After a brief delay at her private establishment somewhere around Ikeja, Dr. Eniola Ajayi who is contesting for the House of Representatives seat in Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 1 was ready for me. She is one of the most unassuming personalities I have met and her response to every question I fired at her proved to me that she knew her onions and would serve Ekiti people and indeed Nigeria well if she finds her way to the chambers. This is the first time we are interviewing a politician on this blog, although deliberate, we can vouch that this interview is worth reading. Gabriel Olatunji-Legend conducted this interview.
How did you find yourself at this point of contesting for an election?
Let's just say that, I'm one of those people who don't believe in complaining but contributing. I was invited by the former governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to be a Commissioner in his cabinet. I started as Commissioner for Education, Science and technology and rounded up as commissioner for environment. So having contributed at that level, I was encouraged by members of the party and my friends to go further, and because there was an obvious vacancy in my constituency. And from that constituency I was encouraged to go for the house of rep. That's why I contested in the primaries with four men and won.
How did you win with four men?
I didn't have much experience so I didn't bring anything forward in terms of trying to say I know anything. So I listened a lot to the leaders and took a lot of direction. So when I get to one leader, I'll ask them “I don't know anything about this politics, what do you think I can do to win?” so that I don't leave any stone unturned, and then that person will guide me to the next step. I made sure I covered all the ground. After seeing all the leaders within my constituency I also went to all the 24 wards in my constituency, I made sure I visited them all. And there are 7 local development council areas within my constituency, so I visited all and I made a case for myself. And when I spoke they realised that I could represent them well. I was one candidate who took nothing for granted because I did not have anything I could bring on board; No political history apart from being a commissioner. The person who came 2nd had been a member of the house of assembly for at least eight years. The one who came third had been in politics for as long as I can remember and he had been local government chairman, he had been different things at different times. He came highly recommended but the only recommendation I had was faith in God and the belief of the people.
How did you prove to them at the ward that you could represent them?
When you speak to people, they know whether you have the stuff that's required, the academic qualification and the ability to make a case which is what the legislature is about. You have to be able to speak and defend, for example, a law that you want to enact. They want to see somebody who will be able to stand on the floor of the house with 359 other members possibly shouting you down and be able to stand up and continue speaking. That I was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt; that I could articulate myself, I could present it in a way that would be acceptable, and defend it with all the facts necessary. That was all.
If you're elected now, what would you do and what should your constituency expect from you?
They should expect quality and accountable representation. They should expect a voice for change and impact. They should expect that I would do a lot within my constituency that will uplift the well being of, if not everyone, majority of the people there. Every day I ask myself what can I do to actually emancipate the youth? My main inspiration for this contest is to change the mindset of our youths to become more enterprising, more enlightened and actually productive. And it's not about formal education; it's about having a purpose or a goal that's driving you. Having a dream and pursuing it and being practicable in the pursuit of that dream. And knowing that you can start small; those are the kind of things I'd like to do – teach my people how to fish and give them fish every now and then.
Before your political career, what track record do you have?
I was PTA chairperson of Chrisland Educational Organisation, and I started the insurance (scheme) for parents such that if a parent dies whether father or mother that child can continue through school until they finish primary stage by the contributions we make. Then when I left, I contributed a lot on the floor of our PTA meeting to the point that I was almost made a PTA Vice chairperson in absentia but I left because I didn't want to be an executive. Then the late Oba Oladele Olasore called me to be a board member, so as I speak to you today, I'm a member board of governors of Olasore International School. Aside from that my set in Christ School Ado Ekiti is 1975 – 1980 set. I was president of that set for over 5years without tenure; I had to willingly hand over. We did a lot in the school – renovated two blocks, one in the boys section and one in the girls section. We built six units of toilets in each block. My parting gift was to make sure we bought a Toyota coaster bus for the school to round off my tenure. When I was commissioner for education, one of the programs that meant the most to me was the one I did for two students per school. We had about 187 schools in Ekiti. I brought two students from each school, to a hall and poured myself into them. The theme of the particular outreach was Your Future Starts Now. I told them about what they needed to do to become somebody tomorrow. At the last ‘Excellence in Leadership’ Conference of Daystar Christian Centre, I shared with them what I think education should be about. For as long as I can remember, I have it there on my CV that education of the Nigerian child is my life mission. This is not a wishful campaign thing; it is something that drives the very essence of who I am. As of today, I've trained other people’s children, two of them graduated from Babcock. I'm training 3 girls at college of education Ikere. I only know the mother of one of them, I don't know the rest. I'm training another boy in College of Medicine Ekiti State University and he's not even related to me. I've had to help train my sibling's, cousin's children. In my home, there was a time I used to carry about 6 to 8 children to Olasore International School and they were living with me. This is about who I am; the very essence of Eniola Olaitan Ajayi.
