Alarmist Fani-Kayode’s Mindless Vituperations Against APC By AbdulRahman Agboola

A lot of aspersions are being casted on the Leaders of the All Progressive Congress by Femi Fani-Kayode in an unholy calculated attempt to confuse the vast majority of Nigerians that subscribes to the importance of an opposition party in a fair political environment. It is on record that Femi Fani-Kayode, a Former aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo and a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party at this moment is leaving no stone unturned in his numerous attacks against key Chieftains of the All Progressive Congress, especially those of Yoruba Origin.

With good intent and purpose, it is imperative to dissect the claims of Femi Fani-Kayode on the pursuance of an Islamic Agenda by the APC at the expense of Religion Freedom enshrined in the Nations Constitution, with a view to confirm the sincerity of the APC Manifestos that tends to suggest solutions to the nations maladies and equally check the intentions and gains of Femi Fani-Kayode in his relentless campaign of calumny against the APC.

Femi Fani-Kayode has branded the All Progressive Congress as Almajiri Peoples Congress and Haramist, in many of his authored articles, where he labeled APC as an Islamic Party with religious agenda on perceived possibility of an emergence of Muslims as Flag bearers of APC for the Office of President and Vice President, alleged APC to have turned Yoruba and the entire Southern Part of the Country into perpetual slaves and pursuance of anti-Christian Agenda and many more. For the sake of brevity, it is important to dwell on these issues capable of deepening the chasm between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

For the avoidance of doubt, Nigeria as a nation blessed with many visionary, exposed and experienced personalities in all spheres of life, is too vast for any group to impose a religious agenda in any form on the people or the nation, both the Constitution and system of governance greatly forbids such exploits. The membership of political parties in Nigeria spread across all religions in Nigeria, then one imagine how the APC would pursue a religious agenda at the expense of another religion which demeans the freedom of believe in the Country.

Critical looks at the claims of Femi Fani-Kayode clearly confirm the usage of under hand methods by some unsuspecting religious bigots to escalate the crises between some ignorant religious people misdirecting the affairs of our Nation. For the sake of clarity, the Peoples Democratic Party took over the mantle of leadership at the Federal Level since 1999 by defeating an opposing party at the election. In the said year, the three major political parties in Nigeria won elections into seats in the National Assembly with PDP having a slight majority at both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The defunct Alliance for Democracy had excellent control in the South West, All Peoples Party had strong dominance in North Central, North East and North West while PDP dominated some Northern States, South East and South South.

In the struggle for democracy under the military juntas, the Civilians were united as Nigerians in crave for civil rule in Nigeria to an extent of religious fidelity among Nigerians as seen in the 1993 and 1999 Presidential Elections. In 1993, the leadership of the Social Democratic Party and National Republican Party both presented Muslims as Presidential Flag bearers while in 1999, PDP and APP both presented Christians which earned the support of vast majority of the electorates without complaints by the religious leaders.

It is not misinforming to state that the hype in the religious sentiments comes to fore in the administration of President GoodLuck Jonathan, though a thorough analysis on that is not meant for this piece but it is important to note that the rise of sectarian crises in the Northern Nigeria has been a serious matter claimants have used as grounds either to sustain arguments on the adversity of the current administration of President Jonathan and the adversaries of his re-election bid comes 2015.

The Alliance for Democracy was accused of being a Yoruba Party by Former President Obasanjo in his contest with the credentials and reputations of the successors of Obafemi Awolowo political heritage and caucus leading to manipulations against the party leading to the invasion of South West by Obasanjos’ favourite PDP in 2003. In the 1999 Presidential Election, the Alliance for Democracy aligned with All Peoples Party to present a joint Presidential Candidate, this is said to trace the alliance between the gladiators in APC from time immemorial. At the 2003 Presidential Poll, Alliance for Democracy leaders sympathised with Obasanjo by not presenting a Presidential Candidate against him while he dealt with them otherwise.

The only surviving AD Governor in the Nigeria as at 2003 rallied other party leaders to form Action Congress that regained control of South West, related with the structures of APP that later changed name to ANPP and other Political structures like Congress for Progressive Change that all merged to form the All Progressive Congress as the leading opposition party to challenge the inactions of the Federal Government to the gain of our democracy. If not for the intervention and pro-active efforts of the leading leaders of APC, the Nation was headed towards a One-Party State with dominance of PDP which spell doom for the Nation.

