…I’ll laugh last – Fayose replies Buhari
The Presidency has mocked Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, over the results of the governorship election, describing him as “a high-powered nothing.”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement titled “Fayose: In The End, A High-Powered Nothing,” made available to journalists.
He was reacting to the election which was won by the candidate of the ruling APC. Shehu said the people of the state, with the results, had spoken against Fayose who he said told them that the governorship election was a referendum on Buhari.
Shehu claimed that the governor told his people that Fayemi and Olusola were pawns and that he and Buhari were the actual contestants.
He said, “In what observers said was the most intense, and a most angry campaign, the people gave their verdict: Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the one-time governor, declared persona-non-grata is now persona-grata again.”
“President Buhari has won this referendum. The people of the state have sent a clear message. The politics of brinksmanship, assaults, insults, abuses and Robin Hoodism disguised as stomach infrastructure has been rejected in favour of politics of inclusion, development, responsibility and good governance.”
“Besides reinforcing the APC’s position as the only standing pole in the political landscape, it is a credit to the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, against whom all manner of ethnic and religious opposition is being mounted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and some of the Asiwaju’s sworn enemies in the sub-region.”
Shehu said with the results, the political landscape of the South-West had been transformed.
He said the APC’s regional strength had been strengthened and Tinubu would be respected better.
Shehu said without losing patience and decorum, Tinubu had proved that rivals must reconcile and come to terms or lose everything.
He added, “This win is equally a huge boost to the APC and its new leadership under Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, who got their first baptism of fire in Ekiti. It is, importantly, a big boost to the second term ambition of President Muhammadu Buhari. For the People’s Democratic Party which came second in the election in a state that they held sway, it is a loss politically and psychologically.”
“As for Mr. Fayose and his morbid brand of politics, it is now his time to reconcile himself to the imminent political extinction he faces, his political career sealed for good. Newspapers have mistaken him for a gadfly who creates discomfort for the government at the centre to make it better, but Fayose is a street-type thug.
“He never fits the role of a gadfly because he thrives on bitter enmity. Opposition does not mean a negative view of everything. Neither does it translate into a licence to abuse your superiors.
“The winner of the election, Governor Fayemi’s trajectory from a persona-non-grata to a persona-grata again has given a wave of cheer to the APC members all over the country. It has given a fresh hope that fake news, lies and propaganda run only short distances, because they have short legs.
“An old proverb says you can’t beat something with nothing. After all the noise, theatricals and drama, Fayose’s fall came with a thud, not a bang: a high-powered nothing.”
