Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, on Thursday stated that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was planning to foist the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), on Nigerians the way he did with the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007.
Fayose said the North deserved to present a better candidate among the myriad of intellectuals they have and not an ‘old horse’ like Buhari, whose age and state of health are of concern to all Nigerians.
He warned Nigerians to beware of the ‘banana peel’ being thrown on their path as the nation prepares for next month’s presidential election.
Yar’Adua died on May 5, 2010 after a long battled with health challenges.
The late president had only spent three years of his first four-year term.
According to Fayose, Obasanjo should also be watched for his romance with some leaders of the APC despite claiming to be a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Nigerians should be wary of Obasanjo’s banana peel. He was the one who put forward late President Yar ‘Adua knowing the man’s state of health and the man died in office. He was the one who said President Goodluck Jonathan was the best for Nigeria and that without him there would be no Nigeria.
“The question people should ask former Obasanjo is what has gone wrong between now and then? He is against President Jonahan because the president refused to be pocketed by him and any Nigerian leader who wants to succeed will not allow that.
“Obasanjo is now presenting Buhari as the best candidate for Nigeria knowing the man’s age and that the pressure of office would be too much for him,” he said.
Fayose said Obasanjo only wanted to plunge Nigeria into needless crisis, just like he did during the Yar ‘Adua’s era.
Fayose denounced the opposition’s claim that President Jonathan said he had released the sum of N22 billion while campaigning in the state on Tuesday, saying the claim could only emanate from a confused party like the APC, which he said was determined to cause confusion in the polity.
Meanwhile, the APC in the state has condemned the governor’s action for sacking a permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Bimpe Aderiye, describing it as the highest point of highhandedness and wickedness.
The party said the manner by which Aderiye was sacked via radio announcement, was tantamount to disrespect for public service law and akin to resurgence of jackboot politics under the military era.
In a statement issued by the state party’s Publicity Secretary, Hon Taiwo Olatunbosun, in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the party also asked Fayose to tell the Ekiti people why he denied collecting the refund of the money that former state Governor, Kayode Fayemi, spent on the construction of federal Ado-Ifaki and Ado-Akure roads
Reacting to Aderiye’s retirement through a public announcement on the state media directing her to hand over the property of the ministry in her care to the next senior worker in the ministry without any reason for the retirement, Olatubosun said it was regrettable that the state had returned to the era of instability in the civil service.
He said it is regrettable that Aderiye was sacked for allegedly criticising the drafting of teachers to join Jonathan’s campaign rally in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, saying punishing top echelon of the civil service for following the service rules would ruin professionalism in the service on the altar of partisan politics.
Olatubosun cited recent sack of some permanent secretaries in the civil service, who he alleged were dismissed over loyalty to the administration of Fayemi, stressing that tying political yoke around the necks of top civil servants would damage the integrity of the civil service and hurt quality professional services in the public service.
“Why would any governor dismiss Aderiye, a graduate of the prestigious National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, who has been described as an active, brilliant bureaucrat and anavid problem-solver?
“She was credited as the catalyst for the recent World Bank-assisted project on education and State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPIP). Ekiti is at the forefront of compliance with World Bank conditions for accessing the funds,” Olatubosun said.
He added that:”SEPIP is a World Bank-sponsored project which would also improve teachers availability in the core subject areas, such as English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Integrated Science in Junior Secondary Schools.”
