Sixty years old today, former Ekiti State governor and one time Minister of Steel and Solid Minerals Development, Dr. John ‘Kayode Fayemi, has paid his dues. Whether in the academia, politics, journalism, civil society or activism, he has his imprints across the stretch of the enduring human endeavours. In this commemoration interview with Olawale Olaleye, Fayemi went back in time, and relived his reminiscences with a glimpse of what his life looks now. Excerpts:
You’re sixty years old today. What has changed with the man John ‘Kayode Fayemi?
There’s no question that age and experience mellow every person over time. But I’d like to think my core essence and values have remained the same, shaped by fate, time and experience. As Alfred Tennyson reminds us in that timeless poem, Ulysses, it is still a case of “one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.”
I may no longer be in a position to do what I used to do in my age of innocence or in my 20s or 30s, run around continents, take unbridled risks challenging authorities and attempting to change the world around me for the better. What is important is to state that I’ve been blessed in all ways by God Almighty and have a lot to be grateful for at 60.
In what ways did your childhood and upbringing shape whatever you’ve become today?
My childhood was a normal, nuclear family type. My father was a civil servant by the time I was born but started his professional life as a teacher. My mum was a trader. They are both deceased now. I leave you to imagine how teachers behaved in those days. Although the last born in my family, my disciplinarian parents did not spare the rod.
I must say that the values instilled in me have consistently shaped my character. I also grew up as a Mass server, an altar boy in the Catholic church. It’s a position of early responsibility and discipline as well. When you combine home training with religious teachings and standard school direction, you get the picture of my upbringing.
Some people often speak about the roles their parents or either of them played in their lives. What would you say of yours?
Both my parents had an impact on my life growing up. And my siblings too. They were both very present and monitored my upbringing closely. I wrote in my exile memoirs, Out of the Shadows, that my early obsession with reading newspapers was picked from my Dad, who was an information officer with the Western region and later Western State government.
And that must have contributed to my early consciousness and interest in what goes on in my environment. So, my career trajectory as a journalist, academic, activist and politician could not be disconnected from this upbringing.
Looking back, which of your childhood memories do you still reckon with today as a relevant factor?
As I said, it was a normal childhood, not a pampered childhood. So many memories flood my mind but I’m not sure any of them is extra ordinary. It was a very routine, loving childhood.
