As Pressure Mounts On Him To Run
That is the hottest issue of discourse right now in political circles. It is the issue of whether Gov. John Olukayode Fayemi, of Ekiti State, will accept to run in 2023. The reason is very obvious. Since last year, his profile has gone up to make him one of the easily sellable presidential candidates from the South West.
In the last 6 years or so, his profile has been perpetually on the rise. He was made a Minister. Then, he left to contest for Ekiti governorship and he won. Not only that. He contested and won the Leadership of Nigeria Governors Forum which has brought him closer to many governors, from the North & East. Not only that. He was one of the blue-eyed boys of Pres. Buhari. President Buhari likes him. He also likes the President. He has been close to Buhari since his days as a Postgraduate student of Defence & War Studies in London.
Not only that. It has become quite noticeable that since he came in as Governor, he has been spending more time in Abuja where the Secretariat of Nigeria Governors Forum is.
There are those who feel that the huge profile of Fayemi today makes him eminently qualified for the post.
There are those who see him as an answer to those clamouring for the younger players to step in at the centre. He turned 55 a few days ago. And his birthday party in Ado-Ekiti had a national spread in terms of attendance, made up of Governors, Ministers & National Assembly Members.
That permutation now is that if he accepts, he may be running with Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna as his running mate.
There are those who say that Gov. Fayemi is still testing waters to see which way the pendulum swings because he will still have to contend with the ambition of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his political godfather.
A few days back, ThisDay Newspaper insinuated that Gov. Kayode Fayemi is most likely to run with Gov. El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
According to Thisday, Political analysts are of the opinion that the duo of Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his Kaduna State counterpart, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, may pair for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election season.
The report said the duo look good for the ticket because among those being rumoured to be nursing presidential ambition, they paraded the most outstanding credentials and currently enjoy support from President Muhammadu Buhari and members of his Kitchen Cabinet.
It revealed that right now, there are moves in the ruling party to see that the APC fields one of its governors to succeed Buhari whose tenure expires in 2023.
All of this is coming against the backdrop of the recent view of Gov. El-Rufai for power to shift to the South after Buhari’s tenure. Many believe that of all the governors in the South-west, which is the only zone in the southern part of the country where APC commands huge support, only Fayemi has the profile to give APC National Leader, Senator Bola Tinubu, who is said to be nursing a presidential dream, a run for the office.
El-Rufai had days back said the presidency should return to the South after Buhari’s tenure in conformity with the zonal arrangement embraced by the major political parties.
He, however, did not specify which of the 3 geopolitical zones in the South should take the presidency in 2023 but added that it would be unjustified for the North to seek to retain the presidency after Buhari’s tenure.
Fayemi, whose second term tenure as Ekiti governor will end in October 2022, about 6 months ahead of Buhari’s, is currently the Chairman of the influential Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), and commands respect among his colleagues, across party lines.
Besides, being in the same party with el-Rufai, both of them are close and the Kaduna governor was one of those who rallied support for him during the NGF chairmanship election, which Fayemi won unopposed.
One thing that will work for Fayemi is that he has a rich profile for the job. He is in fact, overqualified for the race which the minimum qualification is a School Cert. Born 9 February 1965, he is a native of Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government of Ekiti State, Nigeria. He previously held the office of the Governor of Ekiti State between 2010 and 2014. He resigned as Minister of Solid Minerals Development on 30 May 2018 to contest for the Ekiti State governorship election for the second time, an election perceived to be a straight battle between himself and his political rival. Fayemi attended Christ’s School Ado Ekiti from 1975-1980 and received degrees in History, Politics and International Relations from the Universities of Lagos and Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and his Doctorate in War Studies from the King’s College, University of London, England, specializing in civil-military relations.
Fayemi is a former Director of the Centre for Democracy & Development, a research and training institution dedicated to the study and promotion of democratic development, peace-building and human security in Africa. Prior to his establishment of the centre, he worked as a lecturer, journalist, researcher and Strategy Development adviser in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He was Strategy Development Adviser at London’s City Challenge; research fellow at the African Research & Information Bureau in London, UK, reporter with the newspapers, The Guardian and City Tempo, editor of the political monthly, Nigeria-Now, management consultant at Development and Management Consultants and lecturer at the Police College in Sokoto, Nigeria.
He has lectured in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia. He has also served as an adviser on transitional justice, regional integration, constitutionalism, security sector reform and civil-military relations issues to various governments, inter-governmental institutions and development agencies. He was the main Technical adviser to Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (Oputa Panel), which investigated past abuses and currently serves on the Presidential Implementation Committees on Security Sector Reform, NEPAD and the Millennium Development Goals. He was technical expert to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on small arms and light weapons and the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa on governance issues. He is also a member, Africa Policy Advisory Panel of the British Government. At other times he has served as a consultant to the OECD on Security Sector Reform and chaired the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative’s Committee of Experts on developing guiding principles and mechanisms of constitution-making in Commonwealth Africa.
Kayode Fayemi is a Fellow of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Ibadan, Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at the African Centre for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., USA. He was also a Visiting Professor in the African Studies Programme at Northwestern University, Evanston, the USA in 2004. Dr Fayemi serves on numerous Boards including the Governing Board of the Open Society Justice Institute, Baobab for Women’s Human Rights, African Security Sector Network, and on the Advisory Board of the Global Facilitation Network on Security Sector Reform and on the Management Culture Board of the ECOWAS Secretariat.
After three and a half years fighting through the legal system, on 15 October 2010 the appeal court sitting in Kwara State declared Fayemi the duly elected Governor of Ekiti State, and marked the end of Olusegun Oni’s administration as the then Governor of the state. Daily Trust, a national daily, captured the electoral journey in its editorial, published on Friday, 22 October 2010 under the title, Closure to Ekiti 2007 Governorship Saga. The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi was on Saturday 14 April 2014 endorsed as the governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress in the state’s gubernatorial elections slated for 21 June 2014. The emergence of Fayemi was preceded by congress held before the governor who had no contestant was endorsed as the flag bearers of their state in the governorship elections. Kayode Fayemi was defeated at the polls on 21 June 2014 by previous Governor Ayodele Fayose.
Fayemi recontested for the second term as Ekiti State Governor under the platform of the All Progressive Congress in the 14 July 2018, governorship election after resigning as the Minister of Solid Minerals Development. He was officially declared as the winner of the Governorship election in Ekiti State by the Independent National Electoral Commission on 15 July 2018. He won by 19,345 votes against the Peoples Democratic Party’s Kolapo Olusola Eleka who was second. He was officially sworn-in as Ekiti State Governor for the second time, on 16 October 2018, at the Ekiti Parapo Pavilion, Ado Ekiti.
When Dr. Kayode Fayemi was elected Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, he was unanimously elected by the governors to lead the forum till 2021.
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