(In continuation of our Spotlight on the Governors of the 36 states in Nigeria, today we focus on the helmsman in Ekiti state – Ayodele Peter Fayose)
The current governor of Ekiti State in Southwestern Nigeria, Ayodele Peter Fayose, was born in Afao-Ekiti on 15th November, 1960.
Fayose grew up in Oyo State where he attended Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo. In 1985, Fayose was admitted for a Higher National Diploma (HND) program in Biological Sciences/Applied Medical/Biology by the Polytechnic, Ibadan, and graduated in 1987. While serving his National Youth Service Corps stint at Pepsi Nigeria Limited, Ibadan, he was engaged in installation, maintenance and servicing of medical and laboratory equipment.
After the one-year stint, the young Fayose traveled out of the country during which he was exposed to a broad spectrum of business that guided his life later. He conducted one of the most sought after medical outreach programs during his political campaign in 2001.
Fayose became the second governor of Ekiti state on the platform of the ruling party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on 29 May 2003 after defeating the then incumbent Governor, Niyi Adebayo, in the governorship election. Fayose could not complete his tenure because he was impeached on 16 October 2006.
During the 2014 Governorship election in Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose again became the PDP nominee. He won the election and was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission as the new Governor of Ekiti State. He was inaugurated on 16 Oct 2014. Fayose is one of the very few politicians to have defeated an incumbent two times.
So far, Fayose is the only person from the main opposition party in Nigeria to have publicly declared his intention to run for president in 2019.
Governor Fayose, who is a thorn in the flesh of the ruling APC, has incurred the wrath of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. It has listed Governor Fayose as one of the Governors under its investigation watch list over financial crimes. He has also been attracting enemies from within his own ranks. A chieftain of the PDP in Ekiti State, Opeyemi Falegan says, the unguided and carefree tyrannical and dictatorship tendencies of Governor Ayo Fayose will be resisted in the 2018 governorship election.
Ayodele Fayose has said that the imminent defeat of President Muhammadu Buhari in a free and fair election in 2019 by him is the major reason the Federal Government has been harassing and intimidating his aides and associates. He also said the blunt truth he told Nigerians during his declaration of interest that President Buhari and the APC had nothing good to offer Nigeria had pierced the conscience of APC leaders and given them wounded heart.
He, however, said he would not be intimidated into abandoning a divine project of rescuing the country from maladministration.
