Former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said that he will support the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
Fayose made this commitment while speaking in on a monitored Channels Television programme on Thursday.
The former Ekiti governor said he will not resort to insulting the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, even though they are in different camps ahead of next year’s election.
“Let me tell you: if people are expecting me to abuse Tinubu to show that I am not supporting him, I would not do that”.
Fayose, an ally of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state, noted that despite the political differences some northern governors or politicians have with President Muhammadu Buhari, they don’t resort to abuses.
He described Tinubu as a Yoruba leader and as such, he won’t descend to insulting the former Lagos State governor even though they are of different camps.
Fayose said he respects Atiku Abubakar of the PDP the same way as the APC chieftain.
“If the only way to demonstrate to everybody that I am Bola Tinubu’s enemy is to come out as a Yoruba man and insult Bola Tinubu, I will never do it.
“Listen to me, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu are over 70 years old leaders, why were they sitting together to rub minds and did not carry cutlasses against each other? Count me out of that (insulting Tinubu).
“I am not going to be insulting Atiku and I am not going to be insulting Tinubu,” Fayose stated.
The PDP chieftain also reiterated his stance on power shifting to the southern region of the country.
“As far as he is concerned, since President Buhari is about to complete his second term and is from the northern region, the southern part of the nation should produce Nigeria’s next president.”
Fayose stated that he will still work for the PDP, regardless of Wike’s rift with Atiku, following the party’s presidential primary.
