Nigeria, Igbos, Yorubas: The Bitter Stand Of Femi Fani-Kayode And His Apology

By Uzoma Ahamefule

It should be recalled that the arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions and callous dumping of homeless people of Igbo extraction in Onitsha, Anambara State, by the agents of Lagos State government at odd hour caused a lot of pandemonium within Nigerian media and bloggers. These people who are victims of bad leaderships and corruption by thieving Nigerian politicians could be seen in thousands in every part of the country and they deserve to be treated with compassion and not heinousness as displayed by Lagos State Government led by Babatunde Raji Fashola, one of my best governors in Nigeria. The brouhaha of this cruelty and inhuman treatment meted to these harmless and defenseless innocent citizens whose guilt was only being less privileged as a result of fraudulent
executions of uncaring government policies led to the condemnable articles written by the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who unbelievably left the subject matter - the deportation of Igbos, to insult Ndigbo.

In a man's letter lies the nakedness of his heart. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the Igbo hater and ethnic jingoist, did not only insult Ndigbo but he also tried but failed with distorted historical facts to relegate the enormous contribution of Igbos in the development of Lagos State, incited the Yorubas against the Igbos, and finally asked the Igbos to leave Lagos State for the Yorubas.

In one of his articles titled, "The Bitter Truth About The Igbos", the former Minister got more than he had bargained as scholars with facts and figures took him to the cleaners. In a move to show that he did not hate the Igbos and to disabuse the minds of people who had across ethnic lines and religion condemned the venom at which he had without decorum attacked the Igbos in the article, he wrote another catastrophic one titled, 'Neither a Tribalist Nor a Hater' which deeply exposed his tribalistic tendencies and made him an object of ridicule. This time he had not only tried to humiliate the entire Igbo race again but he had also tried to destroy families and careers of some prominent Igbo married women as he claimed in the ambiguous article that he had slept with them including Nigerian beauty ex-queen, Her Excellency, Bianca Ojukwu, Nigerian Ambassador to Spain and the wife of the adored Igbo respected late leader, Chief Ikemba Odimegwu Ojukwu. It sounded so ridiculous to be real but it was an embarrassing fact that he made such claims. But Bianca Ojukwu punctured his unnecessary show of ego with a reaction published in the Sun newspaper stating that she had never been a girlfriend to him. Through her lawyer Bianca Ojukwu ordered Chief Femi Fani-Kayode to withdraw such false claim of having had an intimate relationship with her and to apologize within seven days or face legal action. In order to avoid legal punishment that awaits any dubious claimer or impersonator knowing that he had lied, a day before the expiration of the seven days ultimatum, precisely on 06.09.2013, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode ate his words, retracted his statements and apologized to Bianca Ojukwu. Uncomprehending! So what was he thinking when he made the claim in the first place? Perhaps the beauty of the likes of Bianca Ojukwu wobbled the heart of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode that the imagination of his intimacy with her became deceptively so real and beclouded the reality of life.

What manner of man is Chief Femi Fani-Kayode? Even if his claims had been true; what does a one time minister of a country and a well educated man of his status stand today to gain by naming happily married women with grown-up children he had slept with many years ago when they had still been singles in the pages of newspapers? That was a clumsy behavior that could not have been expected even from a ditched 15-year-old secondary school lover boy. It told a lot about the kind of Minister we had had in him.

There is no doubt that the agony of this embarrassment and rascality in the families of these mentioned women will linger years to come and people who value family dignities irrespective of their tribes equally shared the shock of this irresponsible bravado and arrogance. "… Like father, like son: That was 48 years ago. Today, Femi Fani-Kayode, the 53-year-old son of “Fani-Power,” continues in the mischievous tradition of his father: throwing dangerous missiles at the innocent," wrote Femi Aribisila. Most of us dated or had intimate relationships as youths or bachelors before we got married or repented and it will be unreasonable of any of us to name or discuss such relationships amongst friends at later years not to talk of printing such un-holy secret affairs in newspapers.

