The proposed six-year single term tenure for president and governors being promoted by President Goodluck Jonathan has received a hard knock from Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
Fayemi who was responding to questions on his monthly media chat, “Meet our Governor”, aired on the major radio and television channels in the state Sunday evening affirmed that he did not see anything wrong with the present constitutional stipulation for the president and governors.
The governor who clarified that he was speaking in his personal capacity said he had not been approached by anybody on the issue of a single term of six years which is presently overheating the polity.
The 1999 Constitution under which the nation’s democracy is being run provides for four-year tenure for the president and governors, and another term of four years.
“As an individual, I am not for it (the bill for a single tenure); I am not part of six-year agenda. Nobody has approached me. I have not seen anything wrong with what presently obtains,” Fayemi said.
When asked about what informed his decision to attend the burial of the mother of his immediate predecessor, Mr. Segun Oni, despite the dust raised by the latter’s petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) challenging the judgement that brought him (Fayemi) to office, the governor said he still enjoyed a good relationship with Oni.
Fayemi added: “I did not attend the funeral of his mother for showmanship, but that is what is expected of a good Yoruba person.
“Somebody who lost his mother deserves commiseration and no political meaning should be read into my attending the funeral.
“We were in a contest and I won and that is over, and what is paramount to me is the overall development of Ekiti State.
“Anytime I am in Abuja, I do visit (Minister of Police Affairs), Navy Captain Olubolade on issues of Ekiti development. I don’t say that because I am an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor and he is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) minister, I won’t take him along to see the President on Ekiti development.”
Fayemi explained that his administration’s decision to raise N25 billion bond from the capital market was intended to accelerate the development of the state in the key sectors of the economy.
According to him, the bond would help to finance capital projects in tourism, agriculture, infrastructural development, among others.
He revealed that the present Governor’s Office complex from where he operated as the state chief executive would be turned into a hotel to boost tourism and generate revenue for the state.
