Stop These Diversionary Stories, Nigerians are Hungry, Fayose Tells Buhari

• PDP blasts APC over insult on Adeboye

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has said what Nigerians are now desirous of hearing from the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government is the defeat of hunger and untold hardship ravaging the country.

Fayose urged President Muhammadu Buhari to stop recycling stories of defeat of Boko Haram terrorists “which is as usual, aimed at diverting the attention of Nigerians from the fact that there is ravaging hunger at this time of the year.”

The governor said it has become predictable that whenever Nigerians cry of the pains and sufferings they are going through, the federal government would come up with stories like: ‘20 Chibok girls found,’ ‘$1 billion found in Mr A, B or C bedroom,’ ‘Boko Haram technically defeated,’ ‘We have captured Sambisa forest,’ among others to divert attention.
In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti last Monday and signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, the governor said: “It is painful that Nigeria under President Buhari has become directionless either due to the cluelessness of the president or his old age that has foisted a purposeless leadership on the country.

“This year’s Christmas is the worse in the history of Nigeria. People cannot afford to celebrate and enjoy themselves due to the hardship caused by the APC government. To make matters worse, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also created artificial scarcity of cash, such that people could not access their hard earned money in the banks as most banks in the country do not have cash to pay their customers.

“Like I have maintained, the main issue confronting Nigerians now is hunger, and hunger does not speak the language of political propaganda that is being used by the APC-led federal government. It is therefore no longer about diversionary news, it is about preventing Nigerians from dying of hunger.”

The governor said: “The only solution to the myriad of problems facing the country is for those holding power in Abuja to face the sad reality that it was the hard stance of the president, his statements against Nigeria and its people both at home and abroad coupled with his demonstration of hatred against some sections of the country and desperation to crush his perceived enemies that led us to where we are today.

“It was the president who went to foreign countries to de-market Nigeria by calling all Nigerians thieves and dishonest people. He was the one who created atmosphere of economic and political instability in the country by his acts of nepotism and vindictiveness.”

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the statement credited to the state Chairman of the APC in Ekiti State, Mr. Jide Awe, disparaging the person and image of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, as a demonstration of the devilish mind-set of the party and height of political rascality, saying denying the statement was a mere afterthought.

The PDP noted that Pastor Adeboye commending Fayose for his courage and willingness to defend his people and the cause of the common man in the country was a statement of fact.

The spokesperson of the PDP in the state, Mr Jackson Adebayo, in a statement last Monday, said: “it is the height of crude politics for the APC to insinuate that a man of God of Pastor Adeboye’s standing took bribe to commend Fayose for what is obvious.

He said: “Adeboye is a respected man of God. He is not a politician. He only said what he saw about the governor and the

only Nigerians, who won’t want to accept the fact that the governor has stoutly defended Ekiti people and the common people of Nigeria, are those in the APC.”