Former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose disclosed that his wife prevented him from publicly criticizing the late former President Muhammadu Buhari following his death in July 2025.
The revelation came during his appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.
“The people in Nigeria only praise the dead. When President Buhari died, I wanted to come out and abuse him, (but) my wife called me not to say so,” Fayose stated.
A vocal critic of the Buhari administration, Fayose maintained his position that the former president underperformed during his tenure. “Would you say Buhari performed? I’m not among those praising the dead. Don’t honour me when I die. When I die, I’m gone,” he remarked.
The former governor drew comparisons between Buhari’s leadership style and that of current President Bola Tinubu, whom he described as more approachable. “He (Tinubu) is accessible. Was the former president accessible? A lot of things happened in those days but do you still find them in the system? He is not a perfect man, but we are not where we were,” Fayose noted.
Fayose defended Tinubu’s economic policies, arguing that the president inherited a severely damaged economy from his predecessor. “Nigeria is a sick country; it will take heaven to pull it out at once. What miracle can anybody do in two years? The situation is critical, wide and deep. Tinubu inherited a very bad economy,” he said.
Buhari, born in December 1942, first ruled Nigeria as military head of state from 1984 to 1985 before returning as democratically elected president in 2015. He completed two terms in office, handing over to Tinubu in May 2023.