In this interview with The Africa Report, I discussed the need for electoral reforms, engagement, and dialogue with political rivals, proportional representation in our electoral system, and substantial political actions to address challenges. Additionally, I reflected on recent coups in West Africa, election challenges, overreliance on the judiciary for political decisions, and assessed Buhari's presidency.

1. ONE LOVE
Nation building
is very fragile in
Africa – Kayode
Fayemi
Reserved for subscribers
Now is the time for big political
gestures, says the former Ekiti
governor and minister Kayode
Fayemi: he calls for electoral
reform and urges President Tinubu
to reach out to his rivals
Nigeria’s internationally networked
politician Kayode Fayemi kept us
By Patrick Smith, Donu Kogbara
Posted on November 10, 2023 10:02
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi. Picture taken October 11,
2016. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde – D1AEUGNQILAA
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POLITICS
ISRAEL-
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WAR
LIBERIA
ELECTIONS
BUSINESS
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OPINION
 P.SMITH
COUNTRIES 

2. guessing about his next move after
making way for Bola Tinubu to be the
ruling All Progressives Congress
party’s presidential candidate.
With Tinubu now president, many of
Fayemi’s friends expected the former
mines minister and governor of Ekiti
State to become the next foreign
minister, given his doctorate on
national security and work with
regional organisations.
Instead, he has stepped away from
government and partially returned to
academia, teaching courses at London’s
Kings College and launching a ‘think
and do tank’ to train policymakers
across Africa.
READ MORE Nigeria: How Fani-Kayode,
Faleke and others failed to make Tinubu’s
cabinet
This has not stopped him from
speaking out boldly on the state of
politics and democracy in Africa after
putschists toppled six civilian regimes
in under five years.
First in the firing line is Nigeria’s
electoral system: “We need to find a
way to address majoritarian winner-
takes-all projects,” says Fayemi.
“These entrenched political interests

3. are not going to walk away; those
benefiting would want to find a way to
hold on to power.”
Balancing the scales
Still a member of the ruling party,
Fayemi warns of overreach after the
national elections where Tinubu got
37% of the vote and Atiku Abubakar
and Peter Obi 21% and 16%,
respectively. Atiku and Obi are
challenging the results in court.
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Even if everyone was to accept – as
Fayemi does – that Tinubu won more
votes than his rivals, the vote split
raises important questions about how
supporters of Atiku and Obi are going
to be represented. Fair and inclusive
representation is key, says Fayemi.
Africa should be drawing on its
traditions of consensual decision
making “because the nation-building
project is very fragile on the African
continent and it’s not settled”.

4. That doesn’t mean tolerating injustice
or criminality; quite the opposite, says
Fayemi. The political system should be
far more open and accountable.
A priority for Fayemi is a more
rigorous and independent way of
organising electoral commissions: “It
shouldn’t be ruling governments setting
up these bodies. We need an alternative
approach to decide who the
membership of the electoral bodies
should be.”
The extensive use of technology in
recording and transmitting results in
real time should also curtail much of
the contestation over results. But the
crucial step is finding a way to
If you have 10%
of the [votes], it
should be
possible for you
to have 10% of
the government
“

5. represent the losers in a competitive
election.
READ MORE Nigeria: End of the road for
Atiku and Obi as Supreme Court seals
Tinubu’s victory
“We need to figure out how to ensure
that every vote counts,” says Fayemi.
“If you have 10% of the [votes], it
should be possible for you to have 10%
of the government.”
‘Qualified’ competition in electoral
politics is closer to the proportional
representation widely used in Europe:
in the Netherlands and Germany,
putting together coalitions of ruling
parties can take months. They often
produce compromises that antagonise
everyone, but can boost the legitimacy
of the new government.
“This is the direction I would like us to
head in rather than quarreling over
whether the judiciary is right,” said
Fayemi, referring to the recent round of
court cases.
“In any case, why should we leave the
decisions in our political process to the
judiciary? Why are we voting if it’s the
judiciary that will decide who the
winner is?”
Courting coalition

6. As a candidate for governor of Ekiti
State, Fayemi fought through the courts
for three and a half years to prove that
he had won, rather than the official
‘winner’ named by the electoral
commission.
Fighting your corner in election
tribunals is a slog, he recalls, with no
place for wishful thinking. “We brought
in a forensic expert from the UK. We
examined the ballots one by one. We
produced a copy of results from each
polling station. It all has to be backed
by evidence.”
This should be a last resort, and it
would be if Nigeria had a national
electoral commission beyond the
influence of partisan politicians, he
says, speaking to The Africa Report in
early September. “I don’t think the
ruling party is going to lose in the
Supreme Court but it is a distraction
that we cannot afford.” [nb: the
Supreme Court ruled in Tinubu’s favour]
According to Fayemi, now is the time
for big political gestures. The president
should “reach out to Atiku and Obi and
say: ‘You’ve done what was expected of
you by your party, can we now sit down
in the interests of Nigeria and find a
workable arrangement?’ That’s what I
would do … because the country is

7. bleeding.”
READ MORE Nigeria: Tinubu and Atiku’s
complicated on/off relationship
A dispute also risks weakening
Nigeria’s response to the deepening
political, economic and security woes
in the region, with five of its
neighbours now under military rule.
As an academic and activist in the
1990s, Fayemi campaigned against the
dictatorship of General Sani Abacha,
whose corruption and brutality, torture
and killing plumbed new depths.
Tinubu, too, joined the anti-Abacha
campaigners, which may partly explain
his tough line against this latest
generation of putschists in West Africa.
At first, Tinubu’s ultimatum to General
Abdourahamane Tiani in Niger to
reinstate the ousted civilian president
within a week won many plaudits. With
Nigeria running the Economic
Community of West African States
regional bloc, diplomats and officials
applauded this robust response.
The difficulties started when Tiani and
the other putschists refused to be cowed
by Tinubu’s threats of devastating
sanctions and the use of force. Coup
supporters said Nigeria was doing the
bidding of France, the former colonial

8. power in Niamey.
Many local politicians called on Tinubu
to press harder for a negotiated
settlement, saying that punishing
Nigeria’s northern neighbour could
backfire. Others raised the spectre of a
military split in West Africa, with
fellow juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso
making common cause to resist any use
of force by Nigeria and its allies.
What freedom?
Fayemi sees the Niger putschists’
rationale for overthrowing elected
president Mohamed Bazoum – that
security was deteriorating – as
disingenuous. Security had been better
under Bazoum than in the nearby
military-ruled states of Burkina Faso
and Mali, he says.
Grassroots support for the putschists
signifies much wider failings, says
Fayemi: “Most of the boys you see who
have been paid to go on the streets and
demonstrate [in Niger, Burkina Faso
and Mali] have never lived under a
military dictatorship … They’re in
their 20s on a continent where 60% of
the people are under 30. For many of
these people, freedom is meaningless if
it does not produce jobs.”
READ MORE Why Africa should expect

9. more coups
Looking back on Muhammadu Buhari’s
presidency, Fayemi offers a more
nuanced assessment than many of his
colleagues. “I served president Buhari
for three and a half years as a minister,”
he says. Buhari was detached from what
was going on in the country, Fayemi
says, and that is why “all manner of
malfeasance happened”.
But there are other areas where Buhari
was not given fair credit. “The Nigerian
military had been abandoned for 20
years before Buhari came and what he
did for them is very good. He bought
equipment, he provided incentives, but
he did not supervise.”
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