While speaking in an exclusive interview with The Sun newspaper, the Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, advised Nigerians to disregard the utterances of former President Olusegun Obasanjo regarding the emergence of an Igbo president in 2019.
We had reported that some weeks ago while playing host to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ogun State chapter, at his Abeokuta Hilltop residence, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, threw his weight behind the South-East geopolitical zone in producing the next president of the country in 2019 general elections.
“Irrespective of the thinking of the people ahead of 2019, I personally think that South-East should have a go at the Presidency too. The same is happening here. If Ijebu and Egba have produced the governor, it is only fair and just to allow the Yewa or Ogun West to also produce governor. Or else, one day, they will also stand up and take up arms against this injustice against them. That is my personally position on this,” Obasanjo had said.
In a swift reaction to the above statement, Gov. Fayose said that the former military head of state, simply “runs his mouth to remain relevant” in the political sphere, and accused the former president of doing more harm than good towards national development.
Fayose said: “Do you ever take Obasanjo seriously? I don’t take him seriously. By his nature, Obasanjo wants relevance at all times. We have worked with him and used to be his foot soldiers. I know him more than anybody in this country. He just talks, so that he would remain relevant.
“Do you see any other former president in the country running his mouth like his? If it is not the fact that he has a voice as a former head of state, where is Obasanjo’s constituency?
“Let’s give it to him, as a leader in this country, whoever has governed this country before would remain our leader, but he must equally recall and admit that he is becoming more fairly negative than working towards national building.”
Fayose said that as opposed to Obasanjo’s utterances, his are foretelling, adding that his self-acclaimed prophecy on senate president Bukola Saraki will come to pass.
“Nigeria today, many of the things I have said before and after elections, people are realizing that they are the truth. Initially, when I started, everybody was saying Fayose has come again o. He is saying this, he is saying that.
“My prophecies on Saraki would come to pass. If you look at the first prophecy, I said there would be attempt made to put him in trouble. This year, I said he would not be removed and that those trumped up charges against him would disappear.
“Let us wait. Let’s see the drama. There is a lot of undercurrents and drama o. There is a lot of horse-trading going on. So let’s leave it like that for another day,” he said.
