Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03LAGOS2349
2003-11-13 12:22:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Lagos
Cable title:  

OUT IN AFRICA: A VISIT TO EKITI STATE

Tags:  PREL PGOV KDEM KWMN SOCI NI 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 002349 

SIPDIS


LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2008
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KWMN SOCI NI
SUBJECT: OUT IN AFRICA: A VISIT TO EKITI STATE

Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL ROBYN HINSON-JONES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AN


D (D).


C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 002349

SIPDIS


LONDON FOR GURNEY, PARIS FOR NEARY


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2008
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KWMN SOCI NI
SUBJECT: OUT IN AFRICA: A VISIT TO EKITI STATE

Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL ROBYN HINSON-JONES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AN


D (D).



1. (U) Summary. PolOffs made a one day familiarization visit
to the tiny land-locked State of Ekiti. In April 2003,
Ekiti, like its neighboring states in the southwest except
Lagos, got rid of its Alliance for Democracy governor and
elected a representative of the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party. But the new governor is fighting off challenges to his
election and may yet lose his seat. Though Ekiti is small
and poor, it is better off in some ways than other southern
states. End summary.


Ekiti - small state, big plans, no money



2. (U) Ekiti State was carved out of the northern end of Ondo
State in 1996. With its population of nearly two million, the
majority of whom are ethnic Ekitis (a sub-group of the Yoruba
tribe),it is the newest, smallest (in population),and, by
some reports, the poorest of Nigeria's thirty-six states.
Most of the topography of Ekiti is softly rounded,
rain-eroded hill country. In fact, the word "ekiti" means
"hill" in the local dialect and a number of the towns in the
State have hyphenated names that end in "ekiti." For
decades, the economy was based mainly on the production of
cocoa and palm oil. However, with the development of the oil
industry in the mid-seventies, Ekiti (then still part of Ondo
State),like the rest of Nigeria, abandoned most of its
traditional sources of income and waited for its share of the
oil wealth. According o most Ekiti residents, they decided
to raise their visibility by forming their own State because
whatever oil moneys the State of Ondo was allocated never
seemed to trickle down to them.



3. (U) Politically, Ekiti had been a minor player in the
Yoruba-controlled, southwest bloc of states that had been
firmly with the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Party. Its
relationship with the AD was severed in the 2003 elections
when the majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the
governorship, the National Assembly seats and carried the
state for President Olusegun Obasanjo.



Getting there



4. (U) There are two reasons to go to Ekiti by car. First,
there is a sign outside the capital of Ado-Ekiti announcing
an airport nearby, but no flights are listed for this airport
and no one we talked to knew if it is still used at all.
Second, compared to all the roads in the southeast and most
of the roads in the southwest, the roads to and in Ekiti are
surprisingly good. The median strips and soft shoulders on
the highways have, obviously, not seen a road crew in decades
and are so overgrown in some places that the road appears to
be one long, green tunnel. However, we encountered no
vehicle-devouring potholes, and, although there were the
usual checkpoints every mile or so, our armored US vehicle
with diplomatic plates breezed past them at sixty miles an
hour.



5. (U) The city of Ado-Ekiti is clean, compared to Lagos, and
its buildings and roads appeared to be maintained. Heavy
morning rush hour traffic was moving at a reasonable speed
unencumbered by that bane of Lagos residents, the okada
(dare-devil drivers of motorcycle transportation for hire.)
The okadas are replaced on Ado-Ekiti streets by brightly
painted, and sedately driven, red and yellow taxis. We saw no
beggars. The main market was crowded and busy and appeared
to be well stocked with food, household goods and clothes.
In the morning and afternoon, groups of uniformed school
children walked to or from the many schools that were open,
operating and seemed well attended. The PDP and AD had
offices on the main thoroughfare, as did the Justice Party,
the National Conscience Party (NCP),the Justice Center for
the Less Privileged, the Poverty Eradication Program, the
Hare Krishna Society, and the Church of Latter Day Saints.


