FEMI
ABDULATEEF FANI-KAYODE---NOW THAT FASHOLA HAS APPOLOGIZED: EPITAPH OF A
DRAOWNING POLITICAL MEGALOMANIAC
Dr.
N. Tony Nwaezeigwe
Senior
Research Fellow
Institute
of African Studies,
University
of Nigeria, Nsukka.
In a recent rejoinder to his
revealed Nupe ancestry published by Naija.com on-line news out-fit on August
24, 2013, Chief Femi Abdulatef Fani-Kayode in his usual namby-pamby exhibition
of intellectual trumpery goofed by describing the present writer as not just
‘some confused Igbo person who Claims to be an academic”, but “the usual 419”.
But that is far from the truth Dr. Nwankwo Tony Okoboshi Nwazeigwe is neither a
confused Igbo person nor a fake academic. (Dr. Nwaezeigwe is a full-fledged
Nigerian historian of full Igbo extraction trained in both character and
learning by the Department of History and international studies, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. Beyond seing a senior Research Fellow at the Institute of
African studies, at the same university, he is an Igbo of Ibusa extraction, a
Deltan by political cartography.
Thus, as a citizen of the
defunct Western Region of Nigeria and professional historial, political and
intellectual condour to stand by the immutability of alhaji abdulateef Femi-Kayode's Nupe ancestry.
One had expected Abdulateef
Fani kayodee to address the substance of the issues raised regarding his Nupe
ancestry on points of historical credibility as a lawyer would do when dealing
on issues that demand points of law to contradict. At best, he should have
hired a competent professional Yoruba historian to contradict the urgent matter
of his Nupe ancestry with incontrovertible body of evidence. But he chose
instead by the usual influence of his generic paranoiac despondency to engage
on a peripatetic intellectual dance of madness that acutely places him right
on the precipice of his political doomsday.
The chief Abdulateef
Fani-Kayode’s problem is the problem of Nigeria’s fatalistic neglect of her
history. It his more on his fatalistic ignorance of the subject of historical
studies in general and his personal history in particular, than his penchant for chronic garrulousity. Politically hypochondriac with traces of morbid
symptoms of schizophrenia and imperiled by an atrocious and impetuous historical
“imbecility, “Alhaji” Femi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode by his nobly denial of his
Nupe ancestry appears destined for a cataclysmic course of his own history. In
a befuddling manner that only speaks of a capitulating morass of identify
complex and lacking in the usual cantankerous diatribes, Femi Abdulateef
Fani-Kayode wrote:
“I
assure you all that there is not an iota of truth in the assertion that I have
any Nupe ancestries or blood in me. I have traced my bloodlines back to 8
generations and other than having a little Fulani blood in me through my
maternal great grandmother I am a pure Yoruba. I have ancestral ties with
Abeokuta, Ilesha, Ife and lagos but no where else. I have no Nupe blood in me and
my great grandfather was not a Nupe or a sierra Leonean. Neither was he a slave
great Bishop Ajayi-Crowther.”
First if Abdulateef Femi
Fani-Kayode denies any relationship with the family of Bishop Ajayi Crowther,
he may well explain the relationship between Reverend Joseph Fanimokun,
Principal of C.M.S. Grammar school, Lagos (from 1896 to 1914, the father to his
paternal ground on other Mrs. Ausora Kayode, and the Bishop Ajayi crowther
family. The truth is that his paternal great grandfather, the Respected
Reverend Emmanuel Kayode was one of the Nupe Siera Leonean students engaged by
Bishop Samuel Ajayi-Crowther to help in Nupe language stranslations mentioned
by the renowned ethno-linguist, Professor Robert G. Armstrong during his
inaugural lecturer at the University of Ibadan in 1964.
Abdulateef Femi Fani-Kayode further claimed that he could trace his bloodlines back to eight generations.
Let him begin by stating his great grandfather’s kindred in Ife, and then to
the nature of his ancestral connections to Ilesha, Abeokuta and Lagos.
The fact however remains
that Abdulateef Fani-Kayode knows that it was on account of his Nupe ancestry
that the former military dictator, General Ibrahim truth regarding Chief
Abdulateef Fami-Kayode is that he is a Nigeria, state indigene in the cloak of
Yoruba identify. Every descent and patrontic
Yoruba nationalist should watch him very carefully, for the leopard
can never change its skin. Badamos Babangida organized a private Birthday
Dinner for him at Lagos on October 17, 2010, during which he was extolled by
the dictator as a worthy son of Niger State playing their eye in Yoruba land
(A) the gospel.
If Femi Abdulateef
Fani-Kayode claims that he was some pints of Fulani blood in him nobody would
dispute him as the Nupe are ruled today by the Fulani. He may as well trace his
Fulani blood to the ruling
Efsu-Nupe dynasty to
actualize his scavenging fortuitous political adventurism. Had claimed
Oshodi-Tapa Lineage of Lagos state, may be that would him given him an edge
over those Igbo born and bred in Lagos like him. If truly he was Fulani blood,
let him mention the name and clan of that his Fulani material Great
Grandmother.
It should be recalled that
in the concluding sentence of the present writer’s previous research note on
Femi abdulateef Fani-kayode, the latter was described as a gambari par
excellence – gambari being the Yoruba term for the Fulani. This was done
deliberately in order to preempt him into divulging his earlier claim in 1991 of
falsifying of a remote Fulani ancestry when he sought for political patronage
from the former Director General of the defunct Nigerian. (NSO), Alhaji Umaru
Slinkafi, Who Subsequently rewarded him with the post of his personal Assistant
the same year. Watch it! This time, by bringing up the claim of Fulani
ancestry, this Swinely megalomaniac political chameleon may be subtly rooting
for some political favours from the likes of General Muhammadu Buhari and co.
in the APC. This is obvious since he knows he can never enjoy any faviour or
truth from Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu.
