2023: Fayemi declares for president, unveils plans to tackle nation's security challenges

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State formally joined the 2023 presidential race on Wednesday with a promise to resolve the multifaceted security crises confronting the nation.

Mr Fayemi, who is running on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made his formal declaration at Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.

He had said in a statement by his media aide, Yinka Oyebode, on Tuesday, that he would officially join the overcrowded presidential race on Wednesday following the consultations he held across the nation over his bid.

Mr Fayemi, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), has become the fourth sitting APC governor to declare their intention to run for president.

The others are Governors Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, and Ben Ayade of Cross River State .

Others bidding for the APC ticket include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Lagos Governor, Bola Tinubu; former Ogun governor and serving senator, Ibikunle Amosun; former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, may likely join the race.

During a question and answer session moderated by veteran journalist, Cyril Stober, Mr Fayemi, who holds a doctorate degree in War Studies from the University of London, said bureaucratic impediment had prevented Nigeria from recruiting the needed personnel to tackle insecurity.

He lamented the inability of the government to embark on massive recruitment into the military and the police.

“This country was able to recruit in an emergency manner in 1967, it moved to 250,000 from an army of 10,000 within a space of one year. Today, there are all sorts of bureaucratic impediments that have not allowed us to expand our men and women in the armed forces and police.

“We don’t have enough men in uniform, the little we have are still doing policing work. There is no state in Nigeria, where you don’t have soldiers patrolling,” he said.

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Mr Fayemi, who will round off second term as governor in October, added that if the country is unable to recruit, then it should draw from the ‘reserve’, mainly retired armed forces personnel.

He also pointed to a link between the decline of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in the North-east and the resurgence of bandits in the North-west, noting that military exercise was not enough to address the problem.

“You need to tackle the forces of hunger, the forces of ignorance, the forces of inequality in our society that are responsible for these challenges.

“The North-east has witnessed a significant reduction in the insurgency—all commendation to the current administration. We have also witnessed almost simultaneously the surge in the North-west of criminality,” he said.

Mr Fayemi, however said, if elected president, he would be “leading the implementation of a holistic and integrated response to the multifaceted security crises confronting us.”

On the economy, Mr Fayemi said it is not the function of the government to provide jobs but to create an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and create the needed jobs.

He harped on the need for technological development and innovation to drive job creation in the country.

“We cannot secure our prosperity without ensuring that our agricultural sector is able to deliver self-sufficiency in critical food markets, absorb an important swathe of the unemployed into gainful employment, feed our efforts at agro-allied industrialisation, reinvigorate the rural areas, foster the coordinated expansion of commodity exchanges, and boost the flow of foreign exchange into the economy.”

Read Mr Fayemi’s full declaration speech below: