Fayemi speaks on 2023 presidential ambition

Ahead of the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, the Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, has said only God would decide his political future.

Newsflash Nigeria had reported last year that some presidential campaign posters of Fayemi had surfaced.

The poster had the message’ Support His Excellency Dr John Kayode Fayemi for President 2023.’

Fayemi’s presidential campaign posters had sparked public debate on various social media platforms regarding the possibility of his candidacy in the 2023 presidential election.

The sponsor of the posters and Chairman of Ikere Council area of Ekiti State, Femi Ayodele, had said he did the posters “to show my unalloyed and uncompromising loyalty to Governor Fayemi” to dispel speculations that he was working against him.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Yinka Oyebode, had said that his principal did not know anything about the posters.

“The sponsor is merely expressing a personal opinion,” he had said.

Ayodele was later directed to “step aside” by the Ekiti State House of Assembly over an alleged unauthorised viral campaign poster seeking support for Fayemi’s presidential ambition.

Fayemi, whose second term tenure as Ekiti governor will end in October 2022, about six months ahead of Buhari’s, is currently the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and commands respect among his colleagues across party lines.

Fayemi is one of the founders of the All Progressive Congress, APC and a key power-broker in the party and the southwest more broadly.

But when asked whether he would be running for President in 2023, Fayemi said he was currently focused on putting Ekiti on the pedestal of growth and development in the state.

Fayemi made this known on Sunday when he spoke on THISDAY Live, an interview programme on Arise TV monitored by Newsflash Nigeria.

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Fayemi said, “I have a job to do; I want to finish well as a governor of Ekiti State, I want to do more to put Ekiti on the pedestal of growth and development in the period that is left for me in office.

“What the future holds, God knows, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. For now, my primary responsibility is Ekiti State.”

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum further explained that his visit to the All Progressives Congress National Leader, Bola Tinubu, in London has nothing to do with a purported 2023 presidential plan.

Fayemi said that Tinubu had surgery and he had visited the former Lagos State governor alongside his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu, to show solidarity.

“He (Akeredolu) and I were in London together to see our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but it had absolutely nothing to do with 2023 presidential plans whatsoever. That’s not the reason why we went there,” Fayemi said.

“Asiwaju had surgery, it is simply proper etiquette or behaviour both in the part of the country where I come from but also generally that when a friend and elder is undergoing health challenges, it would be improper on your part not to show solidarity and support.

“That is simply what took us there; we wanted to associate ourselves with him at a time of need and as an elder, as a mentor and as a big figure in our political party, nothing wrong in paying him a courtesy visit to check on him to see how he was faring and we did that and we returned.

“It has nothing to do with 2023; let me make that absolutely clear.”

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