It was the great writer, Mark Twain who said:
“If you pick up a starving dog and you make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the difference between dog and man” March16,2021-
I thank God that our dear leader and father, Chief Bode George, the Atona Odua of Yourubaland, has finally decided to state some of the facts that happened in our not so recent past.
I must commend his resilience and restraint in the face of the worst provocation all these years.
Some of us who could have spoken, were advised by him to apply self restraint no matter how upsetting and inciting the ungrateful ex- governor of Ekiti State had become. Indeed it took a great deal of self discipline to be quiet and not go into details of the events of the past out of respect for our great leader.
After the factual revelations made by our father, Chief Bode George in an interview with the EarlyLifeMirror.com on the 16th of March, 2021, we can now truly re-appraise ex -President Obasanjo’s summation of Ayo Fayose as a prodigal son of the South West.
However, unlike the Biblical prodigal son, Ayo Fayose has refused to turn a repentant leaf, instead, he continues to sin and continues to return tail between his legs, like a rejected street Bingo to be forgiven, only to go back and do worse.
I must re-iterate that Fayose has offended about everybody who helped him along the way to power. From Chief Obasanjo to Chief Bode George, to His Excellency, Engr Seyi Makinde and many others. The ingrate never changes. His character never changes.
Some of the events of the past as recounted by Chief Bode George and which are playing out in the current day PDP are the zoning structure of the South West Caretaker committee and how Fayose is now standing the truth on it’s head.
Fayose has been going around trying to deny Oyo State of it’s slot, the same way he did when he was Governor. At the same time, Ayo Fayose continues in an attempt to twist history, convince the people of the South West that Seyi Makinde has no right nor locus standi to determine how the party is run in the South West. In a bizarre one sided war, Ayo Fayose wants to be leader of the PDP South West, Judge and Jury of the affairs of the PDP in the zone when as a matter of fact, nobody contested any position with him when he was the only PDP governor in the zone.
I will like to humbly quote our father, a man of immense discipline, a General in the Nigerian Navy, a former governor of two states, a founding father of the PDP, the Atona Odua of Yourubaland, a maker of men, a philanthropist and benefactor to many, Chief Bode George, who revealed in the rare interview, how Ayo Fayose was given power even at a time people felt he was undeserving. It is pertinent to note that the same Ayo Fayose who was handpicked by Chief Bode George and thrusted into prominence, is the one today beating his chest like King Kong and telling his gang of unruly and unworthy fellows that he will remove Chief Bode George, a man from whose largeness of heart he benefited, from political prominence. If I had tears to waste, I would weep for Fayose but he is not deserving of a teardrop. He alone will be responsible for the curse he has brought upon himself.
I quote:
“Two things happened in the case of Fayose. Like I said, we had been going round the South-West states. We could see the serious ones and the mediocres. At one time, we were in Ado-Ekiti and they said there is a young man who was providing the basic needs for the people. He brought tankers and was giving them free water and also pharmaceutical support. Somehow, he won the hearts of the common people. These are the people who will stay at the polling stations on election day. The first time I met him with his wife, he has one hotel called Spotless. I saw all the tankers going out to give free water to the people in Ado- Ekiti. That was something unimaginable and the people kept asking ‘Who is this?’. The truth is, if somebody came to you and gave you the basic needs of life, he will wake you up and you will see him as the messiah. I met with him and his wife, who is a very religious woman. I told him that I will be in Abuja on Sunday and I will take him to meet Baba (then president, Olusegun Obasanjo). I told him as a young man in his 40s, he was making a very impressive impact on the common people. Suddenly, the Ekiti vibration of PDP just started blowing up as everybody were seeing our party as a better alternative to AD. So, I told Fayose to meet me in Abuja and he came. I took him to the Church service in the villa. After the service, I took him to the President for breakfast. That was his first meeting with Baba Obasanjo and that was how Baba knew him and also developed interest in him. After their meeting, I told him ‘Look, your election will not be in the villa. So, don’t limit your good works to Ado-Ekiti, spread it out. Let your people in Afao-Ekiti and other parts of the state hear the good news’. And I remembered he did! Then, something dramatic happened to him which God used me to intervene.”
Chief George further recounts how Fayose was given un-merrited grace which today he has botched with his penchant for treachery.
