Yesterday the PDP’s Media and Publicity spokesperson, Femi Fani-Kayode questioned the health status of the APC’s presidential candidate, retired General Mohammadu Buhari (“GMB”). He said there were concerns that he had prostate cancer and if true, Nigerians will like to pray for him. He argued and I, unfortunately agreed with him, that Nigerians are entitled to full disclosure on this issue. However, I disagree with his idea of the scope of full disclosure needed or the meaning of full disclosure. Given Femi Fani-Kayode’s position it is clear to every Nigerian that he is doing the bidding of his master, President Goodluck “Dumbo” Jonathan (“GEJ”).
Permit me to remind my readers that GEJ was the vice presidential candidate to the then overtly sick late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was flown to Germany for treatment after collapsing in public. I do not remember GEJ asking the late Yar Adua make to full disclosure to Nigerians? GEJ was an active and willing participant in that political fraud because it paved the way for him to take over the presidency.
Nigerians have been and continue to call for GEJ to release his Ph.d. thesis as a way of settling concerns that he plagiarized as his reasoning and utterances fall well short of a properly educated first degree holder. Fani-Kayode, I guess, does not realize the benefit of full disclosure on this issue.
When Patience Jonathan flew to Germany for medical treatment last year at the expense of Nigerians and their resources and returned in a presidential plane, I guess Fani-Kayode was in one of his self-induced “stupors” and forgot to remind GEJ that Nigerians were entitled to full disclosure of his wife’s medical condition. Patience Jonathan of the “there is God O” infamy may not be an elected official but the nexus between her medical condition and full disclosure to Nigerians is that our resources paid her medical bills – he who pays the piper dictates the tune!
When Femi Fani-Kayode became OBJ’s spokesman and later the Minister of Aviation (a ministry that he fleeced for billions and is still on trial for), Nigerians who were familiar with Fani-Kayode’s history of psychiatric imbalance demanded full disclosure of his treatment history. As far as I know we are yet to get the full disclosure. Again, he may have been too “zoned out” to recall.
Given the fact that the nightmare and trauma that GEJ has become to this country is the inevitable concomitant of Yar Adua’s refusal to make full disclosure to Nigerians regarding his medical condition, Nigerians are right to be wary of a presidential candidate who looks well on his way to defeat an incumbent president for the first time in the history of this country – a fact that is the actual motivation for Fani-Kayode’s diatribe rather than any genuine concern for the rights of Nigerians to know. Having said that, I believe GMB, who has publicly declared his assets, will also be willing to release his medical records on the following conditions:
GEJ should publicly declare his assets and apologize for not giving “a damn before”;
GEJ provides full explanation as to why his wife was charged by the Ribadu led EFCC for money laundering – forget Nuhu Ribadu’s self-serving denial. The court docket number is available and Ribadu only succeeding in making a fool of himself. The connection being that the money came from what GEJ stole from the Bayelsa state coffers;
GEJ makes a full disclosure of his medical records, including full disclosure of the treatment for his ogogoro induced liver schlerosis at a London-England clinic;
GEJ makes full disclosure of how much it cost Nigerians to treat his wife in Germany; and
GEJ discloses the full amount of estacode he earns per night on his foreign trips as a way of settling concerns that the speculated $100,000 per night estacode is the primary motivation of his frequent and unproductive foreign trips.
To digress a bit, I think the reason why GEJ, Fani-Kayode, and other members of his campaign team are still in this game is because the APC, for reasons best known to them, have chosen not to land the final flurry of Mike-Tyson like blows on a presidential candidate who is clearly on the ropes. GMB and APC need to borrow a leaf from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. While trying to please the conservatives in his quest for the Republican nomination for the presidency John McCain made the regrettable revelation that he voted with/for the outgoing and unpopular George Bush 100% of the time. The Obama Campaign Team knew they had a game changer. Thereafter in the presidential election campaign, everywhere candidate Obama went he reminded American voters that McCain was the same as the outgoing Bush and a vote for him was a return to the Bush ways which they have rejected. John McCain could not extricate himself from the assault and he went on to lose that election.
I believe the above is precisely what GMB and his team need to do to GEJ. GMB needs to tie corruption on GEJ’s neck until he is politically suffocated and maybe directly accuse him of being personally corrupt because that is the fact. At every campaign stop GMB needs to remind Nigerian voters of the following:
GEJ’s brutal economic attack on Nigerians through the fuel subsidy removal and his blatant refusal, to date, to hold any of his friends who stole the trillions accountable;
GEJ’s stated position that he does not believe in investigating, prosecute and imprisoning those who are convicted for corruption because it is GEJ’s constitutional duty – he does not have a choice;
GEJ’s refusal to account for the missing $20 billion of oil proceeds;
Stella Oduah’s BMW scandal for which the PDP attempted to reward her with a senatorial seat;
GEJ’s allocation of N1 billion naira for his feeding while millions of Nigerians cannot get garri to “soak”; and
GEJ’s decision to allocate billions of Naira for the purchase of a new presidential jet in the 2015 budget at a time when the price of oil has declined by more than 50% and he is asking Nigerians to make sacrifice. GEJ and his friends enjoyed the bounty and they should be the ones making the sacrifice.
Mr. Fani-Kayode, notwithstanding the fact that every reasonable Nigerian within and outside the PDP is aware that the reason you are crying more than the bereaved is that GEJ has your balls in a nut crusher over your trial for the billions allegedly stolen from the Aviation Ministry, I hope you will find the above to be factual, assuming you are not in one of those self-induced “stupors”.
GEJ is a drowning man politically speaking. You can see it in his body language. You can see it in his uncontrolled outbursts, you can see it in the refusal of PDP governors and other elected officials to stick their net for him, the refusal of his oil subsidy theft billionaires friends to be seen with him. Even the refusal of a formerly straight forward Reuben Abati to engage in defending GEJ speaks volume.
My friend Fani-Kayode, since you have forgotten that those who live in glass house should not throw stones and have decided to get high with a mud-slinging rather than issues campaign, you are welcome to the mud fight. GMB maybe too decent for it but because your utterances have the capability of confusing unwary Nigerians voters, it has become the responsibility of every Nigerian who cares about this potentially great country to respond to your tales and set the facts straight. I am hoping to hear from you soon.