The man, Tunji Braithwaite

The man, Tunji Braithwaite

— 29th March 2016

By Cosmas Omegoh and Ndubuisi Orji 

“ALL the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,…” says Williams Shakespeare in one of his writing.

For social critic, Tunji Braithwaite, it was time to exit the stage, as he passed on after 82 eventful years, yesterday, while Christians worldwide were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

His death effectively drew the curtain on his many years of political and social activism.

A man of many parts – lawyer, activist and politician – he would be remembered as a man who was never afraid to say his mind at any given time and on any issue.

Although, he had a very successful legal career, Braithwaite’s foray into politics did not produce the desired result for him.

Born in 1933, he was educated at the CMS Grammar School between 1946 and 1953, sat for his ‘A’ Levels at the London University at Kennington College in 1955, enrolled as Law student at the Council of Legal Education, London in 1957, graduated as a barrister in 1960 and was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in February 1961. Thereafter, he signed the Rolls of Barristers at the High Court of Justice, Strand, London before returning to Nigeria, where he was enrolled as a Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in March 1961.

A fearless and controversial lawyer, Braithwaite in 1962 at barely 27, was one of the legal team that defended former premier of Western Region, the late Obafemi Awolowo in the celebrated treasonable felony case brought against him by the Federal Government. He also represented the late Afrobeat icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, and his brother, Beko Kuti in the famous unknown soldier saga in 1977. In the case to seek redress against the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo, who had detained the duo, Braithwaite fought through the High Court to the Supreme Court.

His politics  

Braithwaite joined politics in 1978 with the launch of his party, the Nigeria Advance Party (NAP) on October 7, 1978. In December 1978, three political pressure groups joined the party. However, the party was denied registration by the electoral commission based on insufficient grassroots support, an action he termed “ neo-colonialist nonsense,” because to him, “ you don’t need permission from any government to form association, to canvass for political positions, so that was where our disagreement started from.”

NAP was eventually registered prior to the 1983 general election and was one of the six political parties that participated in the presidential election that year. The campaign slogan of NAP in the 1983 presidential election was a promise to rid Nigeria of rodents, rats, mosquitoes and cockroaches, euphemism for corruption. The party ceased to exist after the military junta of Major General Muhammadu Buhari took over power in 1983, few months after the election.

However, the party came back to life in the present political dispensation, following the mass registration of political parties, after late Gani Fawehinmi floored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in court over the non-registration of his party, the National Conscience Party (NCP).

Braithwaite was a member of the 2014 National Conference convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan to fashion out solutions to some of the problems confronting the nation. Until his death, he was in the vanguard for the implementation of the report of that conference.

 http://sunnewsonline.com/the-man-tunji-braithwaite/

Electrocuted Girl At The University Of Lagos Was A First-Class Student Until Her Death

Ouchi Anekwe was a 300 level student of the Department of Accounting at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and was a first class scholar in her department until her death from a high voltage cable that snapped off the pole on the campus last night.Oluchi Anekwe

Miss Oluchi was returning from church service and was walking along the "New Hall" bus stop in front of Sodeinde Hall of residence when a high voltage cable snapped off the pole and killed her. She died almost immediately. 

Students of the institution today shut down academic activities on the campus in protest against what they considered negligence on the part of the university authorities.

 Oluchi is from Aku town in Igbo Etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria

 http://saharareporters.com/2015/09/09/electrocuted-girl-university-lagos-was-first-class-student-until-her-death

Chimamanda Adichie: On The Oba Of Lagos

Posted By: Olisa.Tv Staff

Posted on Friday, April 10th, 2015 at 7:22pm

By Chimamanda Adichie
A few days ago, the Oba of Lagos threatened Igbo leaders. If they did not vote for his governorship candidate in Lagos, he said, they would be thrown into the lagoon. His entire speech was a flagrant performance of disregard. His words said, in effect: I think so little of you that I don’t have to cajole you but will just threaten you and, by the way, your safety in Lagos is not assured, it is negotiable.

There have been condemnations of the Oba’s words. Sadly, many of the condemnations from non-Igbo people have come with the ugly impatience of expressions like ‘move on,’ and  ‘don’t be over-emotional’ and ‘calm down.’ These take away the power, even the sincerity, of the condemnations. It is highhanded and offensive to tell an aggrieved person how to feel, or how quickly to forgive, just as an apology becomes a non-apology when it comes with ‘now get over it.’

Other condemnations of the Oba’s words have been couched in dismissive or diminishing language such as ‘The Oba can’t really do anything, he isn’t actually going to kill anyone. He was joking. He was just being a loudmouth.’
Or – the basest yet – ‘we are all prejudiced.’ It is dishonest to respond to a specific act of prejudice by ignoring that act and instead stressing the generic and the general.  It is similar to responding to a specific crime by saying ‘we are all capable of crime.’ Indeed we are. But responses such as these are diversionary tactics. They dismiss the specific act, diminish its importance, and ultimately aim at silencing the legitimate fears of people.

