President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state are in a war of words over the state of Nigeria’s economy.
The Ekiti Governor was the first to fire the salvo when he accused Mr. Buhari’s administration of paying out the lowest-ever federally distributed allocations among the three tiers of the government.
The Nigerian government had shared a little over N389 billion for the month of October to the three tiers of government.
Mr. Fayose reacted to the low figure while speaking at the graduation ceremony of College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, in which he asked Mr. Buhari to come clean to Nigerians on the state of the economy.
Mr. Buhari reacted angrily to Mr. Fayose’s insinuations by warning the governor to stop making unsubstantiated allegations about the nation’s economy.
Mr. Buhari, who spoke through his media aide, Garba Shehu, said Mr. Fayose’s comments were reckless, adding that “the governor didn’t get his facts correct”.
Mr. Shehu also faulted Mr. Fayose’s claims that the N389 billion shared for the month October was the lowest ever in the history of the country, saying the lowest ever allocation to the three ties was issued by the Peoples Democratic Party government of Goodluck Jonathan.
“Governor Fayose needs to be advised to desist from spreading falsehood against the person and government of President Muahmmadu Buhari as has become characteristic of him. He needs to get his facts right before making accusations of the nature he makes.
“The governor equally knows full well that his party in government ruined the economy to the extent that workers in 27 states went for several months without salary. This crisis situation has now been reversed in nearly all the states. Governor Fayose is himself in line for the collection of his state’s bailout.
“Under the PDP federal government, ministries were not given overhead costs for five months while the capital budget was unpaid for six months in the run-up to the exit of the PDP administration. Is there anyone in that party with a moral justification to criticise the Buhari administration which is working hard to clean up the mess they (PDP) left behind?,” Mr. Shehu said.
However, Mr. Fayose also reacted angrily on Monday saying he won’t let Mr. Buhari “take Nigeria back to military era”.
He said the statement issued by Mr. Garba on behalf of the president is a “demonstration of military dictatorship mentality”.
In a statement released by his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, the Ekiti governor said it was sad that the presidency could be warning a Nigerian, who is heading one of the country’s federating units on what to say and what not to say.
“Governor Fayose will continue to say the truth in interest Nigeria and its people because the Governor is not one of those that will go underground because of political persecution,” he said.
He also insisted that the country’s economy was in serious recession, adding that; “the president himself attested to this when he said that the country was broke and this has also been corroborated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Group financial report, indicating that the corporation incurred a total loss of N120.07bn in the months of August and September.
“JP Morgan is also removing Nigeria from its Emerging Market Bond Index, a move analysts say would have far reaching implications for the country’s dwindling economy as investors could move their funds to competing countries, resulting in higher lending rates,” he said.
The governor also said top functionaries of the APC, including state governors criticised the PDP government of Mr. Jonathan, and the presidency did not go about warning them.
“Certainly, these people working with the president need to be purged of Acquired Immune Military Dictatorship Syndrome, AIMDS, even as they must be told that Governor Fayose won’t stop speaking his mind and exposing their hypocrisy in the overall interest of Nigeria and its people,” he said.
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