The war of words between the founder of Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, Prof. Ishaq Akintola and former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode is getting messier as Akintola revealed his ugly encounter with late Chief Remi Ade Fani-Kayode during the 1983 general election.
Ishaq spoke after Fani-Kayode said he was not worthy to mention his father’s name and took him to the cleaners.
Fani-Kayode’s comment prompted Ishaq to open his alleged can of worms about his encounter with the late Chief Remi Ade Fani-Kayode.
Akintola, in series of tweets, said Fani-Kayode’s father wanted him to compromise the electoral process by not announcing the winner of the election where he was the Federal Electoral Officer for Ife-Ijesha Senatorial District, but he said he resisted him.
Read Akintola’s full comment below:
On Sunday, 2nd February, 2020, Femi Fani-Kayode launched series of attacks on me on twitter. I have not responded since because more urgent issues at my workplace kept me busy. I am a salary-earner and I must perform my duty to justify the money I receive.
I believe in the dignity of labour. My job tickles me. I believe in the dignity of labour. My job tickles me. I think I can now spare a few minutes to respond to his tweets. I must however disclose the fact that friends have advised that I ignore him.
They are concerned so that he won’t drag me to his level.
Fani-Kayode said his father, Chief Remi Ade Fani-Kayode was my father’s boss. What’s the big deal in that? That was in politics and is that a personal achievement for him? Interestingly enough, his father was not the overall boss. His father also had a boss over and above him.
Isn’t that how life is? Coincidentally his father’s boss was also an ‘Akintola’. Funny, isn’t it? And today I am happy Fani-Kayode is not my own boss so he can’t boss me.
Swelling with indignant pride, Fani-Kayode said “Ishaq is too small to call that name (his father’s name) & he knows nothing about the history of our people.” That is the tragedy of the Nigerian nation: an ex-minister bragging that a professor is too small to mention a name?
What a pity! Can he stand where a professor is professing?
Talking about knowing the ‘history of our people’, may I ask what Fani-Kayode knows about that or even about the history of his father? Does Fani-Kayode think he knows everything about his own father? Well, I will share this little personal experience I had with his father.
He asked for it. Let Mr. Too-Big-and-Know-All tell us if he knows about it. I was the Federal Electoral Officer for Ife-Ijesha Senatorial District during the 1983 general elections. It was my duty to announce the result and that was around 2 am in the night.
The venue was the Police barracks, Moore, Ile-Ife and the press was fully present. I took the microphone to start the announcement but suddenly Chief Remi Ade Fani-Kayode (Femi Fani-Kayode’s father) came in with several mobile policemen.
He took a seat directly opposite me and told me not to announce any result. I resisted. He asked if I knew him. I answered in the affirmative but I added that duty was duty. I told him he was interfering with the electoral process.
For daring to confront a former deputy premier of the former Western Region, one of his mobile police escorts rushed at me with the butt of his rifle but I stood my ground. The policeman still remained beside me with the butt held threateningly over my head.
I was unperturbed. Surprisingly, all these happened in the full glare of the media. In fairness to Chief Remi Ade Fani-Kayode, he told the policeman to leave me alone. I started announcing the result in his presence and he stood up angrily and left.
The team of mobile policemen followed him. I continued the announcement of results to the end. I would not subvert the will of the people because my father was in a particular party. They have miscalculated if that was why they appointed me as the federal officer.
Islam teaches justice even if it is against your family. My father must have heard the full details next day but he respected my principled stand. He never asked me why I did what I did.
The post Akintola fires back: My ugly encounter with Fani-Kayode’s father appeared first on Talk of Naija.
Via Talk of Naija https://talkofnaija.com
Post a Comment