We are indeed all prejudiced, but that is not an appropriate response to an issue this serious. The Oba is not an ordinary citizen. He is a traditional ruler in a part of a country where traditional rulers command considerable influence – the reluctance on the part of many to directly chastise the Oba speaks to his power. The Oba’s words matter. He is not a singular voice; he represents traditional authority. The Oba’s words matter because they are enough to incite violence in a political setting already fraught with uncertainty. The Oba’s words matter even more in the event that Ambode loses the governorship election, because it would then be easy to scapegoat Igbo people and hold them punishable.

Nigerians who consider themselves enlightened might dismiss the Oba’s words as illogical. But the scapegoating of groups – which has a long history all over the world – has never been about logic. The Oba’s words matter because they bring worrying echoes of the early 1960s in Nigeria, when Igbo people were scapegoated for political reasons. Chinua Achebe, when he finally accepted that Lagos, the city he called home, was unsafe for him because he was Igbo, saw crowds at the motor park taunting Igbo people as they boarded buses: ‘Go, Igbo, go so that garri will be cheaper in Lagos!’
Of course Igbo people were not responsible for the cost of garri. But they were perceived as people who were responsible for a coup and who were ‘taking over’ and who, consequently, could be held responsible for everything bad.
Any group of people would understandably be troubled by a threat such as the Oba’s, but the Igbo, because of their history in Nigeria, have been particularly troubled. And it is a recent history. There are people alive today who were publicly attacked in cosmopolitan Lagos in the 1960s because they were Igbo. Even people who were merely light-skinned were at risk of violence in Lagos markets, because to be light-skinned was to be mistaken for Igbo.
Almost every Nigerian ethnic group has a grouse of some sort with the Nigerian state. The Nigerian state has, by turns, been violent, unfair, neglectful, of different parts of the country. Almost every ethnic group has derogatory stereotypes attached to it by other ethnic groups.
But it is disingenuous to suggest that the experience of every ethnic group has been the same. Anti-Igbo violence began under the British colonial government, with complex roots and manifestations. But the end result is a certain psychic difference in the relationship of Igbo people to the Nigerian state. To be Igbo in Nigeria is constantly to be suspect; your national patriotism is never taken as the norm, you are continually expected to prove it.
All groups are conditioned by their specific histories. Perhaps another ethnic group would have reacted with less concern to the Oba’s threat, because that ethnic group would not be conditioned by a history of being targets of violence, as the Igbo have been.
Many responses to the Oba’s threat have mentioned the ‘welcoming’ nature of Lagos, and have made comparisons between Lagos and southeastern towns like Onitsha. It is valid to debate the ethnic diversity of different parts of Nigeria, to compare, for example, Ibadan and Enugu, Ado-Ekiti and Aba, and to debate who moves where, and who feels comfortable living where and why that is. But it is odd to pretend that Lagos is like any other city in Nigeria. It is not. The political history of Lagos and its development as the first national capital set it apart. Lagos is Nigeria’s metropolis. There are ethnic Igbo people whose entire lives have been spent in Lagos, who have little or no ties to the southeast, who speak Yoruba better than Igbo. Should they, too, be reminded to be ‘grateful’ each time an election draws near?
No law-abiding Nigerian should be expected to show gratitude for living peacefully in any part of Nigeria. Landlords in Lagos should not, as still happens too often, be able to refuse to rent their property to Igbo people.
The Oba’s words were disturbing, but its context is even more disturbing:
The anti-Igbo rhetoric that has been part of the political discourse since the presidential election results.  Accusatory and derogatory language – using words like ‘brainwashed,’ ‘tribalistic voting’ – has been used to describe President Jonathan’s overwhelming win in the southeast. All democracies have regions that vote in large numbers for one side, and even though parts of Northern Nigeria showed voting patterns similar to the Southeast, the opprobrium has been reserved for the Southeast.

But the rhetoric is about more than mere voting. It is really about citizenship. To be so entitled as to question the legitimacy of a people’s choice in a democratic election is not only a sign of disrespect but is also a questioning of the full citizenship of those people.
What does it mean to be a Nigerian citizen?
When Igbo people are urged to be ‘grateful’ for being in Lagos, do they somehow have less of a right as citizens to live where they live? Every Nigerian should be able to live in any part of Nigeria. The only expectation for a Nigerian citizen living in any part of Nigeria is to be law-abiding. Not to be ‘grateful.’ Not to be expected to pay back some sort of unspoken favour by toeing a particular political line. Nigerian citizens can vote for whomever they choose, and should never be expected to justify or apologize for their choice.
Only by feeling a collective sense of ownership of Nigeria can we start to forge a nation. A nation is an idea. Nigeria is still in progress. To make this a nation, we must collectively agree on what citizenship means: all Nigerians must matter equally.

 http://www.olisa.tv/2015/04/10/chimamanda-adichieoba-lagos/

Nigeria: T.B. Joshua Asks Ebola Victims to Stay in Their Countries

By Ben Ezeamalu

Photo: SCOAN

T.B. Joshua

As panic continues to grow over the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, Temitope Joshua (popularly known as Pastor T.B Joshua), the Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, has directed Ebola victims to stay in their countries.

