**ANOTHER SLAP!**
Femi Fani-Kayode And His Naked Dance
I had intended not to dignify Femi Fani
Kayode with any response since he decided
to dance naked in the market place.
Somebody ought to have reminded him
that those who live in glass houses don’t
throw stones.
He has only himself to blame about his
unpalatable past which has been on display
all over Facebook in the last few days.
In the first place, I no longer have any iota
of doubt that his articles are products of a
sick mind. For instance, he claimed that all
Igbos are vulgar.
My response to this is that Fani Kayode is
not only vulgar and obscene but outrightly
morally depraved. How can any sane man
disclose the lurid details of his escapades
with the opposite sex on the pages of
newspapers all in the name of proving that
he is not a tribalist?
Hear him: “I was not a tribalist when I had
a long-standing and intimate relationship
with Miss Bianca Onoh, an Igbo lady, who
many years later married Ojukwu and who
is now our Ambassador in Spain. I was not
a tribalist when I had a long-standing and
intimate relationship with Miss Chioma
Anasoh, another Igbo lady, who I almost
took as a second wife. I was not a tribalist
when I had a long-standing and intimate
relationship with Miss Adaobi Uchegbu,
another Igbo lady, who was exceptionally
close to me and who is now at the National
Headquarters of the ruling PDP.”
Kayode was also laughable when he wrote:
“I was not a tribalist when I wrote an
essay, just two years ago, extolling the
virtues of Igbo women and telling the
world about their sudden and meteoric
rise and how far they had gone in the
power circles of this country in the last 10
years.”
The complete illogicality of his argument
was further exposed when he wrote:
“I was not a tribalist when many years ago
I attended and gave my life to Christ in a
church called TREM, which was established
by a great Igbo man by the name of
Bishop Mike Okonkwo.”
He further exposed his irrationality by
presenting another position which could at
best be described as non-sequitor in logic.
According to him: “I was not a tribalist
when my grandfather, Justice Victor
Adedapo Kayode, taught Chief Nnamdi
Azikiwe at Methodist Boys High School in
Lagos and when my father, Chief
Remilekun Fani-Kayode, was appointed as
the leader of the predominantly Igbo
NCNC in the Western Regional House of
Assembly”.
Pray, what is the relationship between
Femi’s religious beliefs who once
worshipped in Bishop Mike Okonkwo’s
church and his attempt to deny that he is a
tribalist? Was he trying to say a tribalist
could never attend Bishop Okonkwo’s
Church or what?
Again, of what relevance is the fact that his
grand father Justice Victor Kayode taught
Nigeria’s first President, Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, to the issue at hand?
Another evidence that the man is a very
poor example of what a graduate of
Cambridge University should be, was his
response to some of the rejoinders that
have been written about his “scholarly”
articles.
The self-acclaimed blue-blooded Kayode
stated: “The shameless and emotional
thrash and disjointed verbiage that have
been described as rejoinders so far are just
not up to scratch. They are bereft of any
scholarship and intellectual content. They
also invoke (sic) pity in me for the faceless
plebeians that wrote them and those they
claim to be speaking for.”
In his effort to whip up anti-Igbo
sentiments, he was very effusive in his
emotional outbursts. According to him
Igbos hate Yorubas “and only pretend to
believe in one Nigeria as long as they can
always have their way and laud(sic) it over
others. Worst of all, generally speaking,
they have no restraining factors because
money and the acquisition of wealth is
their sole objective and purpose in life.”
He continued: “They have labelled the
Yoruba as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply
because we have refused to accept their
claims to our land and territory and even
though we were more charitable,
hospitable, accommodating and generous
to them than any other nationality in
Nigeria after the civil war.
“They have labelled the Northerners as
tribalists and Igbo-haters simply because
the North has refused to tolerate their
excesses and accept their complicated
ways. They have labelled the Niger Deltans
as tribalists and Igbo-haters simply due to
the ”abandoned property issue” and
because historically many of them have
always resisted the idea of Igbo
domination.”
