By Pascal Chimezie
Nothing has perhaps upset most Nigerians in recent times than the scandalous defection of the former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kayode, to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fani-Kayode claimed he was led by the spirit of God. He was brought to the Aso Rock Villa Thursday by the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the APC, and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni where he met with President Muhammadu Buhari and other party leaders.
FFK, as he is called, had been a sworn political enemy and staunchest critic of President Buhari and the APC. He had even sworn to die rather than to have anything to do with Buhari and the APC!
But, like it’s often said, what is permanent in life is change. And no one knows when his own change will overtake him. Was the man called Saul not literally exuding fire against the followers of Jesus, and he was on his way to Damascus to deal with them, when his own dramatic change overtook him? Saul was later transformed to become Paul the Saint.
Many critics of Fani-Kayode would readily believe that the former aviation minister defected because of his N4.9b corruption allegation with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), apart from being broke. Already, there are rumours that the money laundering corruption allegations against Fani-Kayode may be quashed as well as him being made a minister.
While this still remains in the realm of speculation, it will nonetheless be a welcome change transformation for someone who had been a tormentor in chief against the ruling party. Whichever way it goes, one thing that is sure is that Fani Kayode’s life will never be the same again. Unlike St. Paul, the APC change could either ruin him politically, or make him reign the more. How? Because it is easy to dine with the devil in the first place. Your long spoon may not help you.
There are not just a few people, mostly Northerners, who are very livid, not just angry, with Fani-Kayode. FFK has been a gadfly, stinging without mercy, writing tons of articles that have given the North a terrible bad image. He saw Muhammadu Buhari as a true chip of the old block, in the mode of Uthman Dan Fodio. Now that he has joined the camp of those he pilloried publicly without reservation, we recall the words of Jesus Christ to Ananias when Saul had his dramatic change. Jesus said Ananias, “I myself will show him (Saul) all that he must suffer for my sake” (Acts 9:16). Femi needs prayers to be able to withstand all he has to “suffer for their own sake!” Every change comes with a discomfort. That is on one hand.
On the other hand, FFK is not a green-horn in politics. He is not someone who is afraid of any battle. He is courageous and quite daring. He thrives better, it seems, in controversy. You underrate him at your own peril. He has the capability to cause a maximum damage against any individual or entity. In fact, Femi can act a mole. How do I mean?
Prior to 2015 general elections, we saw gale of defections from the ruling people’s democratic party (PDP) to newly formed APC. Among those who defected were Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki. The APC leaders thought they had caught big fishes in the ocean. The two later became not just principal officers of the 8th National Assembly under the ruling APC, but Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate, respectively. What happened later?
These duo later turned out to become the APC’s worst nightmare, a sort of enemies within! When the party could no longer tolerate them, it was forced to vomit what it had swallowed, thinking it was prey! Today, both Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki are strong members of the PDP, the party they had left to a voyage of discovery that led them nowhere. Choose your friends circumspectly, because you never can tell who will drive the final wedge to your moving train.
Marcus Junius Brutus was among the sixty conspirators who murdered the Roman dictator, Julius Ceasar, in the year, 44 BC. Brutus was among Ceasar’s best friends. But it was Brutus’ unexpected jab at Ceasar that finally humbled Ceasar to death. Ceasar looked at Brutus unbelievably, while reeling under the pain of death, and could only mutter, “Et tu, Brute?” (Even you, Brutus?). It’s a treacherous world.
Who knows who next will thrust the next jab at whom under the present time?
Many corrupt politicians have been making their way into the ruling APC in a renewed wave of defections, probably as a way of having their sins forgiven. And the party is happy welcoming them with very wide open hands. The APC certainly needs prayers. Inadvertantly, it may be welcoming professional undertakers, those who will ultimately bury the party alive! For there is no better way to destroy a monster entity than from within!
Who will deny that the ministry is not moving to permanent site?
Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the former Southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), once said, “Every man has a price.” He was of the view that what that price was depended on an individual. You cannot tell what drives a man to certain action. We only know just a little, a fraction of the many unknowns.
Femi Fani Kayode may have been lucky to land a goldmine in APC. Opportunity, they say, comes but once. Who will begrudge a man who sees opportunity and capitalizes on it? FFK has created a robust nuisance value for himself over the years. And now he seems to be leveraging on it to reap abundant social, economic and political gains for himself.
However, it would be wrong, if not totally insulting, to insinuate that mere pecuniary interest was what had driven him to joining the APC. It is doubtful if the so-called ‘stomach infrastructure’ politics could caught on with a person like FFK. Never mind that former president Olusegun Obasanjo had once described FFK as “a man who is ruled by the cravings of his stomach rather than the demands of rigorous mental exercise.” Obasanjo himself is not a saint! So, he does not possess any higher moral authority to judge anyone!
The character of Nigerian politicians is anything but noble. They are opportunists. In fact, Nigerian politicians are arguably one of the worst species of the human origin. They lack principles and virtue. What they say in the morning is not what they do in the later hours. You trust them at your peril.
The Nigerian politician has no ideological philosophy. He is like a nomadic herdsman who pitches his tent anywhere there is greener pasture. The Nigerian politician is always on the move, from point A yesterday to point B today, and point D the next. The Nigerian politician suffers incurably from myopism and provinciality. What comes out of his mouth is an effusive outpouring of emptiness. The Nigerian politician does not care about his image. He is only after his own welfare and political relevance. He stands for nothing. And he falls for anything.
The Nigerian politician is not a true statesman. A statesman thinks about the people and what can be done to improve their welfare and future well-being. A statesman is concerned about the common good. A statesman thinks about the place of the next generations to come. But the Nigerian politician is none of these. And that is what makes him the Nigerian politician.
I have since stopped worrying about President Buhari and APC’s brand of politics. I am rather thanking God, at least, for allowing the President to become president. I’m fulfilled that the APC came to power and had the opportunity. At least, by now the result of their ruling would have been obvious to them. And they will no longer accuse Nigerians of not giving them a chance.
For those who kept sulking over Goodluck Jonathan and his “clueless” administration in 2015, they should have realized by now that indeed all things work for good, as they used to say. The ways of man are indeed not the ways of God.
To those who worry about Femi Fani Kayode’s defection to the ruling APC, they need to wait and see. I hope someday, someone may not read us a speech of Mark Antony, thus:
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it” (Act III, scene II, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar).
……………………………….
NB: Pascal Chimezie is a rights activist and public affairs analyst. He writes in from Lagos. (08066676262)