This shameful blunder has gone down in history as one of the most embarrassing goofs of all time ministers whether serving or former.

It is important to note that since the exposure of his false intimacy with Bianca Ojokwu, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has openly continued to attack Igbos indirectly with his articles, instigating people against them and promoting ethnicity to the detriment of nation building. This was one of his posts on his FACEBOOK wall on 19.11.2013. "At the end of the day whatever happens in 2015 the only thing that is important to me is that the yoruba nation is in a position to defend itself in the event of any hostilities from any quarter. We are a nation, not a tribe and we will not allow any other nationality to claim our land or to lord it over us. That will never be allowed to happen again. Either Nigeria must be restructured or Nigeria shall break.

"Finally no nationality that has a pathological hatred for the yoruba will ever lead or rule Nigeria again and neither will they be allowed to live amongst us peacefully. That much I know- if you hate us, you better forget ruling from the centre and stick to your zones and states and you better leave our territory and relocate back to your state of origin. ..."

I do not think that there is any part of Nigeria "that has a pathological hatred" for the Yorubas. But what are these statements targeted to achieve if not sowing seeds of war and hatred? As much as Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has got the right like any other citizen of this country as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to air views; can one imagine that the above statements came from a not long ago minister of this country who is supposed to be a promoter of the image and the unity of this entity? This is unfortunate.

In view of Bianca Ojukwu’s statement through her personal assistant Mr Issac Igboanu Chief Femi Fani-Kayode’s apology was not sufficient and satisfactory. My advice to the former beauty queen is that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's retraction of his statements and his apology as she ordered should be enough. Irrespective of the tone or how he tried to paint his apology, apology remains apology. And for the fact that he was ordered to do so and he did it within the time frame given to him, the issue is no more worthy of any litigation because we know the truth. No room should be given to him again to make another rascal statement. Please, let the sleeping dog lie. Like Femi Aribisala wrote, "Next time Femi Fani-Kayode wants to tell us “the bitter truth,” he should tell us about N19.5 billion Aviation Fund mismanaged under his watch as Minister of Aviation under the Obasanjo administration.That is the bitter truth we need to hear from him right now." Until he clarifies this issue raised here, he has got no moral right to talk against the corruption in Nigeria.

Like Femi Aribisala also advised at the heat of the fiasco of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's articles, "Collectively, we declared with one voice that the civil war is truly over. We must not allow the Femi Fani-Kayodes to turn back the clock." On the same ground I also appeal to Igbos, Yorubas and other ethnic nationals that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's views about Lagos State and the Igbos are his personal views and we should not allow these to destroy the good relationships we have attained as nations that have witnessed massive immigration of the Igbos to Lagos State and the hospitality they have enjoyed from the Yorubas and other Nigerians in the state and no manipulation of words and facts by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode or his likes will change these historical facts.

There is no society where we cannot get people like Chief Femi Fani-Kayode. And we should not make the mistake to prejudice Yoruba people as Igbo haters based on behavioral attitude of one immortal or a very few individuals. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who is not more Lagosian than many Igbos is on his own as his views of asking Igbos to leave Lagos State and the reactions as opined by so many respectable Yoruba leaders took care of his outburst.

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, whether Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Efik etc. we all can live together if we choose to. Stop the threats because they re-open old wounds and create unnecessary tension. You are a well informed man and a lot of people are looking up to you as a one-time minister. Please desist from inciting racial hatred posts on your FACEBOOK wall for these posts have misled many youths into Internet war. Free yourself from ethnic mind-set and use your position to fight for the well-being of the Nigerian masses that have been deprived of their meals and denied their rights by privileged Nigerians like you. But, yes, you are truly right, Nigeria needs to be restructured, address injustice and corruption or it should break.

Uzoma Ahamefule

A patriotic concerned citizen writes from Vienna, Austria. He is on FACEBOOK as Aham Uzoma - join him.