FFK’s Defection: The spirit of God and chewing the cud in Nigerian politics

By Yusuf Adua

One of Germany’s greatest statesmen Otto von Bismarck, who unified most Germans into the German Empire in 1871 once said “What do I care about the stupid things I said in the past!”

The Nigerian political space could not have been more torrid than it proved to be yesterday when Chief David Oluwafemi Adewunmi Abdulateef Fani-Kayode popularly known as FFK officially defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC and was presented to President Buhari by the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the APC, and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

As expected, Torrents of backlash followed FFK’s decision not only because of the weirdness of this personality considering his astute criticism of the PMB leadership but also because he attached spirituality to his defection.

First things first, is FFK’s decision ethically and humanly justified? The answer to this is the First German Chancellor, Bismarck’s locution quoted earlier. FFK’s virgin decision is setting tongues wagging in the media with commentators littering the space with some cuds earlier chewed by the former aviation minister. But people forgot that this is not the first time that FFK would be swallowing his spit.

7 years ago, he published a series of write-up on his website, “A President Without Balls” and the two updated versions of the same essay titled ”The Gutless Eunuch and Spirit of the Jagaban” and ”The Gutless Eunuch and the Lion King,” respectively where he threw the helmsman at the time completely away with the bathwater.

“As long as such a weak and uninspiring man (Former President Jonathan) remains the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces please be ready for more casualties,” he stated about Jonathan only to see him appointed the Director of Media and Publicity at Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation a year later and his horror essays turned to praise-singing.

“I prefer to die than join APC”, he did say so, but he feels at home romancing his foes of over six years when he hinted at the possibility of his folks, the governors of Bauchi, Enugu, and Oyo States dumping the Peoples Democratic Party and joining him in his new abode, the All Progressives Congress.

In that regard, it’s high time we knew in Nigeria that any statement made by a political gladiator at one point or the other is merely for the optics.

Justifying the “cross-carpeting”, the controversial public figure attributed his decision to a direction governed by the spirit of God. Any concerned Nigerian will wonder the connectedness between the ” winner takes all” game of politics and the spirit of God. That laughable reason is unacceptable by all standards. This is because a bandit, thief, unknown gunman wreaking havoc will also back his or her action with the same claim. This is not to say that FFK was reverted to his political home with hard currency, but the notion of coming back to the party as a product of spirituality is too weak to be believed.

Mallam Gumi nicknamed FFK “Judas of Oduduwa” in his latest Facebook post, similar meanings would be read to FFK’s new change of home by some stakeholders in the abode considering how Babafemi Ojudu and Joe Igbokwe among others have spoken. What is the justification of APC receiving FFK with the most open arms despite his acrimonies?

Politics since the Harold Laswell days has been the game of who gets what, when, and how. If it will take APC to eat in the same dish with the people who had earlier cracked the dish to cement their place in the running of the 2023 general elections and beyond, then FFK is not the only new signing to join the team.