Don’t misconstrue transition committee as my cabinet, Fayemi tells Ekiti people

GOVERNOR-ELECT of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has inaugurated a 32-man transition committee he announced on Tuesday and called on Ekiti people not to misconstrue the committee as what his cabinet would look like.

Dr Fayemi, who inaugurated the committee headed by Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi, on Wednesday, expressed confidence that his experience from governing the state in the past would guide his actions this time around, saying he had no reason to fail the people of the state.

Fayemi told the Kayode Fayemi/APC Governorship Transition Committee members to exhibit spirit of patriotism by being painstaking in scrutinizing the financial dealings of the present government and come up with how best to approach the policies for the benefit of Ekiti people.

According to him, the composition of the panel should not be misinterpreted to mean that those that would form the cabinet had already been identified.

He said: “This is not the face of Ekiti cabinet that is coming, so no one should use them to draw permutations.

“Neither my deputy governor-elect, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi nor myself considered ourselves as having a repository of knowledge or have answers to all Ekiti’s problems, so we are relying on your wealth of experiences.

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“In your report, tell us those things we should not lay our hands on at all. Also, endeavour to indicate those things we can do to have immediate impacts on our people when we assume office. That is the most important thing to the incoming government.

“If you look at the configuration of this committee, we have more financial experts with deep knowledge of fiscal issues. There are four former commissioners because finance is the main thing in Ekiti on the premise that our situations have worsened than we left it in October 2014.

“Our people are in a serious mess, poverty has risen and we have to move fast and ameliorate their sufferings.

“I want to appeal to the present government, particularly the Ekiti workers to cooperate with the committee in the spirit of patriotism. They should think more about Ekiti interest than that of any individual.

“I see no reason why Fayose’s government would not want to cooperate with you because this was what we did in 2014 and which the whole Nigeria commended.”

Fayemi said the primary aim of the committee was to liaise with the out-going administration for a smooth handover on October 16, directed the committee to submit its interim report by August 24 and its final report on September 7, 2018.

The committee would interface with the present government and dialogue with other interest groups on how his government can hit the ground running when inaugurated on October 16.

He reiterated his call on Governor Ayodele Fayose to spend 80 per cent of money accruing to the state to defray backlog of salaries and pensions.

Speaking on behalf of the committee in his acceptance speech, Adetumbi, who thanked Fayemi for counting them worthy, said the committee would act more as a friend than an enemy.

He said: “We want to assure the good citizens of Ekiti State that we are not going to act as enemies or adversaries. We are going to be friendly and that we shall do for the benefit of our state.”