While most governors brandish roads they built as evidence of performance, Ekiti state Governor Kayode Fayemi yesterday said governance was beyond regular payment of salaries and construction of roads.
Fayemi, who made the statement yesterday while playing host to the management of Blueprint Newspapers Limited in Ado-Ekiti, said his Social Security Scheme was borne out of the need to add value to the lives of people.
“It would be difficult to do any less in Ekiti, because we have enlightened and highly educated population who are very fastidious,” he said.
“This programme derives from my passion for social justice. Governance is nothing if it has no empathy, if compassion is not a defining principle of what you do. The society cannot grow on the principle of everyone for himself and God for us all. I don’t know any society in the world that grows on that basis.
“Free education is not a big deal to the people of Ekiti. It started in this clime since 1955, so what is that you are going to add to it that would really make life meaningful to them?
“What actually gave birth to the Social Security Scheme for the elderly was that we discovered that those who ought to be taking care of the elderly were, in fact, much more needy than the elderly ,” he added.
Chairman of Blueprint Newspapers, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, had commended Fayemi for “developing the state so well within the three and half years of his administration.
He said what he had witnessed in the state actually gave credence to the positive stories and news from the state.
