Revealed – How Fayemi Drafts Bisi Akande to Prevail on Tinubu for Ekiti Ministerial Slot
By Our Reporter
In what appears like a desperate move, the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has drafted an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Chief Bisi Akande to prevail on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President-elect in his favour.
It was authoritatively confirmed on Tuesday that Fayemi is currently prevailing on Akande, who is a close associate of Tinubu to ensure his appointment as the Minister from Ekiti State in the incoming cabinet.
Specifically, Fayemi is eyeing the job of the Minister of Foreign Affairs currently occupied by Mr Geoffrey Onyema under the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
During his two recent visits after the presidential election to Akande, Fayemi is said to have appealed to the party chieftain, taking undue advantage of the age-long relationship between him and Tinubu to hijack the ongoing process of naming the cabinet in his own favour.
If successful, Fayemi’s move may eventually pitched Tinubu against some prominent Ekiti politicians who were in the forefront of his presidential campaigns from the beginning.
Popular perspective recalls how Fayemi nearly frustrated Tinubu’s ambition then as governor of Ekiti. He was also accused of not at any time openly campaigned for the president-elect anywhere in Ekiti after Tinubu’s emergence as APC flagbearer
“I challenge anyone to go and verify where and when Fayemi campaigned in Ekiti for Asiwaju. This is a man who was not sighted in Ekiti since October last year when he handed over to Oyebanji till few hours before the February 25 Presidential Election of Asiwaju, when he voted in his Ishan Ekiti and returned to Abuja immediately,” it added.
The source went further that Fayemi is currently inducing the octogenarian politician with usual cash and other gifts in his bid to push aside others in the ministerial race.
It was also gathered that Fayemi had promised the 84-year-old Ila Orangun politician some other supports including job slots and empowerment of youths from Osun State when appointed.
“Fayemi is running all over the place to become the next minister from Ekiti. In fact, I can confirm to you that he’s been inducing Chief Bisi Akande both financially and in other promises to help him secure this appointment.
“The question is that Ekiti is not meant for only Fayemi and his family. He just wants to reap where he did not sow. He’s been a governor twice and a minister with nothing to show for it Now he wants to return to the new federal cabinet of Tinubu.
“What’s the offence of others who worked for the actualisation of this Tinubu project? There are many qualified Ekiti sons and daughters who can be minister under Tinubu outside Fayemi who is still the defacto governor of Ekiti till tomorrow.
“Fayemi and his wife are still the people running Ekiti like their political fiefdom while using Biodun Oyebanji as a placeholder.
“We hereby call on the respected Chief Bisi Akande to steer clear of Ekiti politics in view of Fayemi’s desperation to become a minister. He should allow the President-elect to apply his political sagacity in making credible appointments from Ekiti,” the source said.
Recall that Fayemi served two terms as governor of Ekiti before taking a four-year appointment as Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals in the first term of Buhari.
Also, in what many described as a kangaroo APC governorship primary election of January 2022, Fayemi imposed his stooge and former Secretary to the State Government, Mr Biodun Oyebanji as the candidate of the party.
However, Oyebanji who was declared as the winner of the June 18, 2022 election has been boxed into a corner in the ongoing supremacy battle between Fayemi in
and Niyi Adebayo, current Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, who initially brought Oyebanji to politics.
This newspaper gathered that the major anger of Ekiti people against Fayemi was the wanton waste of the meager resources of the state on an airport project which they described as “a white elephant project.”
They wondered why Fayemi at the twilight of his administration in October 2022, hurriedly commissioned the project which was less than 25 percent completed.
Recall that at the commissioning event, no single aviation regulatory agency was present save for the Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika, who arrived in a military hardware aircraft.
“We in Ekiti see Fayemi as a political misadventure since his foray in Ekiti politics in 2007.
” We’ve had enough of his maladministration and policy summersaults of eight years. Is it the multi-billion naira wasteful uncompleted airport project we want to talk about or the sacking of thousands of already employed and documented teachers in a state known for education?
“It is the prayers of all well-meaning Ekitis home and abroad that affliction Fayemi will not rise again,”” it said.
