Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has disclosed the response he gave when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu asked him to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme aired on Friday, Fayose said he declined the president’s invitation to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling APC.
“I recalled very well that the president asked that I should come to APC and I said no,” Fayose stated.
The former governor, however, said he has never disguised his respect for Tinubu, even when he was in office.
“When I was a sitting governor, I didn’t hide my respect and support for Tinubu, I never did. I was upright, stood my ground. I visited him severally as a sitting governor, and I recalled when he had a knee injury I went there openly to say hello to him. He wasn’t president at the time, Buhari was president of Nigeria then,” he said.
Fayose added that his position has always been consistent and public.
“Nigerians know where I belong every time it comes to the issues of politics and our country.”
“When the late Buhari seemed to be playing games, I was one of the people who said that this APC will do this or that and the next thing the now president did was to start dancing and singing.”
“I was part of the G-5, I wasn’t the only one at the time. We had sitting governors, so it’s not whether I’m trying to find my feet. I was very clear.”
Fayose added, “When your kinsman wants to be president and he has capacity, what should you do? You should fight him? You should throw him under the bus? I have been like this.”
“Go back to Ekiti, every former governor has their homesteads and the governor is being supported by all the former governors, which is the first time in the history of this country.”
Fayose had earlier predicted that the PDP would likely finish fourth in the 2027 general elections.
According to the PDP chieftain, the party is still in crisis.