Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of being responsible for the hate speeches being uttered by some sections of the country, thereby heating up the polity and creating tension in the system.
Fayose said Buhari got it wrong with a statement after his inauguration that his government might not favour any section of the country that voted against him during the 2015 presidential poll.
The governor also stated that the 2018 governorship poll in the state would be a repeat of history for him, boasting that he would once again demonstrate his political relevance and acceptability on members of the opposition during the election.
The governor spoke in Ado Ekiti yesterday during a parley with members of the Conference of Ekiti State Private Sectors and non-indigenes.
He said the interface with the groups was meant to cement his relationship with them in preparation for the 2018 electoral battle, saying he would count on their supports to trounce the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor who reacted to the quit notice recently issued to Igbos by a coalition of northern youth groups, ordering the people of the South-east to leave the northern region within 90 days.
Blaming the president for tactically emboldening the hate speech makers, Fayose said: “How can a president that was just sworn-in after a tension-soaked election be saying that any section that didn’t vote for him won’t benefit from his appointments?
“By implication, such president was openly giving room for sectionalism and that was exactly what Buhari did after the election. We could all confirm that Nigeria has never been this divided in history.
“Every Nigerian knew that the people of the South-east didn’t vote for him, so that automatically gave that northern groups to have the effrontery to order Igbos out of their region. When a leader speaks like that, something like this is bound to happen.
“We can’t deny the fact that the problem has gone so deep in dividing us. But it is not beyond solution. The leaders from South-east and the North should sit down and iron out their differences in the interest of everybody,†he said.
Fayose commended the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, for interfacing with opinion moulders from the two feuding regions, saying this will help in stemming the tide of war drum that is holding the country by the jugular.
On the resolve of the governors to remain in the PDP if the pending Supreme Court’s verdict favours Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s faction, Fayose said: “The PDP governors’ position was that we will remain in PDP head or tail and prevent it from being destroyed by external aggressors.â€
Speaking on the 2018 poll, the governor stated: “We are looking forward to an election where we will repeat history by giving APC 16-0. We want to prove our supremacy over them, because they said they lost the last election due to militarisation.
“But today, the APC controls the INEC, military, police and other para-military organisations and when we defeat them, we will await what they will say again because we have the people behind us.â€
