By KEMI KASUMU
President Muhammadu Buhari and Fulani’s loudest critics, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode has finally dumped his political party of many years to defect to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
Also a former Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Fani-Kayode, whose news of defecting to the APC had dragged for long before now, had all the doubts cleared Wednesday afternoon when, like many other former PDP politicians considered to be dangerous antagonists of the Buhari’s Administration, he was presented to President Buhari in State House, Abuja, by the Chairman, Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning committee of the APC and Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, accompanied by the Governor of Zamfara State, Hon. Mohammed Bello Matawalle.
From Left: President Muhammadu Buhari, and Femi Fani-Kayode, when the latter was presented to the President in State House Abuja on Thursday 16 September, 2021.
The former opposition mouthpiece, following his presentation to the President, has been officially received into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and, expectedly, all cases closed, The DEFENDER gathered.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting with President Buhari, Femi Fani-Kayode said he decamped from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the sake of national unity.
He said he had been responsible for many other defections into the ruling party.
According to him, he was instrumental to the defection of three PDP governors to APC, including the Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi, Cross Rivers State Governor Ben Ayade and Zamfara State Governor Mohammed Bello Matawalle.
He further said that he had friends across party lines and was wooing Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and the Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed to join the ruling party.
Femi Fani-Kayode’s past in the Fourth Republic’s politics of Nigeria makes him the worst political enemy that any region leader and his religion and tribe can have. Not many Northerners, whose Hausa-Fulani tribe and forefather Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio he insulted, attempted to desecrated and Islam he, supported by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Bishop Matthew Kukah called a religion with a pool of violence as well as Buharists that are worth their salts, would be good to accept the dream of his bird coming back home to roost for in long time to come.
See some cuttings of some of his past evils in the name of politics:
Don’t field Jonathan for 2023 Presidency, APC warned
In the meantime, leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) particularly President Muhammadu Buhari, has been warned against considering former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for the party’s presidential ticket in 2023.
This warning came as a concerned Nigerian figure (names withheld) spoke with The DEFENDER on Thursday saying that any attempt to hand the party’s presidential ticket to Jonathan is to ask his wife, Patience Jonathan, to once again dominate the political and economic space of the country.
He said what that means is that, Nigeria will be dragged into another failure and near collapse as witnessed in the six years of the country under the Otu Oke, Bayelsa State-born former President.
“Let me tell you the truth, Goodluck Jonathan does not have the strong mind of his own before his wife. This is pure fact and it is the reason the woman was the one in charge during the years that her husband was in power. Nyesom Wike is her product.
“Patience Jonathan is a very strong woman that although her husband was called the President but she was, in actual fact, the actor of power. She was the leader of the likes of Tompolo and the rest; forget about what people say about Ibori. Patience is a major factor. Once she has the opportunity to be back in power, because her husband coming back to power means she being in power, she will deal a big blow to the APC with a singular mission to destroy the party and this is a fact that cannot be disputed.
“It is advisable that those who are in charge of APC should open their eyes and ensure that nothing like Jonathan presidency should ever be given a thought for 2023. If you want to give ticket to Tinubu, go ahead and do it. If you you do not want Tinubu, you have more than 1,000 qualified members in your party. It will be out of place to tell Nigerians that none of those quality people is fit by your standard as Nigeria’s next President. It can’t be. Give it to anybody but, definitely, it must not be Jonathan.
“If Jonathan becomes President, Wike will be more a monster because, he is a strong ally to Patience Jonathan and they are working hand-in-hand. They were two of them that worked to unseat Amaechi from relevance and make him lose his preferred candidate to PDP and the two of them till today are very, very close allies.
“APC will be shooting themselves in the foot if they venture into make Jonathan their candidate for the 2023 because it will be difficult for the party to make it. They cannot tell us that of all the quality people they have in their fold, they cannot produce a presidential candidate,” he said.
Pressed further, we gathered the source’s early warning is premised on reports, confirmed or not, that former President Goodluck Jonathan is being in the current permutation by some self-centred politicians to be fielded as presidential candidate of APC in the coming election.
