Nigeria Needs President With Courage – Fayemi

Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Kayode Fayemi has taken a swipe at the leadership in the country saying the country currently lacked the needed leadership to do what’s right to move the country forward.

Fayemi was speaking on the sideline of his declaration for President on Wednesday in Abuja.

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Speaking on what he will do differently regarding rising cases of impunity, the former Minister of Mine and Steel Development said it’s “a very serious issue. There are a number of dimensions to the impunity that is in our country. I always say something that as a leader is not enough to be competent particularly in Nigeria. It’s also not enough to be committed and compassionate.

“What is also lacking in Nigeria is the leadership, the courage to do that what is right. Some people consider themselves as principalities and people who believe that they are the owners of this country, and then do whatever they like.

“They also believe that the law can not catch up with them. We will not be arbitrary but we would be very sneaky about upholding the rule of law, and access to justice to all Nigerians,” he stated.

He explained that, “There are different levels of impunity. We need to also make sure that we do not leave our people with the temptation to do the wrong thing under the guise of religion, culture, among others .

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“We must at all times be citizens advocate of citizens rights as well as responsibilities because when you have rights you also have responsibilities as a citizen of the country and we must uphold that.

“Impunity reigns because our justice system has been crippling and because the entire justice sector system in our country is problematic.

“If we look at the journey from the investigation of the crime, to conviction of the crime you would have forgotten that the person actually committed the crime. I think swift delivery of justice, access to justice, accountability in society are areas we need to pay attention to.

“We need to also support our judicial officers, so that we will not again tempt them to resort to other misbehaviour because the state has not taken on its own responsibility in terms of remuneration, in terms of support to the judicial officers,” he proposed.

On the APC primaries, he explained that the Constitution of the APC prescribed the model of primaries, which can either be direct or indirect or consensus.

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“We have an electoral Act now that says for us to have consensus, all players must sign off. For me, yes, we have a lot of people who have expressed their interest and I think we must commend the party for being so popular to attract this calibre of Nigerians offering their services to the country.

“I think for me, Nigerians who also wants to vote at the polls for the president of Nigeria must be citizens of the country. I believe from all my travels around the country over the last one month, I believe both inside our party and outside the party, the sentiments will appear to be anything but consensus.

“That is because people want to have a say and don’t forget we have a president who has been an advocate for bottom-up political practices.

“President Buhari is known for his passion for every member of the party having a say in the decision that affects the party so in that sense, I have no problem staking a claim to a primary process, whether it’s indirect or direct. I don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

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