The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Monday reacted to the comments by the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, his deputy, Segun Oni, and senior lawyer, Itse Sagay, describing their criticism of his letter to the Chinese government as a “brazen display of political hypocrisy.”
He also said the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari did not sign any direct loan agreement with the Chinese government during his visit to China vindicated his position that the country did not need a loan from that country but a collaboration that would ensure the transfer of technology from China to Nigeria.
Frontline lawyer, Itse Sagay, had rebuked Mr. Fayose for his action, saying he had no business interfering in the federal government’s process of securing a foreign loan.
“I think Fayose has a problem. The way I see it is that the man, who is on the brink of destruction, has no restraint about what he does,” Mr. Sagay was quoted as saying.
“ To start with, what is the business of a state governor about a loan that is being given to the federal government?”
It was Mr. Sagay’s view that provided the government could secure the loan, the governor had no business attempting to truncate the effort of the federal government.
But Mr. Fayose, speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, insisted he had right as a Nigerian citizen and stakeholder to speak out against the proposed loan.
“People like Oyegun, Oni and Prof Itse Sagay lack moral rights to complain even if President Mohammadu Buhari is called whatever names because they never complained when as a sitting president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan was called unprintable names by APC stalwarts and leaders,” he said in a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti.
“Where were the likes of Oyegun, Oni, Prof Itse Sagay and others when APC promoted crude politics and anti-Nigeria posturing to an unprecedented level when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in power?
“It is on record that APC wrote to the United States of America not to sell arms to Nigeria, reported the country to the European Union, United Nations and went to the bizarre extent of reporting the then Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, to the International Criminal Court (ICC), not for committing the kind of genocide committed against the Shiite Muslims in Zaria and Agatus in Benue, but for killing Boko Haram insurgents.
“It is also on record that instead of lending his voice to the federal government efforts to dislodge Boko Haram insurgents, President Buhari opted to describe the clampdown on Boko Haram as injustice against the North. He went on to accuse the government of killing and destroying houses of Boko Haram insurgents while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the government.
“Even when Oni was the Ekiti State Governor as a PDP member, Action Congress (AC) as APC was then, wrote against his government move to obtain a N5 billion loan. Isn’t it then funny that because he is now in APC, the same Oni is now against Governor Fayose doing the same thing done against him by the APC elements in Ekiti State?”
Mr. governor since the federal government claimed it had recovered and still recovering trillions of Naira allegedly looted from the treasury, there was no need to borrow money from anywhere to finance the 2016 Budget.
“With the $200 billion they claimed is coming from Dubai, they said $700 million raw cash was found in Diezani Alison Madueke’s house, N3 trillion said to have been saved from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and N4.5 trillion the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it will generate this year, what then is the rationale behind the federal government seeking any loan?,” he said.
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