[dropcap]D[/dropcap]uring my tour of the South and after a long and successful press conference in Calabar, Cross Rivers state, a journalist put up his hand for the last question and said,
“Well, we do not know who is bankrolling you”.
This is not a question but an assertion and an insult.
And if this insulting ASSERTION were made before Trump or OBJ I know how they would have reacted.
Below is my response and I have no apology to offer for it.
The young man apologised to me during the press conference and sent his apologies to me after the conference. I have accepted his apologies in good faith and moved on.
I have always had respect for journalists and I always will. Those of them that know me or have worked with or for me over the last 30 years can attest to that.
However there is a distinction between asking a question and offering a gratuitous insult .
This is all the more so when it is clear that the assertion was sponsored and engineered by my political enemies who wanted to use the young man to insult and embarrass me and question my integrity. Well they got more than they bargained for.
I repeat this was not a question but an assertion and an insult and I will not accept that from any man born of woman. Thank you.
Femi Fani-Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an evangelical Christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006. He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation from Nov 7th 2006 to May 29th 2007. He runs a syndicated column on The Trent. He tweets from@realFFK.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
