Femi Pedro - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Olufemi Pedro was the Deputy Governor

Deputy Governor

A Deputy governor is a gubernatorial official who is subordinated to a governor, rather like a Lieutenant governor.-British colonial cases:In the British empire, there were such colonial offices in :...

of Lagos State

Lagos State

Lagos State is an administrative division of Nigeria, located in the southwestern part of the country. The smallest in area of Nigeria's states, Lagos State is the most populous state in Nigeria and arguably the most economically important state of the country and west Africa, containing Lagos, the...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

from 2003 until 2007. Prior to his election alongside Bola Tinubu

Bola Tinubu

Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected Senator for the Lagos West constituency in Lagos State, Nigeria in 1993, just before a military take-over in December 1993. After the return to democracy, he was elected governor of Lagos State, holding office from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007...

, he was a part-owner and the Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

of First Atlantic Bank, now FinBank

FinBank

FinBank Plc., also referred to as Finbank, is a commercial bank in Nigeria. It is one of the twenty-five commercial banks licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country's banking regulator.-Overview:...

Personal life and education

Early Childhood

A scion of the renowned Sanusi Adeyinka Pedro family of Bambose Street Lagos Island

Lagos Island

Lagos Island is the principal and central local government area of the Metropolitan Lagos in Nigeria. It is part of the Lagos Division. As of the preliminary 2006 Nigerian census, the LGA had a population of 209,437 in an area of 8.7 km²...

fame, Femi Pedro was born to late Pa Olajide Pedro a retired officer of the defunct Western Nigeria Marketing Board, Ikeja and late Mrs. Modupe Pedro (née Abayomi) on January 29, 1955. Though not financially endowed, Pa Pedro was widely regarded as a disciplinarian who understood the importance of education, and made it a core value to ensure that attendance of school was a family policy. Consequently, he was enrolled at St. Stephen Primary School, Adeniji Adele in Lagos Island. This brought an end to Femi’s penchant for following Egungun and Igunnu Masquerades around the streets of Lagos with a major determination to graduate into an Eyo masquerade as he and his other childhood friends had the flair for participating in the famous Lagos heritage festival- an event which he loves to watch till this very day.

Education

Educated at St.Stephens primary school, Adeniji Adele Road from 1960 to 1967 where he obtained the First School Leaving Certificate, Femi Pedro subsequently attended the former Ahmadiyya College (now Anwar-U1-Islam College), Agege between 1968 and 1974 where he earned the Higher School Certificate (HSC) after having successfully completed the West African School Certificate in 1972.

Pedro received a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

degree in Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

from University of Wisconsin–Superior

University of Wisconsin–Superior

The University of Wisconsin–Superior is a public university located in Superior, Wisconsin. UW–Superior grants bachelor's, master's, and specialist's degrees...

(1976–1978) and a Master's degree

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

in Economics

Economics

from Wichita State University

Wichita State University

Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....

(1979–1981).

Family Life

He is married to Justice Jumoke Pedro, a High Court Judge

High Court judge

A High Court judge is a judge of the High Court of Justice, and represents the third highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne judges...

in Lagos

Lagos

Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

; they have 4 children.

Business career

He commenced his banking career in 1982 when he joined the country’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria

Central Bank of Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria was established by the CBN Act of 1958 and commenced operations on July 1, 1959.The major regulatory objectives of the bank as stated in the CBN act of 1958 is to: issue legal tender, maintain the external reserves of the country, promote monetary stability and a sound...

(CBN). Femi Pedro rose to the post of assistant manager in 1985 and became a research economist the following year. The same year (1986), he was admitted as an associate of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Bankers, London, United Kingdom having successfully completed the professional bankers’ examinations. First City Merchant Bank Ltd (now First City Monument Bank ltd) became his next port of call by 1988, where he rose to become the Executive Assistant to the bank’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and later Deputy Manager and Head of Corporate planning within a period of one year.

Femi Pedro became one of the first set of investors in Guaranty Trust Bank

Guaranty Trust Bank

Guaranty Trust Bank plc also known as GTB or GT Bank is the third biggest, but most profitable bank in Nigeria based in Victoria Island, Lagos.- History :Registered on January 17, 1990 by Central Bank of Nigeria....

and later took up the role of a Senior Manager at its inception in 1990, where he subsequently rose to the position of Assistant General Manager in 1993. He served in various capacities at the bank until 1997, when he voluntarily retired. On the eve of his retirement, he was admitted to the fellowship of Chartered institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).

In January 1998, Pedro ventured into private business as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agro-Corp Ventures, a commodity processing company. The same year (Nov 1998), he was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Comet Merchant Bank (now FinBank

FinBank

), following the acquisition of the bank by a consortium of investors including himself.
He served as Managing Director and Part-Owner of FinBank

FinBank

from 1998 to 2003. He was also the Chairman of the First Atlantic Online Limited from 2002 to 2003.

He is currently a director in various business ventures.

Political career

Femi Pedro was elected as Deputy Governor of Lagos State in April 2003, and was sworn-in alongside Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu the following month. He was recruited primarily due to his Economic background; he was seen as a political neophyte by keen political observers in Lagos, Nigeria.

Femi Pedro is widely regarded as the bedrock of the economic revolution which Lagos (and Tinubu in particular) enjoys today. In his years as the Deputy Governor, Pedro was appointed chairman of Lagos State Revenue Mobilization committee under which the Board of Inland Revenue, the Land Use Allocation Committee, and other revenue generating agencies reported. They embarked on an aggressive revenue drive, restructured, reorganized and re-engineered the Board of Inland Revenue, plugged many loopholes and eventually, the result started to show. His wealth of experience in the banking sector came to fruition as he single-handedly raised the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from 300 Million Naira per month to a staggering 7 Billion Naira per month in the space of eight months. He was popularly referred to as 'Mr. Pedronomics', primarily due to his affinity towards micro and macro-economic policies.