But most demeaning of the
intellectual status of some one who claims to attend the University of London
School Oriental and African Studies, is murderous historical attempt to
mis-educated himself and not others on the subject of ethno-linguistics. In his
usual eccentric and uncouth voracious quest for delusive intellectualism he
had stated: “Unlike the Igbo writer of this fiction, I can trace my history and
known my heritage. If had Nupe roots I would be the first to say so and I would
be very proud of that. This is because unlike the Igbo, the Nupe are very close
to Yoruba and are actually part of us. The Northerners and the people of the
South West and Midwest (edo and delta) are inextricably linked by history,
marriage, trade, bloodlines and culture.
They are collectively known as the
Sudanese Nigerians because they migrated from north Africa down to where they
are today. The igbo and the people of the eastern Niger Delta (River, Akwa
Ibom, calabar Bayelsa) are known as the Bantu Nigerians and they have no
ancestral ties or links with the Sudanese. They migrated to where they are
today from East Africa and central Africa hence the name Bantu. The Bantu and
the Sudanese are very different in their outlook to life.
And their ways.
Unlike the Bantu the Sudanese have a long history of ancient kingdoms and
empire sophisticated hierarchical structure, an all-inclusive liberal, tolerant
and accommodating tradition, a refined and well educated nobility and ruling
class, a rigid class system and a noble tradition of excellence and fair play.
This is the new the
ethno-linguistic and historical thesis of someone who calls himself a
University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies graduate of law,
and a former minister (definitely not from the school of Oriental and African
studies of the University of London).of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nigeria is indeed in trouble. Somebody who does not know that Calabar is a
state capital and not a state wherever Abdulateef Fani-Kayode got his gangrenous ethno-linguistic hypothesis, he is first and foremost as a matter
of elementary ethno-linguistic tutorials advised to consult professors dietrich
Westernmann, M.A. Bryan, Joseph it. Gretiberg and Robert G. Armstrong. These
learned men of honour in ethno-linguistics will first set him free from the
bandage of a fossilized state of intellectual hysteron-proteron.
For Abdulateef Femi
Fani-Kayode’s intellectual benefit, neither the Nupe nor the Yoruba belong to
any linguistic classification called “Judanese”, or does the Igbo belong to
Bantu Linguistic group. Both the Igbo, Edo, Nupe Idoma Gwari, Ijon, Igbira,
Igala and Yoruba belong to one linguistic sub-family called Kwa, which is a
branch of the wider Nigeria-Congo language family of Africa. In terms to
nearness to origins, the Nupe is far from Yoruba.
The nearest to the Nupe in
this regard are Gwari and Igbira. In the case of the Yoruba, you have Isekiri
and Igala. The edo group, which include Bini, Esam, Owan, and Afemai and
Isoko-Urbhobo represent a transition Linguistic zone between the Igbo and
Yoruba. In general, both the Igbo and Edo are nearer to Yoruba in the Matter of
year of separation, than the Yoruba is to the Nupe, the dating serince of
glotto chronology throught he statistical calculation of laconic statistics will
avail these facts more to the likes of abdulateef Fani kayode, if indeed he
agrees that he does not know. Talking of the Bantu, This represents the major Bautu language in Nigeria, while the Efik-Ibibio are conveniently classed as
Semi-Bautu.
One does not however need to
go into the mythology of migration from North Africa, for who can convince the
likes Abdulateef Fani-Kayode that quite a number of credible evidence from
archaeology, ethno-linguistics and autodichonous traditions have tended to
question the variety of such claims, which most probably border on Hamitic hypothesis.
Be that as it may,
abdulateef Fani-Kayode’s laborious efforts to extricate himself from his Nupe
ancestry have not been factually convincing and thus cannot be sustained by the
evidence in history. If Abdulateef Fani-Kayode could serialize his anti-Igbo
diatribes, he could in the same manner serialize his Yoruba genealogical tree
of eight generations.
His claim that he would live
and die for Yoruba land is as related as it is a con-man’s device to deceive
the un-knowing Yoruba patriots. The historical died for Yorubaland. He
abandoned chief Obafemic Awolowo and ran to the same Igbo people his ron is
insulting now in 1959. Abdulateef Fani-Kayode should dispute this fact. When
the Yoruba joined forces with his peoples Northern oppressors.
For Abdulateef Femi
Fani-Kayode, it was thus the question of
will the leopard even change its spots? When the call to patriotic duty came
for the defence of June 12, Abdulateef Fani-Kayode fled to United Kingdom only
to resurface in 2001. Talking about defending Yoruba interest therefore,
abdulateef Fani-Kayode cannot compete with those song and unsung igbo pastriots
like Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanel (Ltd) Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe (Ltd), Okwadike
Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Paulinus Nwite, Ubani Chime, Joe Igbokwe, and the
present writer who stood firm for the actualization of June 12 while the likes
of abdulateef femi Fami-Kayode fled to foreign lands. May be, it would interest
abdulateef Fani-Kayode to know that the present writer an Igbo remains up till
this moment on associate member of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC). What can be
more supportive of the Yoruba interest than an Igbo being part of OPC.
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