Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, on Wednesday,
formally declared his presidential ambition on the platform of the All
Progressives Congress.
While declaring his ambition in Abuja, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum
listed some challenges he intends to fix if he becomes the president of the
country in 2023.
13 aspirants have so far joined the
APC presidential race. Some of them are Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and Senator Rochas Okorocha.
Others are Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, the Minister
of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige; Minister of State for Education, Mr
Chukwuemeka Nwajuba; Governor David Umuahi of Ebonyi State; Minister of Niger
Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, and former Edo State Governor, Adams
Oshiomhole.
The Ekiti State governor explained that he wants to be a
president to ensure peace, and secure a future for Nigeria’s children.
Fayemi also said he has enough public service experience to
pilot the affairs of Nigeria.
He said, “Beyond my early forays into the public sphere as a
student leader, my abiding faith in the oneness of our country has been further
reinforced by all my subsequent engagements in national affairs as a scholar,
civil society voice and institution-builder, community and political organiser
with an unapologetic pan-Nigerian and pan-African outlook, tireless advocate
for human rights and democratic governance, two-term governor, federal
minister, a founding Coordinator of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, and
two-term Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
“Here then is my motivating testament and confession: I am a
patriot born in these climes in the course of the first decade of our country’s
independence, and I stake a bold claim to say that I am a full-blooded child of
Nigeria. I grew up as did many of my generation socialised into the ideals of a
united and virile nation. In my lifetime, I have witnessed some heart-warming
moments of nation- and state-building that would make any citizen anywhere
immeasurably proud.
“But I have also seen some truly challenging days in our
journey of nationhood which have tested our collective resolve and demanded the
exercise of considerable political savvy by our leaders over the years. I have
taken as a key lesson from the admixture of high and low points we have
experienced as a country that when and where we are charitable to one another
and allow our shared humanity, innate spirit of solidarity, hard work,
perseverance and underlying patriotism to prevail, we always succeed in overcoming
and thriving through adversity.
“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 home for all of us regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, age,
disability, region or religion.”
The promises
Fayemi promised that he would in the course of this campaign
adhere to the highest standards of decorum, decency, and respect that Nigerians
expect of their leaders.
He pledged to bring to full fruition his promises to the
pride of all Nigerians and the admiration of the world.
Some of the promises he made are:
– 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 and fulfillment of an enhanced
social contract, and the rebirth of the national identity.
– Programmatically, as the standard bearer of the All
Progressives Congress, 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 tackle poverty
and upgrade human capital and security.
– 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 policing authorities. Authority and legitimacy coupled
with deterrence and rapid response go hand in hand, just as we must better
design and interface economic policies with broad social objectives and goals
of political inclusivity towards a well-defined outcome, namely, sustained
peace, stability, and progress of our country.
– 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 education sector, the health system, the civil service, and the local
government system will be launched to re-orient each of them for the task of
overall national development, and progress and prosperity.
– I fully understand that we cannot secure our prosperity
without ensuring that our agricultural sector is able to deliver
self-sufficiency in critical food markets, feed our efforts at agro-allied
industrialisation and thus meaningfully enable the transformation of the
unemployed into gainful employment, reinvigorate the rural areas, foster the
coordinated expansion of commodity exchanges, and boost the flow of foreign
exchange into the economy.
– No vision of national prosperity however impeccable or programme
of national transformation however comprehensive can deliver the outcomes
desired without attention to the planning system of government writ large. We
must build on recent successes in restoring our national planning system and
statistical capacity in order to open new, forward-looking approaches to
development management that is research and data-driven.
– As part of this commitment, a holistic approach to
decentralisation will be embraced and institutionalised so that government and
its services are brought closer to the people. Our programme of
decentralisation will also feed into the goals of a stronger, more united, and
stable Nigeria, outcomes which are not only good for our domestic prospects but
which will also benefit West Africa, the rest of the African continent, and a
troubled international multilateral system.
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