With all of these, it is obvious that you're very passionate about education. How will you infuse that in ... (cuts in)
Education in a more practicable and functional term! The education of Nigeria does not respond to its environment and it doesn't make it practical for the person learning. I remember that in the past training doctors was through apprenticeship when medicine just started. It wasn't like you needed to go to the University to become a doctor. But today, we train people in computer science without seeing a computer like I did in the university. We have a thriving movie industry, we don't have universities specializing in movie courses, maybe only one, theatre arts but we don't have cinematography, photography at the highest level. Now our children just go to school to cram read and pass. When you talk to a child in primary school level in the US about the presidents of the US, they can tell you up to the 44th president. They can explain gravity to you because that's the way they taught them science. Our education here is far from reality. In Canada, the people that earn the most are those who go to polytechnics or technical colleges and not the university because it's from those schools that they fish out those who do training for aircraft and ships and so on. In Nigeria by now we should have standard schools training people on panel beating not just tech colleges; even the technical colleges are not well patronised. That's the kind of education we need; Education that takes away from the book into reality. That's what's wrong with Ekiti state. We have so many professors from Ekiti, probably the largest conglomerate of professors, but we don't translate the education we have into enterprise. There are many doctors who don't know how to run clinics successfully because they were not taught in medical school.
As a commissioner for education in Ekiti. What were you able to do? But before you answer, I read an interview on the present Gov of Ekiti, Gov fayose when he said the tenure of Gov Fayemi was worse on... (cuts in)
Don't even continue, it is not true at all and then the foundation of those things he claimed was bad. One of the first things we did was to have an education summit that described what needed to be done across the sector. We focused on the students themselves – Are they ready to learn? That was the problem we had to tackle. So we stopped automatic promotion to encourage children to read their books. Then we started unified exams to be able to select children that can actually go to SS3 from SS2. So we had unified exams in primary 3, primary 5, primary 6, JSS3, SS2 and SS3 mock examination across the state for proper benchmarking. And for SS2 in particular you needed to have at least 5 credits with at least a pass in English and Mathematics before you can go to SS3. So that when you do go to SS3 we're sure that you have a chance of passing. I did a lot of motivation of the kids. I mentioned the two students per school earlier. I also went to different schools to speak to them. Aside from that, we did practical things. When I took over as commissioner, one Christ school Ado Ekiti, the girls section, had 35 students in JSS1 and another school, Ado Grammer School, they had 91 students in SS1 to SS3. There were things that accounted to that. So first, we streamline enrollment in schools because of this lopsidedness with good complement of teacher. We allowed only about 200 per year in all schools across Ekiti state except those in Ado and Ikere with a larger population where we accepted up to 240. Then we focused on what the government itself needed to do to help education. One was to provide a conducive learning environment so we renovated all the schools in Ekiti across the 16 local government areas in both primary and secondary school. We provided core subject textbooks, reagents for science and apparatus for the laboratories. Apparently three years before Governor Fayemi's tenure, none of that had been bought. Then we had 3 special schools – for the blind, for the deaf and the physically challenged. We bought instructional materials for them including things like brail computers. Then we provided solar notebooks for our children in secondary school to be able to fit in with their contemporaries all over the world. At the tertiary sector, we merged 3 universities, some of which were glorified secondary schools at the time into one university – we moved it on the webomatic scale from the 79th position to the 19th position. The college of education had the law establishing it refused so we re-enacted that law, put two solid first class profs as heads of those tertiary institutions – Prof Ladipo Aina as VC in the University and Prof Francesca Aladejana as provost in the Col of Education. When you see the level of infrastructural development, before our tenure there never used to be capital grants to those institutions, we started giving them capital grants to build many buildings. To God's glory, for the first time in the history of that university we got full accreditation of all the courses that they are offering in Ekiti State University. Today, the college of education now boast of a full research oriented team leading that educational sector which was not so before. We'll be here for another two hours if I sit with you here and tell you about the achievements in education. You can check it online yourself.
