The striking resemblance between Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo and an erstwhile Minister of Aviation, and his late father is enough to convince anyone of his biological paternity.
However, when the Yoruba hail a person as a ‘husband’s child’ it is not necessarily, nor limited to, a confirmation of DNA. Perhaps more than anything else, it means they stood up to be counted when it mattered, usually in matters of family honour. As I said in an earlier write-up, Femi Fani-Kayode is a fearless exponent of his opinion on just about everything, especially matters that concern the Yoruba, in a situation where many of our other so-called elders and leaders shirk the responsibility. In that, Femi is demonstrating that he is a chip off the old block.
On a graduation day at the University of Ibadan, I observed as a mounted police officer rudely caused a small group of dignitaries to scamper in different directions on the forecourt of Trenchard Hall. All dispersed except a rather tranquil gentleman in immaculate suit who appeared totally unconcerned with the mounted officer’s antics. Instinctively, the mountie backed his horse away.
I recognised the handsome man because I had met him once and seen him on at least two other occasions previously. He was Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, aka Fani-Power, a former Deputy Premier of old Western Region and father of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode. The senior Fani-Kayode was attending the graduation of Lola Fani-Kayode, Femi’s sister.
Chief Remi Fani-Kayode did not have any bodyguards and there were no police escorts around him but he stood his ground. His calm comportment (a far cry from the mindless thugs of Femi Aribisala’s recent malicious portrayal) was enough to check the impudent horseman. It reminded me then of a Yoruba saying, perhaps originated from Hausa, that even when shorn of all adornments, a prince never loses the bearing of a Dan-Zaki.
Save for a precious few, the current debate on Lagos State government’s deportation of a number of destitute individuals to their states of origin is fast becoming absurd. This is mainly because many commentators, deliberately or ignorantly, sidetrack the real issues.
It is abhorrent that politicians would pass the buck of caring for a highly vulnerable group of Nigerians, not to talk of physically toss the individuals between themselves. On the other hand, it is exceptionally bad manners when non-natives call the abode of their host communities a no man’s land, as some have dubbed Lagos.
It is also clear that essentially only our Igbo brethren exhibit this discourteous habit. Other ethnics usually show appreciation for generosity and show respect for host traditions and ancestry. It is even more important to note that the Igbo do this usually, only in matters pertaining to the Yoruba.
While it is true that Fani-Kayode has a habit of stirring (actually, he throws IEDs at them) Nigeria’s political hornet nests, it is dishonest to suggest, and wicked to pretend, that he started these ethnic exchanges. Short of hypocrisy, there is no basis for accusations of boorishness by Chika Ezeanya, of vulgarity by Regina Askia despite her implausible denial, and of bigotry by Femi Aribisala, to name just three.
Insolence is not a virtue and must not be condoned. Those who lack it, Chief Obafemi Awolowo once said concerning Nigeria’s rude neighbours in Cameroun, Chad and Niger, ought to be taught good neighbourliness.
The ferocity of the revenge military coup of July 1966, they say, is to ensure that the Igbo will never again dare to think, let alone plan or carry out against the North, the kind of cowardly murders of 15th January 1966. Whether intended or inadvertent, the lesson appears to have sunk home, as even people like the late Chinua Achebe sheepishly resorted to castigating only the ‘soft touch’ Yoruba. In 1983, Achebe was presidential running mate to the late Alhaji Aminu Kano, a man accused of actively directing pogrom against the Igbo in Kano. Any notion that his 1983 political choice was an attempt to bury the hatchet of Nigeria’s civil war was subsequently dispelled twelve months ago by Achebe’s contentious swan song, There Was A Country.
Secondly, since the natives of Port-Harcourt demonstrated that they would defend ownership of their little corner of Nigeria with everything they have, including permanently dispossessing the Igbo of properties the natives believed they (the Igbo) acquired through unjust clannish devices, the Igbo have learnt to tread carefully in the South-south.
Thirdly, when our Igbo brothers, typically, started the parasite-and-host debacle by ignorantly alleging that the Fulani-led North were parasites, they did not expect the response they received. The North retorted that the Igbo are actually the parasites on the rest of Nigeria. They pointed out that nearly all of successful Igbo prospered outside of Igboland and that, statistically, as at 1966, ninety-eight per cent of Igbo leaders were either born in the North, lived in the North, or spoke Hausa. They (northerners) concluded that despite the propaganda to the contrary, the Igbo have never worked to have a country of their own but, usually, only wanted to ride on the back of other ethnics. Biafra, they said, was an opportunist attempt to coerce unwilling nations, including the highly educated and sophisticated people of Cross River and Akwa Ibom and their oil-rich land, into a would-be Igbo dominated country. Loud noises about ‘northern parasites’ have since muted.
