KIDNEY SALE, ANOTHER SYNONYM FOR NIGERIA

By 'Dimeji Daniels

Published by Sahara Reporters on April 10, 2012

Something drastic and urgent must be done about the way Nigerian youths are selling their future and as a result selling the country's. There is no serious nation that does not rely on the morality and the abundant life of its youths for its future well-being, otherwise its unity and future prosperity would be in jeopardy. 

Section 17 subsection 3 (f) of the Nigerian constitution as amended states that 'children; young persons and the aged are protected... against moral and material neglect'. With the rate at which Nigerian youths are selling their kidney in Malaysia, India, China and other Asian countries for 10 million naira, without doubt the Nigerian government has failed in the above duty as listed in the constitution. Yahoo-Yahoo boys are said to be the ones mostly involved in this trade, probably after realizing that cyber-fraud is not as lucrative as it used to be (whites are certainly wiser now). In a bid to keep up with their upward way of life, they have discovered a new way of making money which of course you could say is legit. Given the high incidences of chronic kidney diseases in some Asian countries, the trade is certainly a money-spinner. In Malaysia alone, there are about 2,500 cases of kidney failure yearly while in China about 1.5 million people are reportedly in need of organ transplants, but that only 10,000 were performed yearly, thus fueling an illegal trade in organs. As legit as some may claim this newly fancied trade by Nigerian youths is, there are attendant risks. There is no better pointer to this than the tales of some of those who have traded their kidney.

As reported by a website 'www.specialsinternational.com', there was a certain undergraduate named Segun who sold his kidney in Malaysia. On collecting his 10 million naira, he reportedly did not wait for the post treatment, only to come back to Nigeria drinking and clubbing. He was said to have died in a car he bought from the proceeds of his kidney sale.

Another Nigerian, 31-year-old Eghosa, reportedly narrated that he met the man who bought his kidney through a South-African. He said he was taken to a place which looked like an improvised clinic where the kidney was removed. Ever since, according to the website, Eghosa has been falling sick regularly. In his own case, it was either he sold his kidney or let his two sisters go into prostitution. He had to make ends meet for them.

I know there are some who may discountenance these stories, but I have heard on good authority that most Nigerian youths who travel to Malaysia do so in a bid to make money from selling one of their kidneys. The trade is becoming so popular that even in Ekiti some hitherto yahoo-yahoo boys have embarked on this trip and returned to probably flaunt their proceeds from their sale.

Like the 419 and the yahoo-yahoo that Nigeria was at a time popularly known for in the international community, Nigeria is fast becoming synonymous with another anomaly; kidney sale by youths. Should this be allowed to continue? Should the government watch while the nation's youths die in a bid to get rich quick, or should government allow the youths to continue to live on one kidney which requires a careful way of life that most of these yahoo-yahoo boys are not accustomed to? The youths certainly have their own fair share of the blame, but government should start putting meaning and practicable youth empowerment schemes in place, rather than the playing to the gallery it has always embraced, doling out and siphoning billions of naira in the name of youth development, only that the money does not get to the youths. This is why I think government has failed in its duty of protecting the youths against material and moral neglect. Government having failed to provide a workable alternative ( and yet those in government and their families flaunt their abrasively stolen wealth and most times even oppress the poor with it ), the youths who do not have enough moral depth have decided to fashion out ways for themselves. Same thing goes for youths who are into armed-robbery and the sudden attraction of youths to politics.

Those in government or those who benefit from the instituted corruption therein may choose to absolve government, arguing that the youths have their own free-will; maybe so because of the get-rich-quick syndrome of most youths. However, far more noteworthy is the bleakness and uncertainty that have pushed these youths to the brink of desperation. A graduate in Nigeria, particularly one not connected, is not sure of any employment, let alone a promising future. Without the fear of God, sense of morality and proper guidance, the vices that such youths can get involved in are limitless.

Apart from provision of jobs or skill acquisition, government must consciously get youths involved in governance as a way of mentoring and giving them hope of a bright future and sense of belonging in their fatherland. Before some start arguing that youths are already in government, let me explain in clear terms what I mean. I am not referring to over 40 years old so-called youths who are made ministers of youths or children of their godfathers or cronies given juicy appointments.