Mr. Joshua's directive followed a plea by the officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health and the Federal Government who visited his church, last Sunday, to seek his cooperation.

"What makes you a good citizen makes you a good Christian. There is a general law in every country that binds against Ebola victims from crossing borders," Mr. Joshua announced on the church's official website and Facebook page.

"Obey the law of your land and it shall be well with you. Obey the law of the land by not crossing the borders of your nation with Ebola virus," he added.

Jide Idris, the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, who led the government delegation, said that the visit is one of government's strategies to seek collaboration with faith-based organizations.

"We have our strategies that we intend to share with you," said Mr. Idris, a medical doctor.

"Again, we need to know the resources you have here because whether it is one or two cases, if they are allowed to get out, it is a major problem. We are here to work together on how to contain this disease," he added.

Mr. Joshua, the General Overseer of the Lagos-based church, is controversial for his claims of using divine powers to heal all kinds of ailments, prompting sick people from across Africa and the world to regularly throng his church.

Last week, Ituah Ighodalo, the Founder of Trinity House, sparked outrage on his Facebook page after he said that "the Name of Jesus" will cause the viral spread to stop.

The pastor had since come out to clarify that his Facebook post was merely a "message of hope and faith reminding us of the ever living words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

At least 826 people have died from Ebola since January as the virus continues to spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Nigerian Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Monday said that a medical doctor in Lagos has been infected with the deadly Ebola virus.

The unnamed doctor marks the second case of confirmed Ebola infection in Lagos after Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, contracted and died of the ailment last month.

According to the Prof. Chukwu, 70 other people believed to have come into contact with the Liberian were being monitored.

Of the eight people now in quarantine, three show "symptomatic" signs of the disease, the health minister said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201408050164.html

Suspected Ebola patient dies in Lagos

Suspected Ebola patient dies in Lagos

July 25, 2014News, Top NewsNnenna Ibeh

Federal Health Ministry says all those who came in contact with the man have been quarantined.

———————————

A Liberian man admitted to a hospital in Lagos on Tuesday after exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms has died.

The man identified as Patrick Sawyer, arrived Lagos last Sunday from Liberia and died on Thursday night at the First Consultant Medical Centre, Obalende, Lagos, said state officials.

However, during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the patient died on Friday morning.

“Despite the urgent specialised barrier nursing care provided for the patient in a Lagos Hospital, the patient unfortunately passed away in the early hours of July 25, 2014,” Mr. Chukwu said.

Mr Sawyer, an employee of the Liberian Ministry of Finance, came to Lagos to attend a conference.

Mr. Chukwu said the Federal Ministry of Health was alerted on a suspected case of the disease involving a 40-year old male travelling from Monrovia, Liberia to Nigeria on Asky Airline via Lome to Lagos on Tuesday.

He said the passenger had fever and other symptoms of the disease at the airport was quickly isolated by Port Health Division officials and transported to the hospital.

He said the patient was subjected to thorough medical and laboratory evaluation which confirmed the diagnosis of the disease. Mr. Sawyer was said to be in a stable condition earlier on Thursday and plans were being made to return him to Liberia but his condition worsened in the evening.

The result of tests conducted on Mr. Sawyer was still being awaited before he died.

The minister however reassured the public that the Ministry of Health was presently working with other ministries, agencies and international organizations to prevent the disease spread.

He said that all passengers that the patient came in contact with have been traced and are also being investigated medically. Lagos State health officials said the hospital where the man died has been cordoned off and about thirty people believed to have had contact with him quarantined.

Mr. Chukwu said, in line with global best practices, all ports entry in Nigeria including airports, seaports and land boarders have been placed on red alert as staff of the ministry of health are already positioned in the locations and surveillance beefed up.

He also said that tertiary health institutions in Nigeria have been equipped to handle any emergency that may arise from the disease.

Also, drugs and medical consumables are pre-positioned while the health ministry is working with all the states across Nigeria to contain the situation.

However, the minister admonished Nigerians to be vigilant, ensure personal and environmental hygiene and also report any suspected case to the nearest health facility.

He also said that emergency operation centre have been established and coordinated by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, advising Nigerians to call 08023210923, 08097979595 and 07067352220; or email ebolainfo@health.gov.ng for inquiries.

The epicentre of Ebola is Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone where more than 900 people have been infected so far with the deadly virus with 630 deaths. There is no drug or vaccine to treat the virus and it has up to 90 per cent fatality rate.

Ebola is transmitted from fruit bats and apes to humans who hunt them for food and is further spread to other humans when they come in contact with the blood or body fluid of an infected person.

Symptoms include, fever, headache, chills, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, backache, and joint pains. Later symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, bleeding from the mouth and rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and bloody rashes all over the body.

