Questions and Answers: Volume 2

The first is that without God there is nothing and with God there is everything. The second is that if you help ten people in life count yourself lucky if one returns to say thank you and count yourself lucky if only one of the ten betrays you. The third lesson is that you must trust no-one because it is those that are closest to you that will hurt you the most.

The fourth is that you must never write off or despise anyone no matter how bad their situation because you don't know what they may become tomorrow. The fifth lesson is that you cannot afford not to help your friends and you cannot afford not to fight your enemies. The sixth lesson is that true knowledge and insight is gained not by the best secular education or even by life's many experiences but rather it is gained by divine revelation.

The seventh and final lesson is that you must conquer your fears and no matter what you are going through, be positive, be happy and hold on to your faith in God knowing that He that created you is quietly working His purpose out for your life and He will never forsake or leave you either in this life or in the life to come. Seven is the number of perfection so let me stop there but if you can hold on to these seven home truths you will go far in life and nothing will hold you down.

There are so many and I have already spoken about Obasanjo, Babangida, Shinkafi and a few others. I must also mention Gen. T.Y.Danjuma and Dr.Olusola Saraki. These two are amongst the greats whether living or dead. They are great men, men of honour and worthy sons of our beloved nation.

She was a beautiful lady that was full of joy, faith, strength and passion. A well bred woman with an illustrious heritage and from a distinguished and noble family. I loved her deeply as she loved me. She nurtured me, raised me, protected me and gave me hope. Most important of all she gave me her inner strength and faith in God. She introduced me to my faith and I have not looked back since. Her prayers speak for me and mine till today and I will cherish her forever.

He was everything to me and I adored him. A man of class and sartorial taste with typical Victorian values.An old school upper class conservative Nigerian who came from a distinguished and successful line of professionals. He was a brilliant man of very high intellect. A great man, an elder statesman, a nationalist, a distinguished public servant and politician and a lion of the Nigerian bar. Most important of all he was a wonderful father who gave his children and wife the very best in life. I love him and not a day passes that I don’t think about him and remember him.

Out of all of them the ones that I am the closest to are my sisters Mrs.Aina Ogunbe and Mrs. Toyin Bajela who live in Lagos and London respectively. We are in touch and they are a blessing to me and my family. I was close to my older brother Rotimi Fani-Kayode who was a great artist and photographer and who passed on in the U.K. in 1989. Akins my other brother is in Lagos. I am in touch with my other siblings.

When I was his assistant for public affairs that was my job and that was what I was being paid to do. I did it effectively, selflessly and courageously and at great risk to myself and my family because I believed that Obasanjo needed and deserved to be protected. In any case in doing this dangerous and difficult job I never fired the first shot in any of the many exchanges that I was involved in and I never drew the first blood. I never started the fight but I was always reacting on behalf of the president when sufficiently provoked. I never threw the first punch but I always ended up throwing the last. I was the president's armour bearer and chief defender. I had to protect him at all costs even at the risk of my life and reputation. That is what I did pure and simple and I certainly did not mean to wound or hurt anyone. This was just politics and I was just doing my job.

For more insight on this issue please go to my website www.femifanikayode.org and look at the challenges column under news and media. There is more on this issue there.

The most important point is that if I hurt anyone whilst doing my job then that is highly regrettable and I am deeply sorry. I hope that those that hurt and wounded Mr. President and all of us that were with him will also have the decency and courage to express some regrets and remorse like we have done and let us , together, try and put all the bitterness and hatred of the past behind us.

One of my many Ghanian brother in laws is Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo of the NPP who contested in the presidential election of Ghana at the end of last year but who narrowly lost the race to John Atta Mills of the NDC. Nana was married to my older sister, Remi Junior,(though they got divorced and have both since remarried) and they have two beautiful children between them. He is also like a brother to me and he is one of the brightest and sharpest minds that I have ever come across in my life. He is a lawyer and was trained at Oxford University. His father Edward Akuffo Addo was not only one of Ghana's greatest jurists and lawyers and one of the great nationalists of that country(he was one of the big six heroes of Ghana's independence struggle) but he was also the ceremonial President of Ghana many years ago. Believe me that Nana will still become President of Ghana one day. He is a great man with a great vision for his nation.

