Fayemi emerges president of African States’ Governors

Ekiti State Governor and Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has been elected President of the Forum of Governors of Regions/States of Africa at the body’s election held in Saidia, Morocco, yesterday.

Mr. Oumarou Ousmanou, Governor of Northern Region of Cameroon, was elected Vice President (Central Africa); Prof. Peter Anyang Nyongo, the Governor of Kisumu County, Kenya was elected Vice President (East Africa).
 
Mme Bouida Mbarka, President, Morrocan Council of Regions was elected Vice President (North Africa) while David Makhura, Premier, Gauteng Province, was also elected Vice President (Southern Africa). 

Fayemi, in his acceptance speech, described the victory as a burden of history, adding that leadership was not just a title but also an instrument that should be used to influence policies that would impact positively on the people. 

He said it was high time Africans stopped agonising and started organising. He stated that the Forum would work assiduously to promote the vision of deepening decentralisation and devolution for the material benefit of African people, pledging to use his office to strengthen the quest for African integration through the promotion of Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs 2030.

Fayemi thanked his colleagues in the Forum for the honour and reiterated that all present must exhibit the desire to work in tandem with the Africa Union (AU) agenda.

Three other governors from Nigeria were in attendance at the two- day meeting.

They are Godwin Obaseki (Edo State); Abdullahi Sule (Nassarawa State) and Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano State).