Another evidence which clearly indicates
that Femi is not only possessed of a
confused mind but lacks good education,
came few days after his first article
claiming he had intimate relationships with
some Igbo ladies.
The statement which was issued on his
behalf indicated that he never meant to
convey the impression that he had slept
with the Igbo ladies whose names he
mentioned earlier.
For Femi’s information, among the entries
for the word ‘intimate’ as contained in the
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of
English is: “having a sexual relationship
especially outside marriage”.
So, how can a so-called graduate of
Cambridge not know the meaning of words
he used in an essay he claims is a scholarly
article?
Worse still, what explanation does he have
for engaging in the use of malapropism
like’ invoke’ in the place of ‘evoke’?
Now to address Femi’s claim that Igbos are
not only strangers in Lagos but have made
little or no contribution to the economic
development of the state.
In the first place, there are historical
accounts which indicate that Igbos have
been present in Lagos since the 16th
century. The Aros- a sub group among the
Igbos- were said to have settled in
Oyingbo in those early days. The Binis who
colonized Lagos and the Aros had a long
historical association. Ancient Igbo history
indicates that the Aros occupied a
prominent place in the ancient Bini Empire
which extended to Lagos and present day
Benin Republic.
Secondly, it is an incontrovertible fact that
Igbos are heavily involved in the
contemporary commercial life of Lagos
State. For instance, it is indisputable that
Igbo traders are not only well represented
in all the major markets in the Lagos
metropolis, they are clearly dominant in
several of them. Even though ours is a
society that lacks records, there is
abundant evidence to convince all the
Femis of this world if they want the truth
on this matter.
For instance, the Minister of
Communications Technology, Mrs.
Omobola Johnson reportedly said not too
long ago that the Computer Village Market
in Ikeja-Lagos, which is heavily dominated
by Igbo traders generates about two billion
dollars (?N300 billion ?) for the Nigerian
economy annually.
Other markets where Igbo traders
dominate overwhelmingly include
ASPAMDA Market-which was built on the
site of the old International Trade Fair-;
Alaba International Electronics Market and
Ladipo Motor Spare Parts Market. Igbo
traders constitute not less than 50 percent
in Balogun, Mandilas, Idumota and other
markets within Lagos Island. Other
markets with heavy presence of Igbo
traders in Lagos include those located in
Oshodi, Yaba, Ajegunle and Agboju.
Although, I cannot give an accurate
estimate of what these markets collectively
generate in the economy of Lagos State,
there is no doubt that they generate more
than triple what is generated by the
Computer Village Market, that is N900
billion annually.
How can Femi dismiss those who presently
generate a conservative amount of N900
billion annually in the economy of Lagos as
inconsequential?
In terms of physical development of Lagos,
Igbos have also contributed massively.
Media reports indicate that most of Ikeja,
Ojo, Anthony, Maryland and Okota were
essentially swampy and bushy until Igbos
moved in. For instance, Ekene Dili Chukwu
Motors was one of the first companies to
move into Allen Avenue in the early
1980s .
The late Igwe J.O. Obi, was by the late
1970s, reported to be the first to move
into Ire Akari Estate in Isolo, when the
whole area was a complete bush.
He was also said to have moved his
company, Interland Transport, into the
Amuwo Adofin Industrial Estate first and
brought telephone lines there when it was
a vast area of sandy-muddy soil. Presently,
a well-developed industrial estate sits in
that area. Igbos in fact developed Isolo
and Okota areas; they single handedly
developed the whole of Olodi-Apapa,
Coker and Ojo areas.
Indeed, the history of the economic
development of Lagos nay that of the
entire country cannot be complete without
a prominent mention of the role of the
Igbos.
In case Femi doesn’t know, the likes of the
Late Sir Louis Ojukwu
contributed immensely to the
development of Lagos. He was the
founding president of the Nigerian Stock
Exchange which still has its headquarters in
Lagos.
