Gov. Ayo Fayose
Speaking with a selected group of journalists on Friday as
thousands of artisans, drivers, motorcyclists, mechanics, tailors,
barbers among others, trooped out in Ado Ekiti to protest the freezing
of the accounts of Governor Ayo Fayose and also in solidarity to his
government, the outspoken governor spoke on the genesis of his problem
with President Muhammadu Buhari amongst other issues.
Below are excerpts from the chat;
Let us look at the genesis of the problem you are having
with President Muhammadu Buhari; this thing started immediately he
became the flag bearer of the APC. You took him up even through adverts.
What informed your position, is it purely politics or you just don’t
like the man?
Let me make it very clear that I am a straight forward person. I
answer questions as they come. I am not somebody who is begging for
favour from anybody. I respect humanity, I respect human beings but I
fear God and we all are going to account for our leadership here.
President Buhari is a Nigerian, a leader without doubt, but it is a
right of everybody in this country to choose, as long as you are grown
enough to choose –it’s your choice. I am entitled to decide to support
or not to support him based on principles and perceptions of the person.
Incidentally, this year I will be 56. I am a grown Nigerian when
President Buhari was president of this country. I was well grown enough
to know what he represented. The people that voted largely for President
Buhari were under 40 years old because they dominated the social media
and Bible says “My people die because for lack of knowledge –
information.
President Buhari was president of this country 32 years ago –
already he has been president for one year; that means 31 years ago. He
became president 1984 and you recall that anybody that would say I am 40
years at the time President Buhari contested was only nine years. A
nine year old doesn’t know what Nigeria represents and that was why they
voted for him because you must know who you are giving your life to –
who you are giving your future to. You must know you are not taking your
life to Golgotha. So, as man who knew President Buhari, as at then I
was in Ibadan. I knew the total misrule of 1984 to 1985 – how the
military suffered Nigerians, how a lot of leaders were clamped in chains
using decree 2.
The same thing President Buhari did at that time is what he is
doing now. You will recall that even late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Emir of
Kano, Ooni of Ife, their passports were taken away from them.
Their rights were taken away. A man that is grown cannot change.
Most young ladies will say, “Let me just marry that man, I will be
praying, he will change”. You can change nothing! Because as soon as a
man is formed, except you are converted – you are born again. The Bible
says “Behold all have become new”. In the Christendom, you will see the
change. It would be clear! You want to see a man that used to be a
drunkard, when he gets born again, he doesn’t drink at all. You see a
man that is smoking, but when you are truly born again, you will see a
total departure from the past.
So, President Buhari is living true to type. If you look at the way
he is governing Nigeria today, it is the same way he did before; by his
appointments, by his taking away the right of the people, by doing
things without recourse for due process. I was listening to him when he
was doing his first interview; he was still saying “that boy Kanu, he
would remain in prison”. You are not the law court.
I am not somebody who is afraid of anything. I have said it several
times. There are two things a man seems to be afraid of; some are
afraid of incarceration, some are afraid of death; I am not afraid of
anything except God. I have gone through this road before.
In 2006, I was charged to court by EFCC. The Falanas of this world,
the Ojudus of this world and all my adversaries on the other side, they
were working with Nuhu Ribadu; when they were celebrating me negatively
in the newspapers; Fayose is Going, Going, Gone! After all, they did it
but I am back in the Government House now. I was incarcerated; I was in
Ikoyi prison for almost 50 days. So, when you do these things, you make
me a better man.
When you look at the book of James, it says “Don’t be in a hurry to
get out of trouble”. When faith worketh patience in you, it makes you a
better man. Sometimes food is good but fasting is better. I am not a
man scared of all these. Most people, Buhari has cowed them. Those
people who brought Buhari, they are now taking the back yard.
They are afraid that if a man can be matching the cloth of a family
member like this, he would destroy the cloth of somebody else.
What is your take on the president’s fight against corruption?
Fighting corruption is a great thing. It is good but anything that
does not represent the truth is simply corruption. Anything that doesn’t
represent justice…those who make peaceful change impossible would make
violent change inevitable. You’re oppressing some people now either
because they are not from your region or because you had issues with
them before; it is mission for vengeance.
