Fayose: I am not a coward, Buhari should be mindful of me

Fayose, Ekiti State governor, has maintained that as the longest-serving governor in the country, he remains a force to reckon with and anyone who ignores him will be doing so at his or her own peril.

Ayodele Fayose

He stated this in an interview with Premium Times, in Ado-Ekiti over the weekend.

The governor declared that plots to kick him out office would not work because his experiences had made him to understand the dynamics of governance better than during his first term.

He said besides, those experiences made him set the record as the only governor who returned to office 12 years after being disgraced out and detained for 45 days at Ikoyi Prisons on trumped-up allegations.

Fayose, said he would not join the band­wagon of those who changed their post-2015 language and position simply because Buhari won the election, stressing that all he said as at then were propelled by facts at his disposal and remained sacrosanct.

He said, “I told Nigerians that they should not vote for Buhari and that Buhari will not do well. My name is Ayo Fayose. He will not do well. That is why I told you Buhari is a dictator; he can never lead a people or a government without being dictatorial. In Nigerian politics I only say the truth.

“I am not afraid of him. The power of Buhari is not more than you go and lock some­body up. I am not afraid of him. I am not in the calibre of politicians who are say­ing, ‘ah don’t let me die oh! Don’t let my mother die oh! I am not in that category. Most noble men today have gone underground for fear of the unknown.

“The same thing we were telling Obasanjo that time. We said Obasanjo was a dic­tator. Obasanjo consumed most of them who were pro­moting him that time. I have never minced words, before the campaign.

“I am not a sycophant to say that it was after Buhari became president that I start­ed praising or talking against him. I started from day one.

“I was 24 years old when Buhari was head of state of Nigeria. We were daily beaten in Ibadan when we queued up for essential commodities.

“I remember how he stopped import duties and did a lot of things damaging to the economy, the same way he is still doing it today. I have said it clearly that any attempt to confront me and attack my government will bring Buhari’s government down.

“My name is Ayo Fayose, I mean every word I am saying. I am salt. He should be mindful of me. I am not a coward. Call me controversial if you like. Men that will make history will be very controversial. Courageous people will be controversial.

“I am not impressed. I am not impressed. Buhari adminis­tration has shown the hallmark of a very vindictive leader. Part of the hallmark of a good leader is to be able to rally everybody in times like this.

“Look back. Jonathan was magnanimous. He could have said I am a sitting president and cause the country headache, but he did not do that. He will­ingly relinquished power be­cause of the overall interest of the country.

“Instead, Buhari is coming to vilify everybody. You begin to do factional pursuance of the fight against corruption. It doesn’t work like that.

“Go and look at Buhari’s antecedent. I stand to be cor­rected. We know that the rate at which Buhari is going, he is going to destroy this country. There is no hiding place for dictators.”