Buhari lacks moral right to intervene in Gambia – Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s involvement in the meeting to persuade Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh, to concede defeat as an aberration.

He said Buhari lacked the moral right to preach obedience to democratic principles because free and fair elections no longer exists under his administration.

The governor said leaders like former President Goodluck Jonathan, President John Mahama of Ghana and others who had lost elections and conceded defeat were in the best position to intervene in the crisis rocking the west African country and not someone like Buhari, who lost election three times and never conceded defeat.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose wondered what Buhari, “whose government is desperately moving Nigeria from a multi-party democracy to a one-party state, would have told Jammeh.”

Fayose explained that last Saturday’s rerun elections in Rivers were characterised by state-sponsored violence and rigging.

He said, “With what happened in Rivers State last weekend, it is certain that the votes of Nigerians will no longer be allowed to count as the All Progressives Congress cabal in the Presidential Villa has now assumed the role of INEC, allocating votes to their party and using security agents to force their will on the people.

“Did President Buhari face Jammeh and advised him to accept defeat the way he (Buhari) conceded defeat in 2003, 2007 and 2011 when violence was instigated and several people, including the members of the National Youth Service Corps were killed?

“How can Buhari, who has destroyed the legacy of free, fair and credible election in Nigeria, be the one to prevail on someone else to adhere to democratic principles?”

Fayose advised Buhari to first remove the log in his eyes before attempting to remove the speck in other people’s eyes, describing the President as a physician who cannot heal himself.

The governor said even though Jammeh behaved dishonourably by reneging on his initial promise of accepting defeat, the involvement of Buhari in the meeting to persuade him to step down was the height of hypocrisy.

“Nigerians are worried about the possibility of Buhari behaving like Jammeh in 2019 after he must have been defeated. The international community may need a high-powered delegation to take out his rampaging bull out of Nigeria’s china shop,” the governor said.