A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ayodele Fayose, amid the lingering political rift between Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has advised Fubara to emulate the leadership style of Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji.
NaijaOnPoint Media reports that Fayose gave the advice on Tuesday while speaking during an interview on Arise Television, where he urged the Rivers governor to adopt humility and seek reconciliation with Wike.
According to the former Ekiti State governor, political leaders must recognise those who played key roles in their emergence and manage disagreements with wisdom.
Fayose said Oyebanji once humbled himself by seeking his support, a move he described as a sign of political maturity.
He said, “May I say this to you and to Nigerians, you brought up, like the example I have given, you brought up your child, you trained her, and somebody says I want to marry this girl.
“The credit goes to you. If you have left that girl rotten, ordinary carpenters and people who have no capacity will be chasing her.
“He must have capacity at different levels of life. Life is about level by level. God has graduated this life like a pyramid, you have Asiwaju up there, the governors, the ministers, everybody is at a level.
“You can’t tell me, majority of times, you can’t tell me a man who is down the ladder wants to marry a queen somewhere. They will tell you, you don’t have the capacity.
“So let’s go back to the issues, everybody must have helped everybody in life. But God in himself, God says I hate ingratitude. I will only fight with what I have left.
“You can’t sack Wike from Rivers politics, you can’t sack me from Ekiti politics. I’m not supposed to say what I want to say to you now and I will say it to you.
“It’s about Ekiti politics. I was in this house three years ago. The current governor of Ekiti is of the APC extraction.
I am of the PDP. He came to this house, he said, leader, I would want to visit with you. I said, you’re welcome, Your Excellency.
“He came here and sat on the chair and said, Your Excellency, I want to beg you, I want you to come to my support and my aid.
I want you to stand by me in this government. I didn’t go to him. He’s the governor. He deserves all honour.”