In reaction,
the attack dogs of the current administration, referred to as today’s men, have,
in occasionally uncharacteristic manner,
dismissed these concerns as the ranting of yesterday’s men who could not come
to terms with the reality of their current lifestyle as just common ordinary
Nigerians (like the rest of the 159.9 million of us). However, a quick reminder
that today’s men, when tomorrow comes, could end up as yesterday’s men, seem to
have put and end to such childish name-calling.
It is common
knowledge the world over that former members of an administration would always
have something to complain or criticize about those who took over from where
they left off; look at all the former governors in cat-fights with their
replacements who, ironically, used to be their assistants or political sons,
over various reasons, ranging from the serious to the mundane. What struck a
chord with Femi Fani-Kayode’s lamentations was the level of bitterness
expressed therein, and the direct accusations and ominous pronouncements made against
both the living and the dead. It reminded me of the bitter and curse-laced vituperations
of the late Owelle of Onitsha, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, after the National Party of
Nigeria (NPN) brazenly stole the 1983 general elections. Dr. Azikiwe,
outrightly, placed a curse on the NPN, the Shagari administration, and elder
statesmen who kept silent while the nation burned –at least, Ondo state did. By
December of that year, three months after being sworn in, the second term of
the Shagari presidency was violently terminated, and many prominent Nigerians
found themselves cooling their heels in moldy jail houses, along with their
political opponents.
Now, thirty
years later, we have an ex-Minister, though not on the same level as the
Owelle; however, a younger one, in a society where his friends and peers are
busy devising ways and means to defraud the government in a more mechanized way
than ever witnessed in the history of the nation; in a society where people
serve in government to line their pockets and service their immediate families,
someone this young, with years of fruitful (?) service to his nation still
ahead of him, feels so wronged by his observations of the bungling of the
current administrations that he would make doomsday pronouncements about the
nation and people of Nigeria. He felt so frustrated by the slow pace of
progress (if any) that he would, pointedly, accuse the president by name of being
weak-kneed and running down the country.
Did Femi
Fani-Kayode go too far? I have been pondering the answer to that question since
I read the interview. Listen to him, though waxing spiritual, quoting bibles
and making references to stories showing a Godly order of doing things: “there
will be a change in Nigeria, whether anyone likes it or not. It will be a
brutal change”. He went on to call attention to the high poverty rate, unemployment,
crime rate, corruption which has grown exponentially under the current
administration, and insecurity; all perennial
problems which are not particular to the Jonathan administration. He directly
accused the president of incompetence, wishy-washy, weak, indecisive, and
ineffective towards the security situation pervading the northern parts of the
nation. He even placed the death of, according to him, 4200 Nigerians in the
hands of Boko Haram on the feet of the president. All these are, unfortunately,
appendages frequently tagged on the president by many Nigerians, regardless of
party, gender, and ethnic origin.
At a point,
the criticism takes a funny turn; at least in my opinion. H e accused the
government of using the EFCC, SSS, and other security and regulatory apparatus to
harass people who dared to criticize it; something which was the norm under the
Obasanjo administration which he served. One is left wondering why Femi did not
object then, even mildly, as he is doing now to the Jonathan administration. Many
state governors, Ministers, senators and PDP officials are living witnesses to
Obasanjo’s use of the national security tool to destroy people. I am sure Femi
needs no reminding that what goes around comes around; also, that in some legal
parlance, silence is akin to acquiescence. Or, closer to home, his brother’s
famous statement in the novel, The Man Died, that evil thrives where good men
keep silent – something like that.
On the late
Yar, Adua, Chief Fani-Kayode practically called him an evil man, and appeared to
gloat over his passing. He complained how the late president hounded and
haunted his family with the EFCC and other state security apparatus, because he
dared to speak out. According to him, Yar’Adua had no business being president
of a nation like Nigeria. Ironically, this is the same man who admitted privy
to all the manipulations that imposed the late president on Nigerians; it was
the same Femi who, after the anointing, took Yar’Adua to meet with the late Libyan
dictator, Khadafy. It was the same Obasanjo’s political manipulation that threw
up an obscure Jonathan to the position of the vice presidency, thereby
producing a weak president and a weaker vice president. In all this doing, good
men like Femi who had front row seats in the Obasanjo administration, kept
silent while this evil thrived.
In a way,
the blame for the current state of the nation lays partially on Femi
Fani-Kayode’s feet. He was there when Obasanjo took control of the PDP apparatus
and weakened its leadership; he was there when the same Obasanjo selected a
sick, weak man as president; he was there when the same Obasanjo hounded good
men like Audu Ogbe, and Barnabas Germade out of the PDP, threw Olabode George
into prison, sent Arisekola-Alao and Otunba Balogun to their knees, and ran
many governors, senate presidents and House speakers out of office for daring
to have a mind of their own. Yes, Femi Fani-Kayode was there when Obasanjo
sought an unconstitutional third term, and he said nothing.
I am neither
a historian nor as religious as Chief Fani-Kayode has proven to be in his interview,
but I read something somewhere that went like this (I am sure Femi knows it):
First they came for the communist,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Yes, like every Nigerian, Femi has the right to complain
and lament the current state of Nigerian affairs; what he does not have is the
right to blame it wholly on the current administration, which many of us are
not fans of. I also believe that one should always come to equity with clean
hands; in this case, Femi’s hands are not clean. Though he may have, on his
own, done his best to improve the lives of the ordinary Nigerian when he was in
government, he lacked the same courage and decisive action he now expects from
Jonathan and his lieutenants when his own boss was laying the foundations for
the current state of our nation.
Felix Oti
Arlington, TX
