Date Published: 12/30/09

Re: The Fallacies of a Columnist, Abimbola Agboluaje By Dayo Atofolaki

It is amazing how some jobless imbeciles can lend themselves and their pens to falsehood all for a little cash. The disgraceful and clearly defamatory little piece written by some unknown hatchet writer and hired gun, who claims that her name is Abimbola Agboluaje is one of such. I really do wonder how a newspaper like Businessday that has national circulation and credibility in the areas of business/economic coverage would lend itself to such filth and give space to such an embittered and fraudulent soul as this. This is completely irresponsible and is the highest form of intellectual dishonesty. It is also against the ethics of journalism where they say facts are sacred and opinion is cheap.

Needless to say Abimbola did not even attempt to be honest or decent. She had a job to do and she had been well paid to do it and she did not care whose ox was gored. She sold her soul to the devil for a pittance and agreed to do one thing alone-attempt to discredit and destroy one of Nigeria ’s brightest and best and to do so by peddling disinformation, falsehood and half-truths. That person is none other person than the distinguished Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a man that not only served his President and his nation selflessly but a man who also transformed both ministry’s that he served in for the better, and did a simply remarkable job. It is only in Nigeria that such stars are denigrated and insulted by the likes of Abimbola and that is precisely why our country is going to the dogs. And of course it is very convenient for her vitriolic diatribe now simply because Chief Fani-Kayode together with the Nuhu Ribadu and  El-Rufai that she mentioned are all being persecuted and have been charged with various offences by Yar’Adua administration simply because they are seen as his blue eyed boys. And yet of the three it is only Fani-Kayode that has been brave enough to stay in Nigeria to clear his name. The other two ran. Not only that he has also been courageous enough to announce the fact that he will be running for the Governorship of his State in 2011against all odds which is what is giving the likes of Abimbola and those that have sponsored her sleepless nights.

And now, for what it is worth, let us look at the issues raised by this supposed young lady in her article which in my view is nothing but a few lines of disjointed and illogical verbiage. As a matter of fact if not for the fact that her subject matter is an individual that so many of us respect and admire one would have just ignored her. Nevertheless that would not have been the right approach and the only remedy for falsehood and those that peddled it like Abimbola is truth. That is the purpose of this piece-to tell the truth and set the record straight and to stop Abimbola from freely indulging in telling the most blatant lies and indulging in perfidy and character-assassination. Now let me look at the issues she raised and answer them point by point.

Firstly it is not true that Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, whilst he was President Obasanjo’s spokesman at the Presidency, just used to abuse people. What he did, and he did effectively in my view, was to defend his Principal President Obasanjo and join issues in a very cogent, articulate and sometime combative manner with Obasanjo’s critics. Such was his eloquence, his ability to put up a strong case and his knowledge that very few people could stand against him and when notable figures like Wole Shoyinka were very insultive and told lies about Obasanjo and his government, Fani Kayode rose to the occasion in a splendid manner and responded in kind. Whilst doing this job meritoriously Fani-Kayode’s excellent education as a Cambridge man and a lawyer and his brilliant oratory and formidable debating skills were brought to bear and very few including Soyinka, could stand against him. Simply put the man not only did his job very well but also Obasanjo eventually found him virtually indispensable and depended on him completely to face down his detractors and enemies. In fact such was the power of Fani-Kayode’s office as Senior Special Assistant to Mr. President on Public Affairs that it completely overshadowed Remi Oyo’s office as Special Assistant on Public Communications and that of successive Ministers of Information. In those days if you wanted to get Obasanjo’s views on anything or if you wanted to know the governments positions on any issue it was Fani-Kayode you went to and we all used to enjoy listening to him speak on TV with his impeccable Queens English British accent even if we did not agree with what he was saying or even if we didn’t like his boss Obasanjo.

For clarity part of his meritorious service which afforded him life time indelible achievement was the ingenious step he took to enhancing the stoppage of the incessant plane crashes in the country during those dark days. He put this achievement down to the fact that he firstly insisted on full compliance with safety and security standards in flight operations in the country (and imposed strict sanctions when this was not done). Secondly he put in place an excellent, dedicated and loyal team of personal staffers whom he took with him to the Ministry of Aviation when he went there. And thirdly (and most importantly of all), divine intervention, which he claims came as "a consequence of continuous and deep intercession by the most dedicated and selfless group of prayer warriors that I have ever come across in my life. They prayed for those horrific crashes to stop and they stopped. God answered those prayers and the blood of innocent Nigerians stopped flowing in unnecessary and avoidable plane crashes.. Considering the forces that wanted the crashes to continue, this was a miracle that was second to none. We must give thanks to God"(The Christian Explorer Magazine,2007). Again Fani-Kayode increased the capital base of domestic airliners in Nigeria in order to ensure bigger, safer and stronger airlines in the country and he also fought corruption by exposing a massive N6. 5 billion naira ($55, 000, 000 usd) fraud that took place in the aviation sector just before he came in. For this Fani-Kayode was widely acknowledged and commended but he also earned himself many powerful enemies. As Minister of Aviation he also insisted that Nigerians should be treated with dignity, fairness and respect by all foreign airline operators. He did this with ruthless zeal and the the foreign airliners complied fully whilst he was in office. Again as Minister of Aviation he ensured that the largest, most advanced and most sophisticated domestic airport terminal (MM2 Domestic Airport Terminal in Lagos) which was owned and  buit by his colleague, Cambridge-trained lawyer and  businessman, Dr. Wale Babalakin S.AN, was not only built and completed but was also fully commissioned and made functional under his watch as Minister of Aviation.

And yet this is the man that Abimbola can glibly write only used to insult people. With due respect this young lady needs to have to have her head examined and so do those that sent her on this futile errand. The second falsehood that Abimbola indulged in was the assertion that unlike Ribadu and El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode was not a member of Obasanjo’s economic reform team. This is a lie. I can confirm to the world and the records/facts are evidently available that both as Minister of Culture and Tourism and then later as Minister of Aviation, Fani-Kayode was not only a member of the economic reform team but he also played a very active and significant role in it both when it was chaired by Ngozi-Oknojo-Iweala and then later Stella Nenadi Usman who were the Ministers of Finance respectively. The minutes of such meetings are before me as I write this piece and of course if Abimbola has any doubts she can ask the other members of the team rather than displaying her crass ignorance and peddling falsehood here.

Dayo J. Atofolaki  is a Social Commentator and Alumni of Harvard Business School. dayoatofolaki@yahoo.com