Perceptions 2023: Fayemi, Moghalu

Femi Akintunde-Johnson

Here is the third leg of our perceptual exploration of the busy highways that lead to Aso Rock in 2023.

KAYODE FAYEMI, 56

It appears many people juxtapose the claim that Dr. John Olukayode Fayemi may be considering running for the Nigerian presidency with his performance as governor of Ekiti State (first in 2010-2014, and since October, 2018); including his stint as a Minister of Solid Minerals Development (2015 – May, 2018); and more often than not, their conclusion would make the handsome gap-toothed scholar-turned-activist nurse a mild migraine.

My perception is a little less dramatic. I actually like his persona, his academic credentials, and unobtrusive determination to be in the forefront of the power calculus. Let us step back a bit, and understand what could be provoking (or is it instigating) Fayemi to dare what many be-decked angels have trodden, and fallen spectacularly.

Armed with three degrees, and a doctorate focused on the dynamics of war strategies, Fayemi is well-positioned for battles in a Nigerian space besotted with schemes, skirmishes, ambushes, tactical retreats, coup d’etats, and such dark martial concoctions. Astute in teaching, journaling, developing strategies for democratic and governance infrastructures, it is thus obvious that Fayemi is cerebral, of the right age, eminently self-propelled, and unwary of the self-limiting itch that stagnates less-endowed political entrepreneurs.

Not given to sartorial splendour, and spartan in stature, Fayemi’s doggedness is emblazoned in the titanic legal tussle he waged to upturn his electoral failure as the gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Action Congress, AC, in the 2007 Ekiti election. He was later declared the winner in 2010, and the ill-fated incumbent, Olusegun Oni, was toppled. Fayemi’s shocking defeat, four years later, by the garrulous Ayodele Fayose (in 2014) revealed another strain of the Fayemi character. The campaigns were nasty, bloody, sometimes bordering on pettiness. Soon after, Fayemi was compensated with a ministerial seat which was not sufficient to quench his thirst for a return to the Ado-Ekiti governor’s lodge. He craved a return match with Fayose, and he got it. So, 2018 happened: in all its macabre glory! Eventually, Fayemi knocked out Fayose’s proxy, Olusola Eleka, in a poorly attended election.

As usual with Nigerian politicians in high offices, tales of corruption and sharp practices trailed him from his first tenure as Ekiti governor; as minister of solid minerals – and as usual, none of these allegations and petitions have led anywhere.

My perception of Dr. Kayode Fayemi is as hazy as his national pedigree in governance. He projects a lightweight image, vaulting ambition, a ‘Sokugo’ spirit (lulled by his current position as Chairman of the governors’ forum) with a tendency to become a makeweight in a political crossfire – but then, his wife, Bisi, will make a great ‘First Lady’.

Fayemi appears to me a man high-strung on rhetorics and strategems, but completely nonplussed in the skulduggery of managing a nation pulsating with grief and groans in virtually all sectors of her development. He also seems a man in a hurry to rule for the sake of adding a ‘hardware’ to an already impressive CV. Nigeria needs more than just another doctorate degree holder.

KINGSLEY MOGHALU, 58

Here is a man who was born (in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria); bred in rich diversity (Switzerland (Europe), Washington (USA), and Nnewi – Southeast Nigeria); and groomed across world-class schools and development centres, signifying that he will be a great president – resourceful, well-prepared, articulate, unflappable and dignified. Your first impression when you meet Prof. Kingsley Bosah Chiedu Ayodele Moghalu, is likely to imagine him as a man ‘ready-made’ for the biggest office – a husband of one wife and four children, international lawyer, political economist, scholar, author, and more.

On paper, Moghalu has spent all his life studying how to govern his country competently and effectively: in 1992, he obtained a Master’s degree at Tufts University’s School of Law and Diplomacy, where he was also a research assistant in the International Political Economy programme. In 2005, he obtained his Phd in international relations at the University of London’s School of Economics and Political Science. Among his attainments are international certificates in the following areas: Risk Management, macroeconomics and financial sector management, corporate governance, and global strategic leadership…in the ivy league spaces like the International Monetary Fund Institute, Harvard University, Harvard Business School, and the Wharton School of Philadelphia.

In acquiring experience and exposure, Moghalu has been methodical. He has worked at different levels in the United Nations, UN (from 1992): human rights and election officer in Cambodia (1992); political affairs officer (peacekeeping operations) in New York headquarters (1993); political adviser to the UN special representative in Croatia (1996-1997); legal adviser and spokesman to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1997); WHO’s head of global partnerships with assets and investment in excess of $20b at Global Funds to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM); and other global assignments until he resigned in 2008, to start his own consultancy firm. President Umaru Yar’Adua poached him in 2009 as CBN’s deputy governor (financial systems stability).

Fantastic preparations, sadly he has zero “certificate” or “experience” in how to get his hands on the presidential seal!

So, what is wrong with Moghalu, a man who contested the 2019 elections as the candidate of a new party, Young Progressives Party, YPP – and has indicated his intention to run again in 2023 from as far back as June, 2021? Why does his ambition seem far-fetched, and inchoate?

Moghalu appears like a perennial journeyman, an election circle actor, who, perhaps for reasons of logistical immensity and sheer brutality of electioneering management and expenditure, gives a picture of a “waka-pass” in the presidential race.

Even the constant irritation and annoying contrived mayhem of an Omoyele Sowore, now and again, keeps him somewhat at the fringes of national discourse, than a Moghalu, in spite of his weighty credentials and undoubted intellect.

He could also borrow a page or two from the playbook of the young man whose big ambition is to ruffle feathers of entrenched majordomos in the Lagos political establishment. Olajide Abdul-Azeez Adediran (aka Jandor), with his Lagos4Lagos political pressure group appears to have created some sort of groundswell of recalcitrant fanbase, banded in the hope and hunger of breaking the vice grip of prebendal politics, otherwise dubbed “Baba Sọpe” (the godfather speaks) in Lagos politics.

While in APC, and for more than three years, his team had percolated the fringes of APC teeming with disgruntled and displaced elements, and other core Lagos interest groups, with his “subversive” message of enthroning popular democratic tenets in intra-party politicking. His ultimate goal is getting someone (read Jandor) into the Alausa seat of power by sidestepping the ‘agelong’ succession paradigm. He recently formalised his defection to PDP in a ceremony alien to Lagos PDP in its noise, drama, coverage and bravura.

Now, it may all be for nothing; he could however sway some votes to the point of irritating the calculations of Lagos power brokers – or not at all. One thing is clear though: Jandor’s consistent, insistent, undaunted and below-the-radar mobilisation, consultations, communication, and animation of the lethargic masses of dislocated party people, and other cadres of the society, have led to a significant upward flick on the political barometer of Lagos State.

People are now aware of the young rebel’s exertions, if not his pedigree; people are now familiar with his intention, if others call it tantrums. In Lagos politics, you cannot feign ignorance of a Jandor – even if only to dismiss him as a neophyte in the treacherous game of power.

That, my dear Professor, is how to be taken as a serious aspirant with a serious antecedent. Roll up your sleeves, or roll over. See you in 2027!