President didn’t tell me I’ll be minister – Fayemi
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the list of ministerial nominees raises doubts about the sincerity of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in its anti-corruption crusade.
To this end, the opposition party said there was nothing special about the ministerial list.
The party argued that “by a mere look at the list, one can tell that there is nothing to be excited about, especially considering the length of time it took the President to come up with it.”
Olisa Metuh, PDP national publicity secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, said: “Looking at the list, it is hard to put a finger on why it should take any serious-minded and focused government six months after its election to assemble such a regular team.”
The party said the list and the length of time it took had further confirmed the fact that the APC-led administration was driven by propaganda and deceit.
Meanwhile, Kayode Fayemi, one of the ministerial nominees and former governor of Ekiti State, said that President Buhari at no time pre-empted him of the plan to nominate him for a ministerial appointment despite his closeness to him.
The former governor, who was the director of Research and Strategy in Buhari’s campaign team during the 2015 electioneering period, however, told newsmen at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, that he was surprised by his nomination.
When asked whether the nomination came to him as a surprise, Fayemi said: “Well, to the extent that I was not told by the President that I was going to be on his list, yes, it came as a surprise. The President is a surprise master; let me put it that way.
“He did not tell anyone to the best of my knowledge and I would have thought that I was in vantage position to know more than others. I was with him for five days before then, I was with him in New York at the United Nation General Assembly and he never alter a word about his list to me nor to anyone else.
“We came back to Nigeria together, I was with him all till 4pm on the evening he submitted the list to the president of the Senate and I didn’t have any clue of what is going to happen. So, to that extent I was pleasantly surprised.”
While describing the appointment as a call to duty and a call to action, Fayemi also said: “One must thank the President for reposing confidence in us, and we thank the party because when you look at the list you see that this is a galaxy of party men and women. People who have really been active, who have worked so hard to ensure the victory of our party.
“And we also hold it as a duty to deliver on the promises made to Nigerians by the party, so it is a call to duty really, it involved a lot of work, service and sacrifice to Nigerians.”
The former Ekiti governor said all the party leaders, including Bola Tinubu were happy about all the names selected so far.
