Group of cabal exercising presidential powers, Fayose alleges

EKITI State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is governing through proxies and questioned his persistent absence from state functions, especially the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meetings.

Fayose, in a statement on Thursday, said it was apt to ask “whether or not the president was now governing the country by proxy.”

In the statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said “every day, what we hear is president said this, president said that without seeing the president in any official function and one is prompted to ask; where is the president?”

The governor said it was “becoming obvious that a group of cabal is exercising the powers of the president.

“I saw the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal, on television responding to his suspension and what came to my mind was that there could actually be many presidents operating in the Buhari’s presidency.

“It has, therefore, become necessary that Nigerians hear the voice of their president and see him physically, not through surrogates or the cabal operating behind the scene,” the governor said.

Governor Fayose, who described a president as the face and image of a nation, urged President Buhari to hold regular media chats in which Nigerians could ask questions and offer suggestions on the running of the country.