Warn officials endangering our democracy, Fayose tells Buhari

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state has made a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene forcefully to restrain Presidency officials and other appointees endangering our democracy and making a mockery of the nation.

Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, the governor decried the incessant acts of impunity by Presidency officials, which he said have become alarming, and the pettiness that attend serious matters of state, which he said has become ludicrous.

“Governance has been reduced to a theatre of the absurd. These appointees of yours are needlessly and embarrassingly flexing muscles and are heating up the polity; they appear to be having fun and regaling themselves at the expense of the nation. The economy has collapsed and the people are suffering. There is hunger and anger never before witnessed in the land.

“Yet, Presidential appointees are preoccupied with trivialities and inanities. Wearing of uniform has suddenly become a Supreme Court matter. Why a man who will not wear uniform went to take a uniformed job beggars belief. How someone who has so little respect and scanty regard for an organisation like the Nigeria Customs Service should be made to head the same organisation must baffle right-thinking Nigerians.

“In other societies where people have a sense of decency and decorum, people with such irreconcilable differences would honourably resign their position.

“And where a government finds itself unable to effectively govern, as we appear to have here on our hands, it behoves the head of that government to do the needful.

“Mr. President, let it not be said that you have lost grip of your government. Nigerians are beginning to believe, as a statement of fact, your wife’s allegation that a cabal has taken over your government. Your defence that your wife belongs to “the other room” now rings hollow in the ears of Nigerians.

“The saying is that he who appoints can also disappoint. Your appointees are your creation and it is an aberration when they become greater and more powerful than you. Mr. President, the tail is wagging the dog right now. You must take effective and firm action to reverse this ugly and unwholesome trend.

“I am also the head of a government and I know how it works. The ‘consortium of presidents’ around you, as Nigerians now derisively refer to those ‘powerful’ and larger-than-life appointees of yours who take delight in riding roughshod over the polity and desecrating the hallowed chambers of justice, must be cut to size. If you need help, Nigerians are ready to queue behind you on this issue to put an end to your appointees’ shenanigans.

“Mr. President, I, Ayo Fayose, volunteer to help you in this regard. As a state governor, I cannot brook a tenth of what you are taking from your appointees. None of my appointees can disrespect and disparage the Ekiti State House of Assembly like your appointees are doing to the National Assembly.

“Did you listen to what a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic said this week on the floor of the red chamber; that for the 59 days that you were away on medical leave in London, your appointees were gentle and behaved themselves and there were no killings in any part of the country by rampaging herdsmen; but now you are back and the troubles are back with us again? We all prayed for your quick recovery and swift return to office. Must we now regret doing so?

Fayose then warned the President to note that Nigerians are discerning and the wool cannot be pulled over their eyes any longer. Their patience, he added, is fast running out.