BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Less than 24 hours after quitting President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet, immediate past Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has picked former Executive Chairman of Ado-Ekiti Local Government, Chief Adebisi Adegboyega Egbeyemi, as his running mate for the July 14, 2018 Ekiti governorship polls.
According to a statement by the JKF Campaign office in Ado-Ekiti, Egbeyemi emerged as the preferred candidate late Wednesday, after long hours of meeting by party leaders to consider the best suited pair to carry the APC’s flag in the gubernatorial contest.
Fayemi, had at a valedictory briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, said the decision was to enable him to pursue his gubernatorial ambition and mission of completing an unfinished business from the first tenure.
Before the APC primaries, the former Minister was roundly accused by opponents of using his privileged position in the Federal Cabinet to intimidate other contestants in picking the APC’s ticket on May 22.
In early May, Fayemi had hinted about his resignation before emerging as the APC flag-bearer, even as he debunked claims of being desperate to become the Ekiti State governor for the second time.
“I’m not desperate, I have unfinished business In Ekiti,’’ Fayemi said, adding that contesting the polls would enable him complete his first tenure’s mission in the State
According to him, “I have a sense of unfinished business; not a sense of wanting to come back for desperate reasons.
“I served as governor of the state for four years; whatever I’m doing is based on the record that somebody could be subjected to critical scrutiny.”
Fayemi and other aspirants who took part in the Ekiti primaries were commended by President Muhammadu Buhari for a successful conduct of the exercise.
“Reclaiming Ekiti Is Important For 2019 Polls,’’ Buhari told APC and expressed optimistism that having won the party’s ticket, the former governor would leverage his track record as a reformist, with passion for education, health and welfare, to reclaim the governorship seat when Ekiti people go to the poll on July 14.
The President also urged all APC members in Ekiti to uphold the values and philosophy of the ruling party by coming together to support Fayemi in the elections.
The 53-year-old former Governor of Ekiti State is a native of Isan-Ekiti in Oye Local Government and he lost his re-election bid in June 2014 to Governor Ayodele Fayose. Fayose of People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Meanwhile, Egbeyemi’s choice came on the heels of claims in public space that certain prominent Ekiti indigenes have already emerged front runners to fly the APC ticket with Fayemi.
An indigene of Ado-Ekiti, Egbeyemi was born on May 8, 1944 to the family of the late Egbeyemi Alade and late Madam Tinubu Egbeyemi. He started his education at the Holy Trinity Anglican School, Ilawe-Ekiti and Baptist School, Ado-Ekiti, after which he attended Harding Memorial Modern School, Ado-Ekiti.
Studying privately while working as a Laboratory Assistant at Ekitiparapo College, Ido-Ekiti, and a bursar at Notre Dame Grammar School, Usi-Ekiti, Egbeyemi sat and passed both the GCE O’Level and Advanced Level examinations.
He later proceeded to the University of Lagos College of Education where he graduated in Biology and Physical Education with distinction. He taught briefly at the St Mary’s Girls Secondary School, Ikole-Ekiti, in 1975 before he was transferred to the Teachers’ College, Oye-Ekiti, as a pioneer Physical Education tutor between 1975 and 1977.
Egbeyemi later went to the University of Ife to read Law between 1977 and 1980 before proceeding to the Law School in Lagos for his Barrister at Law certificate and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981 as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. – With agency reports