It is also worthy of note that during Queen
Elizabeth’s first visit to Nigeria in the year
1956, Sir Louis Ojukwu made his Rolls
Royce car available for the Queen’s
carriage as the Nigerian government could
not afford a Rolls Royce at that time.
Despite their massive contribution to the
economy of Lagos State, Igbos have never
at anytime laid claim to ownership of Lagos
land. The phrase “no man’s land” which
Femi accused Igbos of using to refer to
Lagos may have been a fall-out of the fact
that Lagos was Nigeria’s federal capital
until 1991. It is within this context that I
believe former Abia State Governor, Orji
Uzor Kalu used this phrase.
Just like Abuja of today, a large chunk of
Lagos land belongs to the Federal
Government up till now. Indeed, it was
the status of Lagos as a federal capital for
many years that attracted large numbers of
Igbos to settle there. Natives of Lagos just
like those of Abuja today, lost a lot of their
land during this period. It might interest
Femi to know that many Nigerians refer to
today’s FCT with that same phrase.
Femi exhibited his Igbophobia in the
manner he twisted the nation’s history as
it relates to the crisis that led to the civil
war. His narration of that dark era of our
nation’s history reflects his belief that the
Igbos were to blame for what befell them.
However, the truth of the matter is that
the January 15, 1966 coup d’état was a
spill over of the political crisis which
erupted in the Western Region. Indeed,
Femi’s father Chief Remi Fani Kayode
played a major role in that crisis as Deputy
Premier of Western Region under Sir
Ladoke Akintola.
The crisis actually began in 1962 when
Chief Obafemi Awolowo was jailed for
treason. It got worse with the massively
rigged federal elections of 1964 and the
equally rigged Western Regional elections
of 1965. The Awolowo /SLA Akintola
political feud was at the epicenter of this
crisis which eventually led to the
declaration of a state of emergency in the
region.
The officer corps of the military was
dominated by Igbos at the time the
soldiers intervened to sack a very corrupt
civilian administration. It is therefore not
surprising that among the five majors who
planned and executed the military putsch
of January 1966, four were Igbos and one
was Yoruba. The young officers had actually
planned a revolution. Some accounts of
the incident even indicated that they had
planned to free Awolowo from Prison and
hand over the reins of government to him.
However, they failed to accomplish their
mission.
The five Majors as documented by many
authors were Emmanuel Ifejuna,
Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, Christian
Anuforo, Timothy Onwatuegwu and Wale
Ademoyega.
Some authors also mentioned Major
Donatus Okafor as one of the plotters.
There is no doubt that given the pattern of
killings they carried out, the impression
was created that it was an Igbo agenda to
seize power by force. However, it took
Major Wale Ademoyega, the only officer
among the five -who survived the civil war-
to debunk the propaganda that what they
executed was an Igbo coup. All these are
contained in Ademoyega’s book entitled
“Why We Struck”.
Assuming, Femi was right, that it was a
coup carried out by Igbo officers who
perhaps hired Ademoyega to cover up,
shouldn’t Murtala Mohammed and his
comrades who carried out the counter
coup of July 29 1966, have been contented
with slaughtering the Head of State Gen.
Aguiyi Ironsi and almost all the Igbo
officers in the Nigerian Army in just one
night? What was the justification in
extending the killings to hundreds of
thousands of the Igbo civilian population
including pregnant women and children?
Femi’s belief that the Igbos deserved to be
slaughtered like chicken because they were
loud in their celebration of the January
1966 coup reveals his deep-seated hatred
for the Igbos.
Finally, if the Igbos who were in majority
in the National Council for Nigerian
Citizens (NCNC) were so bad as Femi
painted them in his write-ups, why did his
father, the late Remi Fani- Kayode defect
from the Action Group to the NCNC in
1959 and remained there until the collapse
of the first republic?
Why did his father rebel against Awolowo
and went ahead to serve as Deputy
Premier of Western Region under the much
demonized Akintola?
-Source: Vanguard