Time for Fayose to apply the brakes

Not a few Nigerians had watched with keen interest the mudslinging between Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State and the All Progressives Congress (APC), especially at the twilight of the last general election.

Of course, many Nigerians would still wish this continue, at least if the chatty governor would be the mouthpiece of the now opposition. After all, democracy can only thrive where there is a virile opposition.

That said, the Ekiti strongman appears to be heading for self-destruct if he does not apply the brakes at this stage of his bitterness against the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government.

On Wednesday, Fayose, during a two-day workshop organised by the Dr. Joe Odumakin-led Women Arise for Change Initiative, stunned his listeners, and indeed the world when he declared that the claim of the missing girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, was all farce.

He was quoted to have said that the abduction was mere fabrication of some politicians to remove former President Goodluck Jonathan from office. Someone in the position of Fayose, in Nigerian context, is in a better position to know certain classified information that are far from the domains of the ordinary man. So, his comment on this matter should not be taken with a pinch of salt.

But one wonders why it took Fayose 716 days after the said abduction before he came up with the ‘true’ story. With his declaration, the Ekiti governor has rubbished global efforts at liberating the innocent girls from captivity. One remembers that any celebrity and political leader in this world worth his/her name had been involved in the rescue effort of the girls.

Mitchel Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Amy Poehler, Mary J. Blige, Jada Pinkett-Smith are a few stars who once lent their voices to the girls’ plight. Former President Jonathan, whom Fayose seem to love more than the man’s wife and children, had even admitted the missing of the girls.

A former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Pocock, recently capped it all saying that British and American surveillance system once spotted about 80 of the girls. While the debate is ongoing, it is believed that the issue of the Chibok girls should not be subjected to international ridicule as is being done now.

Anyway, if nobody does, the parents and relatives of the girls know whether their wards were missing or not. In the interim, those close to the Ekiti strongman should advise him to apply the brakes and concentrate his energy on serving his people.