By another curious twist of fate Nana's wife, Becky, happens to be the first cousin of my first wife and the mother of Folake my first child, Saratu Atta (they all hail from the distinguished Randolph family from Accra). And to cap it all Saratu was the secretary general of Nana's presidential campaign organisation. So that is the link with Nana and Ghanian politics. Meanwhile my dear wife Regina and the mother of my youngest child Remi, is also a Ghanian and her family(the Amonoos) are a distinguished and highly respected family from Cape Coast and Accra(the Hansons). Finally my spiritual father, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams of Action Faith Chapel, Accra is also a Ghanian. So these are my three major links to Ghana, a nation and a people that I love very much..

Thanks so much for your kind words. Not many people like poetry in Nigeria but I simply love it. I've been writing poems since 2007 and each one of them means so much to me and conjures up all sorts of images, emotions and memories.

Amongst my favorites are Daughter of Zion and To my queen,the one I love (probably because they are both dedicated to and are about my wife and queen, Regina) followed by The Warrior, Remembering Macdreamie, The Power of a Woman, If I Should Die, A Beautiful World, To My Children, Seven Steps to an Abundant Life and all the others. Some are intensly personal, others are classical in the sense that they are proverbial exhortations and some are psalmic in nature. Each has its own story and believe me I love them all.

They are a blessing. All at school and university. All far more attractive than their old daddy. All angels and all far more intelligent and sophisticated than me.

That is a great question. I love reading and Nigerian writers are amongst the best in the world. I think that those that have the most profound influence on me and that I respect the most are Wole Soyinka, Adebayo Williams, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Simon Kolawole, Sam Nda Isaiah, Akin Oshuntokun, Femi Adesina, Chinweizu, Usman Bugaje, Seffi Atta, Chinua Achebe , Ben Okri, Lola Fani-Kayode and Dele Momodu.

Some are politicians that also write, others are journalists with exceptionally powerful pens and others are poets, playwrites and authors of books. I may not agree with all their views all the time but they are all brilliant and I take their points of view on any issue extremely seriously.

It is a tragedy of monuemental proportions. I believe that it is genocide. I believe that it is a disgrace that Arab countries particularly have done nothing and have said nothing about the sheer evil that the Sudanese government is inflincting upon my African brothers and sisters in the Darfur.

I am also dismayed by the weakness and the sheer cowardice of the leadership of the African union on this matter. Africa needs to rise up and assume it's responsibilities and it's first responsibility is to get rid of president Al Bashir and ensure that he is handed over to the international court of criminal justice for crimes against humanity. He is the Hitler of the 21st century and he has blood on his hands. I also believe that the Arab world has colluded with the Sudanese and just ignore the plight of the blacks in Darfur which is being perpetuated by their Arab brothers and yet they make so much noise about the plight of their brothers in Gaza and the west bank in the hands of the Israelis. They should be consistent in their condemnations and they should not indulge in double standards.

If you do not support the murder of Gazans in Palestine then you should not support the slaughter of Africans in Darfur. The world has a responsibility to actually do something about Darfur. If this had been happening in any other part of the world a lot more would have been done to stop it. It is because they are only Africans and therefore no-one really cares. This is an outrage. African blood is no cheaper than any other blood and the African women that are being mass-raped by their Arab overlords in Darfur are just as precious as any other women anywhere else in the world..

I believe that it is ungodly and unholy and that it represents the single greatest threat to our family system and moral values since the creation of humanity. It also represents a recourse to an obviously demonic and clearly evil course which can only be chosen and accepted by those that are on the road to damnation. The truth is that men were not designed or created by God for the purpose of marrying other men. And women were not created or designed by God to marry other women. That was not God's plan for humanity. It is a perversion of God's plan for mankind and the family and those that indulge in it, defend it, support it or encourage it have been seized of the spirit of the anti -christ and they shall certainly go to hell in the afterlife. That is my view.

That is a good question and easy to answer too. You want to know what moves me and makes me tick. You want to know the key to my heart. O.K... I will list them in my order of preference. The first is an old love song called "Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac and it was released in the late 1970's on their "Rumours" album. The second is a love song called "You were always on my mind" by the king himself, Elvis Presley and I think it was released in the late 1970's too. The third is another love song called "Baby Can I Hold U Tonight" by an angel called Tracy Chapman and it was released in the mid 1980's. The fourth is yet another love song called "Love and Affection" which came out in the early 1980's and was sung by the great Joan Armatrading. The fifth is another love song called "Still the one" by Shania Twain and it came out in the mid 1990's or thereabouts. The sixth is a beautiful worship song called "The storm is over" by R. Kelly which came out in the 1990's. The seventh is another worship song called "I am the Lord, your healer" by Dan Moen which came out in the late 1980's. The eighth is a praise song called "Ancient of Days" which was by Ron Kennoly and which was released in the late 1980's. The ninth is an old reggae song called "Stir it up" by Bob Marley which came out in the mid 1970's.The tenth is a love song called "Wild world" by Cat Stevens which was released in the early 1970's. And the eleventh, because I just can't leave it out, is another love song called "I love you" by Cat Stevens which came out in the early 1970's too.

