By Nuel Suji
Embattled governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to give him the privilege of nominating an Ekiti State indigene for appointment into Buhari’s cabinet.
The 1999 Constitution prescribed that ministers into the federal cabinet should be spread across the 36 states of the federation.
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, who is facing stiff opposition from APC state lawmakers who are hell-bent on impeaching him, said he had written to Buhari and was hopeful that the President’s reply would be favourable.
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.”
According to him, he wrote the letter based on the declaration 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 chieftain 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.