What is your background like?
I'm from Iyin Ekiti. My great grandmother is from Ado Ekiti and my mother is from Ipoti Ekiti. I started school in St. Georges Anglican primary school, Ijero Ekiti. I finished my primary school when my parents, both teachers were transferred to Ado Ekiti at Emmanuel Anglican primary school Oke Isa in Ado Ekiti. When I left Emmanuel Anglican primary school, I went to Christ School Ado Ekiti and finished in Christ school But because I had a problem with my school cert the first time and even the second time because the result of that centre was cancelled, I was taken with my mock result into A level because I came first in mock. My principal, Ms Davies then carried me to Ikare where I was taken with my mock result and the four credits that were released. When I was doing my first year of A levels I did my WAEC again and I did jamb again and I was taken to University of Benin in 1982, I finished in 1986. I studied optometry. And when I finished, I started work with the Nigerian airforce as a youth corper but I was retained in the Nigerian airforce in 1987 as permanent staff. While I was there, I went for training in the University of London. I worked as a research fellow mainly at two major hospitals – Moorfields eye Hospital London, and Guy's & St. Thomas' Hospital London. So I had my Master of Philosophy degree from University of London. When I came back, I went to UNIBEN again to do a doctor of optometry.
What would you do differently from what is obtainable out there. There are a lot of people in power today and we hear all sorts in the news and so on, why should I vote for you and not them?
Well, in my own case, it's never been about me. It's been about me and other people. It's always been about, 'what can I do that will affect the lives of the people around me?' And right now there's one major thing I'd like to achieve in the national assembly; it's what I call 'the citizen's chapter' and what it means is that I want the life of the average Nigerian to count for something, where you will know, that the well being of one citizen is crucial to the well being of the nation. In Nigeria, we don't understand what is called citizenship. That I would like to engrave in the hearts and the people of Nigeria so that if something is happening to one person we will not see them as 'o ma se oo' (mere pity), we will look at how this problem that this person has can impact our lives and how we should come around to help. That is why when we have a problem in Nigeria; countries like the US don't look away. Because they know that if they don't look into our problems, it will become a problem for them. We don't have that mindset in Nigeria. That's why you can have 255 girls abducted and even more abducted since then and nobody lost any sleep because we always see things as too far away from us and we're so far removed from what's happening to our fellow men. Like our pastor said in two sermons ago, he said the advanced nations of the world understand that they cannot move at any pace higher or faster that the weakest in their links. Infact, if this is the only thing I achieve in the national assembly, I would know that I have achieved. But there are other things; I worked as commissioner for environment so I know that the forest cover of Nigeria in 1963 was 30 percent and as of today is less than 5 percent. The water in Lake Chad was in 25,000 square kilometers, today it's less than 2,500 kilometers. It's almost dried up. Infact the part that's in Nigeria is just like vegetation. We need to pay attention to climate change. I visited SA and realised that most of the trees I saw there were in rows and I felt if they were naturally occurring it wouldn't be that way so I later learned that 95 percent of the trees in SA were planted. What stops us from legislating in this country that each state must plant a number of trees per year? What stops us at the federal level from providing the seedlings and insisting that they must be done. Must we wait until we lose everything? The other thing I'd like to look at is what you call proper customer service and rights. In Nigeria, you don't have any rights. Everywhere you go in the US, their primary language is English but there's another official language of the US, it's Spanish. The reason it became so is because they have so many Latin Americans among them who speak Spanish. So you go to a hospital everywhere in US and the instructions are done in both English and Spanish. So that everybody in that society is included. These are the problems we have in Nigeria as a people.
Thank you very much ma.
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