Former governor of Ekiti State and ex-chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr Kayode Fayemi, in this exclusive interview with MUYIWA ADEYEMI, emphasised that Nigeria will not be on the right path to combating insecurity until poverty is recognised as a form of violence. He also urged the government to move faster in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, and institutionalise its social security programmes.
Looking back to the years spent in the trenches as a pro-democracy activist and later as governor and minister, how will you describe life at 60?
It has been a worthy journey full of trials and triumphs but I’m still on life’s journey. I am a product of God’s grace and benevolence and I have a lot to thank Almighty God for in my life.
As a political scientist, are you not concerned that Nigeria may become a de facto one-party state, considering the way opposition parties are so disorganised?
I’m concerned but not perturbed. If you review the political history of Nigeria since colonial times, our politics has been driven by two contending forces – the force of authoritarianism and the force of democratic resistance. At first, it was the colonial authority versus the nationalists – in politics and the trade unions of the Michael Imoudu era. And then we had successive military governments and those of us opposed to military rule in civil and political society kept fighting for civilian, democratic rule in the second, third and fourth republics. Even when you have an appearance of total dominance of one party via moonslide and landslide electoral victories, you see opposition within the seeming one party rule.
At the risk of sounding complacent, Nigeria is inherently a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural entity and our citizens are too pluralistic in their orientation and too susceptible to a multiplicity of views to succumb to one party rule. Recall when all the parties endorsed maximum ruler, General Abacha in what late Uncle Bola Ige referred to as five fingers of a leprous hand; fate intervened and returned Nigeria to our democratic journey. Of course that journey has not been a linear and progressive one but as long as we are on track, even if our liberal democracy becomes illiberal, we are still better off than a return to outright, unbridled dictatorship.
I know that some Gen Zs may disagree with that view, but this is the view of someone who experienced military rule and is not in a hurry to embrace militarism, even if we still retain residues of militarism in the polity.
You are one of the founding fathers of the ruling APC and former presidential aspirant of the party; are you proud of your government at the federal level, considering the hardship Nigerians are experiencing?
I am not sure it’s fair to ask me to assess my own party in office. APC at its very beginning started with a clear ideological orientation as a social democratic and progressive party. Parties from that tradition are known for certain central ideas. As a progressive alternative to the PDP, we embraced a more grassroots model of economic development, prioritising delivery of social services and safety nets to the most vulnerable segments of the population as against the trickle-down economics of the previous era; promoting a modern and functional education system that provides marketable labour skills, supporting increased agricultural productivity and output to boost food security and we encapsulated all these in combating insecurity, expanding economic growth and fighting corruption.
Among the various successes we have recorded include the making of a national social policy system, the reinvigoration of long term, multi-year development plan, facilitation of the creative industry, tax reforms initiatives, students loans, consumer credit and a manifold increase in revenue accruable to the government. As a social democratic party, we have promoted the ideals of government as a catalyst for development, an enabler, not a mere bystander that’s only interested in selling off public assets.
Additionally, we have now fully fulfilled our 2015 manifesto pledge of establishing regional development commissions in all zones as special purpose vehicles for deepening development, rather than as vehicles for political patronage. So, a lot is being done.
But unfortunately the two signature policies announced on the day of inauguration – fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange convergence, important and appropriate as they are, have exacerbated the cost of living crisis for ordinary Nigerians. This we need to fix quickly because our inability to do so might have negative implications on the polity. So, yes Nigerians are experiencing hardship but the President is not oblivious of this hardship. His mantra is that there can be no gain without pain and that Nigerians must be patient to endure temporary pain in order to enjoy the long term benefit of these policy decisions.
We can only hope the gains will come fast because the experience of this cost of living crisis all over the world is that they are election losers. People are concerned with what is known as stomach infrastructure and where the next meal is coming from and sometimes they act with emotions.
When you were governing Ekiti State, you started social security in Nigeria with Owo Arugbo, among others. Will you say the palliatives and other social security programmes of the Federal Government are making the expected impact?
