Governor of Ekiti State and chairman of the All Progressives Governors Forum, John Feyemi, has stepped down from the presidential race.
He announced his withdrawal during the party’s national convention and presidential primary in Abuja on Tuesday night
According to him he sacrificed his ambition to be President of the country to ensure its unity.
Fayemi, who was among the seven aspirants that stepped down for Asiwaju Tinubu appreciated APC Governors of Northern States for their support for the emergence a Southern Presidential candidate for the party.
“And I have come to a difficult but necessary decision that we must look for the most appropriate person at this time to do this job.
“ I am prepared to sacrifice my ambition to be the President of Nigeria, I am a young man, I still have a long time ahead of me and one person that I have worked with in the democratic struggles and in the course of governing Nigeria side by side, a mentor, an elder, a supporter of mine and a great fighter for democracy and Nigeria that I would like to recommend to all my supporters, all my delegates, starting from the 48 delegates from Ekiti State to all my supporters across the length and breadth of Nigeria is that you please accord me the respect to offer the support you are giving me to my elder brother, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“For me it is a duty and it is a duty of care for Nigerians, I know he would do the job well and we shall support him in delivering services to the greater majority of Nigerians.
“And for those of us who have had the privilege of traversing the length and breadth of this country, because of the opportunities we have had in serving in government and as a citizen for many years, we know that it is only in unity that we can really meet our manifest destiny of being a pride to ourselves and a great hope to the African world.
“We have a duty, indeed a responsibility to build all the labour of our heroes past to ensure that we focus on security, that we focus on our economy, that we focus on our social security and addressing poverty, inequality, corruption as well as impunity in order to build a better society. We must focus on empowering our women and providing jobs particularly for our youths and in ensuring that we re-tool our armed forces and security services in order for them to do a better job of securing our country.
“I must thank my brother Governors for the work they have been doing at the various sub-national levels, we must continue to do that work and our brothers from the Northern Governors’ Forum of APC have led by example by proposing to party members that the next candidate of our party and by God’s grace, the next President of our country must come from the southern part of this country”, the Governor stated.
According to him, the decision to step down was to ensure that a Southerner won the 2023 presidential election
Fayemi, who was one of the five presidential aspirants submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari by the ruling party’s governors .
