Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti State, on Wednesday spoke about the 2023 alleged presidential ambition of a leader of the All Progressives Congress and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Fayose, who spoke on a PUNCH Live interview, said he had no interest in the rumoured ambition of Tinubu to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said that the only interest he has is to see a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate becomes the next president of Nigeria.
There have been claims that the former governor is among those rooting for Tinubu to succeed Buhari.
But Fayose said, “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.”
“If this country exists for the peace and enjoyment of all us, we will not be talking about – it is APC, it is PDP…A PDP man cannot attend a function with an APC man. An APC man cannot greet a PDP man, we can’t continue like that, it shows the level of hypocrisy.”
Fayose had in the past boasted of becoming Nigerian’s president, on whether he has abandoned that aspiration, he said, “The office of the president is a noble one and I will love to be the president of Nigeria if the opportunity permits.”
Meanwhile, the former Ekiti State governor has warned Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, to stop disrespecting him if he would not want him to work against his re-election.
Also speaking at the newspaper’s live interview, he said, “If Governor Makinde continues to disrespect me, I will work against him.
“When Makinde was to contest, I was the one that presented the flag to him and a red pen. It is a higher authority that hangs your rank, a senior officer hangs the rank of a junior officer; that means he saw me as a leader at the time I was giving him the flag at Ogbomosho.
“It was Governor (Rasheed) Ladoja that was holding the structure that we gave to him (Makinde), I was the only sitting governor at the time. I had the powers to influence it negatively. Are you telling me the man that gave you a red pen has suddenly become your enemy? If he has anything against me, let him say it. Governor Makinde should take it easy,” Fayose said.