Lagos State government issued an alert last week advising people to observe high hygienic standard including washing of hand and thoroughly washing and cooking their meat before eating.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/165576-suspected-ebola-patient-dies-in-lagos.html

Public smoking banned in Lagos

(1 day ago By MSN Nigeria)

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday approved a bill which bans smoking in public.

P.M. News reports that offenders will be punished with a N10,000 fine, three months imprisonment or both.
AllAfrica.com reports that the bill prohibits smoking prohibits all public places including libraries, museum, public toilets, schools, hospital, day care centres, public transportation and restaurants among others.
Premium Times reports that any person who smokes in the presence of a child would be slapped with a N15,000 fine, imprisonment or both.

FEMI FANI KAYODE IS NOT YORUBA.....

Breaking News:FEMI FANI KAYODE IS NOT YORUBA:Haunted By A Nupe Ancestry-Fighting A FoggyYoruba Identity Complex

Posted on August 24, 2013

 

FEMI FANI KAYODE- Haunted By A Nupe Ancestry- Fighting A Foggy Yoruba Identity Complex
Dr. N. Tony Nwaezeigwe
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of African Studies,
University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.

Nigeria’s nationality question is neither the creation of the Igbo nor the Yoruba. It is the consequence of Hausa-Fulani’s megalomaniac quest for political power in the nation. Yet the Hausa-Fulani accept the fact that both the Igbo and Yoruba hold the key to their attainment of this divine-right objective only if both groups agree to remain suspicious of the other. It therefore becomes obvious that the solution to this national question can only be attained if both the Igbo and Yoruba realize that their mutual understanding and respectof the other’s perception of Nigeria’s progress would save the nation millions in loss of human and material resources.
First, both the Igbo and Yoruba, seen respectively as mentors to other minority ethnic groups in the South and Middle Belt should see their assumed characteristic rivalry, if at all there is something like that, as healthy to the overall development of the Nigerian nation and, not the vice versa. Second, both groups should be aware that this question of Nigeria’s nationality will always persist so long as the Hausa-Fulani feel that without any one of their own being atthe helms of authority in this country, there will be no peace. Andone fundamental means of achieving this Arabian power mentality is to ensure there is perpetual state of political belligerency between the Igbo and Yoruba.

It is on record that both the Igbo and Yoruba cannot write a complete history of their respective roles in the development of the Nigerian nation without mentioning the other in one positive sense or the other. Apart from the fact that both the Igbo and Yoruba were equal stake-holders in the nation’s Independence struggles, theircontacts long pre-dated the arrival of the British colonial adventurers. The Yoruba were the first to establish effective direct contacts with traditional Igbo society long before European incursions. They had penetrated the Igboland before the Igbo themselves thought of coming to Yorubaland. The evidence to this pre-colonial contact is today found in the existence in Igboland of agroup of ancient Yoruba-speaking Igbo sub-group called Olukunmimade up of Ugbodu, Ukwunzu, Ubulubu and Idumuogo towns in Aniocha Local Government Area of Delta State. Although these people could pass as normal Igbo in their general definition of ethnic identity when outside their communities, but they still maintain their Yoruba identity, speaking Yoruba language as their primary mother-tongue alongside Igbo and bearing mixed Igbo-Yoruba names. Most of these people claim to have migrated from Owo in the present Ondo State many centuries ago. Similarly many Yoruba, mainly of Oshogbo and Ogbomosho origins, Nupe and Igala settlers today constitute a substantial portion of Asaba and Onitsha indigenes. These people had settled among the Igbo long before the coming of the Europeans accessing their present abode through the River Niger. Above all, one cannot deny the positive roles such Yoruba missionaries as Bishops Samuel Ajayi Crowther and James Johnson played in the evangelization of Igboland during the nineteenth century.

Thus effective contact between the Igbo and Yoruba not only began many centuries before the creation of modern Nigerian nation, but was initiated by the Yoruba. Those who today think that Igbo-Yoruba contact only began with European colonialism, or that only the Yoruba had been on the receiving end of inter-ethnic migration may be saying so either out of mere ignorance of the subject of Nigerian history, or sheer mischievous and selfish political motives.One does not need to go into the mythical etymology of the word “Igbo” which in Yoruba means forest, but which was in fact first applied by the immigrant Oduduwa group to the aborigines of the present Spiritual kingdom of Ife, ascribing the term to people living in the forest.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the Igbo have always viewed the Yoruba in a healthy competitive sense and not in the light of a heinous political and economic rival, as such Yoruba political torn-coats of doubtful ancestry as Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode tend to insinuate. In the same token, the Yoruba on their part cannot claim that the Igbo presence in their land had been that of a habitual Igbo quest to wrestle their ancestral land from them. Not even the ancestral owners of Lagos State of whom Abdulateef Kayode is not part of, can willingly cast aspersion on their Igbo guests, for the latter have always been their willing partners in the progress of their communities.

