Today, I had the privilege of presenting my Letters of Credence to the Governor-General of Australia, H.E. Ms. Sam Mostyn AC.
Officially on duty and ready to deepen the Nigeria-Australia partnership- from critical minerals to the diaspora.
Otunba Femi Pedro studied economics up to masters degree level at universities in the United States in the 1970s.
He returned to Nigeria and worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria and other banks in the 1980s.
He was one of the early investors in Guaranty Trust Bank and he worked at GTB from its inception in 1990 till he retired in 1997.
He and others then set up Comet Merchant Bank in 1998 and he became the CEO of the bank.
Governor Bola Tinubu chose Femi Pedro as his running mate in the 2003 governorship election and he was sworn in as deputy governor of Lagos on May 29, 2003.
Femi Pedro informed Governor Tinubu of his intention to contest the 2007 Lagos governorship election. However, Governor Tinubu chose to support Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola because, according to him, he knew all the aspirants, they worked for him and he believed that Fashola was the best man for the job. However, Tinubu said that all the aspirants should test their popularity in the AC primaries.
When Femi Pedro realised that he would not win the AC primaries, he decided to defect to the Labour Party and to contest the election on that platform. Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly warned him that he could not be deputy governor of Lagos and defect to another party and that he should resign if he wants to defect.
Otunba Femi Pedro refused to resign and the Lagos State House of Assembly impeached him.
Femi Pedro contested the 2007 Lagos governorship election on the platform of the Labour Party, but he lost to Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola.
He later defected from the Labour Party to the PDP and attempted to contest the 2011 Lagos governorship election on that platform, but he was not successful.
Bola Tinubu attended Femi Pedro's son's wedding in 2012 and reconciliation moves began.
Otunba Femi Pedro defected to the APC in 2013 and he was given appointments within the party. The Lagos State House of Assembly subsequently reversed his impeachment.
President Muhammadu Buhari made him the chairman of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria
(SMEDAN) from 2018 to 2022, and he was appointed by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
as the founding chairman of the Lagos State Sports Trust Fund. He was also made a member of the APC Lagos Governance Advisory Council (GAC).
#NigeriaAustralia #RenewedHope 🇳🇬🇦🇺
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