Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, (NGF) Dr Kayode Fayemi formally joined the race for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the party convention where its standard-bearer is expected to emerge.
At the event which took place at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, the Ekiti State Governor told the gathering of his supporters and traditional rulers from his home state that he took the decision to throw his hat into the ring after extensive consultations with elder statesmen and stakeholders in the ruling party.
The Chairman of the Forum of 36 States governors in the country confessed that the nation is facing enormous challenges in the area of economy, security and apparent threat to its nationhood as a result of mutual ethnic suspicion foisted on its citizens.
The Ekiti State Governor said his determination to revive hope in the country, turn around the economic fortunes of its citizenry and confront, frontally, the security challenge informed his decision to seek the Presidential ticket of his party.
Governor Fayemi assured Nigerians that with purposeful leadership, hope can be restored, economic growth could be stimulated and the disconnect between the government and despondent Nigerians could be addressed positively.
He said:” Despair is easy to spread. Hope can be daunting to sustain. And faith can be severely shaken. But while the night may belong, the dawn must come – and it always does. I offer myself as the leading figure who is willing and primed to work with you, beloved compatriots, to launch and drive the hard work of surmounting difficult times, fostering trust, and building bridges with a view to carrying us in unity, equity, and justice into our new dawn of progress and prosperity.
“Hope such as I offer with my candidature is premised on a shared vision on which we can all agree, and for which we collectively strive, of a nation that is more confidently and uncompromisingly at one with itself, serving as the home for all of us regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, age, disability, region or religion.
It is a vision of a nation of multiple diversities in which each and every one of us can recognise ourselves in its fabric and workings as equal stakeholders and co-constructors, complete with all the rights, freedoms, and duties provided under the constitution for citizens.
“The idea of Nigeria as home to all of us who are its children is one which we can all rally around as a starting point for the work of unfinished national greatness that must be taken to its next phase. To give full effect to this, concrete programmes of action will be launched in priority areas that will allow for a revamping of the credibility of the Nigerian state, the promotion of an enhanced social contract, and the revamping of the national identity.
“Programmatically, as the standard-bearer of the APC, I will be leading the implementation of a holistic and integrated response to the multifaceted security crises confronting us. To this end, the retooling of our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and border guards will be pursued in tandem with an overhaul of our policing system and the phasing in of bold universal social policies that will enable us decisively to tackle poverty and upgrade human capital and security.
In this perspective, the deliberate expansion of employment opportunities, youth entrepreneurship, skills development, and innovation, support to the weak and vulnerable such as we have done in Ekiti State for the elderly, and women’s socio-economic empowerment will be treated as just one dimension of our comprehensive response to the costly security crises that have destabilised us, as will the pursuit of broad welfare policies that are embedded into a new state-society bargain and the empowerment of citizens.”
Aside from fighting insecurity, the Chairman of the NGF assured Nigerians that his administration would walk the talk on diversification of the economy by moving it from its present mono-cultural status.
“The adoption of broad socio-economic measures that enhance our capacity to fight insecurity must be done at the same time as investments in reinforcing the deterrent capacity of the state through its armed forces, security agencies, and police authorities.
Authority and legitimacy and deterrence and rapid response go hand in hand, just as we must better interface economic policies with broad social objectives and goals of political inclusivity towards a well-defined outcome, namely, the sustained peace, stability, and progress of our country.
“And let there be no doubt: For the economy to serve broader social and political purposes that enhance human and state security, stem poverty, and promote national prosperity, my agenda for Nigeria encompasses attention to questions of productivity, diversification, domestic value addition, investments in and incentives for research, development, and innovation, and the expansion of domestic revenue mobilisation, among others.
“Considerable work is already ongoing on the upgrading and expansion of our infrastructure and one of my prime objectives would be to accelerate this both through public investments and partnerships with the private sector whilst simultaneously ensuring that we enforce accountability and get much greater value for money.
By the same token, a major rescue and investment programme for the educational sector, the health system, the civil service, and the local government system will be launched in order to re-orient each of them for the task of overall national development, progress and prosperity. “Each of these domains can benefit much more from a deliberate and systematic deployment of digital technologies as appropriate to their context; the opportunities will be followed through as an integral part of our programme of rebirth.”
The Onisan of Isan Ekiti who incidentally is the Chairman of Ekiti State Traditional Rulers Council, Oba Gabriel Adejumo, while giving his Royal blessing assured Governor Fayemi of the support of sons and daughters of the state.” As a reliable son of Ekiti land and proud citizen of Nigeria, we are here to support your ambition and we have confidence in you that you will introduce all the programmes you laid down for the development of Nigeria.”
Among dignitaries who graced Fayemi’s presidential declaration were former Ogun State Governor and Senator representing Ogun Central, Ibikunle Amosun; the aspirant wife, Erelu Bisi Fayemi; Ekiti State governorship candidate for next month’s election, Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji and serving federal lawmakers from the south-west state in the National Assembly.
Tribune Online investigation revealed that apart from Governor Fayemi, other chieftains of the APC seeking its presidential ticket, include, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; two-term Edo State Governor and former National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi; former Lagos State Governor; Bola Ahmed Tinubu; a former governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha; Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige and Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade.
Former Ogun State Governor and Senator representing Ogun Central, Ibikunle Amosun, is expected to make a formal declaration on Thursday.
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