Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu
Buhari to give him the privilege of nominating an Ekiti State indigene
for appointment into Buhari’s cabinet.
Fayose, who was one of
Buhari’s biggest opponents in the run-up to the March presidential
election, said this in a statement on Tuesday.
The governor said he had written to Buhari and was hopeful that the President’s reply would be favorable.
Fayose
said, “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
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
every other particularly political partisanship and bias.
He said
even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a member of the
Peoples Democratic Party, appointed the late Chief Bola Ige as the
Minister for Justice despite Ige being a chief of the opposition
Alliance for Democracy.
The governor also hinted that his letter
was on the strength of Section 147 sub (2) and (3) of the 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which states: (2) 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. (3) 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 an
indigene of such state.
Fayose, who noted that Ekiti is a PDP
state, where the governor, the National Assembly and the state Assembly
members are all PDP members, said in the spirit of putting in place an
all inclusive government with capacity for national integration, the
President should accord him the honour and privilege to name the
minister that would come from Ekiti State.