Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has launched a scathing attack on Chief Bode George, urging the PDP chieftain to retire gracefully from active politics and stop "embarrassing" the Yoruba race.

In a strongly-worded statement released on Thursday, Olayinka lambasted the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing him of lacking the decorum expected of an 81-year-old elder statesman.

Olayinka noted that as a former military governor of old Ondo State 38 years ago, George ought to emulate his peers who have maintained a dignified silence in their old age. Instead, he accused the PDP chieftain of hopping from one television station to another to malign younger politicians.

"It is becoming an embarrassment the way a man like Chief Bode George, who should be acting like an elder statesman, is jumping from one television station to the other to malign people who are young enough to be his children," Olayinka stated. "Even if a man was over-spoilt, rascally, too playful, and dull as a child, at 81, he should have outgrown those vices."

Challenging George’s political relevance, the FCT Minister’s aide pointed out that despite his decades of leadership, the PDP has failed to secure a foothold in Lagos State. He mocked George for failing to deliver his own polling unit since the return of democracy in 1999.

"Unlike Lagos State, we have had PDP governors in Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, and Osun states. Methinks rather than doing ‘cho cho cho’ all the time, Bode George needs to tell Nigerians why PDP has remained at the sideline in the politics of Lagos State since 1999," Olayinka argued.

Invoking Yoruba traditional values, Olayinka stated that while respect for elders is paramount in the South-West, it is earned through dignified behaviour. He cautioned that George`s current media outings are stripping him of that cultural reverence.

"In Yorubaland, respect is conditional, and the major condition is that an elder must avoid disrespecting himself. That is why it is said that an elder who chooses to tie corn to his waist and run around will have fowls chasing and making mockery of him.

"Today, who among those eminent Nigerians who served as military governors with Bode George between 1988 and 1990 are doing ‘political we no go gree’ up and down, jumping from one media house to another to lie?" Olayinka questioned.

As at the time of filing this report, Chief Bode George has yet to respond to the remarks.