The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has
made some of the most far-reaching
revelations yet about the years in office of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Fayose said in the current edition of ‘The
Interview’ that Obasanjo used him to wreck
the presidential ambition of former Vice
President Atiku Abubakar and the chance of
former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed
Makarfi, becoming the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, presidential candidate in 2007.
He said in his naivety, Obasanjo also used
him to attack former Abia State Governor,
Orji Kalu, among other political foes.
In a statement, the MD/Editor-In-Chief, Azu
Ishiekwene, described the edition as “a
window on a dark and troubling past and a
must read for any important political figure
who has crossed Fayose’s path in the last 18
years.”
Mr. Fayose told The Interview that the scale
fell off his eyes when on a trip with former
President Obasanjo to Tripoli, Libya, where
Obasanjo had gone to ask Moummar
Ghaddafi to support his Third Term bid, the
former Libyan president treated Obasanjo
like a serf.
Recalling the encounter, he said, “It was
such a pathetic scenario, so shameful.
Obasanjo was speaking rapidly like a parrot.
I was shocked beyond words. I never knew
Obasanjo would be that humble.
“He was on one knee till the end of the
conversation. Ghadaffi kept quiet and was
just watching Obasanjo. When Obasanjo
stopped rambling, Ghadaffi said, ‘Have you
finished? Just know that I will not attend
that meeting. I have other engagements.”
He also revealed how on two major
occasions when he went to visit then Vice
President Atiku Abubakar at the height of
Mr. Obasanjo’s Third Term bid, security
details promptly reported him to the former
president, even before he left the venue,
leaving him feeling spooky and vulnerable.
On the Obasanjo-Atiku saga, Mr. Fayose said,
“Obasanjo told me that when you capture a
general and you don’t kill him, he’ll come
back and kill you; that since Atiku tried to
stop him and failed, he must pay for it. And
he (Atiku) is still paying for it.”
In a statement that could reverberate
beyond Nigeria’s shores, Mr. Fayose said he
knew, as an insider at the time, that Mr.
Obasanjo betrayed former Liberian
President, Charles Taylor to induce U.S.
support for this Third Term bid, after
promising Mr. Taylor safe haven in Nigeria.
He revealed how the current chairman of
the PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, was sidelined in
favour of a sick and stubbornly reluctant
Umaru Yar’Adua and his role in it as
chairman of the Presidential Selection
Committee.
Mr. Fayose warned Orji Kalu against “selling”
the Igbo down the river “for cheap politics”
and blamed President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government for making IPOB leader Nnamdi
Kanu popular.
He also spoke on his attempts to reach
President Muhammadu Buhari directly;
former governor Kayode Fayemi’s
relationship with APC leader Bola Tinubu;
and futile attempt to discourage former
governor Peter Odili from accepting Mr.
Obasanjo’s dummy that he was heir
apparent.
Also in this edition, the Executive Director of
Neem Foundation, a not-for-profit NGO,
Fatima Akilu, said she foresaw problems
even after the shooting war with Boko
Haram.
Ms. Akilu, a psychologist, warned that except
there is a plan to deal with post-war stress
and build inclusive communities, the gains
of the military campaign could unravel.
The edition also contains interviews with
the first Nigerian in the Belgian parliament,
Collins Nweke; conversations with poet, Dike
Chukwumerije, and inside information in the
corridors of power in Interview Confidential,
among others.
