From now till the general election in 2023, a lot of things will happen on the Nigerian political turf.
There would be real moves by politicians to decamp or join one political party or the other, and there would be abundant speculations too.
Last week, there was a mixture of moves and speculations surrounding a former Minister of Aviation and a Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Femi Fani-Kayode.
The man, simply addressed as FFK by admirers, is always at home with controversy. This time around, it was not for his usual diatribes against political enemies or tour of states project commissioning, attacks on journalists or public knowledge of his matrimonial issues.
He grabbed newspaper headlines once again, over his alleged moves to return to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party he had preferred to die than to rejoin.
The speculations raged over his planned return to the APC after the picture of his meeting with the APC National Caretaker Committee and Governor of Yobe State, Mai-Mala Buni and Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello flooded the cyberspace last Monday.
But FFK has since denied that he has intention to join APC despite meeting with the APC apparatchiks.
He said: “It is right and proper for us to talk and to attempt to join hands across political, religious and regional lines to save Nigeria”.
As if to rub his denial in, the former minister waxed sarcastic. “The suggestion that I joined the APC is false and insulting. Those that are peddling this fake news should bury their heads in shame. With what we have witnessed, I would rather die than join a filthy, rat-infested sinking ship like the Almajiri Peoples Congress (APC),’ he said.
Despite the frantic denial, some observers have insisted that the last may not have been heard of the meeting, since, according to them, “Nigerian politicians cannot be taken by their words”.
If he eventually does as many Nigerian politicians do after initial rigmarole, it would not be surprising to many.
Some analysts believe that FFK may have been invited to the meeting by the APC national leadership to woo him back to the party. But then, it is said that if it were so, it could be that the party was being desperate to get him by their side, and to make him ready for whatever role they may want him to play ahead of 2023.
They also wondered if the move was out of desperation on the part of the party to whittle down the camp of its virulent critics, by converting its tormentor-in-chief (verbal wise) to preacher of “the broom gospel.”
If it turns out that Fani-Kayode wants to rejoin the party to remain relevant, it then would be akin to the proverbial dog that goes to back to its vomit?
Would it not be a show of shame on the part of both parties that had at different occasions described each other in the most disrespectful adjectives and unprintable names to now make a U-turn to launder each other? These are mere conjectures.
The former Aviation Minister is not new to APC as he was a founding member of the party until he dumped it and rejoined PDP ahead of the 2015 general election where he was rewarded with the post of spokesperson of the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign.
The speculation that he had decided to go back to the broom party gained ground after Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, in a viral video said:”Our brother and friend, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has joined our party in good faith. He is joining our party to come and add his positive energy and make contribution into ensuring that APC is a party to beat.” Bello who hosted Fani-Kayode on February 8, 2021, announced.
“Remember that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode was a foundation member of this great party. Due to misunderstanding, he decided to port elsewhere. Now, he has decided to join our party. He approached me and by the mandate given to me by the party, I must not segregate, I must not discriminate against any individual,” he further said.
Although Nigerian politicians ride on the crest of the freedom of association guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution to mingle excessively, even with “political foes”, the one by FFK is attracting bickering amongst APC chieftains who are making references to his previous verbal missiles fired at the party and President Muhammadu Buhari.
He had said, “Those that claim that I have joined them & that seek to link my good name to such a bloodthirsty, blood-lusting, accursed political association of Boko Haramists, Fulani herdsmen, genocidal maniacs, ethnic cleansers, mass murderers, ethnic supremacists, religious bigots.
“…cow-lovers and corrupt treasury looters that have brought nothing but death, division, misery, poverty, incompetence, shame and destruction to our nation and our people will burn in hell forever!”
Consequently, his move to join the APC was first resisted by Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman who warned that President Muhammadu Buhari will not approve such deranged possibility as such consideration will be stretching the trust of party members beyond acceptable limits.
Lukman said for APC leaders to associate themselves with Fani-Kayode, is simply rewarding scandalous behaviour, recalling that the PDP chieftain had fabricated stories, distorted, insulted and damaged information about APC and its leaders.
He said: “Besides the open letters, what abusive language has he not used against our party and our leaders? Most of these are unprintable. A typical example of the kind of abuses he spat on our leaders and our party can be demonstrated with his response to a tweet by Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Buhari on Information, last May 2020.
“Mr. Adesina argued that President Buhari’s emergence as President saved the country. Responding, Mr. Fani-Kayode said: ‘Not so my friend. The emergence of Buhari in 2015 annihilated Nigeria and plunged her into darkness, death and destruction. ‘He came to steal, kill and destroy and for the last disastrous 5 years that is all he has done.’”
Lukman, who said that Fani-Kayode lacked values required for APC membership, said: “The issue of Fani-Kayode’s drifted attempt to join the APC is a clear instance of attempts to manipulate some of our leaders into accepting membership of someone who ought not to have been considered as member of our party.
“If that was the case in the past, it is better late than never to correct such a mistake; as party members, we were able to rise up to the challenge of engaging our leaders.
“Fortunately, we are able to gain the respect of our leaders and surely, moving forward, issues of who qualifies to be a member of our party will be clarified unambiguously.’’
He said that those supporting APC leaders’ efforts to transform the party into a viable democratic platform needed to work harder.
“In doing so, we must not allow the current public mindset of condemning politics, our leaders and our country to provoke us into being defensive,’’ he said.
An aide to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmad in his reaction to the alleged defection of Fani-Kayode, tweeted: “If I were him, I would never even think of joining the Almajiri Peoples Congress.”
“They said he is now considering to join the POLITICAL WING OF BOKO HARAM, I do hope he’s successfully completed the required training, so he could be decorated as one of the great commanders of the wing. And when successfully joined, he will be one of the recognised ‘murderers”.
A Political Scientist at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Christian Okeke told BusinessDay that: “There is nothing unusual about the rumoured defection if someone really understands politics in this part of the world.
“The rumoured or alleged move by Fani-Kayode to defect to APC has understandably generated interest among some Nigerians. But that depends on who.
“The first question is, do we really have political parties in the actual sense of it or mere political organisations? Two, do what we call political parties here truly have ideologies?
“And in as much as we are not certain that answers to the double posers are in the affirmation, then actions of cross-carpeting by politicians here shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Politics in certain climes are, unfortunately, bread and butter driven.”
