WHEN, this morning (Friday, 1st of June), I received the usual beginning-of-the-month well wishes from my friend and professional colleague, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, I felt the compelling need to say a word or two about a very critical political decision Dayo took a few days ago and which had since gone viral. Friends and professional colleagues had alerted me immediately Dayo went public with his decision to defect from the PDP to the APC, trying to find reasons and justifications for his action. Politicians usually do not divulge in public the real reasons why they take such decisions; often, they cite “the wish and interest of my people,” even when their people have no inkling of such decisions and will benefit nothing from it. The real reasons are carefully concealed and one needs to read between the lines or get behind the scene to ferret them out.
Some have castigated Adeyeye for going back to his vomit, especially after the many unprintable things he had said against APC and President Muhammadu Buhari when he was the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP. Now, he will have to worship at the same APC/Buhari’s altar! How anyone with conscience and sense of shame; and how any rational human being who knows what is right from what is wrong and is minded to stick to that which is right, can do such a thing baffles many. How do they look their wife and children straight in the eyes and justify such action? I am sure you know Adeyeye is not the first and will not be last politician to so defect. In fact, this Fourth Republic has been notorious for defections. Parties are treated as mere platforms with no ideological undertones. They are like under-wears that are changed every morning.
It is now Gov. Ayo Fayose and PDP that Adeyeye calls unprintable names while he praises APC and its leaders to high heavens! I shudder to think if Dayo’s soul cringes in him! Our politicians! I have seen Dayo wine and dine with Fayose. I have seen both men enter inner chambers to hold secret talks. I have seen them giggle and grin from ear to ear. I have seen them do “wo’le wo’de.” And I have heard Dayo praise Fayose and laud him as leader. All that has changed – but don’t be surprised if the change changes again tomorrow! With many of our politicians – not Adeyeye alone – the first casualties in politics are truth and principles. The more you look, the less you see. This is a cancerous growth that has become malignant and which must be surgically removed if it is not to sound the death knell of the Fourth Republic.
Far be it from me if you think I pin all the blame for this defection, which I consider a monumental disaster for Adeyeye’s political career, on Adeyeye alone. The system itself shares in the blame. Four years’ ago, Adeyeye and Fayose took the same PDP governorship primaries to the wires. Fayose won; Adeyeye kicked and raised dust. In the end both settled; Fayose retained the ticket while Adeyeye got appointed as Minister of State for Works. Unfortunately, Adeyeye was only Minister for a few months because PDP was offloaded at the Centre. Did the bargain also include that Fayose will support Adeyeye to succeed him? I cannot say and do not, in fact, think anyone familiar with Nigeria’s political terrain can set store by that. Permutations and calculations change so rapidly that you will be lucky if a decision taken in the morning survives by noon time. I would not know if it is so in other political climes.
Adeyeye leaves no one in doubt that he is passionate about being Ekiti governor; therefore, anyone trying to cross his line on that score must do his homework. Adeyeye should, however, note that the Scripture says “time and chance happen to them all” and also that the counsel that Odewale spurned in “The gods are not to blame” eventually proved fateful; to wit: Stay where you are; the more you run away from it (your fate), the nearer you get to it – and, now, my own addition – the more you run after it, the farther away from it you get.
Was Fayose wrong in openly raising, supporting, and canvassing a candidate of his choice? No; he did not breach any known rule or regulation. Should he have been more circumspect in his approach? Other politicians may display circumspection in a different direction but that is Fayose’s prerogative. Were the PDP governorship primaries free and fair? Yes, and everyone, including Adeyeye, attested to that. Adeyeye had, in fact, pledged to accept its outcome if it were credible. Adeyeye made a good showing at the primaries and was not disgraced as some had thought. He accepted the results but later reneged and did a summersault, like Fayemi that he now follows did with the 2014 Ekiti governorship election.
A gentleman’s word ought to be his bond. Whatever his grouses with Fayose/PDP and however mouth-watering and irresistible the APC offers were, Adeyeye should have pondered “aa tii gbo?” (What will people say?). Has he been offered the APC ticket in 2022? He will not be such a fool to build his castle in the air. Will Buhari make him Fayemi’s replacement in his Cabinet? Was that not what he got in 2014 but where did it lead him? Having campaigned vigorously that it is the turn of Ekiti South to be governor, how will Adeyeye now convince the same Ekiti South people, who stand a good and solid chance with Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka (from Ikerre in Ekiti South), that it is not so again? How will Ekiti South lose this singular opportunity simply because of Adeyeye’s ego and self-interest? What, in this instance, is Ekiti South’s interest, which Adeyeye said propelled him to dump PDP for APC: Is it following Adeyeye into APC/Ministerial appointment/ or sticking with PDP and electing an Ekiti South indigene as governor?
