Isaac Fayose has advised his older brother, Ayo Fayose, to give his son the chairmanship of the recently announced Rural Electrification Agency, claiming that the former governor of Ekiti State was too important politically for such a position.
The younger Fayose made the remark in a video on his Instagram page on Monday, reacting to the presidency’s announcement that his brother had been appointed chairman of the REA board alongside 25 others named to the leadership of 10 federal agencies and commissions.
According to a statement by the president’s special adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Fayose would chair the board alongside Ahmadu Abubakar and Ilyasu Ibrahim Makinta as non-executive directors, with the agency’s incumbent director-general, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, and three executive directors retained.
Isaac opened his post by contrasting the chairmanship with more senior positions he believed his brother deserved, saying, “They said they gave my brother a DG, not a minister or ambassador.”
He argued that the appointment fell short of his brother’s stature, adding, “They said they gave him DG, head of a parastatal, and chairman of a committee. They don’t see giving him a minister; they don’t give him an ambassador.”
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Drawing a comparison with a government critic-turned-appointee, he said, “Even Reno Omokri himself, they gave him an ambassadorship. They couldn’t give my brother ambassador,” and later pressed the point further, asking, “So why just chairman of a parastatal?”
Isaac linked the timing of the appointment to a weekend visit by former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.
He said, “They gave my brother DG because Obi came on Saturday to visit me. So they said, no, we must enter that family.”
PUNCH Online had reported that Isaac hailed Obi as Nigeria’s “incoming president” when the NDC candidate visited his home on Saturday, days after threatening to withdraw his backing, with Obi responding that many of those criticizing Isaac online were not genuine supporters of the movement.
He said his brother had long maintained that he had no interest in government positions after leaving office, quoting him as having vowed that whenever he left government house, he would not become a minister, a director-general, or a senator and would return instead to face his private business.
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