Buhari’s supporters in South West have selfish motives, Ekiti PDP replies APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State says those supporting President Muhammadu Buhari in the southwest are only doing so for selfish interests. Director of Media and Publicity of the Atiku/Obi PDP Presidential Campaign Council in Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka, made the declaration in a statement yesterday.

The PDP, which described restructuring as the only path to progress in Nigeria, hailed its Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar for promising to begin the process of restructuring within six months of assumption of office, if elected.The reaction followed the comment by wife of Ekiti State governor, Mrs. Bisi Fayemi, at the All Progressives Congress (APC) South West Women and Youth Presidential campaign rally in Ibadan at the weekend. Fayemi, who spoke on behalf of wives of governors of the Southwest, had said that the region would not abandon the “path of progress and development outlined for them by Buhari, and head for the bush.”

But, Olayinka said: “It is on record that in 1984, Buhari took the Southwest off the path of progress and development as outlined by the late Obafemi Awolowo-led Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).

According to him, he did this by cancelling total free education and free health programmes that were being enjoyed in the region.Also included were the Lagos Metroline that he cancelled, at a loss of over $78 million to the Lagos taxpayers. Buhari’s attempt to merge Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife with the University of Ibadan, before he was ousted in 1985, was another pointer, the party added.

“It is also on record that Buhari abandoned the Southwest when he was Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) under the late General Sani Abacha, and has done nothing for the region since 2015,” the party alleged.The PDP cited Buhari’s maltreatment of prominent Yoruba leaders, including Awolowo, whose international passport he seized and also denied him access to his doctors at Mayo Clinic, Rochester Minnesota, U.S.A. Olayinka said the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu saw President

Buhari better in 2003, when he described him as “an agent of destabilisation, ethnic bigot and religious fanatic who, if given the chance, would ensure the disintegration of the country. His ethnocentrism would jeopardise Nigeria’s national unity.” The then Ooni of Ife, the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade, also suffered ill-treatment during his rule, while military men abducted Olabisi Onabanjo, while recuperating from a surgical operation at the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital, and sent to Bauchi prison.