n This is exactly what happened. And It is surprising that it happened in Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Lagos, Did we buy off voters in all those places ?<\/span><\/p>\n What is your impression about the just concluded general elections and your assessment of the Independent National Electoral Commission?<\/span><\/p>\n Despite my skepticism, I knew this was going to be a better election. I just did not know the scale at which it would be better than the previous elections conducted by Prof. Maurice Iwu. Every successive election has been progressively worse than the ones that we had. The election conducted by Ephraim Akpata was relatively okay in the annals of elections in Nigeria but it was still bad. Goubadia\u2019s election in 2003 was deemed to have been more discredited. Iwu, don\u2019t even let us talk about it at all. I think all Nigerians have agreed that the 2007 general elections were the most gregariously rigged in our country.<\/span><\/p>\n I think by and large and by the assessment from both local and international observers, many would agree that Jega (INEC Chairman) has done reasonably well. Although, there are still a lot of gaps; I don\u2019t paint a picture of an election that was perfect in every sense of it, but you see his commitment to doing it right. Even where there were obvious mistakes, he was prepared to change the way and listen to suggestions that would improve the system. If you assess the election on a large scale, the technical quality of the election and the impartiality of the umpire, I think the election scored 60 to 70 per cent. There are of course the Nigerian conditions and the challenges are often difficult to overcome. All the 12 states that make up the core North voted for General Muhammadu Buhari. And all the states in the Middle Belt, Christian majority Middle Belt and of course the South, all voted President Goodluck Jonathan including, to my chagrin \u2013Ekiti State \u2013 where I campaigned vigorously for our presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. And my own party members defied me to vote President Jonathan. I think it calls for sober reflection in a very serious manner because I thought we had put this behind us in Nigeria and that we are ready to forge ahead. It still points towards the direction of crisis of nationhood in our country. When you now see what happened, the post-election violence that consumed corps members, including one of my own, it underscored the extent of work we still have to do in forging and integrating a nation in which all of us will not reduce representation to ethnicity and religion. I also think there is something that the elections pointed out to me and a lot of people who are avid watchers, it pointed out, at least in this part, the sophistication of the average Nigerian voter. They did what we always call skirt and blouse voting in Ghana. Ghanaians will choose somebody for president and choose another for the parliament. I was taken aback when my party lost the presidential election in Ekiti. I had to go back to review what was happening.<\/span><\/p>\n No fewer than 10 corps members were killed in the post election violence in some northern states. What is your view about the scheme?<\/span><\/p>\n Let me say this without any shadow of a doubt that the National Youth Service Corps remains one of the most insightful policies that ever came out of any Nigerian government. I had a great time as a youth corps member in Sokoto State where I served. And I was taken care of by people who did not know me from Adam. They provided me with accommodation. They gave me reasons to live a good life and it was my first opportunity to engage with the leading lights of the country. It was during that time that I had the opportunity of interviewing former president Shehu Shagari for The Guardian. And I also met former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji. Many of the people who were icons and remain icons in Nigeria hailed from the state where I served. I made some of my great friends during the youth service year. And I am aware that the story is almost the same for every person who went through the system, particularly in the area they were unfamiliar with before their service year. The principle of integration promoted by the NYSC is not in itself the problem. I don\u2019t think Nigerians would say that; what is unfortunate about this recent experience is the way the corps members were targeted; because, it was reminiscent of the pogrom of the 1960s. I was talking earlier about the dark side of the election, reminding Nigerians that we have not moved beyond certain prejudices and bigotry.<\/span><\/p>\n The idea of you winning an election, because in all of these places, the so-called Almajiris who are responsible for this carnage were supposedly supporting the Congress for Progressive Change. And the CPC won in the places where corps members were attacked and killed. It is just like the Action Congress of Nigeria targeting them in Ekiti and killing them, having won an election in the state. It just defies very logical thinking and rationality as far as I am concerned, of course that is what a mob does to you. If you are in a mob situation, rationality goes out the window first. And before you know it, it becomes a vicious dock-in dock system. What I find most devastating, therefore, is the fact that we have turned corps members to sacrificial lambs in the name of unity. We need to really re-examine that. For how long are we going to continue to make our children sacrificial lambs in the name of Nigeria\u2019s unity? And what sort of unity willfully destroys young people in the manner that was done to these 10 young leaders of tomorrow. I sat down with our own late Seun Adewumi\u2019s mother and she recounted the gory picture of what happened and the phone calls the boy was making as the attackers were coming nearer and nearer to him, it was the most bizarre thing that could happened to any parent.<\/span><\/p>\n The recently concluded Ekiti State Education Summit recommended that the state should fund one out of the three existing state universities. What is the position of your government on this?<\/span><\/p>\n The government called the summit in the first place and the government will definitely review the outcome of the summit. There is no doubt that it will involve a lot of work.<\/span><\/p>\n Clearly, we don\u2019t have a choice than to look seriously into some of the recommendations. These are serious minded Ekiti people. People who cannot be accused of not loving Ekiti or getting involved in this on purely partisan grounds. The Prof. Sam Alukos of this world who are helping Nigeria. Why would they come to their own state and not speak the truth to those in power.<\/span><\/p>\n The whole essence of the summit was to speak the truth to power. I wanted them to tell me things others would not be able to tell me because I am the governor. These are people who are old enough to be my father. They are distinguished in their own careers, in all walks of life. So they really don\u2019t need anything from Fayemi in order to earn a living or survive in their own environment. But, they are genuine patriots, they are committed to Ekiti and that is why I cannot take with levity some of the things they have said. What they have said is rational and it makes great sense to many people who are not wearing blinkers and not partisan about issues that are germane to Ekiti. The reason why this is so important for Ekiti is that we have an imprimatur of an educationally advantaged state. But we have become a sorry sight in terms of educational development in Nigeria. And if we have to have a rapid turn around, there is no doubt that we need to stop pretending that glorified secondary schools are universities.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n