Ayo Fayose Retires Atiku on National TV

Politics is not a game of minds and machinations. There is much more to the exercise of democratic leadership than meets the eye. Former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, admitted this during an interview with TVC on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. However, due to his comments on the loss of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, folks are saying that Fayose has retired the latter and given him occasion to back down and resign from his attempts to confront the waves from the just-concluded presidential election.

Times are changing but the rules of politics remain the same. Fayose has somewhat admitted to the fact that the loss of the PDP during the just-concluded presidential election is on its head. Fayose explained during the TVC interview that he had made attempts to block the gaps that he knew might undermine the success of the party, but he was not successful.

According to Fayose, he had approached Atiku to advise him to settle issues with Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike. He said that Atiku had invited him at some point and he explained to Atiku the importance of having Wike by his (Atiku’s) side. He said that the former Vice President did not listen to him, and so the loss happened.

After explaining his side of the story, everything became clear. Apparently, Fayose informed Wike about the meeting with Atiku before it happened. Fayose told Atiku that he would have to tell Wike about it, and only visited the former VP after Wike had approved it. Furthermore, Fayose advised Atiku to travel to Port Harcourt to meet Wike, even if it is in secret. However, for Atiku to lower himself to such a degree and beg someone that lost again to him in the primaries was clearly too much for him. That’s Fayose’s narrative, in a summary.

While many have praised the former Ekiti governor for clearing the air on his role in Atiku’s journey, others think that he has further damaged the prestige of the former VP. What will come from this remains to be seen.