Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose says the comments of Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, at a recent event show his meeting with President Bola Tinubu didn’t go well as planned.
In a recent statement on Sunday, January 25, Fayose decried the comment made by Makinde, describing him as “an emergency opposition mouthpiece.”
At a recent birthday, the Oyo state governor called the President a dictator while praising Buhari’s administration.
Speaking at a function on Saturday in Ibadan, Makinde compared the situation with what he described as a more consultative approach during the tenure of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governor said he missed Osinbajo’s style of leadership under Buhari.
“You cannot speak truth to power in this dispensation,” Makinde said, while faulting the Tinubu administration’s handling of the tax reform bills. “We had the same situation in this dispensation; it was the tax bill, and we said, ‘Look, bring the tax bill back; let us all have an opportunity to look dispassionately at it.”
Reacting, however, Fayose stated, “That Seyi Makinde’s derogatory comment against President Tinubu at Osinbajo’s birthday further confirmed that he got a cold shoulder from the President during his last visit to the Villa.
“Like I made public, in his attempt to do damage control on his public speech against the President, Makinde got the shock of his political life when he visited Asiwaju last week.”
Mr Fayose said the “cold-shoulder” Mr Makinde got after his visit to Mr Tinubu left him disappointed, as the occasion indicated an end to the two leaders political relationship.
The former governor stated that the visitation became more sour as Mr Tinubu insisted on giving his support to a successor loyal to the All Progressive Congress for the Oyo State governorship seat.
“It is now obvious that after getting that cold shoulder from the President, Makinde must have realized that end of road has come in terms of reconciliation between him and the President,” Mr Fayose said.
“This is moreso that the Asiwaju made it clear that as far as Oyo State is concerned, he will support his party’s candidates in 2027.”
He added, “The emergency opposition mouthpiece Makinde is trying albeit unsuccessfully to turn himself to is an aftermath of the response he got from the President last week, which I made public.”
Mr Fayose noted that Mr Makinde’s description of Mr Tinubu as “a dictator” would not have been the case if the governor had a fruitful engagement with the president during the visit.
“It has vindicated me because if Makinde had got a soft-landing that he expected from the President, he (Makinde) wouldn’t have gone to make that statement, condemning the Government of President Tinubu, by calling the President a dictator while praising the Buhari’s administration,” Mr Fayose said.
Mr Fayose called on the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Oyo State to go head-to-head with Mr Makinde, to reclaim the state for the APC.
Mr Fayose stated, “With this assurances too, the APC in Oyo State should now wake up and slug it out with Makinde’s candidate, which he will field under the ADC, knowing full well that PDP won’t be open for him to use.”
Earlier, Mr Makinde on Saturday in an address at a birthday celebration, which had Mr Osibanjo in attendance, attacked Mr Tinubu’s administration over the new tax policy.
Mr Makinde who said he missed the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in which Mr Osinbajo served as a VP, faulted the current administration’s refusal to withdraw the tax bill now passed into law.
Earlier, Mr Makinde after a visit to Mr Tinubu in Abuja, told journalists that he was comfortable being in the Peoples Democratic Party