Unlike before, up to the early nineties when the primary school curriculum was rich with stories illustrating the dignity of labour and the benefits therein, the brains of kids of nowadays are being stuffed with meaningless stories with no clear-cut moral lessons. The only thing one seems to hear often from these kids now are expressions like 'I want to puh-puh'  'I want to wee-wee'. Government has a task of overhauling the curriculum to instill in these pupils from this tender age the respect and sense of fulfillment derivable from hard work and morality.

Also the Federal Government should ensure that Nigerian youths travelling to Malaysia, India and China are rigorously vetted to determine their mission in the Asian countries. There have been claims that some travel agencies woo youths into the kidney-selling trade under the guise of schooling abroad. Every claim of admission into a Malaysian school should be properly verified; government should also double-check to see if the youths register at the schools or whether it is a ploy to jet out of the country to exchange their kidney for 10 million naira. I would also like to suggest a more drastic measure to check every Nigerian youth at the point of departure to and return from the mentioned Asian countries to determine if someone with two kidneys is now 'miraculously' left with one kidney.

Government should take a step further. If upon discovering that any youth had sold his kidney, the travel agency that facilitated his travelling should be black-listed and those managing it jailed. Recently, 17-year-old Chinese, Wang, who now suffers renal deficiency according to prosecutors, sold one of his kidneys to buy an iPad and an iPhone. Those who mid-wived the sale collected 22,000 pounds and gave him 10 percent of the money. His mother noticed the expensive devices he bought and started questioning him. The boy later confessed that he sold his kidney. Like the Nigerian youths, Wang, who lives in Anhui, one of China's poorest southern provinces, was driven by the desire to live on the fast lane. All the five people, including the surgeon, that lured him into the business were arrested and accused of intentional injury. To curtail those who hide under the guise of travel agencies and to eradicate this ugly trend in Nigeria, the National Assembly should come up with a legislation that makes it a crime to lure youths into the kidney business.

Only this way will this kidney-for-money business be stopped in Nigeria. Otherwise, Nigeria will continue to lose her youths to renal deficiency and untimely death occasioned by renal failure and the ill-equipped clinics where the kidney is mostly surgically removed.

OUR GOVERNOR, OUR INSPIRATION

OUR GOVERNOR, OUR INSPIRATION


By 'Dimeji Daniels

The story is told of how Bill Clinton visited the White House in 1963 at age 17 as a Boys Nation senator to meet President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and how he struggled to make sure he was at the front of the line to shake hands with the president he had defended so much in a ninth-grade debate. There in White House Rose Garden the young Bill Clinton from a humble background said to JFK: "Mr. President, someday, I'll be like you." 


In the same year, Bill clinton watched on television Martin Luther King Jnr's "I Have A Dream" speech and he was so inspired by it that he had to memorise it. This incident and his meeting with President JF Kennedy made him forgo his other dreams and decided that he wanted to be an elected official, his poor background notwithstanding: "Sometime in my sixteenth year, I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official. I loved music and thought I could be very good, but I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz. I was interested in medicine and thought I could be a fine doctor, but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey. But I knew I could be great in public service." And was he great? Oh, sure! He presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and left office as the president with the highest end-of-office approval ratings.


In 1978, fifteen years after that inspirational meeting with JFK, Clinton became Arkansas Governor at age 32, one of the youngest in US history and was nicknamed "Boy Governor".

In 1992, 29 years after that 'little meeting' with President JF Kennedy, the inspiration from that meeting continued as he was elected US President at age 46, the youngest since JF Kennedy, the man he met age 16.


That 'little meeting' in the White House Rose Garden, no doubt, availeth much in the life of the little boy born and raised in a poor home in Hope, Arkansas, and like the name of his birthplace, he lived on hope, inspiration and hardwork.


That 'little meeting', which JFK could have cancelled due to "exigencies of office" served as the inspiration which shaped Bill Clinton's life and inspired him to get up and say to the world: "I can, for there is something in me that is greater than my background and present circumstances!" 

That 'little meeting' made young Clinton see beyond his situation and circumstances, and from that moment in the White House Rose Garden, his life started on an upward slope that never descended again. 


