Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and ex-Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, have reignited their decades-long political rivalry after a dramatic exchange of accusations and insults following Fayose’s 65th birthday celebration in Lagos.
The clash resurfaced when Obasanjo, who attended the event as Special Guest of Honour, publicly referenced Fayose’s history of verbally attacking him despite past apologies.
The former president told guests he was surprised that Fayose invited him, recalling that “some people asked if I had forgotten how he abused me.” Still, he said he attended because “irrespective of his character, he remains one of my children.”
Obasanjo used the platform to revisit their troubled political past, including the fallout over Fayose’s controversial poultry project and allegations during his first term as governor.
He reminded the celebrant that humility and integrity were essential traits of leadership, saying, “There is a difference between courage and foolhardiness. Humility is one virtue we must never throw away.”
Fayose, however, reacted sharply the following day, sending Obasanjo a blistering message that was later released to the media by the former president’s aide, Kehinde Akinyemi.
In the text, Fayose criticised Obasanjo’s remarks and accused him of lacking decorum at his age.
“You went so low, but I am not surprised,” Fayose wrote. “Someone once said you should be kept in the zoo. That’s sincerely where you belong.”
He also claimed the former president was exhibiting “a heightened stage of dementia” and demanded that Obasanjo return the money sent to facilitate his attendance.
Obasanjo responded briefly, stating that the money had already been returned through the same aide who brought it.
“Your message revealed who you are, unchanged and unchangeable,” the ex-president replied.
The renewed confrontation adds another chapter to their fraught relationship, which began in the early 2000s when Obasanjo, then president, backed Fayose’s emergence as governor before the alliance collapsed over corruption allegations and political disagreements.
The tension peaked in 2006 when Fayose was impeached after an EFCC panel indicted him, a development he has long blamed on Obasanjo.
Despite a recent attempt at reconciliation marked by Fayose’s courtesy visit to Obasanjo ahead of his birthday, both men have again returned to a familiar path of public confrontation.