Anyone who bothers to read the substance of Femi Fani-Kayode’s submissions will find that the foregoing are the key points he tried to make, in his own way. Unfortunately and for a trained lawyer, Femi Fani-Kayode can be disappointingly inarticulate. For a Cambridge University graduate and someone whose father is on record for graduating top of his law class at the same Cambridge, it is sometimes painful to read Femi’s brash, arrogant commentary.
However, before we all decide to bury Femi for his delivery, let us remind ourselves that the salvation of Nigeria is beyond literary courtesies and delicate wordsmith. If it were not so, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Niyi Osundare, Mohammed Haruna, Adamu Adamu of the Daily Trust, Okey Ndibe, and other artful and scholarly exponents of the finesses of English language would have saved Nigeria by now.
Our Igbo brethren have shown a habit to start things they cannot finish. To put it in another way, as soon as they realise the truth is not what they would like it to be, they revert to time-worn diversions of victimisation and imagined supremacy. Initially, many Igbo commentators continually asked for a debate of Nigeria’s civil war, pretending there were no factual records, but it soon became clear that what they wanted was for the rest of Nigeria to adopt Chinua Achebe’s versions. No sooner that others started to point out Igbo roles in bringing about, and Igbo leaders’ criminal treatment of Biafra children during the civil war, than they no longer wanted to know.
What Nigeria needs presently, perhaps more than ever, is truth raw and naked. This means truth derived from facts. And just because some of our Igbo brethren do not like to hear the truth, it does not mean that others must not speak it.
By Olaitan Ladipo Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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U can publish that article a million time. Igbo are undoubtably ingrate and incurably dubious. How can they claim northerners are parasites when they are the real parasites on the nation. We shall teach them one more lesson here in the north. Maybe they want to tream their population as they usually like doing. Kano here is full of them
ReplyDeleteGbam! Thank you for calling a spade a spade!!!
ReplyDeleteStraight forward, precise and articulate!!!
ReplyDeleteThe truth must always be told no matter whose ox is gored.
God bless you my brother.
We should all learn how to respect the feelings of our host communities and it shall be well with us.
All these writers are bunch of idiots trying to cause meyhem in an already tensed naion
ReplyDeleteOmo baba e ni FFK! And Olaitan, omo yoruba ogidi ni e!...straight to the fact piece.
ReplyDeleteMy fellow Igbo brethren dnt let us bite the finger dat fed us ,Yorubas has been accomodatng us in lagos and that shld not be seen as foolishness.Can anybody call Enugu A и̣̣̣̥☺ man's land? A word is enof 4d wise.
ReplyDeleteWhile the political elite are seated together and busy sharing the national cake, religion and tribe not divisive factors among them, the ignorant and uninvited amongst us are busy quarreling.
ReplyDeleteIt is evident that your problems(hausa and yoruba) are the igbos ... What a pity for you both. If your pre occupation is the extinction of the igbos , you have failed woefully . The igbos are the jews of Nigeria , think about it , has the horses of the Arabs been able to override that small nation, the constant doom shall be ur portion . Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThank u Sir. You demonstrated again which side of this debate is capable of speaking the truth without rancour and abuse. Those who live in glass houses in Nigera are the ones throwing stones. Hope they will learn.
ReplyDeletewe are a nation built on false or inexistent relationship(s). the amalgamation that brought us together was wrong. it is clear from all I have seen and read that we did not have a say as a people in the union otherwise it wouldn't have happened. shame on Britain for concocting this disaster called Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteFFK unknown to the Ibo is a Yoruba hero for his write up's which majority of Yoruba habour negative sentiments about the ungrateful nature of the Ibo ethnicity. Ibo do not appreciate and reciprocate good gestures to their host community, hence they have silently stirred the Yoruba. Unknown to the Ibo, because of the close knit Yoruba Nation, the insult on Lagos is insult to Yoruba. The Ibos are yet to understand the implication of this ragging matter until in a few years frm now, as the Yoruba's are master planner of War.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! I laugh in Chinese. War where? In Yoruba Lagos against Igbos. Igbos constitute 45% of Lagos and you think you can fight a war against them? You think they will sit and watch you? Or you think they cannot protect themselves and their families? I have always said Nigeria is a big joke. Let us split up and everyone go their way. Shikena!
