Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has reacted negatively to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s open rebuke to Yoruba traditional rulers present at an event by ordering them to show respect whenever a governor or president is in their midst.
Obasanjo had on Friday, at the invitation of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, to commission some roads in Iseyin, ordered the Yoruba traditional rulers who at the event to stand up and greet him.
However, Fani-Kayode who served in Obasanjo’s administration from 22 June to 7 November 2006 as Special Assistant on Public Affairs and Minister of Culture and Tourism, said his utterances and behaviour was a grave insult to the Yoruba people and their traditional institutions.
Obasanjo once respected the Youruba traditional institution by bowing, kneeling and prostrating before monarchs, even when he was President, he added.
According to Fani-Kayode, the latest insult came on the heels of mingling with the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi and the Obedient movement which has diminished and demystified him in the eyes of most to such an extent that it has become pitiful, embarrassing and indefensible.
His tweet reads, “I am deeply saddened and utterly mortified by the way in which former President Olusegun Obasanjo lambasted our revered traditional rulers in Oyo State and “ordered” them to “stand up” and “sit down” as if they were children.
“This is the same OBJ that once upon a time displayed his respect, humility and I daresay greatness by bowing, kneeling and prostrating before our monarchs, even when he was President. Yet today, he talks to them as if they are his garbage collectors and orders them to jump up and down like a molue driver talking to his beleaguered passengers and a motor park tout talking to a bunch of jobless and worthless underlings.
“Many think that the whole thing is some kind of joke but I do not.
“We must not take it lightly and the truth is that by doing what he did he has spat on all our faces.
“His words and behaviour are a desecration of our values and a grave insult to the Yoruba people and our traditional institutions.
“I am constrained to be gentle and restrained in my criticism of Baba OBJ on this and so many other issues because of the undying love, respect and reverence I have for him.
“This is all the more so given the fact that I proudly served in his government.
“However his association with and support for Peter Obi in the last presidential election has diminished and demystified him in the eyes of most to such an extent that it has become pitiful and embarrassing. It is also indefensible.
“How can a man who dedicated his life to and fought for a united Nigeria support a closet secessionist, a political fraud, a patently deceitful, vainglorious and dishonest man and a religious bigot like Peter to be President?
“That the great OBJ is now a flaming Obidient is the 8th wonder of the world. It really makes no sense and it is simply mind-boggling.
“What we witnessed when OBJ insulted our traditional rulers in Oyo state yesterday was the Obi spirit which is now firmly embedded in him at work.
“First he was at a gathering in Awka where the Yoruba race were labelled “political rascals” by some Igbo leaders without a response from him and now he has the guts and effrontery to tell our traditional rulers to jump up and down like yoyos and clowns?
“Baba this is too much. Please respect yourself and stop embarrassing those of us that still have some affection and respect left for you.”
