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Femi Fani-Kayode |
By Nelson Ekujumi,
Ever since his appointment as the
Director, Directorate of Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, Presidential Campaign Organization despite still answering corruption
charges in court committed as then minister of aviation of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode has not disappointed Nigerians and the rest of
the world, who have become used to the vintage FFK as a person who has been
described in all sorts of derogatory terms based on his antecedents, but the
summary of which is that “Some mothers do have them”.
Like in his character, FFK was in
his usual elements only recently when he addressed the media and ridiculously
threatened, “….INEC, to address the issues surrounding the certificate of the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress [APC] Muhammadu Buhari,
or face a vote of no-confidence from the party”.
Ordinarily, one would have expected
that as the elections approaches, Femi Fani Kayode would be busy reeling out
facts and figures about the achievements of his party’s presidential candidate
which makes him worthy of re-election by the Nigerian electorate, but in
justification of the saying that, you don’t give what you don’t have, Femi has
been very idle playing tantrums with the age, sex, health, marital status,
height, educational qualification, etc of General Muhammadu Buhari to the
amusement of all just to distract. We won’t be surprised if Femi Fani Kayode in
the coming days ahead raise questions about the nationality of General Buhari,
definitely, it will be in vintage FFK character.
For the education of our garrulous
FFK, General Muhammadu Buhari in submitting his documents to INEC as
constitutionally required deposed to a sworn affidavit that his certificates
are with the secretary of the military board, having served the Nigerian army
and state meritoriously for years. In case, vintage FFK does not know, an
affidavit is a legally recognized instrument whose violation by any lie on oath
is a criminal offence punishable by law and we only hope he would be serious
for once to bring this alleged infringement of the law to the notice of the
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who is a member of
the Federal Executive Council for investigation and prosecution by the police.
Unfortunately, the role of the
Nigerian military in this saga is despicable and dishonorable. The explanations
provided by the military was less than tidy and it did incalculable damage to
its image as an institution and symbol of unity of the Nigerian state by
subjecting itself to politicization and ridicule just to satisfy other than
national interest and image.
For the military to shamelessly come
to public and assert that “Neither the Original Copy, Certified True Copy (CTC)
nor Statement of result of Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s WASC result is in
his personal file”, speaks volume of the integrity and character of our once
revered national institution and what it has become. If the military does not
have these documents in the personal file of an officer who was at one time the
number one military officer and head of state of Nigeria, then we wonder whose
file would not have been balkanized in the military archive? No wonder, General
Buhari expressed surprise at this development just like millions of Nigerians
who were equally shocked. Definitely, this are trying times for our military
which has become a national embarrassment in dire need of surgical operation
just like the Nigerian state.
Rather than playing tantrums on
national media, which he could have spared an economically traumatized nation,
Femi Fani Kayode should borrow a leaf about responsible, focused and civilized
conduct from the Ekiti E-11 who went to court seeking the disqualification of
Mr. Ayo Fayose from contesting the Ekiti gubernatorial elections in 2014 on the
grounds that he was impeached from office as governor of Ekiti state in 2006
and so he was in violation of the constitution which stipulates 10 years ban
from public office for an impeached person before he can contest any elective
office again and of which the matter is still in court.
It is in this vein, that one must
commend INEC for being responsive in coming out publicly to educate that it
doesn’t have the powers to disqualify a validly nominated candidate of a
political party. According to INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, “Those asking
the commission to disqualify Buhari were free to go to court.
He said the Electoral Law permitted
that if any presidential candidate cited any documents that he could not
produce, he could swear to an affidavit.
On the eligibility of Buhari and the calls for INEC to disqualify him, Jega said, “When a political party presents a candidate and he meets all the requirements of submission -deadline and the forms- INEC cannot reject such a candidate.
“There is a provision that the
candidates should provide documentary evidence of whatever qualification they
have cited, but the law also permits that if you cite documents and you don’t
have photocopies, you can swear to an affidavit and in this case, INEC by the
provision of the section 31 of the Electoral Act cannot disqualify an
appropriately nominated candidate of any party. We can deregister a political
party, but the law says we must accept any candidate; it is a matter for the
court, they are free to go to the court.” Chikena!
Even after General Buhari publicly
came out to address the needless distraction of the Nigerian people by
presenting his certificate at a world press conference, which was also
corroborated by his school principal , FFK and the PDP have turned deaf ears
and eyes to logical reasoning by insisting that the certificate is a forged one
knowing fully well that forgery is a criminal offence punishable by law.
By insisting that General Buhari’s
certificate is a forged one, even after the General quoted his examination
number and year, Femi Fani Kayode and the PDP are only exposing the ineptitude
and incompetence of the Goodluck Jonathan administration in abdicating its
constitutional responsibility of upholding the law by not directing the
security agencies to investigate and prosecute this alleged infraction of the
law.
Therefore, as Femi Fani Kayode
continues in his tantrums of trivializing issues just to distract the Nigerian
people from pressing societal, economic and political issues of general
insecurity, missing school children, security men, air force fighter jets,
commercial kidnappings, massive corruption at all levels of government, mass
unemployment, lack of basic infrastructures, perennial public power failure,
threats to democracy, national peace and security, etc, we are not amused but
only looking at him as a clown who is insensitive not to realize that the music
has stopped while he continues to embarrass himself and his party on the
podium.
As he continues in this exercise in
futility, one can only wish FFK, Goodluck while he amuses and ridicules
himself, his candidate and party only.
(Ekujumi can be reached on: 07033853232)
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