ANALYSIS… Can Fani-Kayode’s new-found love for Tinubu be genuine? See six times he took Jagaban to the cleaners

The ‘lovey-dovey’ relationship that now exists between former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, can be likened to a love affair between a cat and a mouse where the two are likely to revert to type sooner or later.

FFK, as the former minister is fondly called, has, over the years, presented himself to be a character with no scruples, who is only driven by his personal interest in whatever he does and does not care whose ox is gored as long as he gets what he wants.

He also comes across as a politician without principles or loyalty to any particular individual, group or political party. He is well known for employing the use of abusive words and vile descriptions to attack opponents; same people he has associated with in the past or likely to hobnob with in the future, as soon as the tides turn.

His former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who knows him inside out once described Femi Fani-Kayode as a “smart boy” who dances to the tune of his belle. Back then many thought it was one of OBJ’s diatribe at perceived enemies.

In an interview in 2018, OBJ had said:
“Femi Fani-Kayode is my boy. Provide him food, he will eat and then sing for you. He’s a smart boy.”

The description of Fani-Kayode by Obasanjo as a man without honour can best be captured in his recent support for Tinubu, a man he had spent so much time and energy castigating and vilifying when he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Before he “saw the light” and decamped to the APC, Tinubu was FFK’s number one enemy, as he never saw anything good in the former Lagos State governor. He never allowed any opportunity to attack Tinubu pass him by as he made sure the ‘Lion of Bourdillon’ got his acerbic tongue every now and then.

There was no derogatory name Fani-Kayode did not use on Tinubu. There was no abuse and insult he did not pour on the former governor and other top members of the APC when he was on the other side.

However, it came as no surprise to keen followers of politics in Nigeria when Fani-Kayode, true to type, turned coat and began to defend Tinubu from any kind of attack! And this, coming from a man who had displayed a long standing hatred and disdain for Tinubu for so many years only showed his unstable nature and a fulfillment of Obasanjo’s description of his unstable character.

Below are four instances when Fani-Kayode took Tinubu to the cleaners:

1) A case in point was in 2015 during the electioneering campaign for the presidential election and he was the Director of Media and Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation.

FFK had, in a statement, made a shocking revelation about how Tinubu was allegedly arrested twice in the United States of America over drug and money laundering offences while he was serving as the Lagos State governor.

According to Fani-Kayode, Tinubu was first arrested in Chicago and later for money laundering in Washington.

He stated that Tinubu, on both occasions, begged the American authorities for an out of court settlement, stressing that if not for that settlement and plea bargain, the 2023 presidential hopeful “would have been in an American jail by now”.

“Tinubu, their de facto leader, should tell Nigerians why they should take him seriously after he was arrested on no less than two occasions by the American authorities for money laundering.

“On the first occasion, the arrest was for drug-related money laundering issues in Chicago and, on the second occasion, he was arrested for money laundering-related matters in Seattle, Washington whilst Tinubu was Governor of Lagos State.

“On both occasions he begged the authorities like a baby and was eventually forced to settle out of court with the American Justice Department by forfeiting a percentage of the money after a successful plea bargain.

“What an irony that a man with such a filthy past has now managed to gain total control of Nigeria’s main opposition party.

“Tinubu should count himself lucky that Nigerians have short memories and that he is not in jail because that is where he deserves to be.

“He should also prepare himself for the greatest humiliation and defeat of his political career because after March 28, his ambition of becoming de facto president of Nigeria will crumble before his very eyes and would have gone with the wind.”

However, on November 9, 2022, in response to the same allegations of drug arrest of Tinubu by investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, Fani-Kayode who is now a spokesman for the Tinubu presidential campaign organisation, blissfully forgot that he had also laid such accusations on his new master.

In an interview on Channels Television, he said categorically that Tinubu had been cleared of all the allegations of drugs trafficking and money laundering after an intensive investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to Fani-Kayode, “the authorities in the FBI ‘found nothing’ after their investigation.”

To further buttress his points, he wrote another long essay titled, “The obsessions of David Hundeyin” on his official website, and said in parts:
“The $460,000 was seized only as a consequence of the IRS claiming and asserting that he (Tinubu) had not paid tax on his numerous American investments.

“Tinubu chose not to challenge or dispute that claim and assertion by the IRS even though he was perfectly within his rights to do so and hence he willingly forfeited that money.

“The seizure of the $460,000 USD had NOTHING [sic] to do with drugs or links to drug trafficking.

“Tinubu is a clean, wholesome, hard-working and innocent man and those making these allegations are simply trying to derail his presidential ambition.

“They are also filled with hate and they resent his great successes in life.”

2) In June, 2020, FFK had, in another article categorically knocked Asiwaju’s chances of winning the 2023 presidential election, declaring that Tinubu was not fit to contest.

In the article entitled ‘An open letter to Jagaban,’ Fani-Kayode said the former Lagos Governor would not succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 because he has been “used”.

“You dreamed of being Vice President in 2015 and you failed. You are dreaming of being President in 2023 and you will fail.

READ ALSO:‘There’s place in hell reserved for Hundeyin’, Fani-Kayode attacks journalist over controversial story on Tinubu

“You refused to acknowledge or accept the fact that the Presidency of Nigeria can only be given by God and He gives it to whom He deems fit by prophecy and divine decree”.

