Permit me to share the words of Mr. Babachir Lawal, the Secretary to the Federal Government during the tenure of President Buhari.
He said,
“I loathe Atiku. He is not a good man and he is easy to manipulate by riffraff. I would prefer to return to Tinubu than be with him. Under Atiku Nigeria would suffer a chaotic crash.”
These are strong words coming from a man who knows you better than most and who comes from your state.
He also said the following:
“Atiku is a man that doesn’t see life in you if you are not a Fulani man. You are nothing. He doesn’t see you if you are not a Fulani man… I can’t say maybe as a Muslim, but if you are not a Fulani man, you are entitled to nothing from him or for him or by him.”
Lawal’s words are instructive and plausible.
More importantly they provide the basis of an explanation for your pompous airs, vain mien, divisive nature, inexplicable errors of judgement, unacceptable behaviour, self-serving characteristics, treacherous disposition, deceitful ways, insatiable greed, pathological lust for power, insufferable arrogance and unfathomable and never-ending sense of entitlement.
Be rest assured that my criticism of you will not stop despite your words to me on WhatsApp or the puerile nonsense your minions are pushing out.
Yet despite that I still wish you well as you prepare for retirement from politics after you lose to President Tinubu on January 16th 2027.
Permit me to add the following.
Since you raised the issue of credibility, this is for the record.
I was prosecuted in four courts over 18 years on criminal charges that were all politically motivated. There were four cases. I appeared before 12 judges, including at the Court of Appeal, and by the grace of God I won every one of them.
I was detained for 10 days in 2008, three months in 2016, and a further three months later that year: 6 months and 10 days in all, in hideous conditions. For weeks I was held in the Boko Haram section of Kuje prison with only Boko Haram prisoners, to punish and silence me. It failed.
For those 18 years a daily media trial pronounced me guilty without evidence or conviction. Two of my wives and two of my children were harassed by the security forces.
One was locked in a bank in Ekiti with my one-year-old son, surrounded by armed men, for six hours, for no just cause.
I never complained publicly. I took it as a test from God, kept my faith, and trusted my lawyers.
I also trusted the Nigerian judiciary, which refused to be intimidated into jailing an innocent man.
I went through that storm with humility and dignity. I did not lament, claim persecution, or beg for a soft landing. Yet you question my credibility.
I will not let that go. I paid my dues, proved my innocence, and earned my credibility.
Through it all I never broke. I counted it as joy and continuously gave God thanks.
I am one of the most investigated and prosecuted politicians in Nigeria’s history.
The system wanted me jailed because I trod on powerful toes. I was discharged and acquitted in every case.
I should add this.
In 2008, when my legal travails began, I took an oath that until I had been cleared of ALL my criminal charges and acquitted of every single one I would not step out of Nigeria for any reason.
After winning the first case in 2015 they hit me with two more in 2016 (one in Abuja and one in Lagos) and finally they hit me with another in 2021.
I have a beautiful home in Ghana where my first wife and daughter reside and I have a home in the UK as well.
All my children, who are now adults live abroad and every single one of them, including my siblings have foreign passports and dual nationality which I am also entitled to because my father was born in the UK and I lived there for most of my life ever since I was 7 years old.
Yet despite all this, much to the shock of my lawyers, children, family and friends, for those 18 years when I faced one criminal prosecution after the other I did not travel abroad once, I did not go to see my wife and older children, I did not go for a medical check up and I never once complained publicly about being persecuted but rather fought my battles quietly in the court room and with prayer, buried and bore my pain with dignity and continued to make my contribution to politics and public commentary as if all was well.
I kept my oath not to step out of my beloved Nigeria until the cases were over no matter what and it was only after I won my final case on Febraury 4th 2025 that I gave myself the green light to leave the country.
Many will ask why this was so and the reason, though old fashioned, is simple: unlike others I could not carry the shame of being accused of things I never did and then be travelling all over the world as if I had no issues at home. Honor could not allow me to do such a thing.
I felt that I owed my family name and integrity and especially my late biological father Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, my late political mentor Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, my political father, President Olusegun Obasanjo and my spiritual father Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams, the father of the Pentecostal movement in Ghana, that much.
I felt I needed to prove to them all that their son would stand and fight for his name at home before leaving the country and gallivanting all over the world again so that when I do leave I would be doing so without blemish or question marks and with my head held up high.
