Fayose: I’m not contesting election again

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, on Tuesday reiterated that he will not contest for any elective post in the coming political dispensation.

Governor Fayose, who addressed civil servants on grade levels one to seven, at the Government House in Ado Ekiti, on Tuesday denied that he was angling to contest a senatorial position in 2019.

Fayose said his main preoccupation after his exit in 2018 is to continue to agitate for better treatment of the Nigerian populace by the federal and state governments.

The governor, however, did not say anything about the controversial health status of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying “let me wait for some time and see how events unfold before making my submission on the issue.”

He saluted the workers for their courage and perseverance in the face of the economic recession, culminating in unstable payment of salaries, and urged them to discountenance the rumour he said was being peddled by some people, on the social media, that he had received the second tranch of Paris Club fund.

He said what the state had got a sum of N8.8 billion so far, which he said was shared between the state and local governments.

According to him, “over 70 percent of it expended on the payment of salaries instead of the 50 per cent agreed with the federal Ministry of Finance.”

On his political ambition, Fayose advised the workers to register during the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise, saying “I am not saying this because of any political interest, but because of Ekiti interest. I don’t want to contest again, not even for a senatorial race in 2019.

“One thing I have learnt was that, Ekiti people don’t normally participate in some government policies where data are collated. And it used to affect us in getting extra grants or favour from the federal government and international agencies.

He said: “The FG is planning to renovate 1,000 health centres in Nigeria and Ekiti got only three. When I enquired, they said the data used to compile the figures didn’t favour Ekiti. If they are to register for polio vaccine, our people won’t make themselves available, because of nonchalant attitude

“That is why I won’t care to declare more holidays for people to get registered. But I want to call on INEC to look into the faulty data capture machines. We have had bad experiences since the commencement of the CVR programme last week and the commission must resolve all these anomalies in the interest of our people.

“I also want to note that all these problems won’t reoccur during the 2018 poll,that is the main reason why INEC as a commission must improve on its efficiency.”

Fayose told the workers to indicate interest in the Fadama Graduate Unemployed Youth Support Pgrogramme for the training of 300 people in Ekiti that would specialize in commercial farming.

The governor added that the government is ready to give the necessary impetus to workers that show interest in agriculture.