Fayose, Bamidele in Verbal War over Buhari’s Chances

Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose

The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, at the weekend declared that the anti-people’s programmes allegedly introduced in the state civil service during ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration, would be the greatest undoing of the candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the February elections.

Speaking in Ilawe Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti South West Local Government Area  during a campaign rally, Fayose lamented that Fayemi was owing the state’s workers a staggering sum of N7.669 billion in terms of deductions, outstanding salaries  and allowances before he left office on October 16, 2014.
Fayose boasted before the mammoth crowd that the APC presidential candidate, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari stands  no chance in the race, saying he would be roundly defeated by President Goodluck Jonathan.

He appealed to the electorate to reject Buhari and other candidates fielded by the party  in the polls , stating that APC members lack the temperament to govern those at the grassroots.

But a  member of the House of Representatives and chieftain of Labour Party, Hon.  Opeyemi Bamidele, has expressed optimism that  the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has no capacity to stop Buhari  from realising his ambition.

Also, in a bid to increase the support base of the APC presidential candidate, the Ekiti Bibire Coalition, a political platform  being driven by Bamidele,  has ordered its teeming supporters to commence a house-to-house campaign in all the 132 towns across the state.

Bamidele said the strategy was taken in a bid to carry  the gospel of the wind of change that is blowing across the country to the grassroots due to his ardent believe in the capacity of  Buhari to deliver, if elected in the February 14 poll.

Fayose lamented that the same Fayemi’s administration  that was indebted to the teachers to the tune  of N416 million being outstanding two months salaries, had the effrontery to build a palatial Governor’s Lodge on Ayoba hill at the sum of N3.3 billion, describing the policy as wicked and inhuman.

The governor , however, urged the highly expectant Ekiti residents to be patient with his government, saying his government has no magic to perform in view of the present economic predicament of the state.

“To let you know the level of finances of the state, a sum of N800 million is being deducted from source in Abuja from our monthly allocation. And there was no way you can negotiate because there was an agreement reached under irrevocable standing payment order by Fayemi’s government with the capital market.

“Under this context,  I realised that Ekiti won’t be able to pay salaries, I had to beg some of the Banks that  we are also indebted to being money borrowed by Fayemi  to give six months moratorium and that is why we can pay salaries and deductions in the salaries paid to workers between  April –June, 2013.”

A statement yesterday by the Bibire’s Publicity Secretary and personal media aide to Bamidele, Ahmed Salami, said the group was pursuing the agenda in collaboration with like-minded politicians in all the major political parties in the state.

The federal parliamentarian appealed to Nigerians to rebuff those that were painting the former Head of State as a tyrant and religious bigot, describing such allegations as mere calumnious campaign intended to tarnish the rising profile of the APC candidate.

Bamidele advised  the PDP’s strategist to delve into  issues in the ongoing campaign across the country, rather than concentrating 80 per cent of its strategy on fault-finding  and abuses.

The lawmaker hinted  that Buhari has become a brand  in the country’s political history, which all politicians across party lines are scrambling  to associate with, due to his unblemished records in the public service.

“It will sound unfathomable that someone under a corrupt system like ours would still be as modest as Buhari despite that he had at various times be a Minister of Petroleum, military governor, chairman of the money-spinning Petroleum Trust Fund and Head of State “Nigeria needs such a man like this when over 30 per cent of our daily oil production ends in the pocket of  known oil thefts. This gory experience had begun to manifest in the inabilities of many states not to be able to pay salaries of workers or embark on social infrastructure that are the fundamental businesses of governance,” Bamidele lamented.

He saluted  the ingenuity  and awareness of the ‘oppressed’
Nigerians,  to be able to decipher that the actual  time for change is now and that must happen for Nigeria to be liberated from the claws of economic marauders, who see Nigeria’s resources as their own milk and honey.

“Before the citizens of any country can embrace the wind of change as being experienced  presently, the opposition party must have presented a credible and sellable alternative, which Buhari presents to us in Nigeria today.

“His Spartan life and incorruptible nature is unassailable, even among the PDP. We in the Ekiti Bibire Coalition has no iota of misgiving that Buhari will bring back the old glories where lives full of abundance, savoured  under the atmosphere of serenity will be  achieved.”

Source: thisday