‘Since the night of our defeat last week I have been subject to the added level of pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate. I have not found it to be a comfortable experience. One can imagine what running for leader can be like, understand its demands and the attention but nothing compares to actually doing it and the impact on the rest of one’s life. Consequently after further reflection I am withdrawing my candidacy’.
“Jonathan is the promoter of corruption. I am telling you that the Government of Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is the most corrupt in Nigerian history but (who) we have as president-elect of this country today (Muhammadu Buhari); the man I see as the nemesis of corruption.”About campaigning against corruption when he resumes office, Melaye said;
“Change! I am an advocate of anti-corruption and for me if I enter office, I am going to do it more this time around. More importantly, now that we have a government that is going to have zero tolerance for corruption, we must as legislators carry out our functions from any form of sacrifice.”
“I knew I was going to be in trouble. Anything that would cause that change not to take place, I was ready to make that sacrifice. The federal government sent out a signal that if they won nobody should let me out of Nigeria from any airport”.
“One day Asiwaju got angry with me. He was very angry. I went to his house with Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and knelt down, saying ‘please let’s not disagree, let’s win first and then we can disagree”.
“I told Asiwaju that what is important is to make a history of the first civilian coup in Nigeria when your children and grandchildren read the history with your name as one of the people who helped bring about change in Nigeria”.
“I said, let us focus on the victory. I remember the day of the convention, there were so many intrigues, there will be convention, there won’t be convention, I said my leader, if we don’t do the convention we are finished, the press will say APC cannot hold a convention, lead us now, there must be convention and election. So, he turned to me and said look for Tunde (Fashola), let us go.” He said
