Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to grant him the privilege to nominate a candidate to fill the slot of the state in the Federal Executive Council.
Fayose, who made the request in a letter to the President dated May 31, 2015, said if the request was granted by the President, he would send a worthy and competent Ekiti professional for appointment in the federal executive council.
“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,” he said.
He noted that he wrote the letter based on the declaration made by the President that he would put the overall interest of the country above political partisanship and biases.
The governor also hinted that his letter was on the strength of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria section 147 sub (2) and (3) which states 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.”
Fayose argued that since Ekiti is a Peoples Democratic Party state where the state governor, the National Assembly and the state assembly members are PDP, it was expedient that he be accorded the honour of naming the minister that would come from the state.
He noted that this would not be new, saying that late Bola Ige, who was the leader of the Alliance for Democracy and the party’s National Chairman, Ahmed Abdukadri, were made minister and special adviser respectively by the PDP government of Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007.
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