Abuja, Ado-Ekiti — Governor of Ekiti State and a presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said that out of the 23 presidential aspirants of the party only five of them are real contenders.
Fayemi stated this when he visited Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello in Minna.
In a statement released yesterday by the Kayode Fayemi Presidential Campaign Organisation, he said there were only five presidential aspirants in the ruling party, saying the others are pretenders.
He stated: "This is a season of visits and states keep receiving us. The list of presidential aspirants says there are 23 but only five of us are going around the country. With this, you can separate the pretenders from the contenders.
"I am ready for the job. I want you to take a bet on me and you will have no cause to regret. I can remake Nigeria without unmaking it. I believe in Project Nigeria and that Nigeria is worth fighting for and together we can regain the lost glory of Nigeria."
Fayemi said if elected President, he would work towards addressing the insecurity challenges bedeviling the country, adding that the triggers of insecurity would be addressed while more attention would be paid to intelligence and technology.
He assured the electorate that he would decentralize the power supply as part of plan to fix the sector.
Fayemi noted: "Nigerians are not fully happy with us that we have not been able to move the needle towards the uninterrupted power supply.
"I think in addition to the national grid, we need to have regional grids, mini-grids, microgrids that would decentralize power supply to the local levels and this would address this challenge that we all face. Once we address the challenges of power, we address the problem of industrialisation and productivity in the country," he said.
Speaking, Bello said that if he was given the option and privilege to appoint a President, he would appoint Fayemi as Nigeria's President.
The governor said Fayemi was one of the aspirants that had been a friend to the state before coming to canvass for votes for his presidential ambition.
Bello said: "You have been here at least three or four times before now. You have been a close friend to Niger state. It is not now that there is a need for support that people are coming.
"Only five or six people have been to the state but you can count on my support. If you become president, I will relax because I know I will have easy access to you. In fact, if I have my way, I will appoint you as the next President after President Muhammadu Buhari."
Meanwhile, Fayemi has promised to improve the security of the country by fighting corruption, improve policing system and technology if elected President in the 2023 elections.
Fayemi identified insecurity, unemployment, epileptic public power supply, mounting public debts, Biafra agitation, oil subsidy, dwindling revenue, among others as major problems that will receive his immediate attention if he succeeds in winning the Presidency.
Interfacing with a panel of editors of an online newspaper, CableNigeria, Fayemi also unveiled what he described as his "Big Idea" for Nigeria which will provide panacea to critical problems facing Nigeria and take the country to the realm of prosperity
The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF) stressed what is most important is to deal with the socio-economic root causes of insecurity, bordering on economic opportunities, food security, national cohesion, equity and justice, amongst others.
He said: "First, we must improve the effectiveness of policing, driven by an implementation of the new Police Act, assented to by President Buhari in 2021. The new Act will make our Police Force more accountable to the people, service oriented, and less militaristic.
"We must ensure the gains of the Act are maximized, my immediate focus will be to remove the bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented us from recruiting the required number of police officers required to effectively secure the country.
"Apart from the obvious need to recruit more police officers, there is a need to modernise our policing equipment by providing the required technology to support the boots on group.
"This includes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), CCTVs, licence plate and facial recognition, and biometric records, amongst others. Some of these solutions are already being implemented in Ekiti state, and have helped us successfully respond to our internal security challenges.
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"Secondly, we must also minimise the corruption in the security architecture, and I am pleased to see the Buhari government has commenced a holistic review of the conditions of service of police officers to undercut the incentive for corrupt behaviour.
"This must be supported by strong accountability mechanisms, especially in the area of public finance management, to ensure the funds budgeted and released to the police are utilised for the intended purposes, and that sufficient transparency allows for public verification.
"Thirdly, we will need to deal with the perception of the police service. No police accountability mechanism can be considered fair if it fails to inspire public confidence, and we must guarantee independent and fair investigations into public complaints against police."
On how his administration will revive the economy with the attendant problems of piling debts, dwindling oil revenue and skyrocketing prices of goods and services, Fayemi said his experience Ekiti governor will be valuable in tackling economic challenges facing the country.
