Buhari now operating as ceremonial, part-time president – Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said that Nigerians did not elect General Muhammadu Buhari to function as “Friday President”, adding that he (Buhari) was now acting more like ceremonial and part-time President. The governor, who said he was glad that his constructive criticism was getting to the President and his handlers, noted that it was not enough for the President of a country like Nigeria to be seen in public only while attending Friday Jumat service at the Presidential Villa, videos of his activities should be made public too.

Speaking on Sunday, through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said it was necessary for Nigerians to be properly informed about the well-being of their president.

He accused some close allies of the President of deliberately shielding him and preventing him from attending to his health so as to continue to run the government on the basis of “Mr President has directed” even when the President did not direct anything.

“That’s why Nigerians are told every day that the President said this and that with the President neither speaking directly nor attending any official function. This is not good for the image of a country like Nigeria that is struggling to get out of economic recession,” the governor said.

Governor Fayose, who said by virtue of the his old age, the President could be susceptible to illness, advised that “President Buhari should rather be allowed to take proper care of his health while the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo acts constitutionally as the president. 

“However, it is doubtful if those cabals that are obviously running their own Presidency within President Buhari’s Presidency will allow him to take a long vacation, probably outside Nigeria to take care of himself.”

The governor insisted that Nigerians must hear the voice of their President and see him physically, not through surrogates or the cabal operating behind the scene.

“It is only when the President is seen and heard physically that Nigerians will believe that they are not being ruled by a part-time and ceremonial president, whose powers are being exercised on his behalf by some cabal,” he said.