It was shocking though not surprising how a former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, threw caution to the wind to score a cheap political goal against Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed a few weeks ago.
Fani-Kayode is the Director of New Media of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
On the other hand, Senator Baba-Ahmed is the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP). Therefore, you can clearly see that the two politicians are poles apart – one is a candidate and the other a supporter of a candidate angling for something in the event his principal gets somewhere.
Fani-Kayode’s Monday’s close shave with the operatives of State Security Service (SSS) is a case in point over his excesses.
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He made a phantom allegation that a presidential candidate of a certain party was having nocturnal meetings with the military to topple a democratic government. And when called to shade more light on the serious treasonable felony, he recanted saying it was a slip of the tongue, and that he ought to have been more circumspect in his approach.
But beyond circumspection, it is common knowledge that going public with unverified information in order to injure the feelings of those that do not agree with his kind of politics is Fani-Kayode’s stock in trade. And this takes me back to the subject of this piece.
With the proliferation of fake news and increasing impatience and insatiable desperation of some politicians to serve their paymasters, many have thrown caution to the wind and reacted violently to every piece of information they come across. They don’t verify, they don’t crosscheck and they don’t give a second thought before reaching a conclusion.
A case in point is Fani-Kayode’s misplaced aggression of December 2022 titled, ‘A love letter to Datti Ahmed’.
In the said piece, which was erroneously or mischievously published by some legacy media houses and multiple online platforms, Fani-Kayode wrongly accused Sen. Baba-Ahmed of accusing him of “sleeping with women” whilst he, Baba-Ahmed, was “building a university” and Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi was “building his business”.
Fani- Kayode also accused Senator Baba- Ahmed of saying he (Kayode) was busy producing “infant children” when others were doing serious issues relating to development.
In the said article, Fani-Kayode listed countless offences against Senator Baba-Ahmed which will be difficult and needless for me to reproduce here.
But one thing that is certain is that he went ahead to pass aspersions on the person of Senator Baba-Ahmed and equally went overboard and called out his revered parents. What a pity!
Senator Baba-Ahmed’s parents left behind an impeccable legacy of good character, knowledge and peaceful coexistence and no matter the provocation, albeit wrongly, they should not be railroaded into dirty politics.
To start with, the Twitter account used to call out Fani-Kayode does not belong to Senator Baba-Ahmed! He does not know anything about it.
In retrospect, Senator Baba-Ahmed had in August 2022 raised the alarm over fake social media accounts opened in his name to spread fake news.
He said at a press conference: “I have suffered the consequences of the damage being done on my name in the social media. They want to disparage me, stain my image and pitch me against noble religious organisations. The rising profile of Peter Obi in the coming election has made some people jittery,” he had said.
And here lies Fani-Kayode’s misplaced aggression against Mr Yusuf Datti.
But assuming the former aviation minister took few minutes to reflect on what he read on social media, and also took few minutes to place a call to Senator Baba-Ahmed whom he described as his ‘friend’, he wouldn’t have disgraced himself by casting aspersions over nothing, just the way he ended up apologising to the SSS and Nigerians after his gaffe over a non-existent plot.
For many weeks, it never dawned on me to pencil down a simple reply to the garbage written by Fani-Kayode against Sen. Baba Ahmed, but for the fact that he overstretched the boundaries of decorum by involving the patriarch of the Baba-Ahmed family in his diatribe.
Here is a family whose members have established themselves in the Nigerian public and private spheres. No member of the family was ever found wanting and therefore Senator Baba-Ahmed could not be an exception. He cannot join issues with anyone especially on social media.
In Zaria, Kaduna State, for instance, the family is known for Islamic scholarship, courtesy of the founder’s acknowledged firm grip of Islamic jurisprudence.
There are many documented reports that showed that the pedigree of the Baba-Ahmed’s patriarch earned him a place in the Zazzau emirate council as counselor, for two emirs, in Shari’a and Islamic jurisprudence.
Generally, we are a cultured people in the North and we have enormous respect for our parents. We exercise restraints when it comes to respect for elders including those from outside our region, hence it is painful when our parents are called out without a reason, more so parents that left this sinful world many decades ago.
I am, therefore, saddened by the glaring graveyard silence by those who should talk; those who should speak out against the excesses of the likes of Fani-Kayode.
From 1999 when he was brought to limelight from nowhere, there is no northern leader that has not been attacked at one time or the other, directly or indirectly, by Fani-Kayode, depending on what suits his paymasters at the time. But there is a limit to indiscretion!
We all know Fani-Kayode over the years as a busy-body who was hurriedly flown back to Nigeria from Ghana in controversial circumstances.
We possess a complete un-debatable dossier of Femi Fani-Kayode who was mistakenly offered a public office as a cabinet minister in the Obasanjo brand of government. That is reserved for other days.
The attack brought to the fore the ever rancorous relationship across sections of the political class and those idlers parading themselves as politicians lacking conscience, influence and base.
Most times, those living in a world of illusion battling the odds to survive through arrogance and deceit are not comfortable with public rating of their character and reputation.
When they are dragged to crucial issues of national importance, they resort instead to throwing mud on their targets for fear of exposing their incapacitation.
While Senator Baba-Ahmed has resisted all the temptations to join issues with Femi Fani-Kayode, I am tempted to tell him that he is a huge disappointment to the legal profession, politics and humanity that he should not be taken seriously by any sane mind.
He claims to have been persecuted severally by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government but yet, here we are; he is now working for those who want to succeed and build on the Buhari brand.
We must shield our parents in our political discussions. A word is enough for the wise.
Muhammad sent this piece from Kaduna
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