By As talks about the 2023 presidential polls intensify, a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has declared that he would defeat the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presents him as its presidential candidate.
Fayose, who was reacting to rumours that he pledged support for the former Lagos governor’s presidential ambition, made this known in an interview with The PUNCH.
The ex-Ekiti governor maintained that he and Tinubu are both Yoruba leaders but on different levels of leadership.
“I have said it over and over, Asiwaju remains a Yoruba leader; I remain a Yoruba leader. We are in different levels of leadership. But if I am being misquoted for the fact that I said Asiwaju is a Yoruba leader, I am saying I am a Yoruba leader, but Asiwaju in his own Yoruba leadership is in the APC; Ayo Fayose in his own leadership is in PDP,” he said.
Fayose declared that he might consider joining the 2023 presidential race if the PDP zones its ticket to the Southwest.
He boasted, “Who has told you that I don’t want to be President? Who has told you that if the PDP picks me that I will not defeat Asiwaju? Who has told you? You don’t know maybe I will still contest. If I come out and they zone it to the South-West and they say it’s Fayose, if they pick Asiwaju, I will defeat him!”
The former governor argued that the PDP remains Nigeria’s brightest choice in 2023, citing insecurity and the state of the nation’s economy under the government of the day.
“If the PDP does not win the 2023 election, then Nigerians are doomed. From what I have seen since 2015, Nigerians are doomed. The kind of leadership that Nigeria has witnessed – insecurity, the economy,” he noted.
Fayose’s comments come amid intense politicking and wave of declarations in the Nigerian political scene, barely 18 months to the next general elections.