I have never heard in the whole world where you say people have
issue that is not murder and not bordering on capital punishment, and
they are not entitled to bail.
The EFCC would harass people to submission and force people to drop
money. And when they get helpless, they would begin to say what they
are not supposed to say. You want to go and arrest people and start
look-ing for evidence. That is oppression! You are supposed to have
concluded your investigation before you go and arrest people!
How would you keep people in jail when they are not convicted yet?
They are under incarceration for three, five, six months; Nigerians
don’t know now, there are a lot of people in different cells of EFCC and
SSS suffering for nothing. What if at the end of the day the court
releases them?
Then their rights would have been violated. So, let me round it
off, there is nothing personal between President Buhari and me. There
are instances that are so glaring now that people in the APC are like
saints. Look at my state. There are document clearly – the EFCC have
them but will not call somebody. The Universal Basic Education where the
former governor went away with N892m; even in the letter they wrote
they said “This is a criminal act”, but when you are in the APC, you
become an angel. It doesn’t matter!
Let us look at the APC, most of the people they were bashing in
those days when they get to APC, they become saints. You can’t run a
country like that! Look at all the promises made to Nigerians.
They went as far as running their mouths to say that dollar will be
one to one. They went as far as telling us that they would feed even
goats in our homes. All these we would feed, we will know when it will
start.
Look at the fuel price; in the entire people that governed this
country before, the sharp increase has never happened before. Look at
when Jonathan than increased fuel for just about N20 – N30 difference,
it was as if heaven was going to come down.
These are ungodly acts. I have told the people who brought Buhari
that they will end up inside his stomach. The story is like the story of
a rich man who brought a lion home. They asked him “where did you get
lion from”, he said “they gave me and they know that I have what it
takes to keep it in the house” and people were telling the man, because
they were afraid to tell him the truth because he is a rich man; they
said this thing is usually not domesticated at home, it lives in the
bush. He said no, it has to be at home. Gradually, the lion became a
man-lion.
First, it chopped the man’s children, got out of the gate, went to
the surroundings to meet those who kept quiet and chopped them too. This
is one chance government that we have entered under this man. Nepotism
is another story and lying upon lying.
Look at how the wife of the president was calling me “unchained mad
dog”, the wife of a president”. This is our country, we cannot all be
silent. Somebody has to talk. The one that is useful, you take it and
the one that is not useful, you throw it away.
In fact, opposition is the strength of democracy. It is where the
average man can get value for money. You are trying to silence Femi
Fani-Kayode; you are trying to silence Metuh and others.
My brothers, where in Nigeria have people contested election, vied
for office and not spend money? All the aircrafts carrying President
Buhari during campaigns, is it cows that were carrying him around –
those cows declared?
Recently, they said somebody has houses in Dubai, quickly there is a
defence. When they were talking about the wife of the president,
defence came from Nuhu Ribadu. Even the former EFCC chairman, Larmode,
looking for way out of his problem, quickly too, said that was not the
people we are looking for.
I want to make it clear that there is nothing personal between
myself and President Buhari, but I want to make it expressly clear again
to you that what they are doing is not in the interest of Nigeria; to
cow the people once opinion differ from theirs. After all, this state
was run by APC when Jonathan was president. They had peace to run their
government.
Today, if you want to call police, they are afraid. When you want
to use the FRCN, they will say no. The president will not allow. They
will go and report us to APC in Abuja. So, what kind of life is that?
The FRCN here, they don’t carry PDP news. It is that bad!
So, what nation are we building? A nation built on sectional and
political interests? As much as you can call Jonathan’s name, the man
never took a political prisoner. In fact, Jonathan should have been
president in 50 years’ time because the man is too civil.
I am happy if they didn’t give APC and President Buhari chance,
they will not go through what they are going through. Look at the state
of electricity. Look at food security. Look at the life of an average
Nigerian! Look at the exchange rate. Look at how many states that cannot
pay salaries.
Click here to read the interview in full on Daily Sun.
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