Pascal Arogorn Ibe
A former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has insisted that he has interest in becoming the president of Nigeria, if opportunity permits.
The ex-governor also said he was not interested in the rumoured presidential ambition of the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, in 2023.
Asked about his view concerning 2023, he said the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is capable of producing president after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
“Bola Tinubu is a leader in the West. It is a statement of fact. I have never met former governor Ahmed Bola Tinubu in the last three years and I have never spoken with him on the phone once. So, I don’t know how they are tying the relationship politically.
“To the best of my knowledge, I am not a member of APC. I have no influence on how he will become if he wants to become. I have no interest; the only interest I have is that a PDP president must be put in place”, Mr Fayose said in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Wednesday.
He also reiterated his earlier stance about his ambition to be the president of the country.
“The office of the president is a noble one and I will love to be the president of Nigeria if the opportunity permits”, he noted.
This is not the first time Mr Fayose would be speaking on his ambition to be president in Nigeria. He made a similar comment in 2017 at Ado Ekiti while hosting journalists to a dinner.
“It was the same prophesy that said I would return as governor of Ekiti when I was in the trenches that predicted that I will govern the whole country. Many did not believe the first one but it happened just as we are waiting for the manifestation of the second one.
“Do not bother to ask me questions as to how this will materialise, I also do not know how it will happen but all I know is that I shall one day occupy the presidential villa, not as a visitor but as president,” Mr Fayose said then.
Mr Fayose, in 2020, spoke on a radio programme he held to commemorate his 60th birthday that his next target in life “is to become Nigeria’s President or a cleric.”
“My popularity, courageous spirit, unique contributions to the uplift of Ekiti state and other remarkable contributions to lifting different categories of people with no hope of becoming anything in life across the country were enough credentials to make me become Nigeria’s president”, he said.
Mr Tinubu has not formally declared his interest to run for the office but he has also not ruled out the suspicion.
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