By Eric Elezuo
The dust raised following the defection of former Minister of Aviation, Chief Fani-kayode, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was a chieftain, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is yet to settle weeks after the infamous decision. Today, the heat of the recent threat to demolish the PDP has taken the front burner.
Fani-kayode’s move to the ruling party, where his reverred political foe, President Muhammadu Buhari, holds sway, was one action not a few Nigerians described as wrong, ill-motivated and ill-timed. But the highly vocal former Campaign DG of Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan appears unperturbed.
Much as defections have rained the lots of Nigerian politicians, the Fani-kayode move became the talk of the town as a result of the uncontrolled vituperation he was known to have unleashed on the person of President Buhari, his administration and his party, the APC.
For a man, who has told anyone, who cared to listen that he has a ‘short fuse’, it is not hard to imagine the extent he can go, or has gone to attack the ruling party and President Buhari. This appears to be the underlining reason behind the shock with which the populace received the sudden news of his defection.
Recall that in 2018, when Buhari, after his 150 days unceremonious absence as a result of medical tourism to London, returned to Nigeria and hinted that he was back to jail looters, Fani-kayode dusted his acidic oral gadget telling the president thus:
“You are nothing but a pernicious liar, a loud-mouthed hypocrite and schoolyard bully. No one has looted as much money, inflicted as much pain and shed as much innocent blood as you. You shall end like Herod, Pharoah and Sennacherub,” he said via his verified Twitter handle.
Fani-kayode’s antecedent was the obvious reason the Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman, in February, described the attempt to accept Femi Fani-Kayode into the fold of the All Progressives Congress as a clear attempt by some partisan members to manipulate the leadership of the ruling party into doing the wrong thing.
Lukman in a statement titled “APC and the question of values” applauded the insistence by many members and leaders that Fani-Kayode “was not welcome to join APC because he doesn’t have the values required to be a member.”
“Following the report about the controversial attempt by Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode to join the APC and the insistence by many APC members and leaders that Mr. Fani-Kayode is not welcome to join APC because he doesn’t have the values required to be a member,” the statement partly read.
Lukman said the issue of Fani-Kayode’s drifted attempt to join the ruling party is a ploy to manipulate some of her leaders into accepting membership of someone who ought not to have been considered a member of the party.
The insinuation was prompted following a meeting with the Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yone State, and Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello who chairs the mobilization committee of the party.
In his response while denying the calculated moves, Fani-kayode again, released tantrums on the party he was a lion that cannot be caged.
He said: “My response to them and others who have conjured up even stranger motivations and conspiracy theories when it comes to FFK is as follows:
“To whom it may concern: spare me your crocodile tears and be rest assured that I am too big, too intelligent, too experienced and too forthright to fall into any trap.
“It is impossible to castrate a lion, render it impotent or silence its roar.
“I stand on all my beliefs, core values and principles. I am the voice of the voiceless, I am a warrior, I fear nothing, I fear no-one, I am as constant as the northern star and I will ALWAYS stand against evil.
But he later ate his words, and joined the ruling party.
Recall again when in January 2020, the embassy of Nigeria staff quarters in Ghana was demolished, Fani-kayode lashed out at Buhari, saying that such happened because Nigeria had no president. He said that such would not happen during the regime of General Sani Abacha or the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Even as The Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs threatened that Ghana must face the consequences of the demolition, nothing happened.
During a live television interview with one of Nigeria’s renowned stations, Fani-kayode hinted that over his dead body would he become a member of the APC.
An adamant critic of President Buhari and his administration, Fani-kayode revealed that any rumour linking him with APC is false and insulting, and that over his dead body will he join them, describing them as lovers of cows.
On his Facebook wall, he wrote: “The suggestion that I have joined the APC is not only false but it is also deeply insulting. Those that are peddling this fake news should bury their heads in shame.
“With what we have witnessed over the last 5 years I would rather die than join a filthy, rat-infested sinking ship like the Almajiri Peoples Congress (APC).
“Those that claim that I have joined them and that seek to link my good name to such a bloodthirsty, blood-lusting, accursed political association of Boko Haramists, Fulani herdsmen, genocidal maniacs, ethnic cleansers, mass murderers, ethnic supremacists, religious bigots, cow-lovers and corrupt treasury looters that have brought nothing but death, division, misery, poverty, incompetence, shame, and destruction to our nation and our people will burn in hell forever!
“I am committed to oppposing the APC and those that are in their ranks for the rest of my natural life and I will NEVER join them no matter what!
“They are nothing but darkness whilst I stand for the light of God and truth: there can be NO fellowship between light and darkness”.
Acknowledging Fani-kayode’s flippancy of tongue, Buhari’s media aide, Femi Adesina remarked that he had said things straight from the gutters, things that the natural man would call unforgivable and unpardonable.
“Against President Buhari, the first family, Yusuf Buhari whom he wished had died when the latter had an almost fatal bike accident, APC as a party, the government, leaders of the party, groups and individuals. Even this writer has suffered horrid descriptions from FFK in many write-ups.”
Commending Buhari and the APC family for accepting Fani-kayode irrespective of his attacks, Adesina notes:
“Buhari showed him mercy, dropping like gentle rain from heaven, when he could have otherwise spat into the sky, collecting the spittle with his own face. Was that not what me and you would have done? Confess.
“We would have told FFK to go to hell, and stay there. But Buhari didn’t. He displayed an attribute of God: forgiveness”.
During the turgid reception ceremony, where Buhari received the defecter, Fani-kayode swallowed his words, and confessed that he was wrong about Buhari all along.
Addressing journalists after he was presented to President Buhari by Mala Buni of Yobe State, Fani-Kayode, said he believed that “it was time for him to cross over to join hands with the president in moving Nigeria forward”.
“The point is that I felt it was time to do the right thing, to put Nigeria first and appreciate the efforts that have been made, particularly in the last couple of years in terms of security; fighting insurgency and terrorism,” the former minister said.
“It is not always negative and when the time is right, we change direction to join forces and join hands to move the country forward.
“Doing this doesn’t mean we are enemies to anybody. Even if we are in another party, the PDP or any other party or group, we can still work together across party, regional, ethnic or religious lines.”
Today, with no love lost against his former party, Fani-kayode is threatening to demolish the PDP, setting tongues wagging as to what his next move will be.
Is he going to withdraw all the acerbic attacks he once unleashed on Buhari and APC or pretend he never said them. But the threat to demolish PDP continues to hang in a balance even as the party has written him off as a politician, who only cares about what he would eat.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike said this about him:
I don’t know why people are saying they are shocked, you see it’s not everybody that speaks you take seriously. Some people speak because of what they want to eat, others speak so save them from problem they have if they can be saved. I and Femi are not friends, he said one of the governors he reached is Rivers State, he can’t reach me, it can’t work, I don’t like artificial things. I and Femi don’t talk,” Wike said.
As Fani-kayode’s threat continues to hold sway, the political worlds watches with hand akinbo what the next will be.
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