That is the power of inspiration and role-modelling!



That is the power of mentoring! 


JFK is no more and would never know what he did for Bill Clinton by finding time out of his busy schedule to converse with teenagers, especially the boy from Arkansas.


I have said it several times that mentoring is not only when you ferry people around with you or dole out money to them; you may take them around or give them money and not mentor them. Mentoring is finding time to feel, familiarise and identify with the pulse, ideas and ways of youth and thereafter allowing them to drink from your well of experience, success, mistakes and challenges. Bill Clinton would later say when he became president: "All my life I've been interested in other people's stories. I've wanted to know them, understand them, feel them. When I grew up and got into politics, I always felt the main point of my work was to give people a chance to have better stories."


Nothing can be truer about Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, than this assertion by Bill Clinton. In a little above two years, John Kayode Fayemi, fondly called JKF, has set a new bar and has distinguished himself from the run-of-the mill Nigerian politicians. He is today the most accessible Governor in Nigeria. No Governor's mobile phone number is as much in the public domain as that of Kayode Fayemi. This way, every indigene and resident of the State has access to him. This is how his success has been made possible. Status and class matter not to him; he finds time to respond to every of the text messages he gets. 


Recently, as is common of him, he does what most Nigerian politicians or governors would never do. John Kayode Fayemi, despite his busy schedule, paid a visit to St James’ Anglican primary School, Ado-Ekiti where he sat amidst the pupils and read with them. Listening to what transpired during the visit on radio humbled me and nearly drove me to tears at such uncommon humility and dedication, especially to the children of the have-nots. At first, I wasn't sure about the voice; I told my wife: "This voice sounds like that of Fayemi." Her reply was: "Are you sure, because this sounds more or less like a primary school teacher." Heaven knows it takes a lot of patience to teach pupils, but Governor Kayode Fayemi pulled it off with the calmness, patience and dexterity better than that of an everyday teacher. No wonder he is doing well as governor, for whoever can find the patience to relate well with kids is a ruler of his own spirit and can lead even the most difficult of people.


"Who can tell me what a village is?"he gently asked and the pupils answered confidently as though he was their father whom they see daily and run around the house with.

“Mud houses are found in small towns and villages. Such houses too are either round or rectangular in shape. The round ones have roofs with a window each but the rectangular ones have mostly old rusty roofing sheet. Modern houses in the south are of different shapes and sizes,”he continued his discourse with the pupils


My wife couldn't hide her surprise and kept on eulogising the governor, but my mind was no longer in that environment. I remembered Bill Clinton and that meeting with JFK in the White House. I remember the impact of the meeting on Clinton and how he always made reference to how the meeting changed his life, even without the knowledge of JFK. I wonder also how many governors, senators and possibly presidents that discourse of Dr. Fayemi with the pupils of St. James must have produced. Who knows what seeds had been sown into the fertile minds of those kids? Who knows which of them is now aspiring to become a governor in future? What wonderful opportunity that was for even the children of the poor who always see the "big guys" only on TV. But to have a sitting governor read and chat with you! Oh! How jealous I am!


I attended A.U.D Oke-Ila Primary School, Ado-Ekiti; I never had this kind of chance, though later in life as a journalist, I was able to meet two presidents, governors, senators and many more, but how inspired and over-fired-up I would have been if like these St. James' pupils, I had been lucky to meet a sitting governor. Governor Kayode Fayemi may not know what he has done for these kids, but the future will tell. As unimportant as this may sound to some, from personal experience, I have seen how these "little things" inspire people. Last year, a 400 Level student came to me all smiles and on asking what was making so happy, I discovered he shook hands with a senator for the first time. Yeah! Such is our society that those the youth could draw inspiration from are so far from them in person and in thoughts.


We are, however, lucky in Ekiti State to have a friend in our governor, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi (JKF), the star we had been waiting for so that we could shout "Eureka!!!"


When he first celebrated his birthday at the home of the motherless, there were those who reduced it to politics. Now that he now teaches, reads and feels the pulse of kids, he has distinguished himself as a hope and an inspiration to those who have for long had no one to inspire them. 


