Fayose: Buhari will lose if 2019 election is free and fair

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says president Muhammadu Buhari will lose if the 2019 election is free and fair.

Fayose said this while responding to a statement by the president that he is seeking re-election to protect Nigerians.

He alleged that since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power in 2015, elections have not been free and fair.

“In free and fair elections, there is no way Buhari/APC can return to power. And talking about free and fair elections, a legacy handed down to Buhari/APC has been shamelessly ruined by them as our elections are no longer free and fair,” the governor said in a statement signed by his chief press secretary, Idowu Adelusi.

“Nothing is further from the truth, Buhari says he is seeking re-election to protect Nigerians? Tell him Nigerians need no spurious ‘protection’ from him. Nigerians from all walks of life have rejected this man and dismissed the many propaganda of Buhari’s APC government as lies from the pit of hell.

“Buhari and APC have only used the power they hold in trust for the people to suppress, oppress, intimidate, victimise, and destroy our people.

“Buhari says what he is expected to do; that is, to protect us, but which is actually not what he is doing. We are calling on him to protect us from killers and murderers but Buhari has failed to do that in four years. He has instead defended them again and again. What magic will he now perform if re-elected into office?”

Fayose added that should the president be “upright and honest” enough to draw a graph between 2015 and now, he would see how abysmally he has fallen as a result of his “dismal and abject performance in office”.

“The country itself is drifting as a result of Buhari’s mindless tribalism and nepotism, which have polarised Nigerians like never before,” he said.

“The Nigerian economy, which was the largest in Africa and one of the fastest-growing in the world, is now a shambles due to Buhari/APC’s pig-headed policies .

“Today under Buhari/APC, joblessness, hopelessness, depression, and despondency envelop the nation. Oppression, repression, suppression, and untold suffering have become the order of the day.

“It is political rascality and unbridled partisanship carried too far when Mr. President repeatedly declines to sign the Electoral Bill into law in an election in which he intends to be a participant. The fate of a whole nation, the efforts of our heroes past, and the progress of our nascent democracy thus hang in the balance on the altar of ego-tripping and cold-blooded calculations to despotically cling to power.”

The governor said there is little or nothing left of the goodwill that brought Buhari into office.