TheCable

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says President Muhammadu Buhari is the “number one promoter of disunity in Nigeria”.

Fayose alleged that Buhari’s “one-sidedness” has stoked the embers of hate and division in the country.

He spoke in reaction to the comments of Jim Kim, president of World Bank, who said Buhari asked the institution to focus on the northern part of the country.

Although the presidency has made clarifications, saying Buhari singled out the north-east because of the Boko Haram insurgency, Fayose said the number one citizen has never hidden the fact that he is a sectional leader.

“Because of his nepotism, religious bigotry and favouritism, Nigeria is now more divided than ever before, with the unity of the country being threatened,” he said in a statement issued on his behalf by Lere Olayinka, his spokesman.

“When a president opened his mouth and said constituencies that gave him 97% votes could not be treated the same way with constituencies that gave him 5% votes, lovers of unity in the country should have raised the alarm and alerted the world of the danger of having a nepotistic president. I warned then but other Nigerians who should have raised their voice kept mute.

“Nigerians should be reminded that on August 15, 2015, less than three months in Buhari’s government, I raised the alarm that he (Buhari) was operating as a president of the northern Nigeria only. Then, I described steps taken by the president since May 29, 2015, as tainted in ethnic and tribal colouration and inimical to the unity of Nigeria.

“I also decried President Buhari’s nothernisation of Nigeria and said that the appointments made by the president negated the principle of federal character.

“Then, we were told that the president made the appointments on merit and I asked whether there were no competent people in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the southern part of Nigeria.

“Now, with the president of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, telling the world that President Buhari gave specific instruction that the bank should shift its developmental efforts to the north, is anyone still in doubt as to the fact that President Buhari does not see himself as the President of the entire country, Nigeria?”