Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti has on Tuesday, June 2, 2015 announced that he has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari asking for the privilege to nominate a ministerial candidate to represent the state in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Governor Fayose made this request in a letter dated Sunday, May 31, 2015. He said that if given the chance, he would send a worthy candidate who is professionally competent to be appointed to the FEC.
He wrote, “Should the request be favourably disposed to, I shall be happy to nominate a worthy and competent professional who can always oblige your excellency and your cabinet the benefit of a second opinion in the serious business of governance.”
The letter according to the governor was written based on the President’s inauguration speech where he declared that he would put the overall national interest above all partisan politics and bias. The governor also cited his letter was also based on Section 147 (2) and (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria.
The Sections state that; “Any appointment to the office of the Minister of the government of the Federation shall if the nomination of any such person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President.
“Any appointment under sub- section (2) of this section by the President shall be in conformity with the provision of section 15 (3) of this constitution provided that in giving effect to the provision aforesaid, the President shall appoint at least one minister from each state who shall be indigene of such state.”
Governor Fayose backed his claims by citing the appointment of late Bola Ige and Ahmed Abdukadri who were minister and special adviser under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration even though they were Alliance for Democracy leader and national party chairman respectively.
He gave this example in view of the fact that Ekiti State is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), state and that the National and state assembly members are all from PDP including himself, it was therefore necessary to accord him the honour of naming the next minister to come from the state.
Lere Olayinka, the governor’s special assistant on media confirmed that indeed the letter was written and had been delivered to the President.
