By Ado Ekiti, Gbenga Sodeinde
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the coming Governorship election in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has promised to run an all-inclusive government the wqy he did the first time round.
He pledged to carry the people along in his second coming to ensure even distribution of developmental projects across the state.
Fayemi who made this known while speaking during a one hour programme on a private owned radio in state, Voice FM on Sunday evening, listed some of the projects his government executed across all the communities in the State which did not exclude any community no matter how small.
Apparently pointing out that Fayose had been economical with the truth on the debt profile of the state, Fayemi said : “Our Government took a N25Bn Bond from the Capital market and we already paid N14.5Bn before our exit as our we paid an average of N500M monthly”
“Unike the present government which is owing between 8 and 7 months workers salary, Fayemi said “We didn’t owe workers monthly salary except for September 2014 and this was because the incoming Government approached our financial institutions and opted to halt our arrangements”.
On the welfare packages enjoyed by civil servants during his administration, Fayemi disclosed that “We had regular training and re-training for workers in Ekiti, we paid core-subject allowances, rural allowances, car loans, housing loans to our workers.
“My Government was the first to implement the new salary structure for all categories of Health workers in the South West. We made functional ambulance service available in all LGAs in Ekiti, we renovated Health facilities across the state to make life more abundant
“We provided free and qualitative health for pregnant women, the disabled, under 5 children and Senior citizens. Ekiti had the highest life expectancy in the South West while I was in-charge.
Fayemi spoke further: “How do you expect aHealth officer who is being owed over six months to be productive? If we are well fed with very good psychology of mind, Ekiti people would have no cause to visit the hospital beyond the basics
“IGR rose to N600m before I left office as we declared what comes in monthly but no one has heard of Ekiti IGR since I left. Our Government had Disability Act that gave relevant considerations for the disabled so as to benefit accordingly in all Government facilities and activities
“Operation Renovate All Schools in Ekiti (ORASE) was put in place to make learning environment more conducive for Teachers and pupils
Clearing the air on what he described as a misconstrued welfare policy of his government, Fayemi explained that “we wanted to assess our Teachers and know where they lacked so that we could train them accordingly but it was mistakenly taken that we wanted to weed off the Teachers”
He continued: “students that were enrolled while we were in-charge that enjoyed the updated Library, Laptops and good learning environments are those that did well in 2016 and 2017 SSCE because of the solid foundation we gave them”
Fayemi who urged Ekiti people to ask Fayose what he had been doing with their money despite being unable to to pay salary said “Our average allocation was N3Bn when I was in Government while we paid average of N2.4Bn monthly which is inclusive of subventions to Institutions, all our Social Security Schemes, Peace Corps, Traffic Management, 25,000 elderly citizens, Yet Ekiti still pays same despite yanking off several of these”.
While lamenting the sorry state of all legacy projects which the present government inherited from him, he said, “The 50-bedded A/E Ward of EKSUTH is in a sorry state, the roof of the Maternity Ward has been blown off for over three months
“Yet the N253Bn that has accrued into the purse of the Government from different windows can’t be accounted for by the current Government”.
Insisting that the incumbent govrrnor is a wicked unrepentant liar, Fayemi said: “Fayose and I were conditional friends for few months (2009 rerun days), this made me know him much. He told me lies he used freely in politics hence I’m not surprised at his styles”.
He described as another lie from Fayose, the alleged advice given by him to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai to sack teachers in his state. He described the allegation as illogical and a fallacy.
His words: “I’m an Ekiti person not a Kaduna man hence get no point to influence Gov El-Rufai’s way of Government. The political sociology of Ekiti differs from Kaduna hence I have no hands in anything beyond Ekiti”
Another related insinuation was that Fayemi was coming on vengeance mission, which he debunked, saying “On what basis should I come on a vengeance mission? Nobody has offended me, the secret of June 21st 2014 is quite open to us all. We all know of Capt. Koli, Koro and few others”.
Fayemi who lamented what pupils and parents are going through in the state, which he said he is coming to reverse stated, “My Government didn’t charge any pupil/student a dime. We ran a qualitative, free and functional education while I was the Governor. Pupils now pay Tax, pay for SSCE, no more free JAMB forms”.
Apart from this, Fayemi also expressed worry about the “unfriendly and anti-investors policy of the Fayose’s government”, listing out GTB, GossyWater, Cocacola, Ecobank” which were all gone and no longer working in Ekiti, and promised to resuscitate all and bring them back to life in the state.
Fayemi declared that he is more experienced and connected hence, he has what it takes to influence developmental things from Abuja and abroad to Ekiti. He urged Ekiti people to see him as a credible and better alternative now and vote for him to win the July 14 election in the state for the restoration of Ekiti wealth.