As difficult as it was and despite the pleading of my wives and loved ones to do otherwise and at least travel for holidays and medical check ups I refused to do so.
Instead I paid the price of pain and isolation, I honored my oath and word and I trusted that God, having seen my faith in Him and sacrifice of not leaving the shores of my country for all those years, would fight for me all the more.
I was right, He did and I give Him thanks.
And by the way in all those 18 years despite the fact that I was in the accused box in one court or the other every 2 weeks, I only missed the court sitting on 5 occassions!
All this and you suggest that I do not have credibility?
My credibility, courage and resilience has been tested for over 18 years and I have come out with flying colors whereas yours have not!
That is the bitter truth.
Only when you and your gang have faced the same scrutiny, the same ordeal, and come out cleared of every charge can you talk to me about credibility.
Until then you still have questions to answer. Do not raise my so-called lack of it again.
Permit me to conclude with the following.
Is “credibility” paying 1.2 million USD to a malicious and malevolent U.S.- based convicted criminal who uses 9 different names, including his wife’s surname, who is a specious liar, who calls every single member of our Government corrupt and our people ignorant, who describes our President as a drug dealer, drug smuggler, gangster, coward, terrorist, peddler of white heroin, kidnapper, murderer and election-rigger every day on his X handle, who name-drops like there is no tomorrow, who says our President and officials must be treated as lepers at international events like UNGA, who celebrates the acts of terrorism that our people are being subjected to by foreign sponsored non-state actors and who threatens and seeks to intimidate every Nigerian who challenges or opposes him or seeks to defend the name and honor of our nation and President with visa bans and lawsuits in America?
Is hiring this American-based dog who constantly seeks to hide his Nigerian and Igbo ancestry and replace it with a European and American one due to his low self-esteem and a big chip on his shoulder your definition of credibility?
Can’t you fight your battles yourself instead of getting animals to do it from the safety of America for you in an attempt to avoid the consequences of breaking our laws?
There is no country on earth, including America where your dog lives, that will allow a cowardly criminal like your agent, Karl Von Batten and his so-called PR Company, to say and do what he does to a sitting President without any evidence to prove his allegations without facing the full wrath of the law and being brought to justice.
Yet you regard using such foreign-based slanderers, liars, scammers, agents of chaos, masters of perfidy and professional character assassins as being right and proper simply because you wish to destroy our President’s name and reputation, traumatise him and his family to a point of no return and take his seat?
That is what you regard as being honorable and credible?
The truth is that you do not know the meaning of either of those two words and over the coming weeks during the course of the presidential election this will be proved.
You will be exposed for the incompetent, narcissistic, power-hungry megalomaniac and despicable creature that you are and the Nigerian people will be made aware of how your quest for power is a grave danger to the welfare, unity and future of the Nigerian state.
Let me remind you.
You betrayed Shehu Musa Yar’adua, your mentor, and ran away with your tail between your legs to live abroad when he was wrongly jailed and eventually murdered.
You betrayed Olusegun Obasanjo who made you Vice President.
You betrayed Bola Ahmed Tinubu who saved your political career and rehabilitated you by bringing you into his party ACN.
You betrayed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan after he brought you back to PDP.
You betrayed Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu again after they brought you into the APC.
You betrayed Wike and the PDP after they let you back into their ranks and gave you their presidential ticket in 2019.
You not only betrayed but also destroyed and shattered the soul and foundation of the PDP in 2023 after you violated their zoning formula, conspired with others to deny the South the presidential ticket even though it was their turn, took it for yourself and split the party.
Finally you betrayed the ADC, whose flag you are now flying, by hijacking it from a hard-working and decent young man called Nafiu Bala Gombe and then later splitting it up by driving away leaders like Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, compelling them to go and form their own party and rigging your way into getting the presidential ticket.
Are these constant betrayals and habitual acts of sabotage and treachery what you would describe as credible behaviour Waziri?
If you believe so then you really do need to see a psychiatrist.
I urge you, nay I implore you, not to send me anymore private messages.
If you have anything to say to me, say it yourself and say it publicly.
Needless to say I will respond publicly with vigour and candour.
That is what being credible is all about!
Despite all this, I still refuse to call you Kachalla.
Shalom Waziri.
(CONCLUDED)
(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, a former Minister of Aviation, Nigeria’s Ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho and Estawani, the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Aare Ajagunla of Otun Ekiti, the Otunba of Joga Orile and a Legal Practitioner)
