By FAYOSE AND HIS ELEVEN PHOTOS OF PRESIDENT BUHARI
By Anthony Opara
These are quite interesting times in Nigeria. The Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo visited the President in London but it was a very quick one that caused a stir when the news of the visit became public. Professor Osinbajo on arrival said the President was recovering well and would soon be back home. The words were hardly out of the mouth of the Acting President when the Governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose said that Professor Osinbajo didn’t say the whole truth adding that rather than getting better the President was actually on life support. He then threatened that if the executive did not take steps to get the President to step down he would release eleven pictures that would show the President on life support.
It is perhaps pertinent to point out that Sahara Reporters, the New York based online media group said the meeting between the Acting President and his boss lasted only five minutes. This angle introduced into the matter is a story for another day, given that the same online agency had reported that the Attorney General Alhaji Mallami was rebuffed when he went to London to see the President. Former Abia Governor and chieftain of the APC, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu started this whole scenario when on his recent trip from London said he saw the President and went ahead to give a date for his return which didn’t happen but he is keeping mum. Sahara Reporters also told Nigerians that the President’s wife Aisha did not see her husband when she visited him in London. She apparently saw him on her second attempt and brought the news that her husband was on the way to full recovery but added a new dimension when she said that the hyenas and jackals in the kingdom would soon be shown the way out
Speaking to Austin Agbonsuremi on the Ray Power Political Platform, Ekiti Governor Ayo Fayose said that while he would not call the Acting President a liar he would also say that Professor Osinbajo did not tell Nigerians the truth when he said the President was recovering adding that if pushed to the wall he would release pictures that will show the actual condition of the President which according to him shows him on life support. He said it was important that the President resigns to allow the country move forward.
The Governor said the current condition has vindicated his earlier call that the APC should not present him as a Presidential Candidate in 2015 as he was in no physical and mental state to cope with modern government adding that when he took out newspaper advertorials to state this he was roundly condemned by ethnic jingoists and people who stood to gain from a Buhari government.
When pushed as to how he came by the photographs he said it was people in the Presisent’s camp that made them available adding that the only option open to the government to douse the tension over the President’s health status was to allow him and some other Governors to visit the President wherever he is adding that any report from him would be believed by Nigerians who have come to realize that he always says the truth no matter whose ox was gored.
The Acting President said he would not disclose the health status of the President nor disclose their discussion but political analysts are making conjectures of the meeting. Some people believe that the visit was to get the President’s nod on the need to shake the federal executive council as its obvious that some Ministers were not pulling their weight while others were sabotaging the governments for political gains as it appears some have their sight set on the 2019 Presidential election as its becoming clear that President Buhari would not be running in that election. The National Chairman of the APC, Odigie Oyegun alluded as much when he said the President was no longer interested in the 2019 race which to some is the signal that the coast was clear.
Some political watchers are however worried on this latest gambit by the Ekiti Governor who wants to go broke on the health status of the President saying that he will be destroyed politically if the pictures were proven fakes. These people believe that the people in charge of the President may have given him false photos knowing that he might release after which they will now show the real status of the President. With one stroke they will destroy the Presidential ambitions of the Ekiti Governor who many believe to be loquacious.
Governor Fayose have not hidden his ambition to unseat President Buhari come 2019 saying that the almighty God have promised him the Presidency adding that sceptics may not believe him just as they did not believe him when he said he would defeat incumbent Governor Niyi Adebayo and came back to defeat another incumbent Kayode Fayemi at different times adding that he has made his ambition known and nothing will stop him.
The Governor who said his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was now positioned to replace the APC come 2019 said the victory of the Makarfi faction at the Supreme Court was a pointer to the way things will go adding that President Buhari and his Vice will be defeated in one swoop.
The Governor said he was at the Supreme with his party card and flag of his party to burn them If the ruling had gone against the Makarfi group adding that Alhaji Sheriff was an interloper and that unless he repents with his cohorts the amnesty declaration made by his chairman was just verbal as those who sought to destroy the party should be made to face the consequences. He has the support of the Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike who also worked assiduously for the defeat handed down to the Sheriff group.
One would have thought that Sheriff would seek rapprochement with the Markafi leadership but that is not happening as his initial comment to the effect that the PDP have been handed over to looters. This is not what is expected from a penitent which shows that there is yet a lot to be done to bring all hands on the deck for the war against the APC in 2019.
Some groups in the north have warned Governor to face his state and leave the President alone to battle his health challenges others called on him to rather than fight the President pray for him for full recovery. For these people the President means well for the nation and is being frustrated by age and health. Others admonish Governor to face preparation to run for the Presidency if he so desires but desist from maligning the aged President.
The weeks ahead will tell who will blink between the Executive, the APC and Governor Ayodele Fayose.
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