THE people of Oyo State should be weary of the stone age antics of the Minister of Communications, Alhaji Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, in his desperation to become next governor of the Pacesetter State, as any move in that direction will amount to institutionalizing incompetence and failure.
Former Media aide to the Minister, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, made the charge in a statement he signed and made available tojournalists on Monday in Abuja.
Oluwadamilare alleged that Shittu’s grandstanding and names dropping attitude regarding his rabid ambition to govern Oyo State come 2019 is bewildering, adding that the Minister goes about telling those that he is deceiving in the state that he is President Buhari’s candidate.
The release reads: “For the avoidance of doubt, President Buhari has no anointed candidate for Oyo Guber race come 2019, talk less of adopting Shittu, who already have a pariah status in the Presidency. His lack of integrity and combative relationship with key members of the administration are his major undoing, in his legendary self deceit.
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“Shittu needs to be told, against his grand delusion, that no amount of names dropping can win him the APC’s ticket in Oyo State. He should stop living in a fool’s paradise as Buhari will live up to his billing as a true democrat, by not forcing any candidate in any state of the Federation come 2019.
“I can authoritatively declare that the Minister rarely sees the President one -on -one, except during the weekly Federal Executive Council meetings and on national television like most other Nigerians.
“Infact, I had it on good account that the only time he met with the President recently was at the instance of a South West Governor, where he dubiously sold the idea of the Muhammadu Buhari Osinbajo (MBO) Dynamic Support Group, as his baby aimed at rallying support for the President’s second term in office.
“A jinxed Alhaji Shittu, is living a life of deception and delusion,and he needs to correct himself and face his gubernatorial ambition squarely without relying on the Presidency to illegally pave way for him.
“It is in line with his desperation that he has surreptitiously trying to convert the MBO Dynamic Support Group to his own, by his mere honorary appointment as Board of Trustee (BOT) Chairman, an organization to which he has no financial commitment.
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“Is it inconceivable that Shittu, a man openly disgraced recently by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, on the floor of the Federal Executive Council meeting for behavior unbecoming of a Minister, when he was distributing campaign materials for President Buhari’s second term, is the one aspiring to lead the Pacesetter State?
“Shittu had claimed in one of his recent interviews that: ‘I have one house in Abuja, which I bought on mortgage from Jaiz Bank. I have two houses in Ibadan. I have three cars, two of which were donations.’ It is evidently clear that a politician of Shittu’s mould, who tells lies with relish is not fit to govern Oyo State after a momentous tenure of Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
“Ask anybody in Ibadan, Shittu’s properties are all over. But, like an ostrich, he continues to live in delusion. Shittu as a pathological liar till date has not disclosed the collateral for obtaining a N280 Million loan from Jaiz Bank for a residential property in Abuja. Shittu, by his conducts had put paid to iconoclastic Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s popular song: ‘Authority stealing pass armed robbery.’
It is odious to think that a clueless, crude and morally bankrupt person like Shittu will become the Governor of Oyo State come 2019.
“According to W.Buffet: ‘Look for three things in a person -intelligence, energy and integrity. If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.’ Going by these words on marble, Shittu has no moral leverage to govern Oyo State because it is an open knowledge that he lacks integrity, and so he should not be trusted with power.
“Shittu, in his desperation has also been comparing himself with President Buhari. Buhari as a successful soldier and administrator would have married four wives, if he so desired but for his spartan discipline, he chose to live by example. Conversely, Shittu who calls himself a moralist has no respect for the women folks, as he marries them at will and does away with them via elimination by substitution, making it difficult to know the number of wives he had married so far.
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“A man who lost the services of his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Malam Ibrahim Aliyu, over unpaid salary arrears, is not fit to govern Oyo State. The CSO before his resignation penultimate Sunday, provides cover for Shittu’s two wives and 14 children at his Samonda,Ibadan residence.
“If Shittu has any modicum of shame, he should have known that the game is up, rather than his empty grandstanding that Governor Abiola Ajimobi will support him come 2019.
“He should stop cap in hand begging for money to run a gubernatorial project that is dead on arrival. His continued begging for campaign fund across the length and breadth of Nigeria and beyond is part of his clownish behavior and lack of integrity in a race that he is aware he has no chance.”