Opinion
Re: An Open Letter To Jagaban By Femi Fani-Kayode
By Tope Idowu
…The tragedy of your existence
Dear FFK,
I have always respected and admired you, your command of words when you speak. You are one of the very few Nigerians who could speak extempore for hours, and to say this has gotten into your head is an understatement. You got carried away by your writing and speaking skills so quickly that you are unconscious of the fact that you have lost touch with reasoning and ideas. Maybe it is because you were trained with the wealth amassed from treacherous adventure.
It is not in the character of a typical Yoruba man/woman to insult an elder, even the Holy Book forbids such. Hence, I would choose my words carefully, so that I don’t incur the wrath of God. If you on the other hand had exhibited this “Omoluabi” trait in your expression of opinions on political, religious, cultural and national issues, there wouldn’t have been any need for this letter. I pray for God’s forgiveness over this letter.
Your constant and frequent attack on the Yoruba elders has further attested to the fact that you are not a bastard, you are indeed a true son of your father, whom many refer to as “Balogun Odale” of his generation. For many years, I have listened to you speak from afar, I have read several of your notes, and in all of them, you have shown no regard for the elders. You have really over-stretched it this time around. I don’t have any problem with you expressing your opinion on national issues, the same way I never criticized your father for the choice of the political alliances he made, but I suppose it’s time we revisited history.
Just like your grandfather, your father attended many of the prestigious schools in Europe, and graduated with intimidating academic credentials. Maybe I don’t know much about your family background, but history will tell even my great grandchildren the treacherous trait in your lineage. I shall one day tell my children to run anywhere they hear the name “Fani-Kayode”. Though I strongly believe someday, the system will naturally ostracize your lineage, that nobody would want to take the risk of identifying with them. The system will someday declare your family a threat to human existence, and this would no doubt prompt your children or grandchildren to change their last name, and live far way from Nigeria, a country their grandfather and father had severally betrayed and caused so much pain. A country that has cursed the Fani-Kayode dynasty.
Your attack on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, though sad and unfortunate, is laughable. Ajegbodo n wa eyan kun ara. Calling Asiwaju a betrayal is sheer display of foolishness and utmost stupidity. If your father was like Asiwaju, the Yoruba nation would today be more united. In case you forget, or you pretend to be oblivious, Asiwaju is today busy trying to clean up the mess your Papa, and his friend Akintola caused the Yoruba nation.
You talked about the alliance Asiwaju forged with the Northerners, that birthed the emergence of President Buhari, may I remind you that your father and his friends were the first in the Nigerian political history to form alliance with the north? Though forming alliances is not a crime, as such could be done in the national interest, but when such is formed at the expense of your people, it is called betrayal. If Asiwaju had played politics like your father, you and many others would be in prison by now, just like your father conspired against Awolowo, and send him to Prison.
How did Tinubu betray the Yoruba nation since you have chosen to talk about betrayal and open the old wounds that your father caused the Yoruba nation? Egbon, have you forgotten that at the return of democracy in 1999, the southwest was under the total control of the Progressives, Alliance for Democracy, until after the death of Chief Bola Ige, a direct disciple of Awo, someone who was like the fulcrum of Yoruba unity, and Obasanjo, your master, took the advantage to sell the southwest to Egbe Omo Hausa (PDP), and that marked the beginning of the division in the southwest in this political dispensation. Tinubu, being a God-ordained leader of his generation embarked on the journey of reuniting the Yoruba race, while on the other hand, you have been busy uniting the Igbo nation, giving your relentless support to Nnamdi Kanu’s separatist agenda. Maybe your children will one day rule in the Republic of Biafra.
Tinubu has consistently remained in the progressive fold, persistently projected the ideas and ideology of great Awo (who your father betrayed) and has sacrificed a lot towards realizing the unity of the Yoruba race, which was lost during the political era of your father. Unlike your father, who was only known for betrayal and backstabbing, God has through Tinubu raised men and women of means. Tinubu fought ceaselessly to regain the southwest from the political dominance of EgbeOmo Hausa.
Egbon, if you want to be honest with yourself at least for once, your hatred for Tinubu could be traced to two things; for promoting the values and ideas of chief Awolowo, whom your father betrayed and hated so much, since no one can come out to openly admit to the mentorship of your father, not even Late Abba Kyari who served in his law firm. Secondly, for mobilizing against your source of income, and truncated the years of locust of your paymasters.
How has Tinubu betrayed the Yoruba people and Nigeria? Was it because he supported Buhari/Osibajo (Fulani-Yoruba) ticket, instead of Atiku/Obi (Fulani-Igbo) ticket? Is that what you call betrayal? Is Atiku your cousin from Oyo state? Or is Obi your brother from Ogun state? I had so much respect for you, considering the academic credentials you possess, but after reading your recent letter to Tinubu, I was forced to read the previous letters written by you, then I concluded your brain is less than a 2 months old baby.
Tell me just one effort you have made in the interest of the Yoruba nation, just one! One sacrifice you have made towards ensuring the unity of the Yoruba race! Just like your father, you are a selfish, senseless, myopic, over ambitious and mentally unstable opportunist. Each time you talk about Tinubu’s betrayal in the 2019 election, I say to myself, that is either your skull is empty or it’s full of sand.
You claimed that Tinubu dismissed your concerns, treated you with contempt, vilified you, and set out to destroy you. If I may ask, how? What were your concerns? That your Atiku-Obi was a better option for the Yorubas? Or that your PDP that could not restructure for 16 years, had suddenly become Nigeria’s only hope of restructuring? And since you have suddenly become an advocate of the Yoruba nation, were you of the concern that your PDP/Jonathan led-government (of Ijaw President, Hausa Vice President, Idoma Senate President, Hausa Speaker, Igbo Secretary to Federal Government) was the best choice the Yoruba could have made? No doubt all these meant nothing to you, as long as your own money kept coming in. The Yoruba were completely left out in the scheme of things. The fact, that you are shallow minded, does not mean other yoruba are stupid. Tinubu championed a cause that ushered in a Yoruba as Vice President, with several Yoruba in sensitive Ministries, Department and Agencies, without placing his own ambition above the Yoruba nation’s. Unlike in the alliances you and your cohorts made where none of you had the effrontery to negotiate anything meaningful and big for the Yoruba section, but instead, you were busy playing the corridor boys of “oga, anything for the boys?”
Anyway, let me apologize on Asiwaju’s behalf, if what you meant by him seeking to destroy you was because he ended your Almajeri adventure at the Villa. I understand how you feel, because anyone who blocks someone’s means of livelihood, just like Tinubu did to you and your partners, is capable of taking one’s live. It is no a secret any longer that you are broke, that you could no longer afford that expensive life your treacherous father secured for you with the proceeds of betrayal.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has consistently made sacrifices in the nation’s interest. He has paid his dues. He has succeeded where many of his contemporaries failed. He stood in the face of tyranny, where many fell, and walked, even where angels are afraid to thread. All these take only the Grace and Anointing of God, and never has Asiwaju arrogated to himself the glory of God. Wrongly enough, you choose to as out stronger. Asiwaju, that I know has never betrayed loyalty, rather he has sacrificed so much for the sake of loyalty. Those in your imagination, or those who might (in reality) have embarked on the mission to demystifying, and destroying Asiwaju, are on their path to perdition. Those who at a time or the other benefited from Asiwaju’s political style, who were nothing when God through Asiwaju made them something, who have vowed to see his end, should be prepared to embark on a journey of no return. Shalom.
–Tope Idowu is a unionist
