The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina on Friday explained why his boss refused to move against the duo of former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
Adesina, who gave the explanation in an article published on his website on Friday morning, said President Buhari chose to ignore the “combative, truculent, if not at times insulting” disposition of Governor Wike.
According to him, the President would have dealt with Wike and Fayose for their “anti-Buhari tendency” but he chose to tolerate them as a father of the nation.
In the article titled, ‘Wike Vindicates Buharists’, the presidential spokesman said the recent action of Governor Wike was in a “completely different direction compared to what he had always said of President Muhammadu Buhari”.
It would be recalled that the Rivers State Governor had recently praised President Buhari for the refund of the N78.9 billion spent by the state on some federal government projects in the state. He also invited the president to pay a visit to the state.
Adesina wrote: “The Wike we knew was either usually crying wolf where there was none, alleging that the Federal Government wanted to kill him, or claiming that he was not answerable to the central government at Abuja in any way, or even pontificating that the President and his political party, the All Progressives Congress, had failed the country in diverse ways.
“If not for the maturity, and the avuncular attitude of President Buhari to all state governors, it would have been easy for one to conclude that he and Wike were enemies. Forsworn ones.
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“There was also the then Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, who had formed a tag team with Wike in the anti-Buhari tendency. The President could have dealt with them in many ways, either overtly or covertly, but he let them be. He was a father ready to tolerate his many children, irrespective of their differing idiosyncrasies, propensities and predilections.”
On Wike’s invitation to the President for a state visit to see what the refunded money was used for, Adesina said: “In January 2018, there had been vicious killings in some parts of the country. States affected were; Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Yobe, Rivers and Zamfara. The President decided to embark on sympathy and solidarity visits to the states. All the Governors were receptive, except Wike, who said the visit was a smokescreen, meant to revive the dying APC in Rivers State.
“When about 20 people were killed on New Year Day 2018, in Omoku area of the state, and the President wanted to visit, Wike demurred. He said there were killings everyday all over the country, and it meant the President must visit every State on a daily basis.
“The circle has turned fully round, and Governor Wike is inviting the President to visit. He says he’s ‘a President for every State of the Federation and all Nigerians’. Wonderful!
“Some people say it is N78.9 billion that is working, and the Governor is clearly inebriated by that windfall. But I don’t think so. Rivers is by no means a poor state. The amount is handsome, no doubt, but the state is oil rich, and can hold her own when it comes to finances. I rather choose to believe that Governor Wike had been playing a curious kind of politics all along, and now, fairness and justice have touched him in a positive way.”
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