Buhari sick, weak, old, he should resign – Fayose

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on Thursday declared that he stands by all that he said about the health of President Muhammadu Buhari while he was away in London on a medical trip, maintaining that the president is sick, weak and old and should not continue in office.

Governor Fayose told newsmen in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, that the president should throw in the towel and return to his native Daura to take care of his health, because he allegedly is not fit to continue in office.


Fayose, who was addressing a meeting of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders, office holders and political appointees at the government house in Ado Ekiti, said he stood by all he said about President Buhari’s health while he was away in London and insisted that Buhari went into a coma on July 6 and that he owed no apologies for what he said.

The governor said: “They should allow the president to return to Daura and go and rest. Don’t send him to his grave too early. You don’t have to be president at all costs if you are not healthy enough. Our president is not well. If I’m not well, I’m not well. That is not hate speech. In 2015, I said all these things that the president is old and weak.”

Fayose said his claims that the president was in coma was justified by the submission of some of those who visited him in London, saying, “They also said that I regretted that I said that Buhari was in coma. That’s not true. Everybody that has spoken after seeing the president in London said that his recovery was ‘a miracle’.

“If somebody’s recovery is a miracle, does that not mean that that person was in a serious illness?”

The Ekiti governor denied saying that he would commit suicide should Buhari return alive from London, and attributed the reports to what he described as “the handiwork of social media miscreants”.

Fayose said, “Since the president cannot declare his health status and the extent of his illness, it apparently shows that there’s so much to hide. Not until civil society and people like us started making noise, you can’t be our president without us knowing what is happening to you.

“So, for me, the president went into coma July 6. Today they can come back and cook up stories and hold rallies and so on, they attested to the fact that the president’s recovery was a miracle, which we are glad about. And we are happy he’s back home.

“And when you look at the president physically, you’ll see that he is exhausted, he’s tired and weak. You don’t have to be president at all costs. When you’re tired, you go home.

“On the rumours that APC might field him in 2019, he said “I don’t want to talk about 2019. But I want to tell you that Nigeria needs a president that is agile, strong; the job is too much for an individual that does not have what it takes.

“It’s a common saying that health is wealth. Everything is about health. We wish him well, we want him to recover. But the president should throw in the towel and resign and go home.

“When he came back, they said he would resume on Monday. He resumed and thereafter they said rats have taken over the office of the president, rats took over the office of our president. Now they said he’s working from home, tomorrow they’d say he is working from the bedroom. So, all these stories are ending in make belief.

“In a country where you have so much to be done, I’m not going to be a sycophant here. I’m going to be on the side of the common man in this country. The president is tired. I’m concerned and I feel for the president like every other elderly, or even those who are not elderly.

“Anyone could be sick, but issues of governing a country, there’s so much responsibility in this and we must equally be able to stand up and say if the president does not have what it takes to continue, he should throw in the towel.

On whether he would go and visit him if invited, he said he would not go.

“I will not go because this would be misconstrued. There’s no way, if I go there it will be misinterpreted. They will interpret it to be something else, so it is better for me to stay at my distance and continue to wish him well.

On claims that he would commit suicide if Buhari returns, he said it was the handiwork of ‘miscreants of the social media’.

“How can I commit suicide because of an old man? Everything I said I stand by it. I can’t commit suicide because of my mother. Even if they are burying my mother, I’ll cleverly stay away from the tomb so I don’t fall inside. Why will I commit suicide because of Buhari? I will never, I never said that.”