Femi Pedro

Olufemi "Femi" Pedro (born 29 January 1955, in Lagos) was the deputy governor of Lagos State, Nigeria, from 2003 to 2007. Prior to his election alongside Bola Tinubu, he was a co-owner and the chief executive officer of First Atlantic Bank, now FinBank.

Femi Pedro
12th Deputy Governor of Lagos State
In office
May 29, 2003 – May 29, 2007
Preceded byKofoworola Bucknor
Succeeded bySarah Adebisi Sosan
Personal details
Born
Olufemi Olusegun Pedro

(1955-01-29)29 January 1955
Lagos Island, Lagos State
Political partyAll Progressives Congress
Spouse(s)Hon. Justice Jumoke Pedro
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin
Wichita State University
OccupationPolitician
banker

Pedro is the current chairman of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), and the founding chairman of the Lagos State Sports Trust Fund.[1]

Political career

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 and performed admirably. They embarked on an unprecedented and aggressive revenue drive by restructuring, reorganising and re-engineering the Board of Inland Revenue. His experience in the banking sector helped increase Lagos State's Internally Generated Revenue from 300 million naira per month to 7 billion naira per month within eighteen months. He was popularly referred to as "Mr. Pedronomics", primarily due to his affinity towards micro- and macro-economic policies.[2]

Pedro introduced and implemented the PSP and waste management model that is currently used in Lagos. He 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 BRT.[3]

Gubernatorial run

On 13 December 2006, Pedro dumped the Action Congress to declare under the Labour Party. 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 19 April elections.[4]

Reconciliation with Tinubu and return to APC

Throughout 2013, indications began to emerge of reconciliation moves between Tinubu and Pedro, who had fallen apart in the buildup to the 2007 elections. The Oba of Lagos publicly and privately encouraged the reconciliation moves after Tinubu had graced the wedding ceremony of Pedro's son in 2012, which was the first time they had been publicly seen together since 2006.[5]

In December 2013, Pedro reportedly held a secret meeting with Tinubu, the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and the interim National Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, to finalise his move back to APC.[5] Within a matter of days of the report breaking out, Femi Pedro released a statement confirming his move back to APC.[6]

Post-2015 political appointments

Within days of his return to APC, Pedro was appointed as the chairman of the APC Registration Exercise Committee, which was held in February 2014 in Ondo State.[7]

On 12 February 2018, he was appointed as the pioneer chairman of the Lagos State Sports Trust Fund.[8]

On 1 March 2018, Pedro was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the chairman of the board of directors of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).[9]

Books

Pedro is the author of The Formula for Wealth: My Thoughts on Wealth, Entrepreneurship and Leadership, a book published and released in 2020.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Pedro loses bid to reverse impeachment". Vanguard News. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  2. "The Nation Newspaper Nigeria - Read the Latest Nigeria News". The Nation Nigeria. Archived from the original on 14 October 2010.
  3. "compassnewspaper.com".
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Tinubu, former deputy, Femi Pedro reconciles as Pedro dumps PDP for APC". osundefender.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
  6. "Lagos ex-deputy gov, Pedro, joins APC". The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper. Archived from the original on 26 December 2013.
  7. "Learn from APC registration exercise - Ex-Deputy Governor of Lagos tells INEC - DailyPost Nigeria". DailyPost Nigeria. 5 February 2014.
  8. "Ambode inaugurates boards of Sports Trust Fund, commission". 12 February 2018.
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. Femi Pedro (2020). The Formula for Wealth. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
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