The Igbo have never been the problem of native Lagosians but the artificial Lagosians, who come to appropriate their political heritage in the name of Oduduwa. These are the people who control theGovernment of Lagos State today, and turn to use the Igbo as a convenient political scapegoat whenever their devious exploitative machinations against the indigenous Lagosians become obvious.This is mainly because this class of artificial Lagosians has always seen the Igbo as the only veritable fall-back strategy by which means the native Lagosians could gain their internal independence from their co-Oduduwa oppressors.
It is on record that during the First Republic both Lagos and Ibadan, the two most prominent Yoruba cities heavily relied on the Igbo-led NCNC for the actualization their political objectives against the Obafemi Awolowo-led Action Group. Even Chief Victor Fani-Kayode, then the Chief thug to Chief Obafemi Awolowo fell out offavour with his master in 1959 his point of refuge was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who promptly appointed him Leader of Opposition in the Western House of Assembly that same year. Chief Obafemi Awolowo took the same line of seeking Igbo succor when he ordered his followers while in prison to ally with the Igbo-led NCNC to forge a common front against reactionary forces in Nigeria of which Chief Victor Fani-Kayode a.k.a. Fani-Power was one such element. So Chief Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode lacks every moral pedigree to speak for the Yoruba nation because his father had been a Yoruba quisling, and above all not a true Yoruba son.

Today one fact is pertinent to anyone who savours in the stream of cyclic history Historyrepeats itself only to those who stubbornly refuse to learn from its lessons. There is no doubt that with the approach of the epic political battle of 2015, many desperate and opportunistic attempts would be made by some political desperados, particularly those whose political garbs are woven in uncertain future to cause the repeat of Nigeria’s sad political history. This is the ship Chief Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode finds himelf today. He has been out of power and with it came out of money. He is thus in a mission of survival, albeit in a most fatal approach.
In recent times, Nigerians have unwittingly witnessed the unguarded utterances of such political desperados as Malams Nasir el-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu, both of whom were shot into unmerited political prominence from obscurity by the sheer political benevolence of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Equally lately, it became the turn of one of the celebrated renegades of the apex Yoruba socio-cultural organization- Afenifere and one-time factional leader of Alliance for democracy (AD), Alhaji Bisi Akande to label the President of his country a kindergathen President, all in the name of finding the means to create a leeway of political conflict.
Any person who therefore lives within the orbit of Nigeria’s stream of political progress would easily catch up with the inert motive of this stream of unguarded provocations against the administration of President Jonathan. The Boko Haram insurgency, far from acting the script of alternative state power, subsequently became a dog-eat-dog political cul-de-sac. Those who had hoped to use the deadly Islamic blood-suckers as a full-back alternative strategy if they eventually lose the presidential election against President Jonathan in 2015 are now at a loss as to what next to do. For it has become obvious that neither are they sure of winning the epic electoral battle nor would Boko Haram survive to play the expected yoman role in 2015. It thus became crystal clear when it became the turn of the most colourless political clown of President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to join this stream of agents provocateurs, most politically discerning people quite knew where Chief FemiAbdulateef Fani-Kayode was coming from and where he was going to.
With a quisling political and subservient pedigree haunted by a jaundiced Nupe ancestry, laced with a foggy Saro-Yoruba identity compex, nothing better should have better been expected from Chief David Oluwafemi adewunmi abdulateef Fani-Kayode, a.k.a. Femi Fani-kayode, than his spineless historical verbosity woven in outright haft-truths and infantile sensationalism. As a professional historian, replying to such musings of a habitual moronic mind would amount to giving Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode an unmerited intellectual prominence, which indeed is his hidden motive behind his calculated infamy against the Igbo.

But one question which readily strikes the mind is, does being an alumnus of Cambridge University automatically transform Abdulateef Fani-Kayode into an expert of anything? As a lawyer, if one may be tempted to ask, what intellectual and professional landmarks could Abdulateef Fani-Kayode lay claim to? Is it not on record that this same Abdulateef Fani-Kayode has not been able to run and manage a viable law firm, just as his father, Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode could not, but relied on the tutelage of the likes of Chief Rotimi Williams and later Justicoe Soweminmo. Thus outside the spoils of political office, Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode, like his father Victor, is bound to be a political desperado any he is put out political office. It is only calamitous that he chose the Igbo this time for his habitual vain-glorious attempt to re-launch himself into political relevance.
His attacks on the Igbo as to which people are the bona fide owners of Lagos State is thus as misplaced and misdirected as it is a desperate self-propping political venture for a diminished political carpet-bagger. One fact is pertinent, the Nigeria’s convention one’s origins, Lagos is neither the home of the Igbo nor any Yoruba whose parents migrated from somewhere else outside Yorubaland, whether the person is born there or not. Lagos belongs to a definable ethnic and sub-ethnic groups of people- the Eko of Lagos Island and mainland who could even conveniently claim Bini ancestry, theEgba of Epe and Ikorodu axis, the Egbado of Agege-Ifako-Ijaiye axis the Egun of Badagry axis, and the Awori of western axis. It thus follows that any Yoruba cannot fall within any of these categories of native Lagosians is as good a stranger as any Igbo resident in Lagos, just as any non-Onitsha Igbo resident in Onitsha cannot claim any better right over a Yoruba resident there.

