baboons
By Jude Ndukwe
A recent essay that appeared in some online
news media titled “Femi Fani-Kayode and the
Laughter of Biafra” purportedly written by one
Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu, was obviously written
before the brain was engaged as it generously
manifested the uncontrolled masturbatory
ejaculation of a writer who gave himself away as
one of the famed dogs and baboons of Buhari
and Tinubu.
The writer made a greatly laborious but
unsuccessful attempt at denigrating Chief Femi
Fani-Kayode’s call for the rights of those who
are peacefully seeking self-determination from
Nigeria to be respected and upheld. He joined
other leaders and civil societies from all over the
world to call for the immediate release of Mr
Nnamdi Kanu, Director of Radio Biafra and
Leader of the Independent People of Biafra
(IPOB), and respect his rights.
In an attempt to justify his pay cheque, Ugwu
tried to remind his readers of what FFK as he is
popularly known had said and had not said about
the Igbo in the past in order to make him look
like an enemy rather than a friend despite his
continued support not only for the Igbo but also
for all the oppressed and downtrodden
everywhere. Hear him: “If you didn’t know that
Femi Fani-Kayode was a Nigeria-Biafra civil war
revisionist and a militant Igbophobia crusader…”
What Ugwu forgot to tell his readers is that Fani-
Kayode has been a friend of the Igbo even more
than some acclaimed Igbo leaders who lack the
courage to stand by their own in trying times.
While some Igbo leaders have sat on the fence
on the misfortune that have been visited upon
the Igbo race in Nigeria, Fani-Kayode has stood
by the Igbo over time as much as he has stood
with other oppressed people. He is the perfect
example of what the Bible describes in the Book
of Proverbs 18:24 – “…there is a friend who
sticks closer than a brother”.
Let it be known to all that whatever Fani-Kayode
has said in the past about the Igbo was in the
course of an intellectual debate between him
and his Igbo counterparts. In the process, a lot
of historical facts were thrown up from both
sides to either support and strengthen their
respective positions or oppose and weaken the
argument of the other side.
*Fani-Kayode
And as an intellectual debate that stripped
history bare, some historical events did not
favour the Igbo just as some did not favour the
Yoruba. One must however admit that both sides
had hot exchanges about the other which many
mischievous observers have misconstrued as
hatred for whichever tribe one represents. The
good thing is that, like in any respectable debate,
the rivalry stops there and life continues beyond
that without bitterness.
It is in light of this that Fani-Kayode has not only
been eulogising the Igbo and what they represent
but also stoutly defended the race most often
even against his own kinsmen as long as it
serves the cause of justice and equity. For
example, in the run up to the gubernatorial
election in April 2015, Fani-Kayode had described
the unfortunate threat of the Oba of Lagos, Oba
Rilwanu Akiolu, against the Igbo when he
declared that the Igbos in Lagos would perish in
the lagoon if they did not vote for the Oba’s
choice for Lagos State governor, it was Fani-
Kayode who among few others stood for the
Igbo and described the
Oba’s threat as “ominous” and “unacceptable”.
The question we need to ask is, where were
people like Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu and his
village champions then?
Furthermore, it is on record that the former
Minister of Aviation employed far more Igbo
people than even the Yoruba, his own tribe of
origin while he was Minister of the Federal
Republic. In 2012, he had written glowingly about
Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu the late
renowned and undisputable Igbo leader thus:
“This is the effect that Ojukwu had on me…He
was a great and proud warrior; a true son of
Africa, the strength and pride of the Igbo race”.
Also, in 2011, eulogising the sterling virtues of
Igbo women, Fani-Kayode wrote; “…the Igbos
seem to have taken over in this respect and are
now well-ahead of the rest of Nigeria. Just a few
years and look at what they have achieved. It
really is quite remarkable. Can anyone tell me
their secret or why this is so? What could be
responsible for their doggedness, their natural
drive, their tremendous energy and their great
strength of character? What is it about these
strong-willed eastern women of Bantu and Igbo
extraction that now and all of a sudden sets
them so far apart?”
Can such flowery words as far back as 2011/12
come from a heart of hate? Certainly not!
So, those who wish to pit Fani-Kayode against
the Igbo race have failed abysmally. We perceive
that this is a deliberate plan by the dogs and
baboons possibly hired by Buhari and Tinubu to
get back at Fani-Kayode for the way and manner
he challenges them on germane national matters.
Their messenger, Ugwu, is nothing but a cheap
slanderer, a liar, and a dog whose mission is to
try to destroy the messenger rather than deal
with the message. What he and those that
commissioned him to do that hatchet job fail to
appreciate is that this whole struggle is not
about FFK or what anyone thinks of him, it is
about Biafra, about the Igbo. It is not about FFK
but about the brutality and hegemonic ways of
the Nigerian state, the Fulani oppressors and the
Buhari government.
Whether Ugwu likes it or not, FFK has emerged
as one of the courageous voices and formidable
heroes in the present struggle for equity and
justice for the oppressed people of Nigeria. He
has stood up to our collective tormentors and
our slave masters from the north and that is all
that counts.
Jude Ndukwe wrote via jrndukwe@yahoo.co.uk
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