Akani Alaka writes on the defection of former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressives Congress and the implications for the 2023 presidential election.
Suprise. Scorn. Condemnations. Ridicule. These four words summed up the reactions of most Nigerians to the final defection of former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last Thursday.
The defection was a 180-degree turnaround for Fani-Kayode who in December 2019 said he would rather die than join APC. Thus, most Nigerians had reacted to the defection of the ex-minister with scorn, condemnation and anger by sharing the social media posts and reports of his past criticisms of President Buhari and the APC government.
But in the ruling party itself, the feeling ranged from excitement and indignation after the picture showing Fani-Kayode being received at the Aso Rock presidential villa by President Muhammadu Buhari, in company of the party’s National Caretaker Committee Chairman and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, hit the social media.
Sections of the social media warriors of APC who had battled the former minister online were particularly angry that a man who had poured so much vitriol on the President in not too distant past will be allowed into the presidential villa, much less, accorded such red-carpet reception. “We have been through very difficult times with this government, but I have to say, at no one time has my hope ever dipped like it has today, and that’s a deep confession from my soul,” Susan Henshaw, one of the top supporters of the President on Facebook wrote soon after the news broke.
While sharing a post in which Fani-Kayode referred to the Buhari as a lying president who loves cows more than human beings,’ Henshaw wrote “This man has been showing who he is for way longer than the past 6 years…in his public and private life. A man who is more indiscreet than 200 gossipy women put together, more vulgar them 200 drunks in a bar and more slippery in his evil than 200 serpents. That’s not politics, that’s a man with a pathologically flawed character. Don’t nobody try to sell me that mess. I cannot buy it. Thank you. ”
Romance With APC
However, the fact is that the former minister has given enough indications that his soul and body had left the PDP for the ruling party in the past few months. Indeed, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State had gleefully announced that the former minister had jumped ship to the ruling party last February.
This was after a surprised meeting between him, Fani-Kayode and the caretaker committee chairman of APC in Abuja. The former Minister had also gleefully shared pictures from the meeting on his social media pages. But Fani-Kayode, tongue in cheek, said he has not yet decided to join the ruling party then. “Though we have meetings across party lines and we are in a season of political consultations I have not left the PDP,” FaniKayode had said.
But he continued his romance with Yahaya Bello and the Bun- led APC. Significantly, he worked with the Kogi Governor to ensure that food sellers from the Northern part of the country lifted their suspension of food supply to the South, following the riot between Hausa and Yoruba traders in a market in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Also, Fani –Kayode was a surprised guest at the recent wedding of President Buhari’s son in Kano, gleefully sharing pictures he took with APC governors and other chieftains of the party to his social media followers.
He had also in the past few months been defending and applauding actions of some APC governors and ministers.
He had in the days leading to his meeting with the President last week, been applauding Buhari, the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle and minister Ali Isa Pantami, over the ongoing military action against the bandits in the Northwest.
A Consistent Inconsistent Politician
But an analysis of the political journey of the Minister will show that he is only following a trajectory that he has successfully exploited for access to power in the past. For one, he has been consistent in joining governments in power after he had deployed unrelenting verbal missiles and write-ups against them.
Writing in a widely circulated Open Letter to Fani-Kayode in 2014, celebrated columnist, Tiko Emmanuel Okoye had noted that the former Minister pitched his tent with All Peoples Party (APP) when Nigeria retuned to civil rule in 1999. “The presidential candidate of the APP and the Alliance for Democracy (AD), OluFalae, eventually lost to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olusegun Obasanjo, in the 1999 election. Either by acts of omission or commission, it became your lot to constantly unleash scud missiles against Obasanjo on the pages of national newspapers. You accused him of committing all manner of unpardonable sins of governance. In fact, if it was strictly left to you, you’d have had him impeached several times over!” Tiko said.
But the attacks ceased after Obasanjo appointed Fani –Kayode as his Special Assistant (Public Affairs) in 2003. Indeed, Fani-Kayode became the attack dog of the former President for the about three years he served as the special assistant on public affairs.
He later served the same government as Minister of Culture and Tourism and as the Minister of Aviation from 7 November 2006 to 29 May 2007. He was also a trenchant critic of former President Goodluck Jonathan and had joined in the founding of the mega opposition APC in 2014.
But few months to the 2015 presidential election, Fani-Kayode had also made a surprise appearance at the presidential villa in company of some PDP chieftains. He was later appointed the spokesperson of former President Jonathan’s second term campaign during which he deployed vicious propaganda against the APC and its then presidential candidate.
