Former Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, has ridiculed the presidential ambition of the former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose.
On Wednesday, Fayose had purchased the nomination form of the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the party’s presidential ticket.
Shortly after, a video of him eating the popular Yoruba dish, amala and ewedu, surfaced on the internet, eliciting reactions.
Fayose in an interview on Channels TV had also recently, attacked the presidential bid of the duo of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
In the interview, Fayose said Atiku and Saraki had returned to the PDP because they couldn’t get what they wanted in the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement released on Thursday, Melaye said Fayose’s eating of amala had garnered more publicity than the former governor’s presidential ambition.
The former Senator said Fayose’s video of eating at a public restaurant was a “pretentious exhibition of dining with the masses,” and that the problem in Nigeria is not “who can eat more but who can produce food.”
He said, “Inebriated by several wraps of amala in Abuja, former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, in his characteristic exuberance directed indecent and indecorous attacks at two serious contenders for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, HE Atiku Abubakar and HE Bukola Saraki.
“Incidentally, the mauling of amala gained more publicity over the collection of the presidential nomination form, in a pretentious exhibition of dining with the masses.
“This frugal populism has since been deflated by allegations of charges for the ferreting of billions of naira from public coffers in Ekiti State. Is amala and abula so expensive?
“The issue before Nigerians now is not who can eat more but who can produce food. That is why the attempt to tar the outstanding achievements of Atiku Abubakar as former vice-president and Bukola Saraki as former senate president by Fayose would be discounted as the belching perfidy of a presidential gambler.
“It is clear from the verbal missiles deployed by Fayose that he was simply de-marketing frontline aspirants in PDP as a counterintuitive strategy to shore up the chances of his political godfather in APC.
“The contest for the ticket of PDP and the presidency of Nigeria is a serious engagement. Those who aspire to the position must elevate themselves above pedestrian conduct and address real issues, rather than dwelling on inconsequential inanities.”
