For Erelu Bisi Fayemi @ 60

By Tai Oguntayo Publisher, 

Fountain Newsbreaker

Let no one be surprised that the wife of former Ekiti governor, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is being celebrated by everybody, everywhere on her birthday. It is so because of who she was before coming to Ekiti State as the first lady, who she was when she was the first lady and who she remains to be even after living the stage as the wife of the governor. She touched many lives and still touches many lives more than anyone can expect. She was the stabilizer of the Fayemi administration and for her many, including those who served in that government would have lost their faces in the various communities. She gives everyone sense of belonging and identifies with the underprivileged. 

When you want to talk about Erelu as an author, then you want to talk of a prolific and renowned author who, within a space of six years, chuned out four voluminous books apart from other contributions to national and international journals. You will also agree with me that to be a prolific writer, you must be an avid reader and that is who Erelu Bisi Fayemi is. No wonder in 2013 alone, Erelu chunked out two voluminous books, namely; “SPEAKING FOR MYSELF” with 490 pages and “SPEAKING ABOVE A WHISPER” which has 280 pages. These two books were reproduced in 2014 despite her very tight schedule as the workaholic wife of the governor in an election year for that matter. If anyone wants to say that; “Yes, she could write books while in government because she had a lot of facilities to do so, what of another giant stride she made in getting the LOUD WHISPERS published in 2017? This book, you will agree with me, is a masterpiece with its 412 pages.Now when you want to delve into where she actually cut her teeth for activism, I will tell you that Erelu did not suddenly wake to become an activist like many hungry activists today who created the proliferation of several non-governmental organizations in Nigeria. Erelu has experience as a Feminist Thinker and Writer, Social Entrepreneur, Policy Advocate, Trainer, Social Change Philanthropy Practitioner, Communications Specialist and Social Sector expert.  

There is no way one can divorce Erelu’s writings from her feminist activism as noted in a review done on her book by the former Head of Department of English and Literary Studies, Ekiti State University, Dr Lara Owoeye. In her review of the LOUD WHISPERS, Owoeye wrote inter alia that “in the opening pages and first part, the author’s stance on issues of feminist import takes centre stage as she bears her mind on a range of perspectives on the theoretical and practical aspects of popular feminist postulations. The section is devoted to the demystification of the feminist theory and debunking popular myths about feminism and feminists. The path to achieving this is lined with a revelation of the basics of feminism by clearly stating what it is not. the declaration of the fact that there are feminine and masculine feminists at the end of the chapter subtly defeats the argument that feminism is anti-male”.

As a thorough bred woman activist, Erelu served as a Principal Partner, Amandla Consulting which specializes in leadership development for women and she ran an online community called Abovewhispers.com, where she wrote an immensely popular weekly column called Loud Whispers which she has now turned into a book. She was a UN Women Nigeria Senior Advisor, and was recently appointed as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College, University of London before returning to support her husband who was re-elected as the governor of Ekiti in 2018.“Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is an avowed feminist ideologue who does not shy away from the feminist movement but states without prevarication that “I am a feminist, no ‘Ifs’ no ‘Buts”. In LOUD WHISPERS, she makes use of stories and essays to bring to the fore a number of issues plaguing the womenfolk, Nigeria as a nation and Africa in general. LOUD WHISPERS is, indubitably, a statement of her stance on the perception and treatment of women by a society that takes little cognizance of their existence. It will instantly clear the mist from the eyes of any doubting Thomas on the aspirations and expectations of the advocates of the feminine movement.” Lara Owoeye wrote.

Her contribution to motherhood won’t be complete I fail to mention that she served as the Director of Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), an international development organisation for African women based in London, UK, from 1991-2001 as well as Executive Director of the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF) – the first Africa-wide grant-making fund, which supports the work of organizations promoting women’s rights in Africa, from 2001-2010.  

