My nomination came as a surprise – Fayemi

A former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said
on Tuesday that his nomination as a minister by President
Muhammadu Buhari came as a surprise.

The ex-governor said he didn’t anticipate his inclusion in
the President’s ministerial list.

He told journalists at the All Progress Congress (APC)
National Secretariat that although he was with President
Buhari till about 4:00pm on the day the list was submitted
to the Senate President, the President never mentioned it
to him that he was being considered for appointment.

Fayemi, who was the Director of Research and Strategy of
the APC Presidential Campaign Council, is one of the 21
ministerial nominees submitted to the Senate by President
Buhari.

He 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 said a word about his list to me
nor to anyone else.

“We came back to Nigeria together, I was with him till
4:00pm 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 nomination as a call to service,
Fayemi added: “One must thank the President for reposing
confidence in us and we thank the party because when you
look at the list, you will see that this is a galaxy of party
men and women. These are people that have been very
active and worked 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.”