Years ago, Paul Ceolho asked: "What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she (he) already knows." This inspiration is what JKF doles out in large doses everyday, building for us in Ekiti a generation of passionate, people-loving and competent leaders.

Of Mimiko, Bamidele and Akinlade

Since I have known Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the present Governor of Ondo State, he has never got in line behind any cause, noble or otherwise, unless it favours him, it's benefits or discomfort to the people notwithstanding. This is the true nature of Segun Mimiko. His political history, which has become a sterling case study in betrayal, reveals that much.


I need not dwell on how he stabbed the likes of Adefarati and Agagu in the back and, as recently alleged, had his government hire a God-forsaken plane to convey the remains of Agagu to Ondo State as though his intention was to ensure that Agagu does not rest, even in death. Such is the bile this man carries around that scruples and good conscience are the two vilest words in his vocabulary. But in spite of all these, one still expects that Governor Segun Mimiko, once in a while like the right-side thief at Calvary, rises above his unscrupulous self, especially given that he has children and must at this stage be thinking of what legacy he hopes to leave behind. Some of my friends have however argued that Abacha also had children.

The Jonathan presidency-bestowed assignment Mimiko has been saddled with in the Southwest sure leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but not if one understands the dynamics of the GEJ-Mimiko marriage of ill ambition-driven bedfellows.

Knowing full well that winning the Southwest in the 2015 presidential election would be an almost impossible uphill task, President Jonathan and his handlers began to plot stealthily on how to break the ranks of the opposition in the region, especially by identifying an Achan in the opposition's camp, who, like his biblical precursor, is capable of instigating confusion. Mimiko readily came to mind for certain reasons: (1) his betrayal streak (2) his cosmetic performance which when held side by side with what Ondo State grosses leaves little to imagination.


When held under the magnifying glass of the EFCC, the Mimiko administration crumbled like a pack of cards. Precisely on March 20, 2012, the Chairman of Ondo State Oil-Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Debo Ajimuda, was arrested by the EFCC over a N61.63 billion fraud. It was disgustingly discovered that a commission which for three years under the Mimiko administration had budgeted N40 billion for projects in the two oil-producing local councils in the state achieved nothing other than Ajimuda's lighter complexion, his 13 exotic cars found in his house among which were a Toyota Tundra SUV with registration number FY 195 ABC; a Mercedes Benz R500 4matic with registration number DK 777 FST; a Toyota Corolla with registration number  HJ 805 ABC, a two-door Toyota Solara registered with the number EU 777 ABS and a Toyota Venza with registration number ODGH 2947 in which the EFCC ferried him away.


One would have expected that Ajimuda and his boss, Mimiko, for whom he held brief at OSOPADEC, would be thoroughly investigated, but GEJ certainly had other uses for Mimiko beyond 2013, 2014 and until 2015. Rather than allow EFCC to make him account for his heartless pilfering of Ondo State resources, GEJ chose to hoodwink him into agreeing to be the Achan in the Southwest. Being the unscrupulous fellow that he is and given his desperate bid to avoid prison and humiliation, he joyously accepted his new assignment of recruiting power-greedy fellows in all APC-controlled Southwest states to rise against their governors and in the process weaken the APC. The funds to effectively execute the job have since been regularly provided, hence the recruitment of governorship-hungry politicians like Opeyemi Bamidele in Ekiti State and Abiodun Akinlade, another House of Representatives member, in Ogun State. Labour Party Chairman Dan Nwanyanwu occasionally represents Mimiko at some of their nocturnal meetings.


In a sane society, the people of Ondo State should have asked what became of the Ajimuda/OSOPADEC/EFCC saga.

They should have asked why GEJ sacrificed his party candidate, Sola Oke, in the Ondo gubernatorial election and instead threw his weight, military inclusive, behind Mimiko. 

They should have asked why Mimiko, with his two eyes open, would be at the forefront of championing that 16 surpasses 19 in the NGF election.

They should have asked why a typical Ondo town person (Mimiko) - a people known not to be subservient - would suddenly become President Jonthan's new handbag.


They should have asked why President Jonathan would support a Labour Party-sponsored Mimiko to win second term and would not do same for another opposition party, APC.

