Posted on: 09:15 Thu, 18 Feb 2016



Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has again
questioned the rationale behind the frequent
trips embarked upon by President Muhammadu
Buhari.

In a statement through his media aide, Lere
Olayinka, Fayose urged Nigerians to prevail on
their president to stay at home to tackle the
myriad problems bedevilling the nation.

He lamented the inability of the Buhari
administration to appoint an economic team and
accused it of lacking policy direction nine
months after coming into office.

“It is worrisome that President Buhari does not
have any economic team and there is no policy
direction yet, despite spending close to nine
months in office,” he said.

The governor flayed the president’s continued
insistence on “frivolous” foreign trips when the
ones he had made in the past have not yielded
any tangible fruit.

He stated that it was the height of insensitivity
to the plight of Nigerians that the president, who
just returned from trips to France and United
Kingdom, would again be travelling to Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and Qatar from February 20 to 27,
spending seven days out of the country in what
the presidency called “three-nation tour.”

Fayose asserted that Nigerians were, under the
Buhari adminsitration, being subjected to human
right abuses, escalation of prices of goods and
services, daily retrenchment of workers, folding
up of businesses, states finding it difficult to pay
workers’ salary and the Federal Government not
being able to prepare “common” budget.

He described the president as “a square peg in a
round hole”, and wondered for how long the
present adminstration would continue to blame
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan for its woes,
The statement also stressed: “Dollar has gone
double since Dr Goodluck Jonathan left office,
with United States Dollar exchanging for N350 as
of today. Foreign reserve is declining on a daily
basis, Boko Haram insurgents have come back,
even stronger than they were when Buhari
assumed office and Nigerians are now being
made to pay more for electricity that is not
available for them to use.

“Most importantly, prices of foodstuffs,
newsprint, medicine, among others have gone
over the roof. Should we still continue to
attribute all these to Jonathan or the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP)?

“Even former Central Bank Governor (CBN)
Governor and Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, is
saying President Buhari’s anti-corruption stance
is totally inconsistent with the forex regime he
supported and that the Federal Government
forex policy encourages corruption and rent-
seeking.”

Fayose advised the president to avoid a wild
goose chase and stay at home to address
Nigeria’s problems as foreigners would never
abandon their own challenges to help us
overcome ours.