I criticise Buhari as most senior governor in Nigeria — Fayose

Lagos—Describing himself as the most senior
governor in Nigeria, Governor Ayodele Fayose of
Ekiti State yesterday said his attacks on President
Muhammadu Buhari flowed from his sense of
responsibility and not related to any 2019
presidential aspiration as alleged by critics. Speaking at an interactive forum in Lagos, Fayose
said tying him with Senator Ali Sheriff, the
national chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP for the 2019 presidential ticket was
an attempt to discredit him, even as he urged
those canvassing for a second term for Buhari to
have a rethink.
He said by 2019, the president, who he claimed
is presently bogged down by age would have
become too old to govern.
The governor at the interactive session also
called on President Buhari to urgently devalue
the naira to lessen the pains on Nigerians.
In dismissing assertions of a 2019 presidential
aspiration, he said: “Anybody flying the kite of
Sheriff and Fayose is the deceit of the highest
order. Again, even if it is the Senate, I am not
going to contest. Nobody contests the office of
the Vice President you can only become the Vice
President of Nigeria if God wants you to be. May
I make it expressly clear that if Ali Modu Sheriff
wants to contest as president of Nigeria in 2019,
I will not support him, I am a man known for my
words of honour. We must operate based on
principle if our country is to move forward.”
Besides, he faulted the move, saying “This is
cheap blackmail orchestrated to give people the
impression that I have ambition that is why I am
doing all these. I am the most senior governor in
Nigeria and if I were to be in a party like the
APC, they will be celebrating me everyday. They
(APC) know I am critical of the bad policies of the
APC administration.”
Frowning at efforts to project President Buhari
for a second term in 2019, he said: “those
ppromoting Buhari for 2019 should stop. I have
told Nigerians that Buhari does not have the
capacity now to govern Nigeria. What capacity
will he display in seven years time? Currently as
it stands, the President is challenged by age.''