The truth about NGF election’ll haunt many govs – Gov Fayemi

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State in this interview responds to
issues pertaining to insecurity in the land, the crisis in the
Nigerian Governors Forum, the forthcoming gubernatorial election in
his state among others. Excerpt:
Do you believe that the introduction of state police could solve the
threats of insecurity in the country?
I am an advocate of multi-level policing. If you bring me (as a
policeman) from Ekiti to Zamfara and dump me at Talata-Mafara and
give mea gun to protect people; who am I protecting at the place when
I don't have a clue about the language? I see multi-level policing
having a key role to play in the country.
In the light of what we have also seen in Rivers State, I can tell you
that some of our colleagues, who are opposed to multi-level policing
are changing theirviews now because they could see the blatant abuse
of federal police within alocal entity simply because somebody is not
on their side of the debate. Manyof us are setting up alternative
security forces in order to protect our people and our environment.
That is what Zamfara State wanted to do that led to the debate at the
National Assembly. The governor decided to take the bull by the horn
because 48 of his citizens were killed in one day and our police
cannot do anything about it. Governors have come to a conclusion that
if the police cannot help their states after they have bought
uniform, patrol vehicles, bullets, some electronic equipment and
Armoured Personnel Carriers, APCs,for the police, they will look for
alternative way to protect their citizens. We (governors) are actually
running the police. Many of our colleagues train police personnel
evenabroad. If we are doing all these, how can someone turn back and
talk about federal police? Many of these things are clear distortions
of federalism.
Yet you agreed to the one percent deduction from your statutory
allocations to be funneled to the police?
Not all the governors agreed to the idea. Some governors came out to
address the media on it. I have raised it with the chairman of the
NGF. I wasn't there when the idea was tabledto governors and I know
that some governors, who were there did indicate they will go to
court. I'm elected by Ekiti people. I cannot subscribe to that
deduction without going to my people first. It's their money.
Do you just sit at one economic councilmeeting and decide on your own
to accept the deduction because they puta paper before you to agree to
one percent deduction from federation revenue? What is the modality
for that? Will one per cent deduction from our allocation address
Ekiti State security challenges? Who dictates what happens with the
one per cent? Is it Abuja or Ekiti? Do I have total control over what
the commissioner ofpolice does in my state? Even with what we bought
for police; we don't have total control on them. In this country, we
just keep dodging fundamental issues, which are structural.
As an active insider, what actually happened during the NGF election?
Our colleagues, who have found themselves defending this albatross
round their neck also know that this will come to haunt them. A lot of
them have lost their credibility. First, they said there was no
election. When we came out with tape, Nigerians knew that there was an
election where the ballot was counted. Before we got to 35 votes being
cast and counted, we had three hours of debate on one, consensus. We
said at the last meetingwe concluded that Okauru (NGF DG) was going to
organise the election andwhoever wins, becomes our chairman.
Later, they said we should vote via open ballot, show of our hands; we
said we are adults, we were not doing show of hands, we would vote by
secret ballot which is recognised in the country's electoral act. They
agreed again. We moved to the issue of agents for the candidates,
both candidates agreed on one agent, the DG. We all sat, voted and
the agent supervised this.
They knew the truth, that is why it saddens me because those who are
against the result of the election are highly respected people. They
came back and said there was no voting when every single one of them
voted. Of course, you have seen Niger Sate governor's comment, you
have heard Kano, Jigawa, Adamawa and Sokoto governors' comments on the
issue.
They have come out to say who voted for whom. Ours (ACN) was clear
because we voted in bloc. It was those who joined us that were not
clear to Nigerians. And those who did it have come out to say they did
it. What is worrisome is the reaction from the other side. We felt Mr.
President is the president of all. Our president is not a candidate in
the NGF election. He has no interest because he made that very clear
to us that he has no interest in the NGF election and I don't want him
to be dragged into this NGF issue because it diminishes the
Presidency.Diminishing the Presidency
The occupant of that office should not be diminished. We must not do
anything to diminish the office and theoccupant. But, we have been
diminished before Nigerians because they don't really make a
difference between 19 and 16. They just say thesegovernors can't even
hold simple election and they want Nigerians to come and vote in 2015.
I think the president must find a way to exercise his moral authority
on this matter. We must also find a way to meet the president in
supporting him to exercise that moral authority because it doesn't
augur well for us, for some people to be hiding or creating the
impression that they are the president's men.
We all are president's men. We are thepresident's governors. So, we
are all his men. The president was once a governor, a member of the
forum. So, he knows that he must not do anything to denigrate the
forum. He must not allow people to hide under his apron string to
undermine the forum.
Do you have any fear about the entry of Governor Fayose into the Ekiti
gubernatorial contest?
What will be the basis of that fear? Do you know Fayose very well?
Anyway, I try as much as possible not to make any derogatory remarks
about my predecessors in office. Do you know Fayose and his
antecedents? Let me give you an insight into his character for better
understanding. He woke up one day and was on his way to Afao, hishome
town.
He claimed some people chased him and shot at him while driving along.
ACN hierarchy responded that as the party in government in Ekiti
State, we are concerned about security of every citizen, we thought
ex-governor Fayose ought to have reported this case to the police and
if he hasn't, we hope the Commissioner of Police will take this up
because it's about securityof a very important citizen in our state. I
insisted that the commissioner of police must follow the case up.
The commissioner replied that the police were in touch with the former
governor many times to bring the vehicle and to come and tell us what
happened, how it happened? If you know how far Fayose used to draw
attention to himself, you must give him credit for his 'Alawada'
politics.
He has to make sufficient noise to attract Abuja people, so that they
will say he is the solution to their problem in Ekiti. You know he
calls himself the Architect of modern Ekiti, we shall see!