The member representing Ado-Ekiti/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, has cautioned Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, against embarrassing the state by his consistent attack against presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
The Ekiti governor has consistently claimed that Buhari is too fragile to be president of the country and has sponsored several newspaper adverts to support his claim.
Fayose also claimed that the recent foreign trip of the APC flag bearer was to enable him get medical attention, contrary to the official explanation by Mr. Buhari’s campaign office that he was in the United Kingdom on a working visit.
In his reaction, Bamidele in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, said Fayose by his constant abuse of elders like former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari, was a cancer to the polity.
According to the House Committee Chairman on Legislative Budget and Research, the statements credited to Governor Fayose constituted a rude invasion of Buhari’s privacy and a rough-neck tactic.
He urged the governor to continue to toe the line of civility and follow the footsteps of people like Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) and many other illustrious indigenes of the State, whose conducts had brought
unprecedented respect to the State, rather than dragging the State into public odium.
He said, “Even if, according to Governor Fayose, General Buhari had visited a hospital during his foreign trip, the reasonable question to ask, I would think, is whether or not General Buhari deserves rest or even a medical check-up after a full-fledged and most rigorous (over 30 days) campaign during which he did not miss a single rally?”
Bamidele added that it was contradictory that while President Goodluck Jonathan was doing all he could to convince Nigerians and members of the international community that he was committed to the survival of our democracy, Fayose was busy throwing tantrums at the opposition.
“Just like President Jonathan has a right to contest and legitimately expect to win, he has equally assured all and sundry that if he loses the election, he will honourably handover to the winner; making it clear that neither a military nor an interim regime would be an acceptable alternative.
“If President Jonathan is speaking in this parlance and Governor Fayose is busy abusing former President Olusegun Obasanjo while denigrating the age and person of Gen. Buhari to the extent of wishing him dead, then surely Governor Fayose must be weeping more than the bereaved. And when a sympathiser is weeping more than the bereaved, there is definitely a cause for suspicion.
“Let Governor Fayose caution himself. Let him leave Gen. Buhari alone and come up with a more positive and decent manner of adding value to our democracy and politics. Right now, he is like cancer.
“Let him stop dragging the name and image of Ekiti in the mud. Ekiti people abhor hate politics and if even Abuja would disown Gov. Fayose’s hate campaign style, then the extent of damage he is doing to the Jonathan campaign in Ekiti State is better left in the realm of imagination”.
Bamidele appealed to Fayose to jettison one-day-one trouble style of governance and settle down for real governance because Ekiti in the “present socio-economic situation needed a critical, sober and scientific leadership intervention and not jackboot approach as being allegedly applied by the governor.
“In the face of dwindling oil revenues and the need to diversify our economy, leadership ingenuity, clear understanding of the microeconomic fundamentals and commitment to global best practice standards of good governance must be the watch word and policy thrust of any Government that wants to be taken seriously.
“No decent Ekiti man or woman, either in the private or public sector, and no Ekiti politician, either in PDP, APC, Labour Party or any other political party can be proud of how Governor Fayose has carried himself since the beginning of this campaign or how he has continued to portray the image of Ekiti as a community of people with integrity deficit.
“As an Ekiti stakeholder, I, like other credible illustrious citizens of the State, deal with this issue on a daily basis, taking pain to explain the Ekiti personality and core values to those who care to listen, reminding all concerned people at home and abroad that fine gentlemen and patriots like Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Com. Femi Falana are indigenes of the State”.
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