They should have asked why Mimiko, a governor on the platform of an opposition party, is stealing Ondo State funds with so much reckless abandon and Oga Jona's EFCC pretends not to notice.

The disposition of Abiodun Akinlade is not so difficult to fathom given that he was part of the pack before defecting to the defunct ACN and certainly still has PDP blood running deep in his veins. What however remains unfathomable for many is how Opeyemi Bamidele could so cheaply become subservient to a man tamed by the fear of prison like Mimiko - a serial betrayer.

But unlike many, I do not have any problem understanding Ope's decision because: (1) he is constitutionally allowed to contest (2) over-ambition and being power-greedy can best be understood from Macbeth's perspective when he declares of himself: "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself and falls on the other". A man driven by blinded ambition cannot reason well, except about attaining that ambition. It is as though his brain had gone on vacation and would not return until he is seeped in ignominy.

Hear Macbeth: "For mine own good all causes shall give way. I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er". This is how the mind of a man driven by selfishness-sprung over-ambition works. Nothing else matters to him except his ambition. Souls may be lost, careers may be ruined, bonds may be severed, progress may be halted; all these matter not to him except his ambition.

Abiodun Akinlade and Opeyemi Bamidele are in blind ambition mode now. Nothing can get them out of this mode except ignominy.


Abiodun Adegolu writes from Okitipupa, Ondo State.

EKITI SELF-HELP PROJECTS: A MARRIAGE OF MUTUAL RESPECT

Democracy has never been known as a top-bottom government. It has rather thrived for years by employing a bottom-up approach in addressing critical issues that have direct impact on the social wellbeing of the populace. This simply means that it is a system of government that allows the people decide how  they want to be governed, as long as it does not infringe on communal peace. This is why Abraham Lincoln tagged it the government of the people, by the people and for the people. In other words, the people, with whom power resides in a democracy, should be involved in all government processes, especially budget-making. 


Failure to adhere to these non-negotiable principles of democracy has not only been the bane of Nigeria's development, it has helped entrench corruption in all layers of government. A minister in Abuja, who has never been to my village in Ekiti, will be the one to decide year in year out what the people of my village want, without the slightest hindsight of the realities on ground in this community. 


The greatest tragedy of this arrangement is that the FG-hired contractor ends up not doing the job and there is no one to hold him accountable since the intended beneficiaries of such projects were not carried along and didn't even know what was being done for them. The 2013 budget of the Ministry of Works presented to the Senate on Wednesday December 5, 2012 lent credence to this mischievous arrangement, which has become the pot of soup for many of them. In the said budget, Ogbomoso/Oko-Ologbo/Osogbo road (Osun), Ikorodu/Imota road (Lagos), Ido Ani/Idogun/Imeri/Ayegunle road (Ondo) and Lafia/Doma road (Nassarawa) were listed as roads to be constructed in Ekiti State in 2013. Had Babafemi Ojudu, who was on the Senate Works Committee, not have a good knowledge of his state, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, would sure have gotten away with this. Little wonder the Federal Government continues to fail in bringing succour to the masses of Nigeria. 


The Government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State has charted a different path from the commonly trod path in Nigeria which has led to nowhere but retrogression. Armed with democratic credentials, Fayemi definitely, judging from his approach to governance, knows that government cannot operate like a god, but as a partner who journeys hand-in-hand with the people in attaining peace, progress and development. This way, government does not see itself as the owner of the commonwealth, but rather as one who holds it in trust for them and through a painstaking no-holds-barred roundtable, both (the government and the governed) agree on how best to utilise these funds for the general benefit, progress and dignity-enhancing development of the people. 


The above was what the Kayode Fayemi administration did in 2012 preparatory to making the 2013 budget. Each town and village at town-hall meetings across the state laid before government projects they desired in 2013. In response to these yearnings, the Fayemi administration thoughtfully created the Ministry of Rural Development and Community Empowerment to collate the various demands from the communities, undertake project evaluation and fashion out ways to make the communities the owners of these projects. The result is the grants-in-aids under which government doles out to the communities in question funds for the various projects referred to as self-help projects. Under this arrangement, the communities are totally in charge from conception to execution, including hiring contractors to execute the projects. The only part played by the Ministry of Rural Development is to ensure that standard is adhered to and that the funds are not mismanaged.          