DeleteI want to use this medium to sincerely appreciates my brothers - chief Femi FaniKayode and the likes of Olaitan-Ladipo for coming out boldly in telling us the fact and the truth about Nigeria and where each of the Tribes stands, GOD bless you FFK, GOD bless you OLAITAN-LADIPO, GOD bless all the good people of YORUBA-Tribe, GOD bless NIGERIA....
ReplyDeleteMAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOU ALL CALLING FOR WAR,,, T.B JOSHUA TALKED ABOUT REVOLUTION LAST AUGUST,,, THE DEVIL IS ALREADY TRYING TO USE THOSE UNDER his CONTROL TO SPILL BLOOD.
ReplyDeleteI BEG GOD TO DIVERT THIS EVIL,,, THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE IGBO HATERS, THE IGBO'S ARE NOT KILLERS OR SUCIDE BOMBERS,, BUT THEY LOVE LIFE JUST LIKE THE YORUBA'S.
AND AM ALSO THANKING GOD THAT THE IGBO'S ARE NOT COWARDS,,,BUT A PEOPLE WHO FOUGHT EVEN WITH NOTHING IN THEIR DISPOSAL..... Ones again the drum of war is not good in the ears of the drumers and the listeners... LET US ALL BE WISE.
MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOU ALL CALLING FOR WAR,,, T.B JOSHUA TALKED ABOUT REVOLUTION LAST AUGUST,,, THE DEVIL IS ALREADY USING THOSE UNDER his CONTROL TO SPILL BLOOD.
ReplyDeleteI BEG GOD TO DIVERT THIS EVIL,,, THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE IGBO HATERS, THE IGBO'S ARE NOT KILLERS OR SUCIDE BOMBERS,, BUT THEY LOVE LIFE JUST LIKE THE YORUBA'S.
AND AM ALSO THANKING GOD THAT THE IGBO'S ARE NOT COWARDS,,,BUT A PEOPLE WHO FOUGHT EVEN WITH NOTHING IN THEIR DISPOSAL..... Ones again the drum of war is not good in the ears of the drumers and the listeners... LET US ALL BE WISE.
FFK,Olaitan Ladipo, you all great,d true sons of Yoruba Unlike hungry and haggard looking Femi Aribisala. His like will run away when the time comes. Whether he will ribi sala or not time will tell. Olakunle.
ReplyDeleteThe first comment is very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThe British must understand that they have done more harm than good in amalgamating the various tribes of this mistake called Nigeria. I continue to wonder why upon all these hatred on this IBO tribe,they are still restricted from declaring & living in their own proposed country BIAFRA. Allow them to have their own country,then impose migration conditions on them if you don't want them. Anything short of this is stupidity for the rest of Nigerians. Break this Country into as many segments as they want. Must we shed blood to achieve that? It is obvious we don't & can't love & tolerate ourselves,why not part ways peacefully & quit all these flexing of grammatical might that will do more harm than good?.......Chris Abara.
ReplyDeleteThis right up is hateful and uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteThe right up is obviously one sided. The question is about deporting a pple who hv been law abiding from their constitutional space for no good enof reason and the next thing the yorubas are now doing is to include north and south south in a debate uncalled for. Why cant d yorubas finish wat they r starting with d igbos without looking for external support? U think the igbos r intimidated by all this rubbish one side write-ups and onesided comments that cant hold waters. Aribisal is a hero outside yoruba land cos he chose the truth boldly over any form of yoruba tribalism.
ReplyDelete@9:06, Lia lia ....We IGBOS will never leave Nigeria, we will stay until we reduce lagos to ashes, una fight for one Nigeria, una go see one Nigeria, we are already 45% of lagos, internet "warrioring" will never save you, tell FFK-up the same
ReplyDeleteWe should learn from our past as a Nigerian. The fundamental aspect of truth is that it not obscure even if lies were rocks. Faithful Nation Nigeria is always being kill by leaders who are not ready to recognise our individual difference and put all the strengths in the individual difference in to use for National interest rather recycling stupidity at vane of wise ones. Abdulrahim K. A.
ReplyDeletewhich census or statistical facts gave the 45% population of Lagos the Ibos are claiming.Try to listen to the voice of reason,Lagos belong to the Lagosians as the city of London belong to the British no matter the population of foreigners.
ReplyDeleteThis is a warning sign for the Yorubas. Yoruba ro nu o. A word is enough for a wise.
ReplyDelete