April 08, (THEWILL) – A former Kogi Senator, Dino Melaye, has accused former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose of de-marketing two presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bukola Saraki and Atiku Abubakar, to favour his political godfather in the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In his recent interview, Fayose had criticised Atiku and Saraki, saying the two presidential aspirants could not win the 2019 election for the PDP in their states.
“With due respect to the former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, what was PDP’s performance in the presidential election in 2019? We only won with 20,000 votes even in Adamawa in his home state. This tells us something fundamental.
“Coming to the former immediate past Senate President, Bukola Saraki, how did PDP perform in the last election in Kwara? We lost. What does that tell us? And in Sokoto, how did we perform?” Fayose had said.
Fayose, who also aspires to lead the country, under the platform of the PDP, made the remarks after Saraki and Atiku obtained their nomination forms amid the agitation that the PDP should zone its presidential ticket to the southern part of the country.
Reacting to this, Melaye in a statement on Friday, asked the PDP leadership to call Fayose to order, to check his “unproductive verbiage against serious contenders.”
Describing Fayose as a presidential gambler, the former lawmaker wondered why Fayose, who according could “not manage and retain a PDP state now aspires to lead a behemoth structure like Nigeria.”
He said Fayose’s comment was made to de-market frontline aspirants in PDP as a counter-intuitive strategy to shore up the chances of his political godfather in APC.
The statement titled ‘The Presidency is not Ponmo and Amala’ reads: “Inebriated by several wraps of Amala in Abuja, former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, in his characteristic exuberance, directed indecent and indecorous attacks at two serious contenders for the presidential ticket of the PDP, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar and His Excellency, Bukola Saraki.
“Incidentally, the mauling of Amala gained more publicity over the collection of the presidential nomination form, in a pretentious exhibition of dining with the masses. This frugal populism has since been deflated by allegations of charges for the ferreting of billions of Naira from public coffers in Ekiti State. Is Amala and Abula so expensive?
“The issue before Nigerians now is not who can eat more, but who can produce food. That is why the attempt to tar the outstanding achievements of Atiku Abubakar as former Vice President and Bukola Saraki as former Senate President by Fayose would be discounted as the belching perfidy of a presidential gambler.
“It is clear from the verbal missiles deployed by Fayose that he was simply de-marketing frontline aspirants in PDP as a counter-intuitive strategy to shore up the chances of his political godfather in APC.
“It is amazing that Fayose, who could not manage and retain a PDP state now aspires to lead a behemoth structure like Nigeria. Today, Ekiti is stripped of all vestiges of PDP; no PDP Senator, no PDP House of Representatives member, no House of Assembly member, no Local Government Chairman, and not even a Councillor. He left Ekiti State worse than he met it. How could he fail in the state and expect promotion to the national?
“The contest for the ticket of PDP and the Presidency of Nigeria is a serious engagement. Those who aspire to the position must elevate themselves above pedestrian conduct and address real issues, rather than dwelling on inconsequential inanities.
“The national leadership of our great party should call Fayose to order, by curtailing his unproductive verbiage against serious contenders. Having failed to upgrade from local political space to the national stage, Fayose may indeed be assisted to undertake a week-long orientation session on the ethics and codes of peer relations on a presidential canvass.”
Melaye said Nigeria is in dire straits at the moment, adding that the presidency is beyond the call of ‘jesters’ in the corridors of elevated governance.