Read:
“The reality is that some of our party members in Ekiti don’t like him. They said he is an interloper who came from nowhere to reap from where he did not sow. When the complaints got to me, I called them and I said PDP is not a private company, it is a political organization and everybody who feels he wants to join should be welcomed with open hands. Our boat is big enough and ready to take as many as possible. When the governorship primary came, of course, Fayose won and he became our candidate. The President was now going round all the states to campaign and give our flags to our candidates. The Ekiti PDP then sew a common uniform (Aso Ebi) which is expected to be worn by the President, the governorship candidate and lots of other people to show the carnival-like aspect of the party. They didn’t give the cloth to Fayose and I never knew as I was busy with lots of assignment here and there. The night before the rally, the president was going to arrive in Akure. The plan was that we will have the Ondo PDP rally first and handover the flag to Agagu first and then proceed to Ado-Ekiti. At midnight, Dare Adeleke, who was the Zonal Youth leader of the PDP in the South-West brought Fayose to me in my hotel. He kept knocking my door and I said who is that? He said ‘Oga, it is Dare sir’. I said ‘Okay, you can come in’. When they entered. I enquired what the problem was that brought them to my place in the midnight and he said ‘Sir, they sew Aso Ebi and they didn’t give this man who is our governorship candidate. Fayose was just looking, he couldn’t utter a word. When I heard the story, I was shocked because Baba Obasanjo was to arrive Akure at 8am in the morning. Who will I be calling by midnight to get the cloth for Fayose? Dare then suggested that they can go to Oje in Ibadan that midnight to get a material that the President and Fayose can wear. I gave them N250,000. They both left around past midnight.
By 6am, they returned with these two dresses. I gave Fayose’s own to him and then I kept the other one for the President.
When Baba landed in Akure, as they put the gangway there, against protocol, I just went up to meet him inside the aircraft. I quickly did that because once he was down, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to talk with him privately again because of the crowd. Everybody knew something was wrong when they saw me going into the aircraft. I went to Baba’s room in the plane. I told those I met there to excuse us and I shut the door. I said ‘Sir, the dress you are wearing, they didn’t give it to our candidate in Ekiti’. Baba said ‘What’?! I said they didn’t give him and you were supposed to wear the same outfit for the rally in Ado-Ekiti. I now told him how we were able to quickly get another cloth for him and Fayose. He now said ‘Okay, Bode. When we finish in Akure, we will be going to commission the NTA station in Ado-Ekiti. After that commissioning in the crowd, he will just call my name ‘Bode’! Once I hear that, I should carry the dress and we will go into the studio to change into the outfit that we bought. So, immediately we finished the ceremony, Baba mentioned my name headed for the studio. People scampered out of the place, wondering what the President want inside the studio. So, both of us went inside and he changed his agbada and sokoto from the original Aso Ebi into the one we quickly arranged. In the meantime, Fayose had worn his own and was already at the stadium waiting with other party leaders to receive the President.
After the commissioning, Baba was still wearing their uniform until he entered the studio to change. Immediately after the commissioning, all the party leaders quickly headed to the stadium for the arrival of the President, not knowing that Baba had changed his outfit. After he was done, we went in his car with his ADC and all the presidential convoy to the stadium in Ado-Ekiti. That was the gift that gave Ayo Fayose that day. When the President got into the stadium, people were shocked to see him wearing the same outfit with Fayose. Unbelievable! The uproar in the field was amazing. The party members who were wearing the general outfit became angry and started throwing sachet water at the party leaders, thinking they deceived them by giving them a different cloth from what the President wore. That was the extra mile we went and the total support we gave Fayose to become governor then.” – Chief Bode George.
I must state how humbled I am that the great man, Chief George remembered my little role in the making of the man Fayose, who has now turned out to be a political truant.
That I hold very strong views about the man is because I know the story and I find his character, continuous disloyalty and perfidy, abhorrent.
That he has unleashed a war of filth and calumny against Governor Seyi Makinde is not something new to his person. Fayose, as I once said, is like the famed scorpion who was helped across the river by a Fox but turned around to sting the Fox at the other end because he was born to be ungrateful. It is in his innate nature to bite the hands that fed him.
Fayose has set his hounds led by his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka against everybody he perceives is on the way of his over – leaping ambition to become leader of the South West PDP with the aim of delivering the zone to Bola Tinubu in 2023.
Fayose is also in morbid fear of the EFCC as the noose grows stronger around him. He has become desperate and in his usual manner, boastful, cantankerous and unruly.
Again, he is seeking audience of our father, Bode George but I am sure at this point, lessons have been learned and we all know that the leopard cannot change it’s spot.
All those who are presently romancing with Fayose, either to protect their positions or for filthy lucre from Lagos, will all be disgraced along with him. A word they say, is enough for the wise.
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