Why I Joined APC
Fani-Kayode is still being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N26million related to his campaign for Jonathan. But had dismissed insinuations that he joined APC because he has become broke even as he argued that what he has said about the Buhari and his government in the past should no longer matter. “Let’s not focus on what FFK has done or said. Let’s focus on building our country, bridges to ensure that we don’t turn on one another as a people and end up having a civil war,” he said. There are no financial inducements. Politicians don’t move because of finances. If I had wanted to move because of finances, I would have done that a long time ago,” the former Minister said while asserting that his new decision was “in the best interest of Nigeria,” and he is not bothered by arguments of his critics.
“You can insult me from morning to night, it means nothing to me. What is important to me is my God and the fact that I am doing the right thing at the right time. I am considerably more wealthy than most people think and I don’t need anything from anybody,” he said while appearing on a television programme on Thursday evening.
Speaking to journalists earlier at the presidential villa, Femi Fani-Kayode, said he was guided by the spirit of God to leave the PDP for APC: “I’ve recognised the fact that we’re very close to war, a lot of people don’t know this and God forbid we should go into that. We should come together, build it. If they criticise me for that, it’s their right to do so. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I’ve made a choice, I believe I’ve been led by the Spirit of God and I will fight and fight for what I believe is right within this party as I would anyway. I will never give up on my core values and principles.”
Fani –Kayode In The Mix of APC, PDP 2023 Calculations
But he also gave an indication that his decision is part of the overall move to strengthen the ruling party and weaken the major opposition PDP ahead of the 2023 general elections. He promised that he is to work on three more serving PDP governors to join the ruling party.
He identified the three governors who he claimed he is currently wooing to join the APC to include governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde and the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed. The former Minister boasted that he was instrumental to the exit of three governors – Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Bello Matawale of Zamfara State, from PDP to APC. “There are many others, some of the most remarkable men in this country are still within the ranks of the PDP, it’s our job to try to win them over,” said Fani-Kayode.
No doubt, if he succeeded, the former Minister would have further contributed to weakening the major opposition party which is still reeling from defections of its three governors and many National Assembly members to the ruling party.
Aside depopulating the PDP, Fani-Kayode will also, in the days ahead, be in the mix as the battle to gain control of the soul of the APC intensifies ahead of the APC election. Even before he formally joined APC, Fani-Kayode had sufficiently indicated the side he would be supporting in the battle to control the structures of APC and where the presidential ticket of the party will go in the next general election.
He has been supporting Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi State, who literally led him to the ruling party. Indeed, he is credited with arranging the series of the well publicized meetings of celebrities and top Nigerian footballers with the governor.
In recent times, he has not let an opportunity for showing his support to the governor pass without taking advantage of it. For instance, when some yet to be identified gunmen attacked a prison in Kabba, Kogi State, penultimate Sunday, he did not waste time attributing the criminal action to a plot to discredit Bello who had touted ability to tackle security in his state as one of his strongest points. The biggest opposition expected to be faced by Bello and his supporters in the bid to get their presidential ticket is expected to come from the Southwest.
A recent report indicated that President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to hand over to the national leader of APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for helping to put together the coalition and the structure which led to his victory in the presidential election after three attempts. There are already different groups in and outside the APC across the country campaigning for Tinubu.
Aside Tinubu, sources informed this newspaper last week that Buhari may, at the end, supported his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, as his successor, especially if the opposition against the former Lagos governor getting the presidential ticket of APC becomes too difficult to surmount. Before now, Fani-Kayode had been an unrepentant critic of Tinubu and Osinbajo.
The fact that he said he will not join the APC in the Southwest also points to the direction of his support. “Fani-Kayode has a potent verbal arsenal which he has deployed against Tinubu and Osinbajo in the past and this is one of the assets those who brought him to APC are after, as the 2023 approaches,” said an analyst. According to him, with his defection to APC, Governor Bello now has a strong asset to use to counter the ambition of the former Lagos governor and others campaigning for zoning of the presidential ticket of APC to the South.
This newspaper learnt that the presidential reception accorded Fani-Kayode has therefore led to disquiet and surprise in the camp of Tinubu, especially over last Thursday’s reception of the former Minister by Buhari. Ironically, the only Southwest APC governor who Fani-Kayode has ever described as his friend is Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, who is also believed to be in contention for the presidential ticket of APC against Tinubu. While many chieftains of the party in the Southwest who are in support of Tinubu or Osinbajo’s presidential ambition are watching the development with keen interest, some of them are speaking out.
An aide of the Vice President described the reception of Fani-Kayode as “simply unbelievable.” Joe Igbokwe, a loyalist of the former Lagos governor in a Facebook post lamented that while the national leaders of APC have not given him a phone call, much less invite him to Abuja for coffee with C-In-C, ‘a political charlatan and a prostitute’ is being given “a red carpet in the seat of power.” He has made other similar posts even as some of his colleagues tried to calm him down in their comments. However, there are also supporters of the Tinubu who believed that.