By Austin Ogwuda
FORMER Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has narrated how some powerful members of the People’s Democratic Party PDP brainwashed ex-President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure that Federal University should not be located at the location he chose during my tenure as the Governor of the State, merely because he was in the opposition.
Fayemi however recalled with nostalgia how the late Kenneth Gbagi as a Minister of Education then stood his ground and boldly went to tell the President that “we would site the University where the Governor of the State wants the University to be”.
He stated this while paying glowing tributes during the Night of Tributes organized in honour of late Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi FNIM, OON, at the AIB Event Center, City Park, Wise Zone 2, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, describing him (Gbagi) as “courageous, uncompromising in anything he believes in, bold and passionate lover of this country”.
His words:
“He earned my respect from just one encounter. I am not in any of the political parties which he belonged when he was alive but I was governor in Ekiti when he was a Minister of State for Education saddled with the responsibility of establishing new Federal Universities in States with Federal Universities.
“And Ekiti has been identified as one of those States and he called me out of the blues and said he was coming to Ekiti. I believed he came in the company of the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Okoje and his friend who happens to be my own lawyer, Mr. Demian Dodo, SAN.
“They came to Ekiti and for those who know him very well, he was courageous, bold. He never met me, he just came to my office and said, Excellency, where will this University going to be? Just direct like that.
“I haven’t given much thought to this but we already had a University in the capital in the Central senatorial district of our State and another University in the South, we had none in the Northern senatorial district. So, I said the University is going to be in the North and he said where? Can we get into the car and go to the site.
“I said honourable Minister, you have just come to see me and he said no, we have to take that decision today before I go to Abuja; in the spur of the moment I said okay, get in the car let’s go.
“And we drove all the way to Ekole-Ekiti, the largest town in the Northern part of our State and I said honourable Minister the University will be sited here and he said okay, where is the place?
“We looked for a huge expanse of land with the Executive Secretary of NUC and his good friend Mr. Dodo decided over there and he said we will take this back to Abuja.
“On the spur of the moment, he asked is this your town Your Excellency and I said no. He said well, before coming here we been to other States and all the Governors in these States we are going to establish these Universities, they all took us to the governor’s home town, yours is strange, where are you from?
“I told him, he said why are you not desirous of the University sited in your community, I said what is important is that for the University to be sited in the appropriate place and this is a good place for the University to be.
“He was very struck by that but he didn’t do anything. The next thing he said to me was who will be the Vice Chancellor of the University?
“Believe it or not, we appointed the Vice Chancellor of the University on the spot at that same venue on that same day. Later, the Federal government decided that the Vice Chancellors will not serve in their States.
“So, the gentleman who we appointed who was Professor in the United States was relocated to Federal University in Otuoke, Bayelsa State. There were some controversies in the siting of the University but he stood his ground.
“The Party people; of course I was Governor representing the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at a time and he was representing the PDP. The PDP members in my State wanted the University somewhere else and they were able to convince President Jonathan.
“And he was very bold, he told the President that we would site the University where the Governor of the State wants the University to be and eventually we had to settle for a compromise. So, Ekiti Federal University is the only University with a multi-campus system.
“The one that the PDP wanted and the one that I suggested. So, up till today, the Federal University is both Oye and Ikole-Ekiti both in the Northern part of the State, we became close since then”.
Continuing, Fayemi said “He (Gbagi) went back started the University and worked hard on it but before he left, he called and said it is still strange to me that you (Fayemi) never asked us to site this University in your community but I have decided whether you like it or not, I am going to put a Federal Girls’ Government College in your community and he did.
“Unilaterally, he sited the Federal Model Girls College in my community and that is Ken for you.
Ken would fight a course he believes in without caring whether he will be a personal beneficiary of that course or not. Bold, courageous, a man of kindeous, dedicated to service in the community and humanity.
“And I believe that the greatest tribute is what shall be said of us when we were no longer here. I am sure there will be several testimonies like mine from anyone who had the grace and the favour to have been associated with this gentleman”, stated Fayemi.
Several other people were not left out in the deluge of tributes pouring during the event were former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Senator James Manager who represented Delta South Senatorial District for 16 years in the Senate, the Monarch of Idjere Kingdom, Ovie Monday Whiskey, former Minister of Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu, Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori represented by his Chief of Staff, Hon Johnson Erijo and the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola among numerous others.
