Dino Melaye, a former senator representing Kogi west has tackled Ayo Fayose, the former Governor of Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria over the latter’s 2023 presidential ambition.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that Fayose was sighted at an amala joint after purchasing his expression of interest and nomination form under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The former governor’s act has since generated several reactions which the most recent is coming from Melaye who tackled Fayose in a statement he signed on Thursday and titled “THE PRESIDENCY IS NOT PONMO AND AMALA.”
The statement read in part, “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 People’s Democratic Party, HE Atiku Abubakar, and HE 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?”
Melaye stressed that “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.”
The statement read further, “It is clear from the verbal missiles deployed by Fayose that he was simply de-marketing frontline aspirants in PDP as a
counterintuitive 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?”
According to Melaye, “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.
“Nigeria is in dire straits at the moment. It is beyond the call of jesters in the corridors of elevated governance,” Melaye added.
