Dino Melaye, a former senator from Kogi West, has mocked former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose’s presidential ambitions.
On Wednesday, Fayose obtained a Peoples Democratic Party nomination form in order to run on the party’s presidential ticket.
Fayose recently criticised the presidential bid of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Senate President Bukola Saraki in an interview on Channels TV.
Melaye said Fayose’s eating of amala got more attention than the former governor’s presidential ambition in a statement posted on Thursday.
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.”
