By Igbotako Nowinta
Femi Fani-Kayode was once a media adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. What makes him a super human being than Eyo Charles? Honesty, if our electoral process is sanitized, the likes of Fani-Kayode would have long been buried in the sands of inconsequentiality; he does not possess any fire in defense of patriotism and domestic progress in Nigeria. As an armor-bearer to Goodluck Jonathan presidency, and as presidential aide during the 2015 Presidential election to Jonathan, his major past time was hauling insults or curses on anyone that tried to offer useful suggestions to fast track development. He is being asked today by the present government to explain how he was heavily financed and compromised during those inglorious years. If Femi-Kayode has been fortunate to have had his ‘palm-kernel broken for him by benevolent spirits,’ he should be humble enough to respect other people, their views and professions. It is incredible that in a nation of over 200 million people, the Femi Fani-Kayodes of this country (Nigeria) have been tolerated and allowed to ride rough shod on hapless citizens for so long and too long.
When Major Kaduna Nzeogwu led the other military boys out of the barracks, into the political stage in Nigeria, on that fateful morning of January 15, 1966, he was frantically trying to knock out the nauseating Augean stable that was instituted by a high percentage of the then political class.
In aborting Kaduna Nzeogwu’s ‘revolution’ the military top brass in Nigeria that succeeded him, abandoned all sense of decorum and unleashed a most devastating social, economic and political arsenal that crippled and stunted the growth of Nigeria.
Because Nzeogwu failed to clean the mess that the first republic politicians created, our country fell into a horrific abyss where every negative thing became a norm – bullying, unbridled arrogance and kleptomania from politicians.
It is seething to know that the first republic politicians made a bonfire of the unprecedented opportunities that came their way, while most of the second republic politicians turned themselves into worthless agents of destruction of anything good about Nigeria.
What have been playing out to us since the return to democratic rule in 1999 is not dissimilar; a chunk of our politicians have simply substituted themselves for the state itself.
They see themselves as tin gods, special breed, honorable lots, and super stars, because they have been able to smuggle their way to political offices or relevance, via unpalatable or unpleasant methods, which most honest and decent men like Eyo Charles could not descend into.
Therefore, what Femi Fani-Kayode, the son of Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, former renowned first republic politician, displayed to a stunned Nigerian public in Calabar recently is not new.
It is a practiced norm, a good behavior, as far as many politicians are concerned within the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The encounter:
“I asked, ‘Sir, please you did not disclose to us who is bankrolling you”
-Eyo Charles ( Daily Trust Reporter, Calabar, August, 20th, 2020).
“How can you ask me who is bankrolling my tours of the states?
It is very insulting” – Femi Fani-Kayode (Former Minister of Aviation, Calabar, August 20th,2020).
Many of our (Nigerian) politicians see the masses as beggars, morons, sub-humans that could be abused, insulted and ridiculed, including journalists carrying out their constitutional assignment. What was Femi Fani-Kayode doing in the South-South region of Nigeria?
What type of extensive guided tour was he embarking on behalf of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State and company? If what he was doing was not a public relations job for Governor Ayade, to show case his ‘developmental projects,’ why was he infuriated by the inoffensive question put to him by Eyo Charles of the Daily Trust newspapers?
How many of Nigerian politicians would thumb up their chests to bankroll state projects from their personal hard earnings? Who is Femi Fanii-Kayode trying to deceive or cajole that he is rich, comfortable, a lawyer cum philanthropist per excellence or extraordinary?
Was he running his private briefs in Calabar? What does it take from us that we could not rationalize the reason he had to rant so recklessly and shamefully? Certainly, Femi Fani-Kayode couldn’t have tried what he did in Calabar, in civilized climes like United States or Europe.
We have not forgotten his antecedents. Femi Fani-Kayode was once a media adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. What makes him a super human being than Eyo Charles?
Honesty, if our electoral process is sanitized, the likes of Fani-Kayode would have long been buried in the sands of inconsequentiality; he does not possess any fire in defense of patriotism and domestic progress in Nigeria.
As an armor-bearer to Goodluck Jonathan presidency, and as presidential aide during the 2015 Presidential election to Jonathan, his major past time was hauling insults or curses on anyone that tried to offer useful suggestions to fast track development.
He is being asked today by the present government to explain how he was heavily financed and compromised during those inglorious years. If Femi-Kayode has been fortunate to have had his ‘palm-kernel broken for him by benevolent spirits,’ he should be humble enough to respect other people, their views and professions.
It is incredible that in a nation of over 200 million people, the Femi Fani-Kayodes of this country (Nigeria) have been tolerated and allowed to ride rough shod on hapless citizens for so long and too long.
This is urging the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), to apply its hammer, to censure Femi Fani-Kayode, to boycott all his media engagements, for behaving so nastily and irritatingly to the extent of only offering ‘regrets,’ and withdrawing the word ‘stupid’, regarding his gutter behavior towards Eyo Charles, instead of outright unreserved apology.
We have been insulted daily in this country by opportunistic rotten headed characters who are calling themselves politicians, because the system is so porous and riddled with irregularities, that those who would have been put behind bars for conspiring against and stealing from our Commonwealth, are now busy flaunting their ill-gotten wealth before our own very eyes and faces.
Nigerian journalists should also learn a lesson from this very sad experience; the need to uphold professional ethics always is of utmost importance. Money is good, but financial gratification or inducements from the likes of Femi Fani-Kayode should be scorned, knowing full well that life must always go on with or without them.
The troubling reality is that we see Femi Fani-Kayode in many of our politicians of today, in the way and manner in which they arrogantly string up to defend immediate interests and greedy egocentric pursuits; to exercise yoke of burliness over others at every opportunity.
They seek to trample upon people’s inalienable rights; they see no further than their nose and continue to reveal themselves as incapable of simply bringing national unity of purpose into being or assiduously building up the country on a stable and productive basis.
They see the likes of Eyo Charles as surrogates not equal partners, who must bend and twist to ask questions during the course of duty; who must perpetually feed from the crumbs being given to them.
This ugly development is most insulting and injurious to our sensibilities and democracy.
Nowinta wrote, Where We Are: A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