It is on record that, in all the dealings above, there was no point a religious interest surfaced and one wonder the reason behind the wicked blackmails and campaigns against political leaders in the opposition party spearheaded by Femi Fani-Kayode and co-travellers. An insight into the personality of Femi Fani-Kayode reveals that he inherited his expertise of mischief and despondency from his father, who was a progenitor of disunity among the Yoruba people, pursued Christian Agenda at the expense of public good and contributed immensely to the discord between Chief Awolowo and Chief Akintola, I stand seriously to be quoted on this.

Chief Victor Babaremilekun Fani-Kayode(Fani Power), the biological father of Femi Fani-Kayode was a strong follower and ally of Chief Obafemi Awolowo under the platform of Action Group where he held many positions between 1952 to 1959 prior to his misdemeanours in the political space. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was regarded by many Northern Leaders as proponent of Yoruba Nation and alleged of pursuing a Yoruba populist agenda against the Northern Nigeria. In 1959, he betrayed the collective allegiance to the manifesto of Action Group for a monumental development of Nigeria, jettisoned the progressive agenda and abandoned the visionary leadership provided by the party in pursuance of personal aggrandizement and decamped to the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons and later became Deputy Premier to Chief Samuel Akintola under the platform of Nigeria National Democratic Party and later appointed as Minister of Local Government for Western Region by the Prime Minister that later derailed the cause of governance in Nigeria.

It is on record that Fani-Kayode became a fore most pro Northern Agenda against the Action Group and played opposition to all Yoruba Political interest since he left the Action Group in 1959 till he died in 1995. Notable among his political onslaught against Yoruba interest was his support for Chief Samuel Akintola against the Leadership of Action Group, staunch support for National Party of Nigeria in 1978 against Unity Party of Nigeria leading to the loss of the Presidential Election by Awolowo, strong opposition to the Presidential bid of Chief Moshood Abiola under SDP in 1993 and romance of the dreaded General Sani Abacha regime in 1994 to an extent of serving in committee under him which were all against Yoruba interest.

In Fani-Kayodes’ romance with the Northern Muslims in power, he cunningly devised a plot to represent Christian interest in Government following his participation in the struggle for the recognition of Northern Minorities which were majorly Christians at the Willinks Minorities Commission in 1957. In real essence, Fani-Kayode was a religious bigot, flawed Yoruba interest in his life time and hyped the polarization of the Nations Politics with religious interest.

It is then easy to conclude that Femi Fani-Kayode picked his dubious tendencies from his father and does not deserve to be taken serious in his political actions and show of ignorance on religion as a bigot, alarmist and extremist. It is on record that the spoilt brat was rehabilitated and empowered in a gruesome manner by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a strong ally of his Father and partner in heinous crimes against the Yoruba race. Many among the Yoruba Leaders in APC are true followers of Awolowo even though a handful of them are in PDP as well, but the APC leaders of Yoruba extraction being persecuted by Fani-Kayode are not responsible in any way for the absence of Fidelity among the Yoruba race, but his father and friends are responsible for the woes of Yoruba Nation and the malady of poor governance in Nigeria.

The complicity of any personality or political groups in the violent activities of the terrorist terrorizing the nation is the ultimate responsibility of our Security Agencies to address and bring the perpetrators of these terrors to punishments and sanitise our nation of religious extremists and murderers.

It is highly essential to urge our political leaders to desist from supporting actions that will bring disharmony to the masses especially on the religious front. The characters, activities and actions of most of our Political Leaders contradicts with the teachings, rules and guidance of both the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible, hence they should desist from using religion as a plot to advance their leadership on the masses and the masses are encouraged to shun religious sentiments in supporting political office holders or aspirants in the best interest of the Nation.

The Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress should present credible candidates with proven records of good conscience and integrity in the bid to advance the cause of the entire people of Nigeria as we prepare for the 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS and stop faking Nigerians under any religious guise.

Comrade Agboola AbdulRahman

National Coordinator,

Mass Action for Good Governance and Grassroots Development

nycnpro@gmail.com 08032813279