TheCable

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, is currently at the presidential villa in Abuja, at a time President Muhammadu Buhari is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly.

A staunch critic of Buhari, Fayose is attending the national economic council meeting chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

Some of the governors in attendance are Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).

Fayose has attended just few of the economic meetings hosted at the presidential villa.

At a two-day economic retreat held at the villa in March, he stormed out of the old banquet hall, venue of the programme, midway into the programme.

Speaking with journalists shortly after, Fayose dared Buhari to declare a state of emergency in Rivers — where there were incidents of violence ahead of the legislative rerun election — and in Ekiti.

He later issued a statement, in which he described the economic retreat as a jamboree.

“I was at the retreat and I can tell Nigerians categorically that it was just a jamboree. It was a waste of over N250m public fund because most of the resource persons were the same people who ran their states aground,” he had said.

“Instead of wasting over N250 million on such a jamboree, it would have been better if the fund was given to those downtrodden Nigerians, who are trading with as little as N5,000.

“For instance, at N10,000 each, N250 million will go round 25,000 pepper sellers whose capital is not more than N5,000 and that would go a long way in boosting their trade.”

Fayose has been Buhari’s fiercest critic, dating back to the buildup to the 2015 presidential election.