Interestingly, during the first tenure of her husband as a governor in Ekiti, Erelu replicate AWDF by creating Ekiti Women Development Fund (EWDF) where the interests of Ekiti women were being protected.It is on record that Bisi Fayemi sponsored a bill to the State House of Assembly to fight against gender inequality and child abuse in Ekiti. With this, those engaging in child trafficking and women abuse had to sit tight during the first tenure of her husband. Though this law was not properly utilized during the regime of the immediate past administration in Ekiti, on the return of Governor Kayode Fayemi, Erelu had read a riot act to women abusers at a special reading organized her book, LOUD WHISPERS recently by the Ekiti Chapter of the Associaiton of Nigerian Authors by asking them to “Park well” 

Erelu as a politician? Hmmmm…… I’m afraid, if I have to write on this, there is no way I won’t sound personal because I’m involved. She is one woman who had overcome serial blackmail and orchestrated propaganda through her calmness which many a man will find difficult to achieve during the last electioneering campaign. Interestingly, most of the attacks emanated from transfer of aggression from the political opponents of her husband. She had also solved a lot of political brouhaha which would have rocked Fayemi’s administration through her humility, understanding and closeness to the grassroot. To draw home this point, I will like to briefly narrate my personal experience with her, this time, not as a journalist but as a politician.

During the build up to the gubernatorial primary election of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2018, a lot of JKF followers did not support his ambition to re-contest, not because they hated him but because almost 90% of them had already supported different candidates. As one of his die-hard supporters, I was also strongly of the opinion that he should not contest because we went to him severally before the election to ask if he would contest of which he said that if the Ekiti Gate issue did not work in his favour, one of us “from the AD to the ACN and Adebayo/Fayemi trajectory would be pushed forward”. This made us then to be looking inward amongst us for who can be his favourite candidate but all of a sudden, everything changed and a lot of political bigwigs like Segun Oni, Babafemi Ojudu and co rose up to contest. Some people then felt that only Fayemi could confront this heavy weight otherwise we in the JKF fold would lose out. However, I didn’t see it from this angle because I felt that Fayemi, Oni and Ojudu who were already holding national positions should stay in Abuja. I put this into writing and said unequivocally that the three of them should not contest. This story spread like harmattan fire and everybody saw me as anti-JKF to the extent that at a social engagement in Ibadan, I went to greet my boss, JKF but he snubbed me.

Erelu, who I will rather describe as a stabilizer in Ekiti politics, sensed what happened and sent someone to go and call me immediately. I went to see her where he sat by JKF’s side. “Akogun,” she called me, smiling“Ma,” I answered her while her husband looked away even as many people were watching. Then she said, “of all people, Akogun! How do you want your Oga to be happy with you when you are writing such things on social media? O ya, go and greet your Oga again. As I moved close, Oga said: Tai, your matter is not here”. At this point, Erelu quickly quipped in; “Akogun, let’s meet at Isan and talk it.” When we returned to Ekiti, she had an audience with me in the presence of the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode who facilitated the meeting and that was how the matter was settled and I joined forces with my erstwhile JKF team at home. This was how Erelu on her own calmed down a lot of frayed nerves to rally support for her husband.  

I can’t forget an occasion at the party secretariat before the rally when she went to meet some disgruntled women stakeholders who were so belligerent but she did not give a damn. She met them and was able to break their ranks to get a sizeable number of them on the side of her husband. An interesting aspect of this woman of virtue as a politician is that she does not see politics as a do or die affair. Even after the election when her husband had been sworn in, she told her followers times without number that “please, I don’t want to hear ‘some people are for JKF some people are for that’. We are now in government and everyone is for JKF”. 

This is the spirit! No wonder it is said that; behind every successful man, there is a woman. Above all, looking at Erelu as a mother will make one to ask, what makes a woman to be a mother? A mother must be caring, she must be submissive to her husband, she must be compassionate and be contented. All these are inherent in Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi’s character. She is a mother of repute giving her own son and other people’s children new lease of life and the best education a parent can think of. In terms of being submissive, Erelu has always been doing her things moderately and as a mark of submission, she left all her juicy appointments even with the United Nations to support her husband in the task of building a Ekiti to an enviable height.  

All the bills she had sponsored in the past into the House of Assembly against child trafficking, female genital mutilation and gender inequality speak volumes of her unique motherly role in Ekiti and indeed, the entire nation.On this note, I present to you a quintessential woman of virtue, an author, politician, activist and a mother, Erelu Olabisi Adeleye-Fayemi, our Mother General in Ekiti!

 Akogun Tai Oguntayo is the Publisher of Fountain Newsbreaker and former State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ekiti State