More than a year ago, I wrote an editorial where I declared Femi Fani-Kayode as the most courageous man in Nigeria. This declaration came because of his apt and explosive criticism of the Buhari misadventure. Fani-Kayode can also be credited with being the first public figure to bravely use the phrase Fulani Herdsmen to give the true nomenclature to the armed Fulani pastoralists ravaging the farmlands of the middle belt, before their deployment nationally. I also admire Fani-Kayode’s command of the English language. His dexterity with words with a mix of intellectual swag gives birth to a loquacious megaphone that can hardly be rivaled in Nigeria. This is perhaps the quality that endeared him to Olusegun Obasanjo who used him as an attack dog before he was appointed Aviation Minister. The soft spot I had for Fani-Kayode was also influenced by his marriage to an Igbo woman as a Yoruba man and their adorable children. The family’s Egyptian-themed photograph garnered thousands of social media likes and shares that I wished to recreate. Lately, I started having a rethink about him. My rethink started with his publicized separation from his latest wife – Precious Chikwendu. Marriage is increasingly becoming a very fragile institution. The phrase irreconcilable difference pops up with the slightest misunderstanding. Parental intervention that used to be very potent in reconciliations has lost its potency. Western cultural appropriation has redefined the meaning of for better for worse. 

Every now and again Fani-Kayode shares photographs on social media with him being serenaded by a beautiful belle and you wonder what is really happening. But my rethink goes beyond his new women. His visits to APC governors and spokesmanship are worrisome. His outburst against a journalist that questioned him was another sore point. What eventually got me to finally conclude was his presence at the visitation of Kelechi Iheanacho to Yahaya Bello. It appears that either Fani-Kayode is broke and needs money urgently from Yahaya Bello and other APC governors or he has lost it. The truth I believe is that Fani-Kayode never had it. He is one of the majority of Nigerian politicians who will readily sell themselves and their community to the highest bidder. This is one of the reasons my faith in Nigeria continues to dwindle. Quality leadership is the greatest strength of any nation or people and there is a critical deficit in responsible leadership in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

But who is a leader? A leader is someone who thinks beyond his or herself for the short and long-term benefits of the people they are leading. They are vigilant in protecting their constituency from external aggressors who might want to exploit their people economically or otherwise. They make personal sacrifices that promote the well-being of their citizens. And these traits are totally lacking in our leaders. Femi Fani-Kayode is an example of why we are where we are today. A nation filled with men and women without principles. Men and women who are so poor in values, that they can sell the land where their parents are buried. With all these happening, you begin to wonder if we can possibly get it right. The level of occultism among young men and the level of prostitution among young women is so alarming that it is difficult to imagine a future where we can have peaceful and prosperous communities. We are building a future that we cannot live in. Men like Fani-Kayode are the ones creating a Baby Mama boom with his inability to stay with one woman for a long time. Politicians like him are one of the reasons you cannot distinguish APC from PDP. Fathers like him are the ones that help to create communities that lack the social fabric for a sane society. But as we x-ray the lives of public figures like Femi Fani-Kayode, we should know that our individual actions and inactions cumulatively produce the outcomes of our communities or nation.

Ata Ukuta, Editor – www.towncryyers.com