Finally let me mention a rock song called "You sexy thing" by a group called Hot Chocolate which was released in the mid seventies and two love songs called "Cherie baby" and called "Emmalene" by the same group on the same album. I should also mention Dolly Parton's country song called "Jolene" and Marvin Gaye's love songs called "What's going on" and also his "Sexual healing" all of which came out in the early 1980's.Finally there is an old song called "Dixiland" by Elvis Presley from the late 1970's. They are all old songs from another time and age but they each bring back different memories of different times and they all, each and everyone of them, bring tears to my eyes whenever I hear them. They don't make songs like that anymore.

But why should I stop there.There are also a few more modern ones like the rock song by Rihanna called Live Your Life which was released in 2008, the Nigerian gospel song called Igwe (king) by Midnight Crew which also came out in 2008 and of course the Ghanian rock song called Dwankobia (Something Planted) which again was a 2008 hit. To add to those let me give you a few more which you would not have heard of unless you listen to Ghanian music,which I just love. If you have never heard them please get them and they will just take you into another world. Firstly there is Abinwaha(It is Cooked Here) which is a rock song that was released in Ghana by Daddy Lumba in the mid 90's. Secondly there is my favourite love song of all time and it is titled Obibamamio (Someone Should Come and Help Me) which was released by Kojo Antwi in Ghana in the early 90's. Thirdly George Lindo by Linton Kwesi Johnson. Fourthly,and finally, is my favourite gospel song titled Madwen Ewurade Nenim ( I Wait Upon the Lord) which was sung by the CAFM,Tema branch choir, in Ghana in the early '90's. There are also the famouse rock song called Avalon by Brian Ferry which came out in the mid-'80's and the love song called In The Name of Love by the great Irish band called U2 which came out in the early 90's.

Finally for opera my favourite is Ave Maria which was sung in the late 80's by the greatest opera artist of them all Placido Domingo. For classical music let me add Beethoven's Faeralese, for worship let me add another great Ghanian song which was sung by the Action Faith Chapel Choir, Accra and which is titled Irade Ye Wuro( Our Lord and Saviour) and for the blues let me add Nina Simone's greatest song titled Baltimore and Billy Halliday's famouse song titled The Man I Love. There is also the worship song titled Above all Powers by Women of Faith and the Ghanian worship song which was sung by the Voices of Triumph, Action Faith Chapel choir, Accra titled Senbebzi Wa Yeyi (come for your glory).

I have to add one of my favorite love songs called Wonderful Tonight which was sung by Eric Clapton and another called Lady in Red Chris de Burgh. Then there is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John and again Golden Years and Let's Dance which were both sung by the great David Bowie and My Boy by Elvis Presley. There is also a gospel song called Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle that always brings tears to my eyes(it's about the special love and bond that exists between a father and his daughter) and I love it. Man, I could go on all night with this. Let me also add Second Hand News by Fleetwood Mac, Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, Hotel California by The Eagles, Every Time You Go Away by Paul Wilson, Two Fine People by Cat Stevens and I Can't Keep It In by Cat Stevens.

Let me also add two rock songs titled Candle in the Wind by Elton John and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John.

Let me also add to the list songs Black Man's Cry by Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Water by Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Who Are You by Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Under Pressre by Ras Kimono and Arumba Style by Ras Kimono.

Finally let me add four love songs titled Careless Whispers by George Michael and Follow me, Follow you by Genesis, Kissed By A Rose by Seal, I Want To Be Your Lover by Prince, three rock songs titled Does It Feel Good To You by BT Express, Baby It's You by Jojo and Pull Up To The Bumper by Grace Jones, three worship songs titled Lifter Of My Head by the Evangel Voices, the Redeemed Evangelical Mission Choir, Lagos , Nigeria, Your Name is Righteous by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, New York and Nia Yehowa Eshira No ( He whom the Lord has blessed is blessed) by the Voices of Triumph, the Action Faith Chapel Choir, Accra , Ghana. From the reggae department I have to add : No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley, Duppy Conqueror by Bob Marley and Small Axe by Bob Marley, Runaway Child by U-Roy, I Need A Roof by The Mighty Diamonds and Red Red Wine by UB40.

