The Olu of Orile Kemta in Ogun State, Oba Adetokunbo Tejuosho, on Tuesday sharply criticized former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, over what he described as an insulting and abusive message sent to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo was the special guest of honour at Fayose’s 65th birthday celebration in Lagos last week.
In a statement titled “A Royal Rebuke to Ayo Fayose”, Oba Tejuosho condemned Fayose’s message, calling it “unguarded, uncultured and unwarranted.” The monarch emphasized that the former governor’s words merely displayed “hollowness and haughtiness against nothing.”
Obasanjo, responding to Fayose, said, “Ayo, thanks for your ‘Thank You’ message which undisguisedly revealed who and what you are — unchanged and unchangeable. Your money has been sent back through Foluso Adeagbo, who brought it, and in the same bag as he brought it, unopened by me.”
The monarch further reminded Fayose of Obasanjo’s accomplishments, saying, “Baba Obasanjo is not just a man. He is a chapter of our national story, a pride of the Yoruba race and a sentinel of the republic.
“Your mouth did not even tremble when you called the old man such names; I am even afraid to repeat those words of yours. You have not wounded Baba Obasanjo’s honour; you have only amplified your own irrelevance,” Tejuosho added
He urged the former governor to have addressed any grievances privately, noting, “If Fayose felt Obasanjo was wrong, he should have returned to him privately the same way he approached him to invite him instead of sending such a disgusting and insulting message to an elder statesman.”
Oba Tejuosho concluded that the episode revealed more about Fayose than Obasanjo, stating, “That latest action of yours was the restless echo of a man who forgets that elders are the pillars of our civilisation. You throw stones at a colossus while standing barefoot on a hill he built.”