Pedro also introduced and implemented the PSP and waste management model which is thriving in Lagos today.Femi Pedro was also in charge of conducting extensive research in Brazil with other cabinet members to study and understand the novel metropolitan bus transport system which resulted in the birth of the BRT. He was given the task of raising funds from the Afrexim Bank based in Cairo to purchase the red Marcopolo buses plying currently plying the streets of Lagos today. Consequently, he came up with the name LAGBUS and with the support of his staff, set up the structure in which the BRT is built upon today.
Aside from leading the Government Economic Team, Femi Pedro also championed the fight against the Federal Government regarding the withheld Local Government Funds in 2003. During the course of his term in office, he was awarded the Yoruba aristocratic

Aristocracy (class)

The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

title of Otunba by the people of his native Lagos

Lagos

Gubernatorial run

In September 2006, Femi Pedro declared his intention to run for office as the Governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

of Lagos State

Lagos State

in 2007. Tinubu was initially in support of Pedro's candidacy, but allegedly began to have second thoughts as the campaign season drew closer.

On 13 December 2006, Pedro dumped the Action Congress

Action Congress

The Action Congress of Nigeria , formerly known as Action Congress , is a classical liberal Nigerian political party formed via the merger of the Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006. The party...

to declare under the Labour Party

Labour Party (Nigeria)

The Labour Party is a socialist/social democratic political party in Nigeria. In the 21 April 2007 Nigerian National Assembly election, the party won 1 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives and no seats in the Senate. The Party's flagbearer in Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, emerged the...

, citing gross manipulation by Tinubu to favour a relative of his to become the Governor in 2007. He became the first ever Nigerian to contest for a gubernatorial election under the Labour Party platform. On 30 January 2007, Femi Pedro named a University lecturer, Oluranti Adebule, as his running mate for the April 19 elections. Adebule, who teaches Islamic studies

Islamic studies

In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...

at the Lagos State University

Lagos State University

The Lagos State University - also known as LASU - was established in 1983 by the enabling Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, for the advancement of learning and establishment of academic excellence. The university caters for a population of over 61,000, enrolled in full-time and part-time programmes at...

(LASU), is from the Badagry Division

Badagry Division

-History:Badagry Division figures in the history of relations and contact between Nigeria and Europe, as it was a major slave outpost and market prior to British colonization...

of the state. Solidarity and goodwill messages also poured in for Pedro from the various stakeholders in the party, including the Nigeria Labour Congress

Nigeria Labour Congress

Nigeria Labour Congress is an umbrella organisation for trade unions in Nigeria. It was founded in 1978 following a merger of four different organisations: Nigeria Trade Union Congress , Labour Unity Front , United Labour Congress and Nigeria Workers Council . The numerous affiliated unions were...

(NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), teachers, pensioners, Hausa and Igbo communities, women's groups, students and youth bodies. He endeared himself to Lagosians with his comprehensive manifesto and various policies, many of which are currently being implemented by the sitting Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola.

In May 2007, Pedro resigned his position as Deputy Governor after citing electoral malpractices in the Gubernatorial elections in which he participated and lost. Today, he continues to champion the fight against wasteful spending in Government, and has preached on the need for transparency and accountability by elected officials in Lagos State. He is a vocal critic of the lekki toll arrangement and the ban of okadas, among other policies.

2011 Elections

In September, 2010, whispers began spreading around Lagos State that Femi Pedro may contest the 2011 gubernatorial elections under the PDP platform. Scores of groups have reportedly urged Pedro to declare, including prominent South West leaders and at least one sitting Governor from a prominent Yoruba state. He is rumored to have widespread support and goodwill amongst the PDP hierarchy and party faithful. Pedro has remained silent about his ambitions, but sources close to his camp claim Femi Pedro is very reluctant to throw his hat in the race. He has however committed to having an open, honest and transparent debate with stakeholders about "how to move the state forward in the coming years".

On September 24, 2010, Femi Pedro formally declared his intention to run for the 2011 governorship election in Lagos state on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party.

He made his declaration at the PDP secretariat in Ikeja amidst fanfare and jubilation by his supporters and party members, explaining that his administration would not simply celebrate 100 days in office, but would be committed to improving the living conditions of at least 100 Lagosians a day.

Pedro, who hails from Epetedo, said he had been to every nook and cranny of the state and has since realised that “through clever and constant application of propaganda our people have been made to see hell as paradise. Today, Lagos has become a sad story tale of two stories. I see people driving on pothole-infested roads and sleeping in flooded homes. I see poorly paid teachers, doctors going on indefinite strike and market women forced to pay excessive stall rates.“

He stated that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) led government was not doing enough to reduce the suffering of the people and has kept celebrating days in office without sustainable achievements“ and they make people abroad believe that we are living in a paradise in Lagos State.”

He continued: “As such there is need for somebody with integrity that has the love of the people at heart who can deliver the people of Lagos State from poverty, bad roads and bad governance to be the governor come 2011. “I was part and parcel of the administration during the Bola Tinubu era and I know where the problem of the state lies, If I am chosen to run in the 2011 polls, I would help Lagosians to right the wrongs.

“We don’t want a government that simply plants trees all over Lagos anymore. We want a government that sows the seeds that will grow successful and vibrant Lagosians by creating better enabling environment to realise ther dreams,” he said.

External links

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