By the midterm of Governor Ayo Fayose's first term in office, he decided to take a two - week leave and he handed over power, not to his deputy, not to the Speaker of the House of Assembly but to the Deputy Speaker, Rt Hon. Taiwo Olatubosun.
Olatubosun as Acting Governor was empowered to operate from the Executive Red Seat of Mr Governor, use the Red Pen of the Governor and ride the official SUV vehicle of the number one citizen of Ekiti State.
We in the Government House Press Crew continued to cover that activities of the Acting Governor without any reservation but now our work - load has lightened. Just like Fayose, Olatubosun turned out not to be an armchair Chief Executive. He too was always on the move inspecting ongoing projects or paying unscheduled working visits to Local Government headquarters.
The two weeks over, Governor Fayose flew back into the state in an helicopter and continued his fast paced governance style, breaking new grounds almost on a daily basis. As a media freak, nothing he did that would not be given adequate publicity on radio, television and in the national dailies. Were it now that we have the new media, Fayose in the news would have gone viral daily.
But with the gift of hindsight, I can say that Fayose laid the foundation of new media in the state as the Global System of Mobile Communication GSM came to Ekiti State during his time.
It was at Fajuyi junction in early 2003 that Governor Fayose made the first ever GSM phone call out of Ekitiland with the Econet Network now Airtel. MTN network followed almost immediately while the other networks also extended their services to Ekiti State.
Following that historic phone call with a handset by Mr Governor, sales of GSM phones and their accessories sprouted all around Fajuyi Park and the vicinity soon became Ado Ekiti's own Computer village.
The GSM market in the heart of the state capital soon became an eyesore and the Fayose administration did something about it by reclaiming a swampy stretch of land along Ajilosun area through channelisation and built lockup stores around the canal and the GSM traders at Fajuyi relocated there. That's the Fayose Market today.
Governor Fayose also changed the face of public transportation in Ekiti State when he introduced the mini bus popularly called Akoto. He went to the extent of customising one for himself as one of his official vehicles with the Coat of Arm as its plate number.
It was during the administration of Osoko, the appelation Governor Fayose gave himself that October 8, the annual International World Teachers Day celebration was upgraded and began to be celebrated like a carnival in the state. Public primary and secondary school teachers from all over the state would be empowered to come the the state capital wearing the same Ankara uniform just as Mr Governor and converge at the stadium to commemorate the day with speech making and a match pass. Fayose later introduced to the celebration, awards of cash to and new cars as prizes to deserving teachers.
All Chief Executives of Ekiti State who came after him had followed suit to celeberate World Teachers Day elaborately and with cash and material awards as motivation to those in the teaching profession in public schools in the Fountain of Knowledge.
The popularity of Governor Fayose of Ekiti grew in leaps and bounds not only at home but nationally. The fame might not be unconnected to him being appointed as the Chairman of the PDP Governors in Nigeria and later when President Olusegun Obasanjo's second term was nearing its end, Fayose was appointed as Head of a Committee saddled with the duty of screening prospective presidential candidates.
This assignment brought many political timbers and calibres to Ado Ekiti to lobby Osoko.
As time went on, stories in News bulletins on radio and television were not enough to adequately cover the numerous activities of Governor Fayose. With the support and approval of the management of the BSES news department, I created two weekly news programmes. Government House Diary, a recorded 15 minutes round-off of the Governor's activities in the past week for broadcast on EKTV as a segment of the Sunday Magazine programme, The Breakfast Show.
The other was another 15 minutes news programme tagged Ekiti Progress Report dedicated to legacy projects like the commissioning of the kilometre - long flyover bridge Fayose built in Ado Ekiti and such other projects.
The reports were in the format of the news reports I wrote and produced for television during the Adebayo administration 1999 - 2003, when the AD governments in all the States of the South West decided to boycott NTA Network News at 9pm on Sundays and mandated all TV stations in the region to create a Network of Southwest Reports.
Mr Kola Ajumobi and my humble self were drafted by BSES to handle the assignment. Lagos Television was the production centre of Southwest Reports and was beamed simultaneously by television stations in the six SW States. I leveraged on the experience I garnered from the SW reports to make Ekiti Progress Report a must watch news programme weekly on Saturday evenings.