Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, the loquacious spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan campaigns would not cease to amuse Nigerians. As an indigene of the state, he is a stakeholder in the Osun project. So, it was not totally out of place for the tendency he represents to employ his energy to throw into the ring, a new hat of fighting by the highly deflated and totally depleted rank of the Osun Peoples Democratic Party.
But if FFK, as I choose to call him in this piece, had been a film producer, his productions would have failed all critical areas of test in content and aesthetics. But suffice to say that the video FFK took the trouble to bring to the Channels Television last week Thursday had been in circulation not long after the August 9th 2014 governorship election in which the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, was expectedly and humiliatingly trounced.
A badly written script has earned an equally bad production and the result is that they all have on their hands a distasteful drama, the denouement of which is predictably tragic for the actors. Unfortunately, those involved in this drama of the absurd have not realized that they have embarked on an act of self-immolation.
We do not actually need the Independent National Electoral Commission’s reference to Osun’s poll as its advertised sample of election success story. Neither do we need the spontaneous celebration that enveloped the state in the freshness of that electoral victory by Governor Rauf Aregbesola to put a seal of credibility on it. What we need to emphasise very loudly is the reality of the inelectability (pardon that word) of Aregbesola’s PDP opponent.
Despite the shenanigans that preceded the election; that occurred during the election and the funny theatrics the few paid PDP agents in Osun have engaged after the conclusion of that decisive exercise, what we need as authentic proof of the electoral decision of the people of Osun is the grassroots decision to reject a contestant believed to be far away from the reality of their existence and not in any way connected with the issues that touch them. What they saw in Iyiola Omisore, apart from his personal detestable attributes which negate the virtues and values of the Virtuous (Omoluabi) is the same scary face of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party whose sixteen years of being at the centre has stalled Nigerians’ collective dreams, stultified national growth and practically run us aground as a people.
The likes of FFK truly take Nigerians for fools. Is it not amazing and amusing at the same time that FFK would come out with such a video just about two weeks after the Justice Elizabeth Ikpejime-led tribunal delivered what has been registered as one of the most profound electoral tribunal verdicts of our time.
Not even one of the 17 odd grounds on which the petitioner premised his objections to the validity of Aregbesola’s victory could be found strong enough by the tribunal to uphold. Had there been any substance in the badly produced video and had the petitioner found anything reasonable in it, would he not have sought to bring it before the tribunal as evidence of the alleged electoral robbery against him and his party?
Trust Nigerians! They were intelligently swift to conclude that FFK and his PDP co-travelers were in search of just anything in sight to divert national attention from the opprobrium the highly credible recordings of the rigging plot that ousted Dr. John Olukayode Fayemi from office brought upon them. That has temporarily put in abeyance, the good governance the people of that state had experienced under the four years of the Fayemi’s purposeful administration.
One does not need to look too far. The confessions of Army Captain Sagir Koli who was in the centre of the Ekiti rigging saga had confirmed the hubris that the characters named in the dubious plot had been known for all their lives. Do the people matter to them? No! Their clan had never seen the possibility of people’s acceptance because of the very tendencies they represent. The Ayo Fayoses, the Iyiola Omisores, the Jelili Adesiyans and Musiliu Obanikoros of this part of the world and their ilk have successfully formed a club; one bound by common interests of greed, avarice, blind ambitions and other attributes too grave to mention here.
After their initial bravado of denials and playing the Pontius Pilate, they came back one after the other admitting being present at the scenes recorded by Patriot Sagir Koli.
It is germane to note that almost two months after the mind-blowing confessions on how the Ekiti election was manipulated in favour of Fayose, the stench has refused to go away. The more the actors move to wash their hands off, the more they get entangled in the shameful web of their ignoble acts. On the other hands, less than a week after FFK came on air to attempt discrediting the re-election of Aregbesola through the badly produced video, those who still talk about it only keep asking FFK and the PDP to provide credible proof of its veracity. Mum has been the word.
It is the season of politics, yes! And in Nigeria, anything goes. But shoudn’t the likes of FFK pause a bit to reflect on what side of history they hope to be recorded even if they must dance to the beat of their paying masters? The social media is saturated with videos and audios of the same FFK who just some few months ago, was all over hopping from one media house to the other telling Nigerians the Jonathan administration is the greatest tragedy that had befallen us as a people.
It is obvious this is the season for PDP’s factory of lies to be in its upbeat form. And as the ruling party’s doomsday draws nearer, we expect more deft moves in the desperate project to subvert the burning desires of Nigerians for total change.
*Owolabi a journalist and Law student, writes from Osogbo, Osun
