Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said that Nigerians did
not elect General Muhammadu Buhari to function as “Friday President”,
adding that he (Buhari) was now acting more like a ceremonial and
part-time President.
The governor, who said he was glad that his constructive criticism was
getting to the President and his handlers, noted that it was not
enough for the President of a country like Nigeria to be seen in
public only while attending Friday Jumat service at the Presidential
Villa, videos of his activities should be made public too.
Speaking on Sunday, through his Special Assistant on Public
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said it was
necessary for Nigerians to be properly informed about the well-being
of their president.
He accused some close allies of the President of deliberately
shielding him and preventing him from attending to his health so as to
continue to run the government on the basis of “Mr President has
directed” even when the President did not direct anything.
“That’s why Nigerians are told every day that the President said this
and that with the President neither speaking directly nor attending
any official function. This is not good for the image of a country
like Nigeria that is struggling to get out of economic recession,” the
governor said.
Governor Fayose, who said by virtue of the his old age, the President
could be susceptible to illness, advised that “President Buhari should
rather be allowed to take proper care of his health while the Vice
President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo acts constitutionally as the president.
“However, it is doubtful if those cabals that are obviously running
their own Presidency within President Buhari’s Presidency will allow
him to take a long vacation, probably outside Nigeria to take care of
himself.”
The governor insisted that Nigerians must hear the voice of their
President and see him physically, not through surrogates or the cabal
operating behind the scene.
“It is only when the President is seen and heard physically that
Nigerians will believe that they are not being ruled by a part-time
and ceremonial president, whose powers are being exercised on his
behalf by some cabal,” he said.
