After months of boasting that he would replace incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, yesterday flagged off his presidential campaign on social media.
The campaign poster hoisted on his Facebook page bearing his bold photograph, had the message “Fayose for President 2019. Strong, reliable and rugged. Together, we can make Nigeria work again.”
The chairman of PDP Governors Forum, however, did not state on which political platform he planned to pursue his presidential ambition. But observers believe Fayose may just be positioning himself for the vice presidency ticket.
Last week, the party, in the wake of the epoch apex court ruling that rescued it from its protracted leadership crisis, restated its commitment to adhere to the existing zoning that ceded the plum job to the north and the vice presidency office to the south in 2019.
Fayose had, on several occasions in the recent past, declared he would kick the All Progressives Party (APC)-led Federal Government out of office in 2019.
“I have penchant for taking powers; that one in Buhari’s hand, I will take. I’m going straight to that Villa. I’m the next president. I want to be the next president of Nigeria. My own won’t be this change that has brought nothing; we are going to represent the people well and tell them the truth,” he said.
The governor had initially said he would approach the Supreme Court to determine his eligibility to contest for the state governorship election in 2018 to enable him complete his first term in office, following court’s ruling quashing his impeachment.
But the Publicity Secretary of the APC, Taiwo Olatunbosun, dismissed Fayose’s presidential ambition as a pipe dream.
“After earlier announcing to re-contest the governorship election to complete the six months he lost in his aborted first term, as a political merchant, he has started day-dreaming over a presidential ambition to gain attention and distract Ekiti people from the misapplication of public funds for private advantage.”
“The new Paris Club refund of N9.5b that is coming, including N1.3 billion monthly Budget Support Facility, monthly statutory allocation of N1.9billion and IGR figures he won’t disclose, are enough to pay six months salary, but he has started brainwashing Ekiti workers that the money is N4 billion and so he can’t pay more than one month, all in an attempt to fraudulently divert the money for his personal use and his so-called presidential ambition.”