Finally, you cannot build a house only to turn round to pull it down. Adeyeye stood tall and solid in the fight to wrestle PDP from the vice-like grip of Ali Modu Sheriff. He was one of the generals in shining armour who prevented the death of opposition in this country and whose names will be written in gold on that score. In Ekiti, Adeyeye’s voice rang out loud and clear in the decade-old struggle to have the governorship go to Ekiti South. My heart bleeds that at the threshold of success on both fronts, Adeyeye turned coat and became a political renegade, as it were. He gravitated towards a dubious change mantra that the people who have been the focus of his politics since his Afenifere days are gravitating away from. Rather than being an authentic change agent in the momentous events gathering storm in our land, Adeyeye now stands at the threshold of being one of the vermin that will soon be swept away into the dustbin of history. Truly and sincerely, my heart bleeds! Can he still return? Can he still cut and run from the wrath to come?
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Before it is too late…
THIS is not another godfather to godson epistolary; it is not the drawing of battle lines or the firing of pull-him-down salvos signalling a love story gone awry. It is not another Olusegun Obasanjo to Goodluck Jonathan. It is not even a Tai Solarin’s “the beginning of the end” even though it has the potentials of being so if the pleas here are not heeded. Well, I have let the cat out of the bag already! This “letter” is a plea that we consciously and deliberately – and quickly too – move back from the edge of the precipice as a nation and people before it is too late. And the antagonists forces should do so simultaneously. Waiting for the other to break the ice may not do. This nation dances dangerously at the edge of the precipice. What gives us the confidence that we will not tumble over surprises me! Is it because we once survived a debilitating civil war? Is it because we have escaped an uncountable number of near mishaps? Is it because, as we often say, we believe God is a Nigerian? Or that this country of diverse peoples and nationalities is sufficiently glued together as a people to unravel? Or is it that we are inexorably committed to the destruction of Nigeria as a geographical entity? Whatever gives us this confidence and whatever our design, it is time to begin to move back from the edge of the precipice if we are not to self-destruct.
The very first step is for the antagonists to put on their thinking cap. Fixation is an enemy we must all first overcome. Hardened positions must be reviewed and cold relations must begin to thaw. A firm resolve to escape the apocalypse long predicted for this country – and the ruination it surely portends on a large scale and across board – is a very good beginning. Why are we so hopelessly divided and why are we virtually at war today more than ever before? Government policies and appointments that have ignited this fire must be urgently reviewed. Confidence-building must start in earnest. Bridges of trust and confidence that have been burnt down consciously or unconsciously must be speedily and deliberatively reconstructed. Inflammatory speeches must be tempered. Sincerity of purpose and collaborative efforts are needed to uproot Boko Haram, tame murderous Fulani herdsmen, come up with fresh ideas to tackle neo-Biafra resurgence and rekindle hope and confidence once more in the Nigeria project.
Elections are here again: Politicians must be careful with not just their speeches but also with their actions. The complaint is rife that we have forgotten where and how the rains beat us in the past – in that our leaders have relegated good governance to the background, never minding that this was the favourite excuse of errant soldiers’ intent on torpedoing our democratic experiment. If “I so and so” invented excuses in the past, today, the evidence of bad governance is everywhere rampant. Again, what gives us the confidence that the people – and this includes the soldiers – will continue to put up with the charade that parades as governance surprises me. The very fact that the current Fourth Republic has been the longest running should not translate into our being off guard. The dangers to democracy are never far away. Unfortunately, the present dangers that are obvious to all are from the political class themselves. They will self-destruct and send the roof crashing on our head if care is not taken. They will cast our pearl unto swine again – pardon my choice of words – if the brakes are not applied immediately. Hence this plea, which should be heeded from North to South and East to West – before it is too late!
Still on ‘RCCG’s mandatory genital s3x test brouhaha’
THE above piece in last week’s edition generated much interest as expected. Two particular areas caught the attention of many: One is my support for the mandatory genital test. Many felt it was because I am a partisan, being an RCCG pastor. That is not entirely so. I actually believe we need the test and many other tests, which I took pains to set down, and which, to the best of my knowledge, are not being administered by RCCG or any Mission for that matter. They should be administered. The second is the three reasons advanced for divorce. The Puritans say under no condition should divorce, like abortion, take place; not even after three Biblical authorities, including our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, had spoken on the issue. Do not forget I only counselled everyone to read their bible and understand what it says; after which the choice is yours to make. I admit, however, that I stretched the apostle Paul’s own advice on divorce, using my own words. The deductions and inferences are still the same, though; to wit, that couples may depart or go their separate ways if…Finally, remember that the perfect will of God for you and me is the blissful marriage of a man and a woman – and that we all have a role to play to make it happen.
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