Kayode Fayemi

Kayode Fayemi
Governor of Ekiti State
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 October 2010
Preceded by	Olusegun Oni
Personal details
Born	(1965-02-09) February 9, 1965
Political party	ACN

Kayode Fayemi, (born February 9, 1965) is the current Governor of Ekiti State and a native of Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government of Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Education

He attended Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti and received degrees in History, Politics and International Relations from the Universities of Lagos and Ife in Nigeria and his Doctorate in War Studies from the prestigious King's College, University of London, England, specializing in civil-military relations. His research and policy interests include: Democratisation, Constitutionalism, Security Sector Governance, and Regionalism in the Global Context.

Academic and political initiatives

Kayode Fayemi is a former Director of the Centre for Democracy & Development, a research and training institution dedicated to the study and promotion of democratic development, peace-building and human security in Africa. Prior to his establishment of the Centre, he worked as a lecturer, journalist, researcher and Strategy Development adviser in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He was Strategy Development Adviser at London’s City Challenge; research fellow at the African Research & Information Bureau in London, UK, reporter with the newspapers, The Guardian and City Tempo, editor of the political monthly, Nigeria-Now, management consultant at Development and Management Consultants and lecturer at the Police College in Sokoto, Nigeria. As a prominent leader of the Nigerian opposition to military rule in exile, he was responsible for the founding and management of the opposition radios – Radio Freedom, Radio Democracy International & Radio Kudirat and played a central role in the opposition’s diplomatic engagements in exile. An account of the process and roles played in the setting up of Radio Kudirat may be found in Fayemi's book Out Of The Shadows.

Amongst his numerous academic and public policy engagements at home and abroad, Kayode Fayemi has lectured in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia. He has also served as an adviser on transitional justice, regional integration, constitutionalism, security sector reform and civil-military relations issues to various governments, inter-governmental institutions and development agencies. He was the main technical adviser to Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (Oputa Panel), which investigated past abuses and currently serves on the Presidential Implementation Committees on Security Sector Reform, NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals. He was technical expert to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on small arms and light weapons and United Nations Economic Commission of Africa on governance issues. He is also a member, Africa Policy Advisory Panel of the British Government. At other times he has served as a consultant to the OECD on Security Sector Reform and chaired the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s Committee of Experts on developing guiding principles and mechanisms of constitution making in Commonwealth Africa.

Kayode Fayemi is a Fellow of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Ibadan, Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at the African Centre for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., USA. He was also a Visiting Professor in the African Studies Programme at Northwestern University, Evanston, USA in 2004. Dr Fayemi serves on numerous Boards including the Governing Board of the Open Society Justice Institute, Baobab for Women’s Human Rights, African Security Sector Network, and on the Advisory Board of the Global Facilitation Network on Security Sector Reform and on the Management Culture Board of the ECOWAS Secretariat.

Writings

He has written extensively on governance and democratisation, civil-military relations and security sector issues in Africa. Among his recent books are: Mercenaries: The African Security Dilemma (Pluto Press, 2000); Deepening the Culture of Constitutionalism: The Role of Regional Institutions in Constitutional Development in Africa (CDD, 2003), Security Sector Governance in Africa: A Handbook (edited with Nicole Ball, CDD, 2004) and Out of the Shadows: Exile and the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Nigeria (CDD, 2005).

Campaign for Ekiti State Governor

Kayode Fayemi ran for the Ekiti state governorship in the 2007 elections on the platform of the Action Congress party

The Action Congress of Nigeria party formed as an amalgamation of the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) by the loyalists of the vice president Abubakar Atiku, the faction of the AD being led by Chief Adebisi Akande and believed to be loyal to Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu, the Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), as well as some smaller political parties ([1])

In an interview with the Daily Independent in 2005, Mr Fayemi made poverty, education and healthcare central to his manifesto. The implementation of which he asserts will be consultative, including being open to ideas from the diaspora.

His campaign for governorship of Ekiti State was the subject of an article in the New York Times. While complimentary, the article highlighted the difficulty in navigating the moral high ground within an electoral process long steeped in corruption.

After three and a half years fighting through the legal system on October 15, 2010 the appeal court sitting in Kwara state declared him the duly elected Governor of Ekiti State, and marked the end of Olusegun Oni's administration as the then Governor of the state. Daily Trust, a national daily, captured the electoral journey in its editorial, published on Friday, 22 October 2010 under the title, Closure to Ekiti 2007 Governorship Saga.

Vision in Government (The 8-Point Agenda)

Kayode FAYEMI was sworn into office as Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria on Saturday October 16, 2010. Upon assuming leadership of the state, his administration launched a mission statement, tagged 'Collective Rescue Mission.' It forms the bedrock on which Fayemi's government would transform Ekiti Ekiti in the next four years of his tenure. His vision is summed up in an 8-point Agenda which centres around: Governance, Infrastructural Development, Modernising Agriculture, Education and Human Capital Development, Health Care Services, Industrial Development, Tourism Development, and Gender Equality and Woman Empowerment. “My eight-point agenda would be pursued with vigour and life would be more abundant for our people. Governance shall not only be transparent and accountable but the good of our people would be the template,” the governor had said during his inauguration.

Governance

Kayode Fayemi demonstrated that his would be an open administration where government business would be conducted with utmost probity and accountability. He became the first governor in this present political dispensation in Nigeria to openly declare his Seven Hundred and Fifty Million Naira assets, which included those of his wife, Bisi Fayemi. The assets were what he had acquired in his private capacity as at October 15 when the Court of Appeal, Ilorin. His former deputy, Funmilayo Olayinka, now late, also declared her assets with her husband's, including cash in local and foreign banks, buildings, undeveloped property, vehicles, business enterprises and household items, which totaled One Billion, Two Hundred Million Naira.

Fayemi was also the first governor in Nigeria to sign into law the Freedom of Information Law on Monday, July 4, 2011. On the same day, he signed other eights bills into law.

Professional history

• 2010–Date — Governor, Ekiti State
• 1997–2006 — Director, Centre for Democracy & Development
• 1995–1997 — Secretary General, Media Empowerment for Africa (The Radio Foundation)
• 1993–1995 — Strategy Development Adviser, Deptford City Challenge, London, UK
• 1991–1993 — Research Officer, African Research and Information Bureau, London, UK.
• 1992–1992 — Tutorial Fellow, War Studies Department, King's College, London, UK
• 1987–1989 — Research Officer, Development & Management Consultants, Ikeja. Lagos-Nigeria.
• 1985–1986 — Lecturer, Nigeria-Police Training College, Sokoto – Nigeria

External links

• Fayemi, Kayode. A Manifesto for Ekiti Transformation
• Fayemi, Kayode. Security Challenges