Chief David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode is the least of any Yorubaman to cast any form of aspersion on Igbo contributions to the development of Lagos State, for he is not of original Yoruba protegy. He cannot identify his line of ancestry beyond his great-grand father Reverand Emmanuel Adedapo kayodes, a Nupe Sierra Leonean captive of the British Anti-Slavery squad from a Portuguese Slave merchant vessel of the coast of Dahomey. Reverend Emmanuel Kayode was eventually adopted as a house-boy by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther who gave him Yoruba names and subsequently trained him up to Fourah Bay College, Freetown and enlisted him as an Anglican Priest. Reverend kayode, in line with the tradition of the Saro-Yoruba of the time, subsequently adopted Ife as his ancestral home in a bid to historically confirm his new Yoruba identity.
But his father Chief Victor Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode, fully aware of the artificiality of his Yoruba identity later identified the Nupe town of Pategi in the present Niger State as his Grand-father’s ancestral home after he had disrespectfully confronted Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Public and the latter had politely reminded him of his Nupe ancestry. It was in reaction to this obvious revelation by Chief Obafemi Awolowo that he resorted to naming his children after some prominent members of his Nupe family, hence “Abdulateef”, a purely Muslim name was given to his son Femi. The same tradition of Muslim name was applied to Femi’s elder brother who died a number of years ago. It this fact is not on the line of history, let Chief Femi Kayode explain to Nigerians the source of his Muslim name when he claims a pedigree of traditional Christian family, especially when even his mother had strong Christian family background.

In fact again in 1959, during one of his father’s infamous public altercations with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, he was again reminded by the respected sage of his Nupe ancestry. It was when he could no longer bear it that he decamped the same year to NCNC where the Great Zik promptly elevated him to the Leader of Opposition in Western House of Assembly. Is it therefore not an irony of political fate that somebody whose father sought refuge under the canopy of Igbo political leadership and granted with honour when he was rejected by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, could now turn his burden of frosty political frustration against his father’s very mentors.

But that again explains the irony of a pedigree woven in a habitual tradition of political harlotry, infantile opportunism, and a despondency crafted in pig-headed obstinacy. His father Chief Victor Fani-Kayode was never an ingrained Yoruba patriot and nationalist, but a cash n’ carry politician. If Chief Obafemi Awolowo was accused of introducing political thuggery in Nigerian politics, it was in fact his father as the Action Group National Youth Leader that imposed the idea on Chief Awolowo. This again equally explains why his father was always at daggers-drawn with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, for on several occasions he had attempted to unleash that thuggery virus on Chief Awolowo himself.
If Chief Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode opened his wide mouth to insult the integrity of the Igbo people, it is only because the virus of insubordination and rudeness run in their blood. If his father did the same to Chief Obafemi Awolowo then Nigerians should accept such action against the Igbo as an act of accursed political prodigality.Moulded by a shameless quisling culture, if Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode insulted late President Umaru Yar’Adua even in death, yesterday insulted the person of President Goodluck Jonathan, and today insults the Igbo, he does so because he is still under the spell of Chief Awolowo’s curse on his father.
That he lately decamped to APC is yet another show-casing of his father’s tradition. When it became obvious that the fortunes of Action Group was becoming dim with its relegation to National opposition party in 1959, his father decamped to NCNC. When again the fortunes of NCNC became dim with the alliance of Chief Samuel Akintola’s faction of Action Group with the reactionary Northern People’s Congress, his father again dumped NCNCN for Samuel akintola’s newly formed Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), where he was elevated to the post of Deputy Premier and Regional Minister of Local Government Affairs. It was therefore not surprising that his father should be singled out by the young revolutionaries of January 15, 1966 led by the enigmatic and gallant Captain Nwaobosi to be dealt with.
Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode had once confessed that it would be had for him to forgive the Igbo after witnessing as a six-year child how his father was humiliated by Captain Nwaobosi by causing him to lie down and given thirty-six lashes of the cane, before he was led to Akintola’s home. Thus if Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode expresses an inveterate hatred of the Igbo, he does that as a consequence of his father’s gruesome experience be an Igbo army officer, one can easily sympathize with him.

But as history is bound to repeat itself for those who fail to learn from its lessons, Chief Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode should be advised to watch his cliff-diving political despondency, if he does not wish to learn from his father’s lessons of history. The Igbo would wish a real Yoruba- a “son of the soil” with a culture of untainted political integrity and traceable Yoruba ancestry to speak on matters of Igbo-Yoruba relations, and not a man of foggy Yoruba ancestry, a cloned Sierra Leonean Yoruba of Nupe ancestry, safe for the benevolence of patchy Yoruba names. Chief David Oluwafemi Abdulateef Adewunmi Fani-Kayode has no better right of ancestralLagos State than any Igbo born and bred there. A Gambari par excellence.