His Excellency



6. (U) Since we visited Ekiti during Ramadan, Governor Ayo
Fayose, who is Muslim, may have been fasting and for that
reason unable to meet with us. His aide said he was engaged
in urgent meetings. However, another reason may have been
that controversy has surrounded Fayose since before he was
chosen by the PDP to run for governor this year, and he may
have been avoiding another probing of his problems. His
detractors say that he has lied about his academic
credentials and that he was a less than honorable businessman
(he owns a car dealership). Femi Falana, NCP candidate for
Governor of Ekiti, attorney and one of the founders of the
embattled Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR)
(septel),has demanded that Fayose account for 4.5 billion
naira. Fayose allegedly received the money from the GON for
Ekiti State since the gubernatorial elections. Falana claims
the governor has not spent any of the billions of naira to
help citizens of Ekiti, and he ought not to claim the state
is poor just because it receives the smallest federal
allocation. Last, but certainly not least, Fayose's election
as governor is still being challenged in the Election
Tribunals, and he recently lost an appeal of a lower court
decision in the case, which means he faces more weeks, if not
months, of uncertainty as to whether or not he will continue
to be governor.


Her Excellency



7. (U) PolOffs were invited to have lunch at the governor's
residence with the wives of the Governor and Deputy Governor.
Feyisetan Fayose, or "Her Excellency Mrs. Fayose" as she
prefers to be called, had laid on a Nigerian-style official
reception complete with prepared remarks, videocameras, and
fifteen or twenty members of her staff in attendance to
applaud at appropriate points in her speech. Although her
husband has been in office for only a few months, she has
already set up the "Fayose Foundation" which, she says, will
work on the problems of HIV/AIDS in Ekiti including provision
of medical care, drug and condom distribution, educational
and nutritional programs, and hospice care. She went on at
length to describe plans for her Foundation to provide
mobility aids for the handicapped, aid and training for
handicapped persons who want to work, micro-loans to empower
women who want to start their own businesses, family planning
advice, senior citizens' services, poverty eradication and
improved healthcare state-wide. Her challenges in getting
started are money and equipment, and she was not hesitant in
asking what the USG could do to help. We advised her that the
USG has many programs that might be able to help, but her
group would have to prepare proposals that we could consider.



8. (U) At lunch, the wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Esther
Alulco, was more talkative and seemed more politically savvy
than the Governor's wife. She said that AD is finished as a
power in Ekiti but will survive as a "relic". On the other
hand, Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group that is one
of founders of AD will continue to be a force in the state
because, she said, "we are of the Yoruba culture." Though
apparently good-intentioned, neither woman has any prior
training or experience in any of the areas in which they
proposed to make their marks -- social work, community health
services, education. An example: as we stepped outside the
door to leave the governor's residence, we were met by a
full-grown ostrich. The governor's wife said that there had
been two ostriches when they took over the residence, but one
had died. When asked if the survivor was male or female, she
said she didn't know. We suggested that if the bird laid
eggs, it might be female. She said it did lay eggs, but she
seemed reluctant to accept that this established the bird as
female.



9. (C) Comment. Four years until the next governors'
election is a long time. While it may appear now that the AD
is "finished" in Ekiti, the new PDP governor is not yet sure
of keeping his office. In addition, though he has only been
in office for less than six months, he has yet to make any
significant moves to better the lives of his constituents,
and without an infusion of funds from somewhere, he may never
be able to get any beneficial programs started. Fayose is
reported to have a "back to the soil" program in the works
that will give funds and training to any unemployed Ekiti who
wants to get back into traditional farming, preferably the
production of cocoa. Former Minister of Science and
Technology, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture,
and Senator for Ekiti South district, Dr. Bode Olowoporoku,
has introduced federal legislation that would direct funds to
projects like this. If the Governor and the Senator can get
the funding, which is always the problem in Nigeria, this may
be the way forward for Ekiti. If they can, the tiny state
may be one half step ahead of other states that continue to
clamor for a return to local or regional control of their
resources.
HINSON-JONES