Finally let me add my 8 favourite hymns : Blessed Assurance, Rock of Ages, For All The Saints, Here My Lord (I see the face to face), Great Is Thy Faithfullness, The Steadfast Love of The Lord , He Is My Peace(when trouble comes), You Don't Have To Worry (and don't you be afraid), the Ghanian hymn titled Adja Mebowu Mbranie ( I will lift you high) and 9 beautiful worship songs by Michael W. Smith titled Step By Step/Forever We Will Sing, Draw Me Close, Open The Eyes Of My Heart, Above All, Breathe, I Give You My Heart, Let It Rain, Awesome God and Agnus Dei.

Now you have the keys to my heart. I adore music and I just love all these songs.

I will take time to answer this question properly. For all my life I believed in one Nigeria up until the June 12th matter in 1993 and then the atrocities that were later committed by Abacha. I became totally radicalised and a hard core and unrepentant Yoruba nationalist when I saw what Abacha was doing to my people (the yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria) and after the killing of Abiola's wife etc.. I have no apologies for my views and the role that I played then in the cause of Yoruba nationalism and emancipation.

I did not just talk about the situation then, like most of our people, but I put my money where my mouth was: I was very active in NADECO abroad and I was v much involved in supporting the OPC. I believe in the Yoruba cause up until today but like Chief Awolowo and Chief Bola Ige, I believe that it is better served from within a united yet restructured and truly Federal Nigeria than from the establishment of an Oduduwa republic. That is my position today.

My position was different when the south west was under siege though (1993-1999) and at that time I despised and detested this country and what it was doing to my people, particularly the northerners. I was a committed secessionist then and if Abacha had continued and managed to succeed himself in power the southwest would have broken off and there would have been a very long and bloody civil war in Nigeria. It is just as well that they killed Abacha to prevent this. After that the rest of the country came together and gave the Yorubas the presidency to make up for the June 12th issue and the atrocities of Sanni Abacha.

It was at that point that, I together with millions of other Yorubas, started to have a rethink. Even though OBJ was not the yoruba choice for President in 1999 but he was at least a yoruba man. That was my thinking and once it was clear to me that the rest of Nigeria and, particularly the north, was no longer hell bent on wiping us out or turning us into perpetual slaves again and once my leader Chief Bola Ige together with President Obasanjo convinced me and many other sons and daughters of the south west that the time to agitate for secession was over since the beast called Abacha was dead, I changed my views about this country and I conceeded the fact that it was time to have a rethink and start believing in Nigeria again.

You see ethnic nationalism thrives when you feel that you are being marginalised or being ethnically cleansed or cheated as a people. Can any Yoruba man argue that again when Nigeria gave us the presidency between 1999 and 2007? Certainly not. Or am I to go back to advocating secession for the Yorubas now simply because a Yoruba man is no longer in power? Of course not. The truth is that I still am a Yoruba natinalist and I am very proud of my Yoruba ancestry, my yoruba blood lines and my Yoruba heritage but I do not believe in secession for the Yorubas any more.

What I believe in is a restructured, well governed and equitable Nigeria which is fair and just to all its nationalities, including the Yorubas to which I belong. More importantly having lived in Abuja for a number of years I have grown to love and understand Nigeria a lot more and a lot better than I did even before the June 12th saga of 1993. We can by all means fight for the rights of our people and kinsmen but we can do so within a united Nigeria. That is my position today. I love Nigeria and the truth is that one grows up and eventually discards such ideas, concepts and ideals like ethnic nationalism and secession which come usually as a consequence of extreme persecution and a very real and deep-seated fear for the welfare of ones people and deep suspicions of the north particularly. Morale to the tale?

If the Fed. govt of Nigeria treats all its citizens and nationalities fairly and do not marginalise and persecute some of them and treat others like sacred cows, no one would want to leave the federation and seceede and the embers of ethnic nationalism would never be kindled again. Sadly this is not the case today particularly in the case of the Niger Delta which has been treated v unfairly. I can understand and appreciate their fears and agitations, especially when a member of the Fed House by the name of N'Allah can get up in parliament and say that 20million Niger Deltans should be killed if that is what it takes to bring peace to the Niger Delta. That is barbaric and insensitive: He is advocating genocide and ethnic cleansing. That is the sort of thing that pushes people to despair and ethnic nationanalism.