“In all your plans what you failed to appreciate is that God alone rules in the affairs of men,” parts of the letter said.

3) In March 2015, Fani-Kayode made an insinuation accusing Tinubu of complicity in the murder of one time PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Funsho Williams.

Fani-Kayode who was then director of media and publicity for the PDP presidential campaign organisation, in another verbal attack, pointed accusing fingers at Tinubu over the death of Williams who was murdered under controversial circumstances on July 27, 2006.

In response to an attack on the APC, Tinubu had accused the PDP campaign spokesman of being deranged and Lai Mohammed, then APC’s publicity secretary, also said:

“Fani-Kayode may have unhinged, perhaps as a result of a relapse into an unhealthy lifestyle of substance abuse.”

In response, Fani-Kayode fired back;

“I do not believe in violence and I do not threaten people neither do any of my boys or any of those behind me.

“Tinubu should not start this. I am not Funso Williams. I cannot be killed like a chicken. I cannot be destroyed. I cannot be taken before my time. My name is Femi Fani-Kayode, and nobody can kill me before my time. Nobody can cut me short.

“I harbor no fear of violence but I do not take threats lightly. Neither do I fear for my life; because I have never shed innocent blood and because I do not believe in violence or worship the devil, the angel of the Lord will strike dead any person or any group of persons that seek to take my life or the life of any of my loved ones,” he wrote on Facebook.

4) In another scathing statement the following day, FFK accused Tinubu of being a drug addict who had to take drugs to be coherent while making a speech.

“It is not Femi Fani-Kayode but rather Bola Tinubu that slurs when he speaks.

“It is not Femi Fani-Kayode but rather Bola Tinubu that has to take 20 pills before he can go out. It is not Femi Fani-Kayode but Bola Tinubu that his hands shake when he tries to lift his fork and knife and eat.”

5) On September 10, 2020, Fani-Kayode again took on Tinubu for allegedly disrespecting the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, at the coronation of the Oniru of Iruland, Oba Omogbolahan Lawal.

After the event, pictures had emerged on social media platforms showing the former Lagos State Governor remaining on his seat while the monarch was standing greeting him.

For Femi Fani-Kayode, that act was a disrespect to the revered Ooni of Ife, and he took to his Facebook page to berate Tinubu, saying the Asiwaju’s action ‘is not only deeply insulting to every Ife and indeed sons and daughters of Odua but it is also a crying shame.’

“That the Asiwaju of Bourdillon refused to stand up to greet the Ooni of Ife speaks volumes. This was not only deeply insulting to every Ife & indeed son & daughter of Odua but it is also a crying shame. Would a northern political leader refuse to stand up for his traditional ruler?”

6) On October 25, 2020, Femi Fani-Kayode, then a chieftain of the PDP and a self-styled tormentor of the APC, took on Bola Tinubu in an open letter he titled ‘Bat from hell and the Asiwaju of blood’ in reaction to the #EndSARS protest where protesters were reportedly shot at by soldiers at the Lekki tollgate on October 20 of that year.

“The latest episode in your catalogue of atrocities is that children that were protesting peacefully and asking for #EndSARS and an end to police brutality have been slaughtered at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos under your watch as National Leader of the APC.

“Even if the whole country is cowed and mesmerised by you and applauds your callousness, vanity, evil, subterfuge, deceit, ruthlessness, obsessive ambitions, lack of fear of God and doubkespeak, I, FFK, will not.

“You are heartless, you are cold-blooded, you are wicked, you lack empathy for the suffering and you are a sociopath. Your spell may work on others but it does not work on me.

“I see you for what you are: pure evil. You are the darkness that seeks the darkness. The monster that betrayed his own people and put a tyrant and blood-sucking demon in power just to further his own fading ambition and feed his psychotic obsession for power.

“You have no honor. You have no shame. You have no dignity. You have no self-respect. You have no decency. Children were murdered in our streets and this is all you have to say?

“You are attempting to blame them for being shot to death and blown to pieces by a bunch of genocidal maniacs in uniform who subjected them to crimes against humanity, genocide and mass murder?

“You seek to cover up these horrendous crimes and you are attempting to dishonor and denigrate the dead and desecrate and mock the great sacrifice of these courageous young martyrs for democracy who were murdered in cold blood on the front lines in the field of battle?

“Let me tell you this: your dastardly strategy and evil diversionary plan will not work! This matter will not go away!”

“Remember that you will NOT be Asiwaju and Jagaban for ever and, like all mortals, one day you will answer the great call, go the way of all flesh, come face to face with your maker and account for your horrendous crimes against the Nigerian people!”

But today, Fani-Kayode who is now a “staunch believer” in the APC presidential candidate and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government which he had spent so much time criticising, has now devoted his time and energy to castigate other presidential candidates, especially Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

Can such an unstable man like Femi Fani-Kayode be taken seriously even by the APC and Tinubu? Will he not revert to type in the event that Tinubu fails to win the 2023 presidential election? And if the APC wins, and he is not given a juicy appointment, will his loyalty remain to the party and Tinubu. And how long before he switches party?

Only time will provide the answers. But for certain Fani-Kayode’s loyalty for Tinubu is suspect.

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