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.
No comments:
Post a Comment