BY GBENGA ARIYIBI
ADO-EKITI — Ekiti State Government has said President Goodluck Jonathan might have been quoted out of context over a statement credited to him that governors in the South-West who are not members of his party are ‘rascals’.

While addressinh newsmen yesterday in Ado- Ekiti Governor Kayode Fayemi through his  Special Adviser on Media, Mr Mojeed Jamiu noted that the President actually meant “radicals” for “rascals” while addressing a Peoples Democratic Party zonal rally in Ibadan recently, describing the President as an intelligent man, stressing that he must have been quoted out of context.

“The statement by the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in Ibadan while flagging off his Presidential campaign where he allegedly called South-West governors rascals was a mistake.

“But then to us, we feel they quoted him out of context because the President is an intelligent man. What he meant was actually that those guys are radicals, not rascals”, Jamiu posited.

“You know there is a similarity when you want to call somebody a radical, you may mispronounce and say rascal”,  he explained.

According to him, “the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is afraid of the positive changes and development happening in the South-West”, emphasizing that “it was difficult to fathom how anybody could describe intellectuals with good pedigree as rascals.

Jamiu described Dr. Fayemi as ”a governor of international repute”, sayingn the influx of development partners including international bodies such as UNDP and DFID to the state was a testimony of his capability to rescue the state from its deplorable state of underdevelopment.

“With what has happened within the first 100 days of the Fayemi’s administration, it is as if the Governor has been in power for more than three and half years,” he added.

What the ousted and ancient regime could not achieve in three and a half years, we were able to achieve in less than 100 days.

“You have seen the influx of development partners, foreigners. We are working with UNDP, DFID. I mean they have been coming to the state to see how they can assist in developing Ekiti state. The same thing with Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State” he said.

Speaking on Governor Fashola’s radical development of Lagos State, Jamiu described Lagos as “a state everyone wants to copy”.

He said “they are afraid of Lagos, that is why they are trying to sponsor the doctors’ strike. But then, one thing is very clear, the south west has been liberated and the train of change that has arrived in Ekiti, Osun and Edo States will soon get to Oyo and Ogun States.

This is just the beginning “.The people are happy with the achievements of these radical governors and thirsty for continuity of the agents of change that will positively change the face of governance and rapidly develop the entire nation”.