Dr.Tony Nwaezeigwe
http://graciousgracegardens.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/breaking-news-femi-fani-kayode-is-not-even-yoruba-after-allhaunted-by-a-nupe-ancestry-fighting-a-foggy-yoruba-identity-complex/comment-page-1/#comment-405
SOURCE 

Femi Fani-Kayode Is A Bigoted, Anti-Igbo Tribalist By Femi Aribisala

Posted: August 20, 2013 - 18:23

By Femi Aribisala

The year was 1965. I was an innocent starry-eyed 13 year-old and Nigeria was in turmoil. It was the era of the “wetie,” when the houses of politicians and key public-figures were burnt down in the brouhaha that was then Western Nigeria.

We lived in Oke-Ado in Ibadan and our next-door neighbour was Chief Ogundiran, a minister in the government of Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the Western Region. (Ogundiran was famous for only wearing white.) In the spirit of the times, a mob came early one morning and burnt down his house. He jumped out of the window and managed to escape.
Fani-Power, Fani-igbo: I was having private lessons in Mathematics at the home of a colleague, Enitan Abiodun, when we heard the noise of a crowd outside. We rushed to the veranda to see Chief Remi Fani-Kayode (alias Fani-Power), then Deputy Governor of the Western Region, standing on the seat of a moving convertible. He was surrounded by a mob, which was shouting and hailing him. On hearing the noise, Enitan’s mother rushed to the veranda shouting “Awo!” only to discover that the people outside were not supporters of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but those of his arch-enemies.

The shout of “Awo!” by Mrs. Abiodun brought the procession to a screeching halt.

“Who said that? Who said that?” demanded the mob, enraged.

“Fani-Power” turned and looked up at us. His eyes were the usual blood-shot red. At the time, many claimed it was because he regularly smoked Indian-hemp. Fani-Kayode pointed to our building and identified to his thugs that the offending shout came from our direction. We did not know that the floor of the convertible he was standing in was loaded with empty bottles. His thugs reached for the bottles and rained them down on us as we all scrambled back inside the house for dear life.

Like father, like son: That was 48 years ago. Today, Femi Fani-Kayode, the 53-year-old son of “Fani-Power,” continues in the mischievous tradition of his father: throwing dangerous missiles at the innocent. He recently wrote an incendiary article entitled: “The Bitter Truth About the Igbo,” in which he maligned the Igbos and virtually told them to get out of Lagos and leave Lagos for the Yorubas.

What is peculiar about the article is that Femi Fani-Kayode himself is no more Lagosian than the Igbos he berates. The Fani-Kayodes are not from Lagos. They are from Ile-Ife in Osun State. Femi Fani-Kayode’s only legitimate claim to Lagos is that he was born there.

But then so were many Igbos who are, therefore, Lagosians. Moreover, Igbo-Lagosians have one up on Femi Fani-Kayode. They live in Lagos. Femi Fani-Kayode does not. Igbo-Lagosians work in Lagos and pay taxes to the Lagos State government. Femi Fani-Kayode does not. Therefore, what right does he have to write his diatribe against them? What right does he have to maintain Lagos does not belong to Igbo-Lagosians?

Having thrown these bottles maliciously, Femi Fani-Kayode decided to throw a few more. He wrote another invective entitled: “A Word For Those Who Say I Am A Tribalist.” In order to demonstrate that he was not anti-Igbo, he presented the cliché that some of his best friends are Igbos. As proof, he detailed three Igbo women (some of them happily-married) he claims to have had affairs with. Only God knows how this shows he is not biased against the Igbos. Slave-traders slept with their slaves. Is that proof they were not racist?

The jury is out already. Femi Fani-Kayode is a bigoted tribalist. Only a tribalist can say he is not anti-Igbo and then say this about the Igbos: “(They are) collectively unlettered, uncouth, uncultured, unrestrained and crude in all their ways.” “They have no restraining factors because money and the acquisition of wealth is their sole objective and purpose in life.”

Clearly, Femi Fani-Kayode is out of control. He has become something of a train-wreck. He was President Obasanjo’s agent-provocateur for so long, where he maligned elder-statesmen like Yakubu Gowon; he no longer knows how to speak with decorum.
The American model: I am Yoruba. Nevertheless, I repeat; the Igbos of Lagos are Lagosians. They are Lagosians whether ethnic jingoists like Femi Fani-Kayode like it or not. The Lagos branch of the old Action Congress of Nigeria acknowledged that no less than 45% of the population of Lagos is Igbo.

