Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has taken a swipe at Senator Dino Melaye, saying the latter displayed “hollowness” by delving into a matter as private as his marriage to his wife, Iara.
Melaye, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, had on Wednesday while contributing to a motion on the need to patronize made in Nigeria goods, cited Mr. Oshiomhole’s marriage to a Cape Verdean as an example of Nigerians refusing to patronise locally-manufactured goods.
“What are those factors limiting the production of these goods? We must tackle them. We must also begin to look at our legislation, then we will begin to talk about made-in-Nigeria goods”, Melaye had said.
“We will also move in order to encourage made-in-Nigeria products and begin to talk about made-in-Nigeria women.
“Apologies to my uncle, the Governor of Edo State, we must as a people stop paying dowries in dollars and pounds. It is time for my colleagues here to become ‘born again’”, the Kogi West senator added.
But in a statement issued by his spokesman, Mr. Peter Okhiria, the governor said the attack was unprovoked, demanding an apology from Senator Melaye.
“Our attention has been drawn to the unprovoked verbal assault launched by one Senator Dino Melaye on the governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, while making a contribution on the floor of the Senate on the need to patronize made-in-Nigeria goods.
“As a ‘nephew’ of the governor and member of the same party (with the governor), we expected Senator Melaye to tender an unreserved public apology to the comrade governor.
“It is an open secret that Senator Melaye cannot maintain a decent matrimonial home hence he could descend to this pedestrian level of using the hallowed chambers to ‘cargorise’ women as if they were pieces of items for purchase.
“Any responsible individual that is truly worth to be called a senator, a position that convokes respect, decorum and decent public conduct, should know the limits of his verbal diarrhea.
“The liberty of free speech guaranteed in the hallowed chambers does not impose lunacy on anyone to disparage other Nigerians, let alone pry into their matrimony in a very derisive manner.
“We had intended to ignore this uncomplimentary comment as one of the several empty displays of the senator, but the fact that it tends to reduce women to pieces of tissue calls for this response.
“As we probed into Dino Melaye’s humanity, we were reminded that he is a man known for his vainglorious rodomontade and the childish display of his ostentatious lifestyle, which complement his love for foreign items.
“Many of such Euro-centric mentality he has persistently displayed on social media, to underscore his materialistic eccentricity, hence his dialectical opposition to made-in-Nigeria goods.
“But an attempt at making women wear the garb of goods to be picked off the shelves was to take the issue to a ridiculous and irresponsible level.
“By delving into the private affair and marriage of the comrade governor, Senator Melaye has exposed himself as a simpleton and a court jester whose words and tactlessness cannot be taken seriously by matured people.
“We advise that Mr. Melaye should mend his ways with his ex-wife and concubines before coming to the village square to display his crass ignorance and emptiness to the Nigerian people.
“If he has anything to offer, Dino Melaye should concentrate on making good laws for the people of Nigeria rather than descend to a ridiculous level, thus displaying to the whole world his unworthiness to sit in the hallowed chambers of the Nigerian Senate”, the statement added. (Informationng)