Apart from giving the various communities a sense of ownership of the projects, this bottom-up approach has also helped in creating job opportunities (as those employed as labour are from these communities) and in the process checking rural-urban migration. People in the various communities, unlike before, now see themselves as cherished stakeholders in governance. 


On Wednesday, 3 July, 2013 in Oye-Ekiti, the governor presented cheques worth N300 million to 82 communities to undertake various self-help projects which include amongst others bridges, culverts, town halls, equipping of science laboratories in secondary schools, boreholes, renovation and construction of schools and palaces. 95 more communities were given cheques under the second phase of the programme which held in Ikere-Ekiti in October, 2013.   

The governor gave a better insight into the philosophy of the programme tagged "Ajose Eyi Yata": "I always made the point that our government will only do development with the people and not for them. This was borne out of our belief that development is more enduring when the people take full ownership of what is done by not only suggesting what they consider most valuable to them, but also participate actively in its implementation and monitoring...One of the crucial reasons for the creation of the Ministry of Rural Development and Community Empowerment is to ensure the transformation of our rural communities in terms of infrastructure and industry in order to reduce the rural-urban drift. The development of the industrial-base of the rural communities will surely be the next phase of this programme, and we will facilitate the establishment of cottage industries in cluster communities having similar natural resources to enhance sustainable livelihoods."


Dr. Kayode Fayemi has also announced that his government is revitalising cooperative development by partnering the Bank of Agriculture with a view to creating wealth and enhancing local socio-economic activities by providing the different cooperative societies with N300 million while the Bank of Agriculture provides another N300 million.  


Besides these, the government also approved N593 million in the 2013 budget for the construction of 72 culverts, 93 kilometres of rural roads at 4km per local government, 2 bridges, 26 hand-dug wells and drilling of 40 boreholes. All these projects are in response to the demands of the people.


No less a personality than Abraham Lincoln who defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people put it thus: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities...The desirable things which the individuals of a people cannot do, or cannot well do for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of sub-divisions. The first that in relation to wrongs embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and non-performance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage..."



In spite of the fact that what obtains in Nigeria cannot be described as true democracy, but civil rule, the Fayemi administration has made itself the ray of hope and a good example for other states in the country to emulate. 


Through this approach, the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi has also demonstrated that power resides always with the people and that government should be run as such. Unlike some previous administrations in Ekiti which looked down on the people, the government of Kayode Fayemi on its part is partnering them in a marriage of mutual respect in the journey to an Ekiti that all will be proud of. 


'Dimeji Daniels writes from Ado in Ekiti State



"Truth is always the strongest argument"- Dr. D.K. Olukoya

EKITI SELF-HELP PROJECTS: A MARRIAGE OF MUTUAL RESPECT

Democracy has never been known as a top-bottom government. It has rather thrived for years by employing a bottom-up approach in addressing critical issues that have direct impact on the social wellbeing of the populace. This simply means that it is a system of government that allows the people decide how  they want to be governed, as long as it does not infringe on communal peace. This is why Abraham Lincoln tagged it the government of the people, by the people and for the people. In other words, the people, with whom power resides in a democracy, should be involved in all government processes, especially budget-making. 


Failure to adhere to these non-negotiable principles of democracy has not only been the bane of Nigeria's development, it has helped entrench corruption in all layers of government. A minister in Abuja, who has never been to my village in Ekiti, will be the one to decide year in year out what the people of my village want, without the slightest hindsight of the realities on ground in this community. 


The greatest tragedy of this arrangement is that the FG-hired contractor ends up not doing the job and there is no one to hold him accountable since the intended beneficiaries of such projects were not carried along and didn't even know what was being done for them. The 2013 budget of the Ministry of Works presented to the Senate on Wednesday December 5, 2012 lent credence to this mischievous arrangement, which has become the pot of soup for many of them. In the said budget, Ogbomoso/Oko-Ologbo/Osogbo road (Osun), Ikorodu/Imota road (Lagos), Ido Ani/Idogun/Imeri/Ayegunle road (Ondo) and Lafia/Doma road (Nassarawa) were listed as roads to be constructed in Ekiti State in 2013. Had Babafemi Ojudu, who was on the Senate Works Committee, not have a good knowledge of his state, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, would sure have gotten away with this. Little wonder the Federal Government continues to fail in bringing succour to the masses of Nigeria. 


