By Suraj Oyewale
President Goodluck Jonathan left no one in doubt
about the type of campaign he wanted to run when he picked well known
loose cannon with no modicum of decency, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, as his
campaign spokesperson. Fani-Kayode had earlier styled himself as a
chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), when he was actually
never one, not having being recognized as such by APC leadership when he
was in the party, and not on record to have been found worthy of being
invited for APC meetings, according to APC spokesperson, Lai Mohammed.
Known for throwing decency to the gutters with toxic Facebook posts,
and error-ridden newspaper articles, the Osun State-born law graduate,
had conducted himself in the last few years in a manner that makes one
wonder if the globally respected Cambridge University will ever be proud
of such product. Or how else do you think of someone that goes around
writing on the number of women he had slept with as contribution to
debates on the legality and morality of “deportation” of destitute of
certain origin from Lagos?
It is only in Nigeria that someone of Fani-Kayode’s standing, someone
having a money laundering case before the courts, will be appointed by a
President as campaign spokesperson. In countries where choices of
candidates by citizens are scientific, not based on religious and ethnic
sentiments as exploited here, such faux pas is enough to lose
elections.
Fani-Kayode has since discharged his duty to type – daily regaling us
with tissues of lies to demonize the candidacy of General Muhammadu
Buhari and his party, the APC. First, he sold to the media the non-issue
of Buhari’s certificate, and even when the Katsina school where General
Buhari had his secondary education, released the statement of result of
the general and the masterlist issued by Cambridge University which
conducted the exam in 1961, he declared it fake. It did not occur to him
that Cambridge would have come out to disclaim the result if it never
originated from it. How anyone would attribute a fake document to
Cambridge – of all paces – in this age, and some gullible Nigerians
bought it, is beyond me. In any case, all the misattributions to
Cambridge by the PDP, including that Hausa language was not offered in
1961, had already torn into pieces and dumped into waste bin where they
belonged, with the school’s external assessment body issuing a statement
on its website, confirming that they indeed set Hausa language in
Northern Nigeria in 1961. I wonder whether the same Cambridge would not
have disowned the circulated Buhari’s grades if they never originated
from them, which would have been criminal.
Fani-Kayode and his Social Media hirelings have thrown everything –
including the kitchen sink – in the direction of the General. They have
forged medical reports in the name on a non-existent “Ahmadu Bello
Teaching Hospital” to declare Buhari as having prostate cancer, they
have circulated “minutes” of imaginary meetings to say Jega met with
Northern elders in Kaduna (in other reports, Dubai) on rigging
elections, they have hired commercial protesters to embarrass General
Buhari in London. They have paid millions of naira to put up adverts in
national dailies in the name of a fictitious “Muslim” group in the South
West endorsing Buhari because “they wanted Islamization of the South
West”. I have seen SMS messages being circulated by unfortunately
educated folks including a chartered accountant friend from the South
South, that a vote for Jonathan means four more years of non-payment of
annual subscription of OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) which is
in its sixth year now and which means Nigeria will be expunged from OIC
when the non-payment reaches ten years – as a reason to vote Jonathan.
It does not occur to these vendors of fictions that Jonathan was the
first Nigerian president to attend OIC meeting since the country’s
return to civil rule. Their fiction factory keeps churning out lies
every other day. The country has never gone so low.
Fani-Kayode was yet again at his lying best when he addressed the
press few days ago accusing APC of having made their vice presidential
candidate, Yemi Osinbajo, of signing to an oath to resign after six
months in office. It is more unfortunate that the press which should
have by now been familiar with the wicked fabrications of Fani-Kayode,
gave this hogwash an undeserved prominence. This allegation started from
some vendors of misinformation on the social media, where some of us
that are equally social media-savvy proved beyond reasonable doubt that
this was not true; it is therefore very unfortunate that President
Jonathan’s official campaign latched on to this beer parlour gist.
I will try and shed light on this for those who have open minds. The
first bearer of the disinformation on the social media had made
reference to Tunde Bakare’s statement in 2011 that the ACN/CPC last
minute alliance collapsed principally because ACN requested for a slot
in the ticket, which was fair, as ACN had more national spread than CPC.
This being politics, no one would have expected ACN to submit its
structure to CPC without a commitment to play a major part in the
government. It is like two companies merging and one (ACN) bringing
sixty per cent equity, it is only natural that the company will be
significantly represented on the board (ticket). While Buhari and
Bakare were coming from CPC and the ticket cannot be altered again being
few days to election, it is not out of place for ACN to put forward an
equitable proposal to have the VP slot when the government comes on
board. This is a basic principle of negotiation. That was 2011, and
there was no secrecy about it as newspapers reported it and I remember
Femi Adesina of Daily Sun also making it the subject of his column the
week after. In any case the proposal was not even accepted by Buhari and
Bakare, and the alliance collapsed.
Between 2011 and 2015, the two parties, alongside a faction of APGA,
ANPP, DPP, and the new PDP, had formed the APC. Now, both the old CPC
and the ACN have representatives on the ticket with Buhari coming from
CPC and Osinbajo coming from ACN. This has automatically ruled out the
2011-type proposed negotiation for alteration in ticket on assumption of
office. This is what Fani-Kayode is twisting to further demonise the
APC. Any enlightened follower of political developments in Nigeria
should know this. In any case, even if Tinubu comes on board along the
way (which is only a figment of their imagination), Tinubu is by far a
better administrator than Jonathan. I’m not a fan of Tinubu, but I will
pick him over Jonathan as President. Between 1999-2007 when Nigeria was
afflicted with probably the worst set of non-performing governors in
its history, Tinubu stood tall as a decent performer in Lagos – even
when the man at the helms in the center withheld the state’s
allocations. His political recruitment strategy is also top-notch as
those he backed for power, from Aregbesola to Amosun and Ajimobi, are
testament to this. I may not be comfortable with his records on
anti-graft scale, but I believe we have seen the worst under the current
Federal Government. This is by no means a validation of this
fabrication, but only playing in their own court.
If General Buhari did not accept this proposal in 2011, there is no
way he could have accepted it in 2015, just as Osinbanjo, a pastor like
Bakare, would not have accepted the arrangement. The whole thing is just
another figment of Fani-Kayode’s warped imagination.
The election is less than four weeks, and I know Fani-Kayode’s
fiction machine is still being oiled to produce more between now and the
election date, if they ever allow the election to hold. However, some
of us will also not stop setting the records straight. The task of
extricating Nigeria from these fiction vendors and setting it on the
path of progress is the business of every patriotic Nigerian.
Sahara Reporters/Oyewale, an accountant and blogger, lives in Ajah, Lagos
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