Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee for president, praised the British ambassador Ben Llewellyn-Jones for identifying Femi Fani-Kayode, the director of new media for the Bola Tinubu Campaign Organization, as one of those making inciting remarks.
Fani-Kayode should be invited by the Department of State Services, according to a statement released by Atiku’s special assistant for public communication, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, who claimed that Fani-Kayode’s rhetoric could ignite the nation.
Shaibu argued that Fani-Kayode’s threat to make Nigeria unruly if Tinubu is not sworn in as president on May 29, 2023, was upsetting and warranted the Department of State Services’ attention.
However, Atiku’s aide pointed out that Ben Llewellyn-Jones, the UK’s deputy high commissioner, deserves special praise for pointing out that Fani-Kayode had been making inciting remarks and should have been warned by Tinubu, his boss.
“We acknowledge that the DSS’s statement urging politicians to avoid overheating the political climate is timely. However, urge the security force to detain Fani-Kayode for ignoring the DSS’s advice when he threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable. Fani-Kayode was rightfully invited by the DSS and instructed to submit a daily report after he falsely claimed that Atiku was plotting a coup in January. However, for some reason, he has persisted in spewing hate speech. Recently, he even defended the targeting of the Igbo in the just-completed rigged Lagos State governorship election. If Tinubu is not sworn in, he has also threatened to make the nation incapable of being governed.
“I believe that now is a good time to remind the DSS that Femi Fani-Kayode has turned back to his previous behavior. A month after the electorate was collectively disenfranchised, he is now threatening fire and brimstone over a highly contentious election that Nigerians have refused to support or celebrate.
If Tinubu is not inaugurated on May 29, 2023, Fani-Kayode and a few other desperate individuals will declare Nigeria unruly. It is time to take Fani-Kayode in order to prevent him from escalating the already explosive national anxiety.
According to his staff, Shaibu claimed that Fani-Kayode had continued to receive protection from the Nigeria Police Force and had frequently been used to intimidate people.
He questioned why Fani-Kayode had continued to move with heavy security like a governor in spite of the Inspector-General of Police’s directive that only those holding political offices should do so.
According to Atiku’s aide, over 40% of Nigeria’s police are assigned to VIPs and unauthorized individuals, despite the country’s appallingly low level of law enforcement. It cannot achieve the United Nations recommendation of 340:100,000 police-to-citizen ratio with between 350,000 and 370,000 personnel for a population of 200 million, making it utterly ineffective in reducing crime.
Fani-Kayode, who has not held a political position since serving as the Aviation Minister in 2007, nevertheless travels in a convoy that sounds its sirens. He needs to be relieved of all security personnel, whether they are in uniform or not. He only makes use of the security to maintain his inflated sense of importance. He is posing with employees of a state-owned security company, which is insufficient for the rest of us.
The number of security details that FFK has surrounding him, in comparison to people like former Vice President Namadi Sambo, former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, and ex-Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, is what, in all honesty, feeds his inflated sense of self importance.
He cited a statement made by Alhaji Lai Mohammed from the All Progressives Congress on March 2, 2015, which claimed that Fani-Kayode “may have unhinged, possibly as a result of a relapse into an unhealthy lifestyle of substance abuse.”
Shaibu opined that this was likely the cause of Fani-Kayode’s irrational behavior and volatile behavior, which were captured on camera in 2020 when he reprimanded a journalist for asking him an innocent question.
“Fani-Kayode’s reputation for his volatile and erratic behavior is legendary,” Atiku’s aide continued. A journalist was publicly threatened by this man for posing an innocent question. The obnoxious former minister was appropriately blacklisted by the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
Fani-Kayode’s only guiding principle, according to Shaibu, is his stomach, so Nigerians should not take him seriously.
“Fani-Kayode’s life story is one of ‘anywhere belle face,'” Atiku’s aide continued. In 2018, he declared that joining a filthy, rat-infested sinking ship like the Almajiri Peoples Congress would be preferable to death. Then, as his finances started to dry up, he started an ill-defined tour of PDP states in search of cash.
“As soon as Lawan lost, Fani-Kayode started pleading with Atiku Abubakar’s supporters to facilitate an appointment into the PDP media team. Fani-Kayode started stalking Tinubu in search of a job in the campaign after being turned down by Atiku’s team. Fani-Kayode is currently advocating for a new position in the doomed government that will be removed by the courts following Tinubu’s fraudulent victory.