Yes, I pioneered the social security benefit system for the indigent elderly in Ekiti and that example convinced us when we were writing the APC manifesto that it could be done nationally in 2015. In fact, the benchmark payment contained in our social investment programme was the same monthly N5,000 we were paying in Ekiti then for the vulnerable segments of the population and the Buhari administration established the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to administer this eventually, even though it was initiated by the office of Social Investment in the Vice President’s office.
Palliatives such as we see being distributed in my view are temporary measures that cannot replace substantive, legally backed institutionalised social security benefit systems. They are too episodic and too susceptible to manipulation. What we need is a systematic institutional framework for a social security benefit system such as we have seen in Brazil, India, South Africa and a number of countries.
Government could also pay more attention to health insurance beyond the tokenistic measures we have and also harmonise the various educational support systems, particularly free and compulsory education up to senior secondary schools for all Nigerians. The current universal basic education only covers the first nine years in school. This should be extended to 12 years just as we did in Ekiti and the current governor has continued. Chapter Two of the Nigerian Constitution dwells on these but we need to make them justifiable and commit resources to this in our national development plan.
As a security expert, will you say Nigeria is on the right course in fighting insecurity?
We won’t be on the right course until we recognise that poverty is violence. The kinetic measures applied via our security institutions can only go so far in stemming the tide of insecurity. They need to be combined with non-kinetic measures that address the root causes of the insecurity we are experiencing if we are to successfully fight insecurity in the land. The more the gap increases between the hopelessly poor and the mindlessly rich, the more we are susceptible to the scourge of insecurity. We need to do more; even though our security institutions are getting more support, they are too few and far between to make the needed impact.
We still have a lot of ungoverned spaces in the country and we need to review our order of battle and force structure against the forces of insurgency, kidnapping and banditry. We also need to do more in the area of intelligence gathering and achieve the necessary synergy and inter service coordination that can enhance effectiveness and efficiency. From my limited knowledge of what’s going on, the security institutions are doing a lot more, but the challenges are humongous.
There are security reports of bandits and Boko Haram occupying forests and major towns in the Southwest; do you think there is a security structure on ground to deal with the situation?
I have read some reports in the media about this and it would not surprise me if it’s true. When I was in office, our security institutions carried out numerous sting operations to nip such cells in the bud even in the Southwest, especially in states sharing boundaries with Kogi and Kwara states. They are always doing that in protecting the citizens. But the irony is that the insurgents only need to succeed once; our security institutions, however, need to succeed in stopping them all the time.
What I’m saying is that, yes, the security institutions have the capacity to deal with the situation but in an asymmetrical warfare such as we have with terrorist insurgents, security forces don’t always know the enemies who are already embedded within the civil society. That is why we must not just be tough on the criminals but also on the underlying causes such as poverty, inequality and unemployment.
Any moment from now, FAAC will begin direct disbursement of monthly allocation to the local governments because the Supreme Court has outlawed JAAC. Do you think Nigerians should trust council chairmen that they will spend the money judiciously?
We will cross that bridge when it eventually happens. I’m still watching developments as it relates to that Supreme Court decision.
It is being speculated in Ekiti State that you have ambition to contest for the Senate in 2027; what will you say to this?
Let the speculation continue. We will also cross that bridge when we arrive there.
As a godfather controlling the ruling party structure in the state, would you say Ekiti APC is still strong and would remain united to contest next year’s governorship and 2027 general election?
I don’t know what you mean by godfather because I consider it a pejorative term. If you mean that I am the one God used to enable Governor Abiodun Oyebanji to attain the office of governor the same way ex-governor Adebayo was God’s instrument for my own rise to office, then I concede to that but it doesn’t make me a godfather.
To your substantive question, Ekiti APC is united and strong and it is the party to beat in the next gubernatorial election. I cannot even see any party on the horizon that can defeat our candidate who, by God’s grace, will be the current governor after our primary election.