Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, says only God knows what his political future holds in the 2023 general elections.
Fayemi made this known on Sunday when he spoke on THISDAY Live, an interview programme on Arise Television monitored by The PUNCH.
Fayemi’s presidential campaign posters had gone viral in August 2020 and 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, with the campaign message, ‘Support His Excellency Dr John Kayode Fayemi for President 2023’ “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 alleged unauthorised viral campaign poster seeking support for Fayemi’s presidential ambition.
But when asked on Sunday whether he would be running for President in 2023, Fayemi said, “I have a job to do; I want to finish well as 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 governor also predicted victory for his party, the All Progressives Congress, in 2023.
He said, “Contentions are always going to happen. APC is a big party with different tendencies and there will be contentions for and against. We are very confident that this party will produce the next government in this country in 2023 but before we get there, we are more focused on the country now. The party is more interested in the stability and security of Nigeria. What is happening internally is something we will resolve internally.”
With the 2023 elections fast approaching, there have been political posturings and permutations as to the next presidential candidate of the APC and opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
The 17 Southern Governors including Fayemi had also demanded that the next President should emerge from Southern Nigeria after the eight-year regime of the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who is from Katsina State, North-West Nigeria.
The PUNCH recently reported that Salihu Yakasai, a former Special Adviser on Media to Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, listed APC chieftains who have the ability to win the next presidential election to include APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu; Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; as well as Fayemi.
Fayemi was first Ekiti State governor from October 2010 to October 2014. He was later appointed Minister of Solid Minerals Development by Buhari and was in office between November 2015 and May 2018 before he was re-elected as the governor of Ekiti State in October 2018. The 56-year-old is expected to hand over power in October 2022 to a democratically elected successor.