I don’t need an office before governing my people, says Fayose

• Drums support for deputy as successor
• Fulani group in Kaduna backs his presidential ambition

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has disclosed that he doesn’t need an office to govern his people, saying he has not operated from there for one year.

He made the disclosure at the Government House pavilion in Ado-Ekiti, while distributing N94.08 million to 11 communities for grassroots development.
The Ekiti State Community Development Agency (EKSIDA), in partnership with the World Bank, financed the project.He urged the people to pay 10 per cent counterpart funding to benefit from the programme, which would be done in phases to help the 133 communities.

The governor, who has one year to the end of his tenure, said what he would miss most after leaving office are the Ekiti people who gave him support.“I will miss Ekiti people so dearly, because I have been used to them. I love finding myself in their midst and I have always been with the people on the streets, to fraternise with them, which is the essence of leadership,” he said.

Fayose also rallied support for his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, as his successor.He said, as the first governor to spend a second term in office, they should trust him to give them a candidate that they could easily access and control.

The Chairman, Council of Traditional Rulers in the state, Oba Oluwole Ademolaju, and the Olojudo of Ido Ile, Oba Obaremi Adeleye, commended Fayose for his grassroots and participatory approach to governance.

Meanwhile, a Northern Youth Group (NYG) yesterday, drummed support for Fayose’s presidential ambition in 2019.The co-chairman of the group, Musa Tukur Gombe, made the declaration at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ)’s Press Centre in Kaduna.

He said the support was borne out of their belief in Fayose’s vision and capability to lift the country out of the woods.“In Fayose, we see vision, focus and principles that can help this country a great deal. We really need to do more to help the Fayose project to realise his dream in 2019. Though we have not met him before, we have heard him criticising this government based on issues and not on personality or propaganda.”

“He has the right to pour out his mind on any burning national issue from his own perspective based on facts and figures,” he said.According to Gombe added that the NYG believes in talking about Nigeria as a country and not about the region they come from, adding: “Buhari is today the president of the entire country and not that of Katsina or north or Fulani, and that is the eye with which we see Fayose.”