SAN FRANCISCO, October 16, (THEWILL) – Ayodele Fayose, Governor of Ekiti state, has declared that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is fast becoming a laughing stock with his incessant visits to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Fayose, in an interview with Punch Newspaper, blamed the former President for many of the country’s current problems, especially corruption, alleging that Obasanjo gave N50m to each lawmaker for his failed third term agenda.
Your relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo was a father-son relationship. Will you be willing to make up with him?
“I’m not ready to take issues with Obasanjo because if you are talking about corruption today, Obasanjo is the cause,” Fayose declared.
“(What about) the N50m Obasanjo gave each lawmaker for his failed third term agenda? I was an Obasanjo boy. Obasanjo can’t be celebrated as a saint in Nigeria. When he talks, I just shake my head.
“Sometimes, when he goes to the Villa, I wonder if he has shame at all. When he was the president, Buhari was not visiting him regularly. Obasanjo is behaving like somebody who wants to cover something at all cost.
“Most of the problems in this country were caused by Obasanjo. The impeachment of a governor by four lawmakers was done during Obasanjo’s tenure as a president. Tell me where the moral is. We should not deceive ourselves.
“The fact that he is supporting the government of the day tactically is to protect himself. Sometimes, I ask if he is looking for a political appointment. Have you seen Ernest Shonekan and other former presidents visit Buhari like he does? He is becoming a laughing stock. That is the way I see it.”
Fayose also tagged President Buhari as a sectional leader saying he has acted so with his body language, activities and appointments; adding that he had predicted that the President would be dictatorial and would not have respect for the rule of law.
“Everything I have said, people can attest to it that the President has proved to be for northerners rather than for Nigeria.
“His body language, activities, appointments are all in favour of the North and not Nigeria. The president is interested in a certain group of people. Unfortunately, they are majorly from the North.
“My position is that as the president, the whole country is his constituency and not a section, and he must not be sectional in his decision. He has acted more like a sectional leader.
“It is obvious that Yorubas played a major role in the ascension of the president. He became the president because of the commitment of many Yoruba leaders
“I have always accused Buhari’s administration of being dictatorial. I knew all these would happen. In my prediction, I said the president would not provide a solution to the economy. I said the president would not have respect for the rule of law. I said the president would not respect court orders. I said he would be a dictator. All these are coming to pass,” he said.
Fayose, however, had good words for Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the All progressives Congress (APC), describing him as the foremost leader of the Yoruba declaring that those who are conspiring to betray Tinubu are only bringing curses upon their lives.
“The greatest thing a man can offer his leader is loyalty except if the leader is wicked. Most of the people Asiwaju Tinubu and I brought up betrayed us. They are only bringing curses upon their lives. If you wine and dine with enemies of people that brought you up, you are a betrayer.
“I don’t want to take issues anyhow with anybody. I don’t want to start mentioning names or attacking individuals. But, it must be noted that conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it.
“If there is anybody that Asiwaju has brought up and made and they want to turn around and pull him down, they too will pay dearly for it. They know themselves. Judas knew himself. This is not the beginning; they have been doing it before now. The thing is just coming into the open.
“A betrayer will always be a betrayer. I’m not an APC man and I’m not holding brief for Asiwaju Tinubu. And anything that will take away the honour and dignity of our leader like Asiwaju Tinubu, we will rise up against it and expose those behind it.
“It is common in Yoruba land for people who are supposed to watch your back to collude with external aggressors and destroy their leaders to take such (leadership) position. It will never work.
“For every nation and region, there are leaders. Even, if I don’t like Asiwaju, he has attained an enviable height in his political endeavours. He has done so well economically. He has led his people to wherever they are today. I can’t stand here and be denying the obvious. But if by tomorrow we have political issues, I will still say my own. I will tell him the truth; that is politics. But when we get back home, he is a leader.
“The fact remains that honour should be given to whom honour is due. There is nobody – mother, brother and sister – that will wish, with the efforts Asiwaju has put into Nigeria and his party, that he should be disgraced. It will be unfortunate for the Yoruba nation if they short-change Asiwaju in APC.
“There is no gainsaying that Asiwaju Tinubu is the foremost leader in the Yoruba nation today. Somebody will take the lead to let us know that leadership goes beyond party. That is exactly why I took the lead to establish the fact that the Yoruba nation will be losing if Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu is humiliated,” he said.
Story by David Oputah
