A former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described his ministerial nomination as a surprise.
He told reporters at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja on Tuesday that Buhari never gave him a hint about being nominated in spite of closeness to the President.
The former governor served as the Director of Research and Strategy in the Buhari 2015 Campaign Organisation.
In response to a question as to whether his nomination came to him as a surprise, Fayemi 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 Nations General Assembly and he never uttered a word about his list to me nor to anyone else.
“We came back to Nigeria together, I was with him up till 4pm 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.”
Another Ekiti ex-governor, Segun Oni, said Buhari had proved to all that he was not only a statesman but also a loyal party man.
He said, “The President is a party member and his thinking is always along with the party and he has always been saying so.
“You will know that the President, on his own, knows the party and he wants to involve the party as much as possible and he has done that. No one can complain now because you will see that the leaders that we will want to see are there and we are very grateful to the President.”