That is a fact that cannot be ignored or simply wished-away. It is not improbable that, in a few years time, the majority of people living in Lagos will be Igbos. Short of changing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that tells me an Igbo man can rightfully become the future Governor of Lagos State. That should give some food-for-thought to the Fani-Kayodes.
The system of government in Nigeria is modeled after that of the United States. In the U.S., Hilary Clinton is a native of Illinois. Nevertheless, in 2000 she contested for election as Senator in New York and won. She was eligible to run for the seat simply because she and her husband moved to New York and lived there for only one year. Similarly, some Igbos have been in Lagos for 50 years.

That should make them eligible to run for office. If they vote the ethnic card, as Yorubas often do, Femi Fani-Kayode might have a heart-attack. An Igbo man might conceivably become the Governor of Lagos State. That is what democracy is all about.
The growing political muscle of Igbo-Lagosians has been obscured by electoral malpractices. That cannot last forever. Sooner than later, Igbo-Lagosians will start to pull their political weight in Lagos. True indigenes of Lagos, as opposed to carpet-baggers like the Fani-Kayodes, have traditionally been open-minded about Igbos and non-indigenes. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a Nigerian nationalist who happened to be Igbo, once won an election in Lagos, before Awolowo appealed to tribal politics to truncate it.

Grudging acknowledgement of the growing political clout of the Igbos led to the appointment of a token Igbo man, Pastor Ben Akabueze, as Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget in Lagos by Governor Babatunde Fashola; a post he has held for six years.
Femi Fani-Kayode should have gone to court to challenge that appointment. Soon, such tokenism will just not cut it. Igbo-Lagosians will demand a more proportionate share of the local political power. If they play their cards right, they will get it. Igbo-Lagosians vote in Lagos. Therefore, they can be voted for in Lagos. No constitutional amendment is required to bring this about.
Given his educational background, one would have expected Fani-Kayode to be more enlightened. A Nigerian cannot be an alien in Nigeria. An Igbo man cannot be an alien in Lagos. Igbos are not illegal aliens in Lagos. They are at home. In Nigeria, a Nigerian is entitled to live wherever he wants. If the resources of the Niger-Delta can be Nigerianised to the benefit of Yoruba-Lagosians, then Lagos cannot be the exclusive preserve of Yoruba-Lagosians.
Since Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians, then Lagos belongs to all Nigerians. During the census enumeration, some of us insisted that Igbos must stay and be counted in Lagos for that very reason. Since Igbo-Lagosians are a significant part of the local population who contribute immensely to key sectors of the economy, the national census must reflect the fact that they live and work in Lagos.

I recently visited London after a ten-year absence. What I saw was a highly cosmopolitan city with people of different nationalities, including Nigerians. London is no longer a town of the English. It is now a megalopolis in the true sense of the word. On several occasions, I overheard people speaking Yoruba in the streets of London. On one occasion, I could not resist the urge to interject, even though uninvited.
Nigerians are everywhere. On a visit in May 2013 to WashingtonD.C., United States for the Nigerian Development and Finance Forum, under the auspices of Financial Nigeria Limited, I was informed by the Deputy Ambassador of Nigeria to the United States that there are currently five million Nigerians in the U.S. There are even more Nigerians in Sudan; over eight million.
Nigerians constitute a significant percentage of the population of Cote d’Ivoire. There are more Nigerians in Equatorial Guinea than Equatorial-Guineans. There is no country on planet earth where you will not find a sizeable population of Nigerians. U.N. projections predict that Nigeria will soon be the fourth largest country in the world, surpassed by only China, India and the United States. Under such circumstances, a Nigerian like Femi Fani-Kayode should not be hankering after a small real-estate called Lagos. Nigerians must become citizens of the world.

Joseph was a Jewish slave in Egypt. Nevertheless, he rose to become the Egyptian Prime-Minister. That happened in biblical days, and not twenty-first century Egypt. More recently in 2008, Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan, became president of the United States. In 2010, John Abraham Godson, a Nigerian-born Polish citizen became a Member of Parliament in Poland. In April, 2013, Cecile Kyenge, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, became the Minister of Integration of the Republic of Italy. Surely, Femi Fani-Kayode cannot discern these signs of the times. Especially, the new Nigeria. M.K.O. Abiola, a Yoruba man, won his famous presidential election in 1993 by relying on Hausa, Fulani, Igbo and other votes. He was not just elected by Yorubas. Yorubas did not even vote for Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. He became President by relying on northern, eastern and south-south votes. Goodluck Jonathan became president in 2011 by forging a coalition that stretched across the Niger and the Benue to all parts of Nigeria.
When Odumegwu Ojukwu died, the entire nation of Nigeria consoled the Igbos.

Collectively, we declared with one voice that the civil war is truly over. We must not allow the Femi Fani-Kayodes to turn back the clock. Next time Femi Fani-Kayode wants to tell us “the bitter truth,” he should tell us about N19.5 billion Aviation Fund mismanaged under his watch as Minister of Aviation under the Obasanjo administration. That is the bitter truth we need to hear from him right now.                    

•Femi Aribisala is a commentator on public policy

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters

http://saharareporters.com/article/femi-fani-kayode-bigoted-anti-igbo-tribalist-femi-aribisala