By Valentine Amanze
All may not be well with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) In Ekiti State.
The youth group of the party, Ekiti APC Youths Congress (EAYC), is angry over the omission of Ekiti State in the President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent ambassadorial list.
It predicted that high-handedness, impunity and nepotism by the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, would cost the party the 2022 governorship election.
In a statement by Mr. Tope Ogunkuade and Comrade Tunji Adeleye, EAYC
convener and Secretary, respectively, the youths also faulted the governor’s decision to favour those he tagged, “APC
Tokan Tokan” over and above other loyal members of the party.
According to the youths, it was shameful that despite
Fayemi’s closeness to the Presidency, Ekiti had no nominee among the 41 new ambassadors when states like Oyo, Kwara and Kano had three and others like Adamawa, Borno and Benue had two.
The APC youths further alleged that Fayemi’s reign as governor for the second time was fast becoming a waste of opportunity for Ekiti State, stressing that his three years as minister contributed nothing to the state.
The group pointed out that in May this year, when President Buhari appointed 42 career
ambassadors, no Ekiti indigene was among them, while asking what advantage Fayemi’s self-professed closeness to the presidency has conferred on the state.
While describing the claim that the state was omitted because it has Mrs Eniola Ajayi, as ambassador in Hungary, the youths said that a state like Bauchi, where one of those retained is from, also had
a nominee.
“The question we are raising is, what special benefit has Fayemi’s
closeness to the presidency brought to Ekiti? Even Oyo State with no one claiming to be President Buhari’s closest ally has three
nominees.
“Besides, of what political benefit is a situation where a single town
has minister, senator and ambassador to the party?” the group said.
The youths, who also condemned the governor’s refusal to allow local government chairmen in the state to make statutory appointments of
supervisors and advisers, said it was obvious that he did not care about others in the party.
They called on stakeholders in the party to prevail on the governor to focus on governance and provide the necessary leadership for the party in Ekiti instead of running after vice presidential position that only God could give.