The Government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State has charted a different path from the commonly trod path in Nigeria which has led to nowhere but retrogression. Armed with democratic credentials, Fayemi definitely, judging from his approach to governance, knows that government cannot operate like a god, but as a partner who journeys hand-in-hand with the people in attaining peace, progress and development. This way, government does not see itself as the owner of the commonwealth, but rather as one who holds it in trust for them and through a painstaking no-holds-barred roundtable, both (the government and the governed) agree on how best to utilise these funds for the general benefit, progress and dignity-enhancing development of the people. 


The above was what the Kayode Fayemi administration did in 2012 preparatory to making the 2013 budget. Each town and village at town-hall meetings across the state laid before government projects they desired in 2013. In response to these yearnings, the Fayemi administration thoughtfully created the Ministry of Rural Development and Community Empowerment to collate the various demands from the communities, undertake project evaluation and fashion out ways to make the communities the owners of these projects. The result is the grants-in-aids under which government doles out to the communities in question funds for the various projects referred to as self-help projects. Under this arrangement, the communities are totally in charge from conception to execution, including hiring contractors to execute the projects. The only part played by the Ministry of Rural Development is to ensure that standard is adhered to and that the funds are not mismanaged.          

Apart from giving the various communities a sense of ownership of the projects, this bottom-up approach has also helped in creating job opportunities (as those employed as labour are from these communities) and in the process checking rural-urban migration. People in the various communities, unlike before, now see themselves as cherished stakeholders in governance. 


On Wednesday, 3 July, 2013 in Oye-Ekiti, the governor presented cheques worth N300 million to 82 communities to undertake various self-help projects which include amongst others bridges, culverts, town halls, equipping of science laboratories in secondary schools, boreholes, renovation and construction of schools and palaces. 95 more communities were given cheques under the second phase of the programme which held in Ikere-Ekiti in October, 2013.   

The governor gave a better insight into the philosophy of the programme tagged "Ajose Eyi Yata": "I always made the point that our government will only do development with the people and not for them. This was borne out of our belief that development is more enduring when the people take full ownership of what is done by not only suggesting what they consider most valuable to them, but also participate actively in its implementation and monitoring...One of the crucial reasons for the creation of the Ministry of Rural Development and Community Empowerment is to ensure the transformation of our rural communities in terms of infrastructure and industry in order to reduce the rural-urban drift. The development of the industrial-base of the rural communities will surely be the next phase of this programme, and we will facilitate the establishment of cottage industries in cluster communities having similar natural resources to enhance sustainable livelihoods."


Dr. Kayode Fayemi has also announced that his government is revitalising cooperative development by partnering the Bank of Agriculture with a view to creating wealth and enhancing local socio-economic activities by providing the different cooperative societies with N300 million while the Bank of Agriculture provides another N300 million.  


Besides these, the government also approved N593 million in the 2013 budget for the construction of 72 culverts, 93 kilometres of rural roads at 4km per local government, 2 bridges, 26 hand-dug wells and drilling of 40 boreholes. All these projects are in response to the demands of the people.


No less a personality than Abraham Lincoln who defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people and for the people put it thus: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities...The desirable things which the individuals of a people cannot do, or cannot well do for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of sub-divisions. The first that in relation to wrongs embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and non-performance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage..."



In spite of the fact that what obtains in Nigeria cannot be described as true democracy, but civil rule, the Fayemi administration has made itself the ray of hope and a good example for other states in the country to emulate. 


Through this approach, the administration of Dr. Kayode Fayemi has also demonstrated that power resides always with the people and that government should be run as such. Unlike some previous administrations in Ekiti which looked down on the people, the government of Kayode Fayemi on its part is partnering them in a marriage of mutual respect in the journey to an Ekiti that all will be proud of. 


'Dimeji Daniels writes from Ado in Ekiti State



"Truth is always the strongest argument"- Dr. D.K. Olukoya