Give Muslims Ekiti Assembly Speaker, ministerial slot, NACOMYO asks Fayemi

MUSLIMS in Ekiti State have congratulated the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, on the successes of his administration so far in the state and charged him to consider a Muslim legislator for the leadership of the incoming legislators in the state House of Assembly.

The Ekiti Muslim Ummah also charged Governor Fayemi to nominate a Muslim for the state’s vacant ministerial slot in the coming federal cabinet.

The National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations (NACOMYO), Ekiti State chapter, made the pleas in a statement in which it also explained that “it is not in doubt that the present percentage of Ekiti Muslim representatives at the House of Representatives (16.67 per cent) and the House of Assembly (7.69 per cent) are unprecedented in the political annals of Ekiti State.”

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According to NACOMYO, in the statement signed by its Ekiti State Coordinator, Tajudeen Olutope Ahmed, the Muslims “recognise and appreciate the fact that this laudable feat was made possible by your generosity, magnanimity and genuine affection for the Muslims.”

However, the group said “it is on the basis of the above that we hereby urge you to use your good office, as the governor of our dear state and as the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, to ensure the emergence of a Muslim as the leader of the next legislative assembly in Ekiti.

“We equally request you to ensure the nomination of a Muslim for the ministerial slot of Ekiti State in the next federal cabinet. This way, you would be assuaging the feelings of marginalisation within the Muslim community in Ekiti State. You will equally be living up to the spirit of Section 14(4) of the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

In the statement entitled: “Thank you Mr Governor: A Passionate Appeal for a More Inclusive Muslims’ Participation in Governance,” the group said “as a major block of Ekiti citizens, the Muslims have been unjustly marginalised in the political alignment and administration of Ekiti State in the past.

“We are therefore confident in your person, as an apostle of justice and fairness, that you will take appropriate steps at redressing this anomaly. At the moment, there is no Muslim among the key officers of the state executive. There is no Muslim member of the judiciary even when there are hordes of competent Muslim lawyers that can be so appointed.”

In the letter, the group commended Fayemi for the election of a Muslim member of the House of Representatives and two members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, saying “apart from your relentless mobilisation and campaign for the elected Muslim legislators, we are not oblivious of your efforts at seeing to their emergence as the candidates of the APC party. We are indeed grateful and appreciative of your efforts and supports.”