Barrister Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communication has been carpeted by Honourable Saheed Fijabi who represents Oyo South/North West at the House of Representatives for being ‘inordinately ambitious to be Oyo Governor in 2019.’
Fijabi who threw this ‘sucker punch’ at the minister on Wednesday while being hosted to a ‘Media Chat’ by the South West Group of Online Publishers (SWEGOP) at the group’s temporary headquarters in Ibadan also said the Oke Ogun-born lawyer is already being distracted.
According to Fijabi, who is equally the Chairman, House Committee on Communication, “Barrister Shittu is old enough to be my father, but he has done so much to bring me down. I do not have any quarrel with him.
“I was on my own at a broadcast station when he called into the live programme calling me names. Why? He thinks I want to contest the next gubernatorial election in Oyo State with him.
“Meanwhile, I have not sat down with anybody to discuss my future ambition but if I am called to be the next governor of Oyo State, if not, why not? I have all it takes. But my thinking now is that God should give me sound health, wisdom and long life to complete the present assignment.
Fijabi continued “My belief is that Barrister Shittu is carried away by his ambition to become the next governor. He is so distracted away from the present assignment given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari. He has not gotten midway into the present assignment and he is putting everything into guber project. He has already started his own campaign.
“He is doing this to the extent that he openly attacked Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, our leader, my leader. When some of us spoke, he said we were, and are fighting ‘proxy war’.
“Barrister Shittu is an experienced politician but he ought to know better. There are so many things we can do together to bring dividends of democracy to our people if we cooperate. Together with Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, we normally should be able to work together on ICT and Communication generally but Barrister Shittu is distracting us.”
Fijabi also used the opportunity to admonish all members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State to forget about being “SENACO or Lamist and let us cooperate and take the party to the greatest heights.”
In his welcome address, SWEGOP’s Chairman, Mr Olayinka Agboola of PMParrotng.com noted that Honourable Saheed Fijabi is one of the most visible political office holders representing Oyo State in Abuja.
He commended the youthful honourable for bringing in several projects that have impacted positively on the health of the people of Oyo State.
Watch out for the full transcript of the interactive session later.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele, Kunle Gazali and Omotoyosi Jesuleye
