[dropcap]L[/dropcap]et it be stated from the outset that this piece is being written in memory of a certain Okanga Agila, who, in penning his calligraphic gibberish on the subject and against Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, betrayed the mental comatose his acephalous entity is constantly subjected to owing to the torture suffered from being averse to truth and its purveyors.
Of course, as it is known with men of no or empty heads, Okanga made frantic but puerile efforts to vitiate the seriousness of the issues which the former minister of aviation raised in his article on the subject, a confirmation that such men do not need to die before they die. With the way their headless brains work, Okanga is dead!
It would have amounted to an unworthy venture and a waste of time to give importance and attention to a writer motivated by filthy lucre rather than objectivity and facts but for the purpose of setting the records straight.
Let Okanga and his likes know that Femi Fani-Kayode does not speak lightly. He speaks from supernatural inspiration and insight unfathomable to undiscerning mortals. Only cretins and their paymasters discard his words and treat them with levity, usually at their own peril.
For example, there is nothing FFK as he is fondly called said about Buhari and the current administration during the 2015 election campaigns that has not come to pass. Be it the tyranny, its blatant and continued defiance of court orders, economic hardship, hunger, collapse of our local currency, a general exhibition of whimsical arbitrariness of autocracy over our hard-won democracy and many more.
Fani-Kayode has come from a very noble family with rich roots and patriotism that have immensely shaped the course of our nation over the years even before our independence. The fact that it was Femi’s father, Chief Remlekun Fani-Kayode of blessed memory, that successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in 1958 before becoming the Deputy Premier of the Old Western Region in 1963, is enough to prove that the heritage of unrepentant patriotism to the cause of the nation was well bequeathed to him by his father, and no one, except very few like FFK, can lay claim to know where the umbilical cord of the nation was buried after its birth.
So when the former minister of Culture and Tourism speaks, it behoves on wise men to listen to him rather cast aspersions at him. Those who did that at the last general elections now bite their fingers in deep regret. Many of such people now diligently seek him to apologise to him for not heeding his warning then and also for standing against him – against reason. It is only a matter of time, the Okangas of our nation will soon have the veil covering their eyes torn apart, and just like the villains of the 2015 elections, come back to FFK to seek his forgiveness for not heeding his warnings.
Having committed so much to the development of our nation, and with his family shaping the history of Nigeria, it would be defeatist of such a man to just wake up and start calling for the restructuring of the nation and also respect for those who wish to take a walk from the entity if there are no compelling reasons to do so.
No matter how much we try to pretend about it, a selfish section of the northern oligarch has held the nation by the jugular and down for too long. Are we going to allow them grip our scrotum, too, without a roar? What man does that?
Every section of the country has suffered immeasurably in the hands of the oligarchs. Fani-Kayode restates the fact of history that this same set of people saw to the killing of millions of the Igbo during the civil war, starved millions of women and children to death, seized their properties and compensated them with a paltry £20 after the war in order to keep them subjugated for life.
Since then, there have been high-wired conspiracies to deny the Igbo access to political power or even certain positions in government as a way of continuing the civil war by proxy. Yet, when the people cry out that they are dying under the excruciating pains of these burdens, their young men get killed by state agents under the guise of quelling a non-existent rebellion. Many have had their lives needlessly snuffed out of them by the smoking guns of those who are paid to protect them.
In most households of the southeast, tears still flow because of the barbarism of the Nigerian state. While the harbingers of hate and falsehood like Okanga want us to believe that these young men and women savagely cut down in their prime by state agents in Igboland were rebels simply because they associated with bodies like IPOB, a Nigerian court has rightly declared that IPOB is not illegal as the members’ rights to associate were not only provided for but also guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution. The implication of the court pronouncement on this is very far-reaching. It simply means that those who have been killed for expressing their solidarity with IPOB were most unlawfully killed under the watch of Buratai as Chief of Army Staff, yet, he speaks about the matter with insipid arrogance.
No one expects a man like Fani-Kayode, committed to truth, justice, equity, fairness and freedom, to keep quiet while all these are going on. Harbingers of truth are irritants to tyrants. Nigerians know exactly why FFK is being so viciously persecuted by the Emperor. He once floored an Emperor from Katsina State after he was made to undergo seven years of inhuman persecution; he would floor this Emperor also from Katsina State in like manner. He is a man destined for elevation from persecution. If those who are running after him knew this, they would cease giving him the ladder with which to climb over them.
A situation where every other tribe and minority group have suffered one misfortune or the other in the hands of this set of northern oligarch is enough to rile even the dictator’s wife.
Chief MKO Abiola suffered that cruel fate in their hands alongside some other Yoruba leaders. This also made many prominent sons and daughters of the Yoruba race to go on exile from where they gallantly fought the good fight for democracy in the period of the June 12 struggle.
The Shiite Muslims have also been victims of the high-handedness of this despotic government. While Okanga attempted to make it look like it was a Muslim government against another Muslim group, we are all very much aware of the open detestation the Sunni Muslims have for their Shiite brethren. The rest, like they say, is history.
It is this same northern oligarchs who did all that was possible to blackmail former president Goodluck Jonathan out of power for the simple reason that he is Ijaw, a minority ethnic group from South-South Nigeria. To them, it is an anathema to have their “Born to Rule” creed interrupted by any other region.
The many injustices against fellow citizens have continued for so long and almost becoming an entrenched part of our lives which the likes of FFK cannot afford to gloss over. He is never the troublemaker here. The troublemakers, in addition to the above, are those whose militants parading themselves as herdsmen, invade our farms, destroy our crops, kill our fathers, rape our women, rip open their pregnancies, slaughter the unborn, maim our children, yet, never get prosecuted.
However, one thing is sure, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode can never be hushed to silence. He is like the modern day Moses sent to go and tell the dreaded Pharaoh, “Let my people go”. The road may look rough now, but he will surely get to the Promised Land with the people. He is the one whose voice has been anointed to divide the “Red Sea” for the oppressed, shatter the rock for them and bring them to their respective lands flowing with milk and honey.
This is his mandate, a divine mandate that not even millions of The Guardians of Empire Nigeria can stop!
Jude Ndukwe is a political analyst who lives and works in Abuja, Nigeria. He is a member of The Trent’s Elite Columnists. His column is published every Friday. He tweets from @stjudendukwe.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
