From Jimoh Joseph, Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement asking security to go after critics of his government’s cluelessness as last desperate attempt by a failed government to silence Nigerians, adding that “in a democracy, it is the rights of the people to express their views freely and President Buhari must accept that and live with it.”
He said Nigerians will resist any attempt by the President to hide under the “arranged abduction and release of the Dapchi girls” to achieve his dictatorial aim of further clampdown on those speaking out against his failed government.
In a release issued on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said it was strange that the President who should be asking questions as to why military checkpoints in Dapchi and other surrounding towns were removed to pave way for the abduction of the girls was threatening Nigerians who are merely asking to be freed from a clueless government of one week, one drama.
Governor Fayose said: “President Buhari needs to be told that no one is politicising abduction and release of the Dapchi school girls. Rather, it is the federal government that is playing drama and did not come out clean on the abduction and release of the girls.”
“In a democracy, the people are entitled to their views and can’t be silenced in their own land, particularly when the President has failed to protect Nigerians who are daily being killed, especially by herdsmen.l and Boko Haram terrorists.
“It is the rights of the citizens to call governments to order when they fail to live up to their responsibility.
“The President and his men must also be told that even in military era, except under Buhari who introduced Decree 2, it did not get worse than this and Nigerians won’t allow their voice to be muzzled by a government that has failed them.
“That President Buhari and his men are afraid of Nigerians to the extent that they are even fighting tooth and nail against amendment of election sequence is a sign of government that has failled and afraid to lose election in 2019.
“Therefore, the silence of Nigerians must not be interpreted as endorsement of animalistic killings and nepotism flourishing under this government of President Buhari, but a grave yard silence that will result to electoral failure next year.
“For every beginning, there must be an end. Buhari won’t be a life President and the end of his directionless government will come in 2019.”